Narragansett Runestone

Disputed: a Norse origin for this site has been claimed but is not accepted by mainstream archaeology. Listed for reference only. The Narragansett Runestone, also known as the Quidnessett Rock, is a 2.5 t (2,500 kg) slab of metasandstone in Rhode Island, United States. 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: 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. The Narragansett Runestone originally sat in Narragansett Bay, visible only during extremely low tides. In 2012, billionaire Timothy Mellon secretly removed the rock because it drew visitors near his estate; he returned it the following year after state prosecutors agreed to not press charges. 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. 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. Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).