382 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



And here is the all-important point. Although some investigators — 

 including myself — accept the probability that a grave (or a deposit) 

 containing Norwegian Viking weapons was found at Beardmore in 

 1930, and even if from this the conclusion may be drawn that in the 

 beginning of tlie eleventh century Norwegian Vikings penetrated 

 North America deep enough to reach the area east of Lake Nipigon 

 (perhaps via Hudson Bay and James Bay), this does not conceal the 

 fact that it has been impossible to produce clear evidence in support of 

 it ; we have merely a certain degree of probability. And in that case 

 we lack justification for employing the Beardmore find as a reliable 

 archeological document for the present. 



THE NEWPORT TOWER 



Newport Tower is a picturesque ruin of a small cylindrical stone 

 tower built upon round-arched arcades, situated in Touro Park, New- 

 port, E. I. (pi. 2). Its historical data were discussed at length by 

 Philip A. Means (1942). The town of Newport was founded by 

 Gov. William Coddington in 1639. The tower is first mentioned in 

 documents dating from 1677. 



No fully modern, scientific survey has ever been made of Newport 

 Tower by a professional architect. John Howland Rowe's unpub- 

 lished work of 1038 ("The Rowe report," as it is called in Means's 

 book, whose plans and elevation, figs. 5-8 and 16 — figs. 2-6 in this 

 paper — are taken from it) will scarcely satisfy the requirements 

 of modern archeology. It would be very desirable if a trained archi- 

 tect, preferably in company with an archeologist, could undertake 

 this survey. Until this is done I do not consider we can accept the 

 recent calculations of the unit of measurement of this building. 



Newport Tower, about 25 feet high, is both primitively and skil- 

 fully built. The material is field stone — some natural and some 

 slightly dressed granite, sandstone, and slate. The stones are laid in a 

 grayish- white, coarse lime mortar mixed with rubble; the mortar 

 is of shelly lime, gravel, and sand. Thin, sometimes split flags of 

 sandstone or slate are employed in the flat arches that connect the 

 pillars (as well as in the relieving arch over the fireplace and the 

 arch over one of the windows) ; they are laid radially but without 

 the use of a keystone at the middle. The plaster, which presumably 

 once coated the entire tower inside and out, is of the same lime mor- 

 tar but with a smoothed surface. 



The tower is oriented according to the cardinal points of the 

 compass. Each of the eight pillars has a big base stone of dark 

 rough-hewn sandstone (see i^l. 3, left). It rests not directly upon 

 the foundation stones but on a low cylindrical drum placed on a 

 thick layer of plaster, which in turn rests on the foundation stones 

 (see theoretical sketch, fig. 7) . The heaps of rocks forming the pillar 



