The Narragansett Runestone, also known as the Quidnessett Rock, is a slab of metasandstone located in

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is 5 (1.5m) feet high and 7 feet (2.1m) long. The stone is inscribed with two rows of symbols, which some have indicated resemble

runes Runes are the Letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see ''#Futharks, futhark'' vs ''#Runic alphabets, runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were ...

, characters used by

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...

starting around the second or third century CE, with variants used in

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

and Scandinavian cultures during the medieval period. The Narragansett Runestone was originally situated in

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. S ...

and only visible during extremely low tides. The runestone disappeared in 2012. On April 26, 2013, the Rhode Island Attorney General announced that the stone had been recovered after an individual came forward with information. The stone was moved to the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of Rhode Island. The univer ...

School of Oceanography for testing, but the tests were not carried out because it would have required damaging the stone. In January 2014, plans were announced to move the runestone to Goddard Memorial State Park in

East Greenwich East Greenwich is a town and the county seat of Kent County, Rhode Island. The population was 14,312 at the 2020 census. East Greenwich is the wealthiest municipality within the state of Rhode Island. It is part of the Providence metropolitan s ...

. In October 2015, the runestone was placed for long-term public viewing in Wickford, a village of

North Kingstown, Rhode Island North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. Its population was 27,732 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. North Kingstown is the birthplace of American ...

Provenance

The Narragansett Runestone was first reported to the

Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission The Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, often called RIHPHC, is an agency run by the state of Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Co ...

(HPHC) in the 1980s. The

New England Antiquities Research Association The New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA) is a non-profit organization founded 1964. According to its website, it "is dedicated to a better understanding of our historic and prehistoric past through the study and preservation of N ...

(NEARA) ran several studies and published a number of papers about the rock in the 1980s and 1990s. According to NEARA, the stone was discovered by a

quahog The hard clam (''Mercenaria mercenaria''), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince ...

ger in December 1984 while digging in the mud flats of

. The HPHC was unable to find any information about the stone in any previous inventories of Narragansett Bay. They found that as early as 1939, the runestone was located

upland Upland or Uplands may refer to: Geography *Hill, an area of higher land, generally *Highland, an area of higher land divided into low and high points *Upland and lowland, conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level *I ...

and may have been buried. The inscriptions on the stone were visible only for a short period of time between the shifting tides, due to dramatic erosion of the shoreline at Pojac Point and the fact that the stone was positioned only from the extreme low tide mark. In 2014, Everett Brown of Providence reported that he and his brother Warren had carved the runes on Quidnessett Rock in the summer of 1964. He said that he had forgotten about the incident until the stone was removed and recovered in 2013. Brown's account has been disputed by local residents, who state that they saw the stone before 1964, and have challenged other elements of his statements.

Media

The stone is referenced in episode 11 of

season 1 Season One may refer to: Albums * ''Season One'' (Suburban Legends album), 2004 * ''Season One'' (All Sons & Daughters album), 2012 * ''Season One'' (Saukrates album), 2012 See also * * * Season 2 (disambiguation) Season 2 may refer to: ...

of ''

America Unearthed ''America Unearthed'' was an American entertainment television series and the first original series to air on the A&E Networks channel H2. The show premiered on December 21, 2012, and was produced by Committee Films of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Th ...

''.

Disappearance and recovery

The state Coastal Resources Management Council reported that the runestone had been removed from the tidal waters off Pojac Point between July and August 2012. In May 2013, the state Attorney General’s Environmental Unit and DEM’s Criminal Investigation Unit announced that they had recovered the stone. Town historian and independent columnist G. Timothy Cranston said that a Pojac Point resident had removed the stone, as he was tired of having tourists scouring the neighborhood and shoreline looking for the stone. He said that the resident, who was not named, was ordered by state officials to retrieve the stone after having sunk it in deeper waters off the coast. In July 2024, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported that Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune whose home overlooked the rock, was responsible for the removal and subsequent return of the stone.

References

{{Coord, 41, 34, 12.1, N, 71, 27, 8.2, W, display=title 1939 archaeological discoveries 20th-century inscriptions Rhode Island folklore Inscriptions of disputed origin Narragansett Bay North American runestone hoaxes Pseudoarchaeology Rhode Island culture