| Author | What does future hold for Narragansett Rune Stone? |
jackdaw1
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|  Posted 08-07-2013 at 19:20
As theories of its origin abound, what does future hold for Narragansett Rune Stone?
Continued above.
June Goodhue says she’s known about the rock since she and her late husband moved to North Kingstown’s Pojac Point in 1952.
Sitting in shallow water, the 8-foot-long boulder sported unusual markings that were typically visible only at extreme low tide. Goodhue said she heard people say the markings might be ancient runic characters left by Viking or Nordic explorers.
Even so, Goodhue, who is now 89, says she didn’t give much thought to the significance of what people call the Narragansett Rune Stone or Quidnessett Rock. That is, until a week or so before Christmas 2011 when her neighbor Paul Roberti, a commissioner with the Public Utilities Commission, asked her to host a neighborhood meeting to talk about the boulder with Scott Wolter, a forensic geologist from Minnesota.
Though Wolter has come under fire from critics who see his theories as over the edge, he is considered an expert by many on the subject of runestones, having produced documentaries for the History Channel and written two books. In “The Kensington Stone: Compelling New Evidence,” he writes about why he believes that a stone with runic lettering — found in 1899 by a farmer and his two sons on a hill in Minnesota — was not the hoax that critics claimed, but a real artifact made by visitors from Europe a century or two before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world.
In his second book, “The Hooked X,” published in 2009, and in subsequent interviews, Wolter has gone further, suggesting that the presence of a mysterious “hooked X” character on the Kensington Stone in Minnesota as well as on the stone tower in Touro Park in Newport and the Narragansett Rune Stone off North Kingstown connects them all to the Military Order of the Knights Templar, a secretive medieval group that he says was suppressed by the Catholic Church because of its members’ unusual beliefs about the Holy Grail.
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vlad
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| Posted 09-07-2013 at 08:33
Elementary, Watson. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runes.
This sign existed among Marcomannic, Anglo-Frisian and Anglo-Saxon runes. Wikipedia says the meaning of the sign (in the middle of the lighted-up area) is simply the letter "k" (gilch; kalc, etc.). In modern English it`s "chalice" but what it has to do with The (true) Chalice and the Templars?
[ This message was edited by: vlad on 2013-07-10 18:04 ]
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bat400
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| Posted 09-07-2013 at 15:56
I've taken the liberty of moving this thread to the "Mysteries" forum. Runestones in the Americas are definitely outliers, with practically all of them considered to be either modern "fakes" or misplaced Sandinavian-American memorials associated with the romantic nationalism movements.
See Kensington Runestone for information about the most famous of the lot and Scott Wolter's association with it. [Note: I edited the link when I discovered that Wolter has requested deletions from an earlier wikipedia article. This will take you to the "Talk" page - and from there you can go to the main article, with its detailed discussion of the rune translations.]
North America is rife with epigraphologists finding the runes and other alphabets of the norse, irish, ancient egyptians, etc., in Native American symbols, as well as plow scrapes, and "mystery" stones.
Some examples of what most experts believe to be genuine native work, but others believe to be signs of europeans visiting the new world prior to L'Anse aux Meadows.
Red Bird
Crack Cave
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2014-06-19 15:41 ]
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Andy B
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| Posted 11-07-2013 at 12:04
Some background:
The Quidnessett Rock – also known as the Narragansett Rune Stone – was returned to state custody April 16 after it had been removed from the tidal waters in North Kingstown last summer.
The attorney general’s office and the state Department of Environmental Management headed the investigation that led to the discovery and return of the rock. According to the Coastal Resources Management Council, the rock was removed from Pojac Point between July and August 2012.
The rock is a Rhode Island formation meta-sandstone that is 7 feet long, 5 feet high, and is inscribed with two rows of symbols. Some have indicated the marks resemble ancient Runic characters.
More at
http://www.jamestownpress.com/news/2013-05-02/News/Quidnessett_Rock_returned_to_state.html
I will add these sites as 'modern stones' as there is clearly an interest in them.
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Andy B
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| Posted 11-07-2013 at 12:11
Some background for Europeans about Scott Wolter who fronts the programme "America Unearthed". The programme asked us for advice about filming at the Loch Nell 'Serpent Mound' a couple of months ago.
Bat advised me that 'America Unearthed is a totally credulous look at "alternate" archaeology in the United States. Scott Wolter is possibly the only educated source (a geologist) willing to give credence that Minnesota's Kensington Rune stone was actually produced by medieval Vikings (as opposed to 19th century Scandinavian-Americans). This show is only a few steps above "Ancient Aliens".'
'Wolter and "America Unearthed" are pretty un-interested in any America archaeology dealing exclusively with North American "natives". It seems that its only interesting to show that stuff happened in America if it was done by Vikings, 12th century Saxons, Irish monks, and in the one case where it wasn't a non-American group, Mayans.) '
'Wolter generally leaves an episode with the sort of "there's more to this than what 'the experts' say " sort of implication (as opposed to a statement of fact), but then you see him writing, "Norse in MN" on his giant map of the US in his 'lair' of a headquarters, as if it were, an established fact. '
'I've watched 3 of these shows and they are exceptionally painful - especially when he gets "real" archaeologists (or their proxy friends like national park rangers) on camera, where they are often forced to stand in mute amazement as Wolter has a well edited hissy fit in front of them. '
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Feanor
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| Posted 11-07-2013 at 18:06
Here on Cape Cod (only about 100 miles from Newport RI) there is some pretty compelling, if indirect, evidence that Vikings were here in at least 3 waves from 1003 AD to about 1015 AD.
