Gungywamp

41°23′N 72°04′W / 41.39°N 72.06°W / 41.39; -72.06

Gungywamp /ˈɡʌndʒiwɒmp/ is an archaeological site in Groton, Connecticut consisting of artifacts and the remains of colonial structures. The site includes the remains of houses and a storage structure, as well as a double circle of stones near its center. Two concentric circles of large quarried stones are at the center of the site, 21 large slabs laid end to end.

In 2018, the deed to 270 acres of the original 400-acre parcel was transferred to the State of Connecticut by the YMCA. It was named a State Archaeological Preserve in 2023.[1]

Overview

The 100-acre (40 ha) site consists of multiple elements covering a broad range of time. There are remains of houses and potential cloth and iron processing sites. There are multiple stone chambers believed to be root cellars, two of which are completely intact. Connecticut State Archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni states that "It was like an early refrigerator. They're classic root cellars we have seen at a number of places in Connecticut...the thing that's unique at Gungywamp is that there are so many of them."[2]

There is a stone circle near the structures, consisting of two circles of stones, one within the other, over ten feet in diameter. The outermost ring is made up of 12 curved stones which archaeologists consider to have been part of a mill.[2] Archaeologist Ken Feder notes that the stones are recumbent rather than upright, unlike European stone circles, and he identifies it as a bark mill used to extract tannin for leather. Animals would pull the mill wheel between the double circle of stones in a circular fashion. There have been suggestions that these cellars are astronomically aligned by ancient Druids, but Feder points out that "as storage facilities for root crops, the chambers were intentionally aligned with their openings to the rising of the winter sun in the southerns sky in order to avoid to hard of a freeze..."[3] Other writers have asserted that it is an Indian structure.[4]

Fringe views

The site is most known among the general public due to the suggestion, originally made in the 1960s, that the stone chambers share similarities with structures from Medieval Ireland. This has been taken by some to indicate that Irish monks, or Culdees, were involved, and that therefore the site contains evidence of pre-Columbian European settlement of the Americas.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Gungywamp - Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center". 4 January 2023. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
  2. ^ a b c Adamian, John (27 March 2003). "'The Stones of Groton". Hartford Courant. {{cite news}}: Check |archive-url= value (help)
  3. ^ Feder, Kenneth L. (11 October 2010). Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-0-313-37919-2.
  4. ^ Gungywamp Theories (retrieved June 1, 2011
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