Groton — The final event of the 10th Biennial Fields of Conflict Conference started Sunday morning with a 166-step vertical climb.

Eight attendees of the four-day battlefield archaeology conference, held this year at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, followed conference co-chairman and museum archaeologist David Naumec up the narrow spiral staircase inside the Groton Monument. The monument, located at the Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park, is the oldest obelisk in the country that visitors can enter.

It wasn't Naumec's first time at the state park, but almost all of the guests were first-time visitors to the site, a mix of hobbyists and academics coming from around the U.S. as well as Germany, Lithuania and China. It was, however, Naumec's first time inside the obelisk that sits high over the battlefield, and he was excited to begin his tour there.

"I've always wanted to give this kind of tour," he said once everyone made it to the tiny observation room at the top. "When I look at this area, I just think of the different layers of history."

As he recalled the stories of the Pequot War and the Battle of Groton Heights, the attendees peered out the four windows and took pictures of the fort below, Fort Trumbull across the Thames River and other sights he pointed out.

These layers of history have proved to be both a blessing and a curse. Naumec said archaeological investigations in the area could uncover materials from several different conflicts, including the Pequot War, the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812.

A few attendees asked about different tools historical groups could use to investigate the sites. He said access to many historic properties and homes near these sites is often limited because they are privately owned. A future grant proposal to the American Battlefield Protection Program, which also supported this year's conference, may help launch a neighborhood investigation.

At Fort Griswold, the site of the Battle of Groton Heights in 1781, even a metal detection scan would be complicated by the bottle caps and other metal debris left behind by decades of residents enjoying the summer Sailfest fireworks from the park's grounds.

But as the group explored the fort, standing on the observation deck and making their way through the sally port to the lower fort, Naumec said the variety was also one of the reasons why southeastern Connecticut was such a good location for the conference, which featured about 95 presenters and about 200 attendees from around the world.

"You've got the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, Indian wars, all of this American history is right here, represented right in the valley," he said.

a.hutchinson@theday.com