STONEWATCH

NEWSLETTER of the GUNGYWAMP SOCIETY

P.O. Box 592, Colchester, CT 06415-0592

Written & Edited by the Board Members of the Gungywamp Society

Vol. 21, No. 1 ISSN 0892-1741 2004

Camp Rowland Excavation

by Carol Hallas

Archaeological excavations have been ongoing for several years now at Camp Rowland in Niantic, Connecticut. Camp Rowland has been undergoing redevelopment for some time now, and because it is becoming a regional advancement training center, new buildings are scheduled for construction. Whenever state or federal monies are part of a construction project, an archaeological survey is required. This is particularly providential in this area because Camp Rowland is located directly on the Niantic River and adjacent to the Oswegatchie Hills.

The Oswegatchie River is actually an inland bay and was heavily populated by Native Americans for millennia. The Nehantic Indians, who were the earliest known inhabitants of Southeastern Connecticut, have never been rigorously studied. Any information on this group can only add to our knowledge of their culture.

The 2002 and 2003 dig season saw activity in the location of a future building on the National Guard grounds. The dig site produced over 500 postmolds, all of which had to be bisected and many quartered. All this work yielded in analysis one wigwam site, and adjacent charcoal flecks proved to be about one thousand years old. Other finds included points, both complete and partial; many yellow jasper flakes and a partial point; incised pottery sherds and an incised clay pipe stem. Coincidentally, a local high school archaeology class dug on nearby private property directly on the river’s edge and found a nice steatite bowl rim sherd. Fortunately, it appears as of now that both excavations will continue this dig season.

Black Point Find

You Be the Judge

by Carol Hallas

A fellow commissioner told me about a point he found in his backyard when he was removing a large rock. The point was found beneath the rock. He brought it to me for identification and it was a beauty! Finely made of black flint, it is 3-3/8 inches long and of modified ovate shape with a nice central ridge. The location of this find was not far from the vicinity of the Nehantic Indian fort on Black Point. This point fits the parameters of the Agate Basin type, usually found in the central and upper Midwest and as far east as New York State. It is a late paleo-early archaic type. This point, though, has never to my knowledge been found in Connecticut. A professional of my acquaintance suggests Greene Point, a middle woodland projectile. What do you think?

. . . And a Word of Thanks

by Carol Hallas

Thank you to everyone who contacted us with site information this year. It is important to document these places for research and posterity as you can see by the discouraging “before” and “after” photos I have included below:

Let’s all try to get as many sites like these documented before they are lost. If you know the location of any such sites, please let us know the location and directions to the site. If we determine your site is not in our files we will do our best to record it.

Update on the

Double Ring of Stones

by Carol Hallas

If you recall our last newsletter, a photo was found, dated 1990, which revealed what resembled a post base support in ledge near the double ring of stones in the Gungywamp. This apparently had been taken during a Jim Whittall excavation of the area of ledge upon which the stone circle sits. The only hint of what this might have been was in the Early Sites Research Society (ESRS) bulletin of 1991. “A careful [sic] constructed ‘hearth’ was uncovered in a depression in the ledge.” The question arose — was this within the double stone circle or elsewhere on the ledge? Mr. Whittall stated that he did not excavate within the double stone ring, stating that the site had been highly disturbed years earlier. More likely, it may have been too difficult to excavate because small trees had grown within the interior stone circle.

Our team — myself, Jack Rajotte and Paulette Buchanan — decided to see if we could locate this bowl-like depression in the ledge. Since the only feature Whittall mentions in his newsletter is the “hearth”, it seemed likely that this may have been the location of the bowl-like depression in the photo. We were able to plot the place where the “hearth” had been found, so the team set out to find it.

The “hearth” feature emerged at precisely the place indicated and not far below the surface. The “hearth” consisted of a semi-circular construction extrapolated to what was likely a 30-inch diameter, if indeed it was once a complete circle.

There was plastic sheeting both above and beneath it. Since we know from Mr. Whittall’s Bulletin and from the photos taken by other participants that most of the ledge area was completely stripped of soil and any features (except for the mill ring itself), it is apparent that the “hearth” feature was rebuilt when the excavation was closed up.

After removing the rebuilt “hearth” we continued to the ledge just beneath it. THIS was the truly exciting feature. The “depression” that the “hearth” feature was in and only mentioned in passing in the Whittall description was VERY impressive!

