Thank you for your responce, the carvings circle the tree all sides and they are about 3/8" avg. depth. I will when it dries out here take some better photo's. As I wrote earlier, this land was at one time farmed and most of it cleared. I do have a oak tree in my drive that is very old (see photo) and at the rear of the property a huge sycamore 1/2 again dia. as the oak. the land here is laden with quartz, and I have went over it in a few places with my Whites GMT, but nothing popped up. There was a lot of gold taken out of this area before CA. rush and in fact Charlotte just minutes from here had mint. Being from an Arizona transplant, I have seem a lot of markings in my 60 plus years, these on this tree really puzzle me. The series of letters strung in a row up or down the tree, make no sense what so ever. I have tried translations of all kinds, they do mean something I'm sure . The birds and "strikes/cross's" remind me of things I have seen back home in AZ. Again, will post some better photo's when it dries here. Thanks again..No mounds, there is a pile of quartz about 200 yards away, that I belive are field stones from the cotton farming days.