The Calendar Chamber

By Paulette Buchanan

   Controversy continues to swirl in all directions regarding the Gungywamp chambers and other chambers found throughout the northeastern United States.  Reportedly, there are about 400 such chambers, of various sizes and shapes scattered throughout New England alone.

   American Indians in New London County believe that their ancestors built the chambers in the Gungywamp.  Some people believe that the chambers and other sites in the Gungywamp are aligned with the pyramids at Giza and Stonehenge in England and therefore contain mystical energy lines.  Early Sites Research Society (ESRS) and others believe that a wide range of Europeans and/or Mediterranean sea peoples built the chambers and traversed throughout North America long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  ESRS has cited a Thompson, Connecticut chamber's charcoal pit with having a radiocarbon date of approximately 1200 AD to bolster their theory that Europeans arrived in North America centuries before Columbus.

   Europeans before and during Columbus' time were quite fascinated with the possibility of lands west of Europe.  The sixth century travels of St. Brendan the Navigator from the Celtic Isles were known in Columbus’ day, and contemporary maps often depicted -- somewhere in the Atlantic -- an island named after St. Brendan.  But Brendan's Navagatio is peppered throughout with fantasy, and it is difficult to discern truth from fancy.

   The Nordic Sagas also describe westward sailing odysseys, and parts of the Sagas' description of land masses in the northwestern Atlantic are quite accurate.  Afterall, the eleventh century Nordic settlement of L'anse aux Meadows in NewFoundland was found in part because of the descriptions in the Nordic legends.  But fantasy and legend interweave frequently among the geographic descriptions in the Sagas and so, as with Brendan's Navagatio, this source cannot be taken as complete truth either.

   Somewhere around 330 BC, an educated Greek named Pytheas sailed from present-day Marseille, France and journeyed around the British Isles and Denmark, and evidence seems to suggest he traveled as far west as the ice packs of Iceland.  Voyages, or tales of voyages, previous to Columbus do indicate that it was entirely possible for Europeans of various epochs to sail westward.  But the burning question remains:  Did they in fact accomplish landfall on mainland North America?

   What does this have to do with the Gungywamp's chambers, and all those other chambers scattered about in the northeastern United States?  Some would say plenty, since what records do exist of westward sailing ventures offer enough compelling evidence of pre-Columbian European contact in North America.  And surely, a radiocarbon date of 1200 AD in a Thompson chamber seems to support that theory.  But results from radiocarbon dating have to be taken cautiously because all sorts of factors can produce inaccurate and misleading conclusions.  These factors can range from mistaking roots burned in a natural forest fire for charcoal produced by man-made fire, to blatant tampering of samples to produce the desired "evidence."  In stating this, no accusations against specific individuals are being made; it's just the way things are in all aspects of archaeology.

   Traditional archaeologists insist that the chambers do not vary from known root cellar constructions in various parts of the United States and Canada. In fact, websites exist which depict how anyone can construct a root cellar, and these sites offer descriptions on all types of root cellars.  In all fairness, the samples of root cellars depicted on such websites do certainly bear a striking resemblance to the Gungywamp Calendar Chamber especially.

   It must be remembered that what evidence has been unearthed in the Gungywamp, particularly around the chamber sites, indicates colonial and post-colonial working sites.  There is a mill site just a short distance from the two intact chambers.  There is a stone enclosure also not too far from the mill site which seems to indicate that it was either a storage facility possibly or a drying area for tanned or dyed goods.  Could the chambers have also been constructed and used used for storage by colonial or post-colonial people?  As for the calendar feature in the one large chamber, it would not have been extraordinary for colonial builders to erect a chamber with a solar equinox feature; spring and fall seasons were very important to colonial people for planting and harvesting. 

   Whatever explanations and theories abound about the chambers, the important thing to remember is that they should remain protected.  The equinox feature built into the large intact chamber we hope will remain a fascinating feature for many more generations to enjoy.

 

Explanations for the Rows of Standing Stones

By Paulette Buchanan

Photo by Charles Clough.

Row of Standing Stones, depicting the Eagle Effigy standing stone.  Two disjointed rows of standing stones exist in the Gungywamp, running roughly north and south.  The stone with the spread-winged eagle carved into it is approximately in the middle of the southernmost row of standing stones.

   Those two rows of standing stones are just so dang puzzling!  What explanation do we have for that eagle's head carving on one of the stones?  This particular row of standing stones is distinct from the standing stones found in some of the nearby rock walls in the Gungywamp area, and in other areas, such as in Salem, Connecticut and Rhode Island that we've observed. Here are some possible explanations for the use of standing stones:

   What we behold as we gaze perplexed at the rows of standing stones in the Gungywamp (and elsewhere in the region) seems to be the skeletal remains of a traditional British-styled rock wall in which the standing stones were used as a support system for fieldstones.  This explanation is not too off-the-wall (forgive the pun!).  Farther down from the two rows of standing stones and on the same trail, but on the opposite side of that same trail, is another fieldstone rock wall.  Lo and behold, standing stones are found placed periodically within that same stone wall.  Just as with the two rows of standing stones, these standing stones are lined up with their broad sides back to front, not side to side.  However, the gaps between these standing stones set in the rock wall structure are larger than the approximate one to two-foot gaps between the standing stones in the two rows.