The “depression” was in actuality a very large bowl-shaped depression with a sharply defined rim, oval in shape and measuring 6 feet long, 3 feet across and 7-1/2 inches deep — obviously not a mill post support! Our photos do not do it justice because of the dappling of the light caused by surrounding vegetation.

On the west side of the bowl, pointing directly to the center of the east side of the stone circle, was a “spout”. This spout was 2 feet long, sloping downward from the mill end into the large bowl-shaped depression. Its configuration suggested a drain spout from the stone circle into the bowl depression or catch basin.

To suggest a clearer image, the feature actually resembled the shape of a Chinese soup spoon!

Purpose of the Catch Basin

The catch basin would seem to be a man-made creation by its shape, smooth bottom, even depth and configuration. The spout, pointing directly towards the stone circle (coincidentally to a gap in the outer circumference) suggests it was used to collect and direct the output of the mill into the catch basin.

Look for the results of further research in future newsletters!

A Winter Walk

in Salem Woods

by Paulette J. Buchanan

In January of this year, my husband Scott and I went on a walk through the Cockle Hill woods in Salem, Connecticut with Jack and Jean Ann Scaduto. The Scadutos are members of the Salem Historical Society and they enjoy their retirement years hiking through the woods in their area. Jack and Jean Ann were most gracious in giving us a tour of the privately owned Cockle Hill woods.

There are many similarities between the sites in the Gungywamp and those in Cockle Hill. Both settlements date from the early to mid-1660s. Cockle Hill was settled in c. 1669 by Nathaniel Foote and others. Unlike the Gungywamp, Cockle Hill included farmland (the Gungywamp was by and large used for grazing). It also appears that one of the wetland areas of Cockle Hill may have been used as a cranberry bog, as once existed in the Gungywamp. Both the Gungywamp and Cockle Hill have impressive stone outcroppings, from which the remains of colonial quarrying can still be seen. The quarried stones in the Gungywamp and in Cockle Hill bear no drill hole markings, which is consistent with early colonial quarrying techniques.

Cockle Hill, near Route 85, has many intertwining dirt roads, kept wide today by all terrain vehicles and dirt bikes. One road, Rattlesnake Hill Road, is on record as being recognized in 1733, with a history of having been originally a footpath. Other roads include a segment of the old Governor’s Highway, which had once been an Indian trail that extended from New London to Hartford and branched out to northern parts of Connecticut. Governor’s Highway was so named c. 1716 when Governor Saltonstall (served 1708-1724) used the road to travel to Hartford from his home in New London.

The Cockle Hill Cemetery is off of one of the roads, and across from the cemetery are the remains of a small stone foundation. The remains of a well are near this small foundation. As Jack, Jean Ann, Scott and I examined the site, we conjectured that perhaps the small structure had been used to store the bodies of those who died during winter in anticipation of burying them in the cemetery once the ground had thawed. (The jury’s still out on this theory).

Also along the intertwining roads there are numerous remains of colonial houses and other outbuildings, including what appear to be chambers/root cellars. The style of rock foundations and rock structures built into northern hillsides are very similar to those foundations and structures found in the Gungywamp.

As we walked along the many intertwining roads, I noticed the rock wall structures following the roads and wiggling off in various directions. In one case, I noticed a style of rock wall construction in which a pointed standing stone is used to serve as a brace for the wall. This method of rock wall construction was also used in some of the Gungywamp’s walling system.

Adams House, a reconstructed colonial site in the west Gungywamp complex.
Facing west, this picture shows the outside wall and the inside fireplace remains.

Numerous colonial artifacts (china, pottery, metal instruments and utensils, and two coins) have been found at this site.

The late Dave Barron at a reconstructed colonial site in the eastern central Gungywamp complex.

Photo donated by Gungywamp member

Similarities and Differences

of the Gungywamp & Cockle Hill

Gungywamp:

· Standing stone braces in rock walls

· Stone walling throughout, straight and wiggly

· Remains of chambers/root cellars/livestock birthing shelters

· Remains of colonial houses

· Stone structures built into northern hillsides, facing south

· Grazing land (most likely for sheep, perhaps cows and other livestock)

· Cranberry bog (near Latham pond)

· Carvings on stone (apparently colonial survey markings)

· Colonial mill site and stone enclosure storage areas (possibly including chambers/root cellars/livestock birthing shelters?)