Much of this research was done by a gentleman named Frederick Pohl back in the 1950's. I have myself seen and photographed most of these areas ― including the arguably dated bore-hole in Blue Rock in the Narrows of Bass River.
Copious briar-vines and grape-vines (still widely present) are thought to be the rationale for famously naming the region: Vinland.
I have also seen the long-touted 'Newport Tower' in its incarnation as a tourist attraction in downtown Newport. Whether this structure is period Norse or not is open for interpretation, but whomever built it knew Northern European building techniques of the time, and according to the earliest settlers in the area, was already there when they moved in.
Native Americans are well-documented to have built certain stone structures, it's true ― but the Tower is decidedly different in every aspect from these.
I know very little about the Narragansett Rune Stone, but can't someone read the Symbols?
Neil
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Andy B
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| Posted 11-07-2013 at 22:21
Site page
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=34372
An apparent translation is here
http://kayak7777.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/narragansett-rune-stone.html
UPPERLINE
Rune 1. GIFT (G)
Rune 2. SUN (S)
Rune 3. LAND, ISLAND (H)
Rune 4. RIDE, RED, RHODE (R)
Rune 5. HOME, PROPERTY (0)
Rune 6. MAN, MEN (M)
Rune 7. LAKE, SEA, OCEAN (L)
Rune 8. ICE, ICELAND (1)
LOWERLINE
Rune 9. GIFT (G)
Rune 10. GOD (A)
So, the correct TRANSLATION appears to be:
"GIFT of the SUN: RHODE ISLAND (Red Land), now HOME (property) of the MEN across the OCEAN from ICELAND; GIFT of GOD"
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Runemage
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| Posted 16-07-2013 at 16:24
Without seeing it and taking into account that the shadows on the glyphs can distort them, I'd disagree with two of the interpretations, nos. 6 and 7, no. 8 is an I not a 1 but that's likely a font issue, so :-
UPPERLINE
Rune 1. (G)
Rune 2. (S)
Rune 3. (H)
Rune 4. (R)
Rune 5. (0)
Rune 6. Z
Rune 7. S
Rune 8. I
LOWERLINE
Rune 9. (G)
Rune 10. (A)
Interpretation, ha, that's where you need experts in ancient runic script, I only know the esoteric meanings. The translation that's been given sounds too modern-day American to me and too trite. Wouldn't Vikings have said Odin Allfather or named others of their pantheon rather than saying God?
Googling Futhark and clicking Images will give you a variety of Runic alphabets so you can see for yourselves what you think the inscription consists of.
Rune (the esoteric variety)
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ekent
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| Posted 19-06-2014 at 03:13
Here's an update on the so-called Narragansett Runestone. It was carved by a 13-year-old boy in 1964, then rediscovered by clam diggers 21 years later. A woman who claims to have known about it in 1952 is mistaken, possibly confusing it with another nearby inscribed stone such as Dighton Rock or the Mount Hope inscribed rock, both probably Indian in origin. There is no mention of the Narragansett Runestone in any publication prior to the mid-1960s, including Delabarre's meticulous catalogue of Rhode Island inscribed stones (1922).
I have interviewed the original inscriber. He is completely credible. Using an iron mallet and nail punch, he says he hammered out S-K-R-A-Y-L-I-G (i.e., Skraeling) in runes in an attempt to leave the message, "There are Indians here." He says he didn't intend to fool anyone and had forgotten about it until it was reported stolen last summer.
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bat400
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| Posted 19-06-2014 at 15:31
ekent - Thank you for posting.
Is there any chance that the original inscriber will come forward "officially?"
Feanor -
Not to say that I think there is 'no chance' of the Norse in New England, but in regards the Newport Tower you wrote:
"Whether this structure is period Norse or not is open for interpretation, but whomever built it knew Northern European building techniques of the time, and according to the earliest settlers in the area, was already there when they moved in."
I'm not from the region, but I thought colonial maps call it a mill and it's mentioned as, "my stone built Wind Mill," in Governor Arnold's will?
[However, "The Viking" (1928) with Donald Crisp, was a really fun movie. It has Leif Erikson building the Newport Tower in Thanksgiving for safe voyage and his new Christian conversion.]
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Feanor
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| Posted 19-06-2014 at 23:07
Hiya Bat,
Yup - after further review, it appears that this was Gov Benedict Arnold's windmill from c.1650.
I'm pretty convinced that the Vikings were here around 1,000 AD, but the Newport Tower is not something they built.
Best,
Neil
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Runemage
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| Posted 20-06-2014 at 00:36
Thank-you Ekent, that's a very interesting story for an equally interesting stone. Any chance you could ask him which Futhark (Runic script and alphabetical translation) he used please? I'm guessing this is pre-internet so I was wondering what his source was, as his interpretation doesn't tally with the common Nordic Runes.
Rune
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