| Narragansett Runestone | |
| Material: | metasandstone |
| Size: | 5 (1.5m) feet high; 7 feet (2.1m) long |
| Created: | Unknown |
| Discovered Place: | Pojac Point, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, United States |
| Discovered Date: | 1939 |
| Rune Master: | Unknown |
| Location: | Rhode Island, United States |
The Narragansett Runestone, also known as the Quidnessett Rock,[1] is a slab of metasandstone located in Rhode Island, United States. It is 5 (1.5m) feet high and 7 feet (2.1m) long.[2] The stone is inscribed with two rows of symbols, which some have indicated resemble runes, characters used by Germanic peoples starting around the second or third century CE, with variants used in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian cultures during the medieval period.[3] [4]
The Narragansett Runestone was originally situated in Narragansett Bay and only visible during extremely low tides.[5] 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.[6]
The stone was moved to the University of Rhode Island School of Oceanography for testing, but the tests were not carried out because it would have required damaging the stone.[7] In January 2014, plans were announced to move the runestone to Goddard Memorial State Park in East Greenwich. In October 2015, the runestone was placed for long-term public viewing in Wickford, a village of North Kingstown, Rhode Island.[8]
The Narragansett Runestone was first reported to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission (HPHC) in the 1980s. The New England Antiquities Research Association (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 quahogger in December 1984 while digging in the mud flats of Narragansett Bay.[9]
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 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 20feet 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.[10] [11] 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.[12] [13]
The stone is referenced in episode 11 of season 1 of America Unearthed.
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.[11]
In July 2024, The New York Times 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.[14]