· Colonial iron ore forge (operated by Gov. Winthrop’s sons, 1600s)

· Indian ledge shelter, with artifacts dated c. 2000 – 500 BC

Cockle Hill:

· Standing stone braces in rock walls (fewer than in Gungywamp)

· Stone walling throughout, straight and wiggly

· Remains of chambers/root cellars/livestock birthing shelters

· Remains of colonial houses

· Stone structures built into northern hillsides, facing south

· Grazing land (sheep, cows and other

livestock)

More Conclusive Research on the

Rows of Standing Stones & Other Sites in the Gungywamp

by Paulette J. Buchanan

with contributions by

Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni, James and Mary Gage,

Jack Rajotte and John Russell

On April 9^th, a beautiful spring day, I met with Massachusetts son and mother researchers James and Mary Gage, Connecticut State Archaeologist Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni and his University of Connecticut student Claudette. Fellow Gungywamp board member and researcher Jack Rajotte joined us shortly after we began our hike in the Gungywamp. The purpose of our meeting was to offer updated interpretations on some of our more intriguing sites in the Gungywamp.

The two rows of standing stones along the major pathway have been a bizarre and mysterious site for generations of Gungywamp hikers. The two rows, which form a roughly east-west snaky direction, has long been conjectured to be an Indian calendar site, an Indian ritual site, a colonial memorial site, a fifth-eighth century Celtic monk site, etc. Some have argued that this or that number of upright stones could be counted in the two rows, but because the structure has been partially disturbed over the years, it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of upright stones which originally existed. Whatever the number of standing stones, my research findings make a strong argument that the rows are the remains of a type of colonial rock wall structure not uncommon to areas where livestock grazed.

The style of rock wall that uses periodic vertical bracing stones in a horizontally constructed rock wall is found in US colonial sites and in Ireland, Scotland and England. The name of this type of stone wall construction is called coping and dyking. This type of construction makes for a very stable and durable rock wall. (Illustrations from handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/section/1654.)

Through email correspondence, Scottish resident John Russell and I discussed the art and craftsmanship behind the construction of “dry stane dyke” walls, and the various styles of vertical bracing stones, often thin and flat and pointed-shaped at the top, that are placed within rock walls. Styles and techniques vary somewhat, but there is no doubt that the coping and dyking methods used for generations in England, Scotland and Ireland are evident in New England. And this makes perfect sense — the earliest colonists were from England, Scotland and parts of Ireland, so of course they would bring with them their knowledge and personal touches to the art of rock wall construction.

One question arises concerning why the one standing stone with the bird effigy carved into it would have been used in a rock wall structure. I offer the Yankee maxim “Use it up, make it do, wear it out” that could possibly explain the carved standing stone. Very possibly the carving could have been made in colonial times. If so, then perhaps the carver was not happy with the outcome, or the carved stone had lost its original purpose (marker stone?). In such a case, a large flat stone could still find use as a brace in a coping/dyking-styled rock wall. Dr. Bellantoni also offered his own idea about the carved outline of the bird. Since it is impossible to tell when the carving was done, it is possible that the carved depiction of the bird could have been made long after the horizontal part of the wall had been dismantled.

One other feature that John Russell described in rock wall construction was the deliberate creation of “holes” or openings as one of the features to the wall. The Gungywamp has rock walls with such openings. The BTCV Handbooks website notes that these openings in rock walls were constructed deliberately. Sheep herders have long known that as long as sheep can see what is on the other side of a rock wall then they will not jump the wall. The openings allow sheep to see the “other side” without, apparently, giving in to sheepish curiosity to bound the wall to find . . . greener pastures (?). John also noted that his ancestors and neighbors have built openings near the bottom of rock walls so as “to let the badgers or rabbits through.” These facts provide very practical explanations for the openings in some of the Gungywamp’s rock walls, with no wiggle room left to conjecture about mystical or ritualistic significance given to those openings.

One such opening in a rock wall in the Gungywamp — often referred to as the “altar bridge” — runs very close to the main path of the Gungywamp. Jack Rajotte has come across land records that refer to this path as being the “main highway” which connected the various colonial properties and led to other main roads in the area.

As described in a previous newsletter, this “altar bridge” is set into a rock wall which has some vertical bracing stones and which also incorporates a few large glacial boulders. Directly across the rock wall is a large ledge, off of which snow and rain run off. On the other side of the “altar bridge” is a pond/wetlands area. Chances are very good that these “bridges” don’t have any Celtic monk or Indian ritualistic meaning, but rather were constructed with a very practical purpose in mind: a colonial gutter system which took water run-off from the ledge and kept the highway clear of standing water.