   But if the two rows of standing stones are nothing but a support system for a long since gone fieldstone wall, then what about that bird carving?  Why would someone carve a bird’s head and wings on a standing stone only to use that standing stone within a rock wall where the carving couldn't be seen?  If the two rows of standing stones really are nothing more than a support system for a colonial stone wall, then perhaps the bird carving was made on that flat standing stone before the wall builders ever even thought to use that stone for a rock wall.  Perhaps the standing stone was originally intended as some kind of marker (cemetery, property, whathaveyou).  Perhaps, the eagle-carved standing stone was a reject in some other project but its shape was just right to be used as a support standing stone in a colonial rock wall.  I've built rock walls since I was a teenager; I and other rock wall builders will tell you much the same -- you use whatever rock you can get to make a fit!

   We know that the Gungywamp area was used for grazing of livestock (most likely sheep) because of the fact that there are so many rock wall enclosures and there is no top soil for growing crops.  We also know that the tan bark mill was used to tan hides.  We also know that the row of standing stones, as well as a number of other sites, are right along the path that contributing researcher Jack Rajotte discovered was referred to as the "main highway" during colonial and post-colonial (early American) times.  The closeness of the gaps between each standing stone in the row of standing stones

1) may have been used to corral sheep into a pen (the row of standing stones forms one side of a rock wall enclosure), or,

2) may have had a rope stretched across one side of the row used to tie up sheep being corraled through the standing stone gaps.  Tying up the sheep as they stood within each standing stone gap could have been used so as to sheer the sheep for wool or to slaughter the sheep to then skin their hides for tanning.  The row of standing stones is not very far from the tan bark mill, intact chambers and chamber remains, and a stone foundation where a small house (the supposed "Adams House") once stood.

     Taking all the sites in context with each other, and especially their close proximity to the main path ("main highway" as apparently referred to in colonial times), it seems reasonable to explain the row of standing stones as having some use in the agricultural characteristic of colonial and post-colonial Gungywamp.

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Gungywamp Remembrances

By Paulette Buchanan

   We live in a time and place in which commercial and residential development has taken over large portions of woodlands and former farmland.  Along with development have come loss of history, loss of natural areas, and more hustle and bustle of humans, their machines and their habitats.

   Some towns across the country are taking steps to prevent or slow down rampant development in their towns by establishing open spaces and by enforcing minimum acreage per housing lot.  These are good policies to enact, and it is these kinds of policies that will help to preserve places such as the Gungywamp lands for future generations to enjoy.

   Part of what makes the Gungywamp area enjoyable is the recollections of people who hiked its trails twenty or more years ago.  One such person is Diane Porter Dix.  Her daughter, Maia Porter, emailed the Gungywamp Society in July of this year to offer recollections of the Gungywamp area from the early 1980s.  Diane is the person we have on record who first noticed (c. 1980) the carving of the bird figure on one of the standing stones in the rows of standing stones in the Gungywamp.

   The Clarence Latham family once owned that part of the Gungywamp that is now owned by the YMCA.  An important member of the Latham family, Louise Leake, has cherished memories of hiking through the Gungywamp, exploring the cairns and Calendar chamber and enjoying the cranberry bog.  Clarence Latham often took family members young and old on his own tours of the Gungywamp, pointing out all the mysterious and interesting sites.  Louise remains active in making sure the Latham land stays open and that the sites therein are protected.  Currently, as previously reported in the Stonewatch, efforts are underway with the State of Connecticut to purchase the former Latham land from the YMCA so as to ensure that the land is preserved for future generations, as the Latham will stipulates.

   Mike Gardner and his extended family who live on North Gungywamp Road also have offered their memories of the Gungywamp from years gone by.  Mike, who works for Groton’s Parks and Recreation department, remembers well hiking through the Gungywamp woods as a child and marveling at the many cairns and the colonial stoneworks.  Mike still hikes through the Gungywamp at least two times a month.  In fact, it was by Latham Pond that Mike recently proposed marriage to his girlfriend Stephanie   Congratulations, Mike and Stephanie!

   Mike's aunt, Ruth Cowell Signs, also remembers her own hikes through the Gungywamp.  Her father and grandfather have lived around the Gungywamp lands since the early 1900s.  She and her parents and grandparents used to pick cranberries in the bogs around Latham Pond.  She and her family also remembers well exploring around the cairns and colonial rock structures, puzzling over the rows of standing stones, and hiding out in the Calendar Chamber.  In the 1950s, Ruth remembers seeing the large stone slab that used to cover the opening to the smaller chamber located just west of the Calendar Chamber.  Ruth can also recount that there were once plans underway to put in a cranberry bog farther up along North Gungywamp Road, and that even some work was done to construct dams.  But alas, those plans never came to fruition.

   On Ruth's family land sets a rather large millstone-like wheel, leaning partially upright on other stones.  It is approximately five feet across and eight inches thick, but with no hole in the middle, as would be typical for many millstones.  One explanation given to Ruth is that the stone may be Indian in origin and could represent the moon because it faces approximately east, where the moon rises.  Perhaps a more likely explanation may be that it was a millstone of a larger, more unusual type, or possibly a rolling damming stone that was intended to be used for the dams in the cranberrry bogs.

   Ruth has many happy memories of cranberry harvests in and around Latham Pond.  She also remembers the vast farmlands and woodlands surrounding the Gungywamp area, much of which was turned into Navy housing in the early 1960s.

   Both Mike and Ruth are very happy that their little corner of Groton, Connecticut has remained largely untouched by development.  We have the Latham Family, the YMCA, the Vogt and Cowell families, and many others to thank for their efforts to keep the Gungywamp lands and its important historical sites maintained and preserved.