Additional Ideas About Those Chamber Remains

While on our hike, Dr. Bellantoni offered a reasonable explanation for the smaller types of chamber remains in the Gungywamp. His knowledge and experience with colonial customs and structures lead him to believe that a number of the chamber remains could very possibly be livestock birthing shelters. There is no doubt that the Gungywamp lands were used for sheep grazing. The style and number of rock walling features in the Gungywamp are consistent with many other areas which grazed livestock. The construction of livestock birthing shelters is certainly consistent with all the other known colonial remains in the Gungywamp.

More Insights on Indian Sites

Toward the end of our hike, James and Mary Gage observed some sites which they believe are of Native American origin. Some of these sites are certainly consistent with the Indian settlements we know to exist in the Gungywamp. James and Mary have done much research on Indian and colonial sites in New England. One book they’ve published, and gave a copy to the Gungywamp Society, is The Art of Splitting Stone: Early Rock Quarrying Methods in Pre-Industrial New England 1630-1825. Mary and James pointed out an interesting site near the “Cliff of Tears” and the Indian ledge site that they attributed to Native Americans. There are three large boulders that lie in a row perpendicular to the “Cliff of Tears” and which bisect the path and a wetlands/stream which run parallel to the Cliff. On top of each boulder are piles of smaller stones, some of which have been disturbed over time, but others which are moss-covered and indicate that they’ve probably been on top of the boulder for a long period of time. This feature is apparently consistent with other known Indian ritual sites throughout New England.

It was a real pleasure to have Dr. Bellantoni, Claudette, and James and Mary Gage join me and Jack Rajotte on our exploratory hike through the Gungywamp woods. And we are grateful for their time and insights, and for the Gages’ donation of their book to the Gungywamp Society.

US News & World Report:

History’s Great Explorers

Reviewed by Paulette J. Buchanan

The February 23-March 1, 2004 edition of US News & World Report included an excellent series of articles on a number of explorers from various time periods. One of the articles, “Island Hopping to a New World,” reports that recent DNA and archaeological evidence indicates that North and South America could have very likely been settled by a combination of Asiatic and European people groups. What is more intriguing is that these migrations could have taken place much earlier than previously believed.

Rather than a single migration of Clovis people, “there were clearly several waves of human exploration,” says Douglas Wallace, a geneticist at the University of California-Irvine. Wallace’s DNA studies of American Natives identify at least five genetically distinct waves, four from Asia and one possibly of European descent, the earliest of which could have arrived more than 20,000 years ago. That diversity jibes with research by linguists who argue that the Americas’ 143 native languages couldn’t possibly have all developed from a single 11,500-year-old tongue.

The Clovis people, named after the discovery of very old spear points in an Indian settlement in Clovis, New Mexico, were thought to have been the first people to have settled in that area about 11,500 years ago. It was originally believed that Asiatic migrations across the Bering land bridge took place some 12,000 years ago. But increasingly more excavations in North and South America are uncovering human settlements that date older than the Clovis people, and older than 12,000 years ago. As the article contends, “more controversial digs near the East Coast may even indicate pre-Clovis travel across the northern Atlantic from Europe.” Further more,

Clovis-style spear points recovered from barrier islands near the Chesapeake Bay and inland in Virginia and Pennsylvania bear a striking resemblance to tools made by the ancient Solutrean people of northern Spain, leading some to speculate about a pre-historic crossing of the Atlantic.

US News also included an article in their series on the highly controversial theory that a Muslim Chinese explorer and wealthy ship commander, Zheng He, explored South America 70 years before Columbus. What is known for certain is that Zheng He did make seven voyages from Asia to Africa in the fifteenth century. But what remains highly controversial, due to the lack of evidence, is the assertion that Zheng He made it to the Americas and across the Pacific back to Asia. US News writer, Caroline Hsu sums up the theory that the Chinese discovered the Americas:

Although there is compelling evidence that the Chinese reached Australia and South America before Cook and Columbus, contact probably occurred centuries before Zheng He set sail.

Another controversial migration theory, not mentioned in the US News article, claims that there was possibly a migration of explorers from India to the west coast of South America which took place around 2000 years ago. The website, www.atributetohinduism.com, argues strongly for the Indo-American migration theory. A few examples used to support this theory include several linguistic similarities, Indo-Asian plants found in South America, depictions of Indian elephants in South American art, and the similarities between the Indo game of pachisi with the Mexican game of patolli. (Following illustrations and word list comparison taken from the atributetohinduism website.)

The Indian elephant in America
(source: Myths of Pre-Columbian America - By Donald A. Mackenzie)

The close relationship between the pachisi game of India and the patolli game of Mexico is illustrated here.

Similarity between Quichua and Sankrit language:

Quichua	Sanskrit

akapana(clouds colored by sun)	aka (painting)
chani (price)	jani (produce)
chinkat (jaguar)	sinha (lion)
chirau (resplendent)	sura (to shine)
huakra (horn)	vakra (curved)
kakarpa (tent)	k'arpara (parasol)
mita (time)	mita (step passage of time)
muti (pounded corn)	mut (to pound)
nana (sister)	nanda (sister)
pakkni (to break)	pike (to break)
paksa (the moon)	paksa (the full moon)
pisi (small)	pis (to break into small piece)
pitata (bedroom)	pita (house, cottage)
simpa (cord)	samb (to tie)
soro (spiritual liqour)	sura (spiritual liquor)
sokta (six)	s'as (six)

(source: The Ayar-Incas - By Miles Poindexter p. 211-215).

I must state that my historical expertise is not in South American studies, so I cannot comment on the points offered in the Indo-American migration theory. Nonetheless, it is extremely fascinating to read of ongoing research into the various migration and contact theories. Perhaps with more DNA analysis and archaeological and linguistic studies, more concrete answers to lingering questions will be forthcoming.

BOOK REVIEW

by Carol Hallas

How the Sun God Reached America c. 2500 BC: A Guide to Megalithic Sites. Dr. Reinoud M. de Jonge & Jay Stuart Wakefield.

The Gungywamp Society has received a new book for its library from author J.S. Wakefield. He and his associate, Dr. R.M. de Jonge, describe their interpretations of lithic art and design as documentation of exploration and discoveries of new lands dating back many thousands of years.

As quoted from the Introduction:

We have discovered that ancient ‘art contains geographical and mathematical pictographs (picture drawings). These petroglyphs (rock drawings) tell stories of sailing exploration and of the discovery of islands in the Oceans. We are learning what early people believed and achieved, putting light on events in late prehistory, prior to the invention of Egyptian hieroglyphics or other written languages by men. This new evidence explains why prehistoric people were motivated to explore the Atlantic Ocean, and how they were able to discover America and exploit its resources long before it has been thought possible.

Dr. de Jonge believes that a “great proportion” of inscription from this era are geographic, actually depicting maps and sailing charts with both geophysical and meteorological data, including coastlines, rivers physical features, winds and currents. He also ascertains that engravings with concentric circles, complete or incomplete, or other geometrical shapes depict land, islands, or continents. These describe how extensive explorations were around them and in what direction(s) these explorations went, using an equivalent of Egyptian miles (which are equal to nautical miles). According to de Jonge, all “ ‘mother goddess figures’ at sites dated after c.2500 show features of the American coast.”

Four chapters of this fourteen chapter book concern US sites: New Hampshire, Maine, New York and Long Island.

Largest and most complex of these sites is America’s Stonehenge in New Hampshire. According to the authors, the various features at the site represent corresponding features in the Western Hemisphere. In other words, America’s Stonehenge is a giant map. “Originally, America’s Stonehenge was built for people coming from the south, who wanted to cross to the West Azores.” While America’s Stonehenge is now twenty miles from the Atlantic, our authors quote a source stating that sea level there four thousand years ago was over 125 feet higher, placing America’s Stonehenge on the shore of an Atlantic cove. They surmise that one reason for its abandonment was the receding shoreline.

Stating that a good theory should be a reliable predictor of occurrence, Dr. de Jonge predicted a menhir (single upright crude monolith usually of prehistoric origin) should represent Greenland. The authors later found a large fallen menhir in the predicted location which was not on the site map of Mystery Hill and at a distance from the main complex.

The authors also refer to many other US inscriptions and locations, such as Poverty Point, the Mounds and ancient Michigan copper mines. Those interested in diffusionism and various theories pertaining to early Atlantic crossings will undoubtedly enjoy this book. The references presented are extensive and provide plenty of sources for interested readers. Statements about American sites rely heavily upon pronouncements made by the late Barry Fell. Corroborating research will be needed to evaluate the interpretations of inscriptions as set forth by the authors.