Dolmen Doldrums

Heavy timbers and thick nails currently support Cannon Rock, in Lynn, Massachusetts, with a poured cement-bentonite mixture inside plastic restraints holding its three foundation stones. These drastic precautions were taken after a commissioned safety report by a well-known construction management firm, several neighborhood meetings, and a compromise agreed upon by a developer, nearby residents, and the local ward councilor. Why all this attention given to a rock?

Cannon Rock is located on city-owned property near the Peabody border and thought by some amateur archaeology enthusiasts to be related to Europe’s megalithic dolmens. However, nearly all professional geologists and archaeologists regard Cannon Rock as a glacial erratic (or perched rock) resulting from our last Ice Age and the retreat of the Laurentide glacier, c. 10,000 BCE. Because of blasting to make way for new homes in the area, it was thought the massive sixty-five ton capstone could slip from its foundation and tumble into one or more nearby homes. The structure deserves preservation because of its local, geological significance, though its classification is sometimes debated. However, who’s doing the debating and why? The answers are just as provocative as Cannon Rock itself.

Despite published claims which attribute the name to some Revolutionary War incident in which the structure was mistaken for a cannon, no such account survives in any of the histories of Lynn. Diane Shephard, the archivist/librarian of the Lynn Museum (formerly The Lynn Historical Society), suspects the name came about after 1924, when home development began in the area and a fanciful association was made to compliment New England’s colorful Colonial history. “It’s really no surprise,” Ms. Shephard remarks, “as before that time Cannon Rock was known as Phaeton Rock, and the locals probably didn’t know who Phaeton was, or how the rock got the name.”

Founded on Nov. 27, 1850, Lynn’s “Exploring Circle” was a group of hard working, local men who were interested in science, art, and literature, with natural science being their main focus. Aside from addressing the occasional incredible story (it took them several months to determine live toads had not been found within solid stone), the members made serious studies of the local area and brought in such professionals as they could. Thoreau visited once (his journal for April 26, 1859 mentions a walk to Dungeon Rock in the rain with C. M. Tracy), as his activities at Walden Pond somewhat paralleled the group’s interests. All of the original trustees of the subsequent “Lynn Free Public Forest,” an organization instrumental in preserving Lynn Woods, belonged to the “Exploring Circle.”

The “Exploring Circle” documented many noteworthy stones in the Lynn area, as several members were mechanics by profession and their drawings and descriptions remain impressive. Penned on a single sheet of thick, blue stationary, dated June 20, 1856, and currently in the possession of the Lynn Museum, is an announcement entitled “Excursion to Nunnery Pasture,” by Joseph Mason Rowell. It reads:

“Wishing to know more of the region between the Sluice and Browns Ponds, I visited it sometime since and results of my observations will be given to the circle at some future time. At present I will simply speak of a curious boulder which I discovered on the second range of the hills north of this locality. The boulder above mentioned rests on an outcrop of granite on the side of the hill, which forms a precipice some twenty feet in height over which the boulder projects several feet. It is raised from the ledge by four small boulders, and taken as a whole, presents a rude outline of an ancient chariot. I have taken the liberty to name it Phaeton rock, and consider it the most curious of all natures objects of interest in our vicinity. [signed] Jos. M. Rowell”

‘Phaeton’ refers to a lightweight, four-wheeled carriage popularized by the French and named after the Greek myth of Helios, the Sun-god, who used a magical chariot when he took the sun across the sky. Phaeton was Helios’ reckless son who borrowed the chariot and caused much grief, as he drove too close to Earth, setting the ground afire.

Rowell deserves credit for being the first on record to mention the stone structure, his vivid imagination and choice of names, but fails when he lists “four small boulders,” as there are only three.

[Note: I've learned that Joseph Henry, a 19th century scientist and the first director of the Smithsonian Institution, made a visit to Phaeton Rock in 1859. Secretary Henry wrote in a letter dated August 18: “It came from Canada and lodged in its present elevated position during what is called the drift period and was probably transported through the agency of ice (to be published in volume 10 of The Papers of Joseph Henry).” This early ease with gradualism instead of catastrophism or some other equally fantastic explanation would seem to indicate the Smithsonian got off to a good choice with its selection of Henry.]

A brief note survives from early April, 1866 (Exploring Minutes, Vol. 3, 1861-1867, p. 210) which reads:

“Mr. Tracy announced that the Committee of the Essex Institute would meet that of the Circle at Phaeton Rock on Saturday next at 2.P.m. to examine & consult on means for its preservation.”

Apparently the group was concerned with the survival of the structure and contacted the renowned Essex Institute in Salem.

The results of the meeting were published in the Proceedings Of The Essex Institute, Vol. V., 1866-7 (Salem, MA: Essex Institute Press, 1866-8). Under Monday, April 16, 1866 may be found the following:

“The Secretary made the following statement.
In the month of August, 1859, the Institute received a communication, from the “Exploring Circle” of Lynn, calling attention to the discovery by them, of a very remarkable erratic rock in Lynn Woods, the peculiar character and position of which rendered it exceedingly interesting to science, while it was very liable to injury from mischievous hands. The coöperation of the Institute was therefor solicited in the effort to give some adequate protection to a work of nature so full of curious interest. A committee of consultation was accordingly appointed; but various circumstances conspired to hinder the accomplishment of any thing for a long time. Recently, however, the subject appearing to deserve a full examination, arrangements with the Exploring Circle were entered anew, and on Saturday, April 7th, Messrs. H. Wheatland, F. W. Putnam, Caleb Cook and Benjamin Pickman, met by appointment, Messrs. J. M. Rowell, C. M. Tracy and J. C. Moulton, committee of the Circle, and proceeded to examine the rock in question, It [sic] was found to be, indeed, an object of great singularity, and eminently worthy to enjoy the lively attention of those pursuing geological study, particularly that of the drift period, whose relics and monuments lie so thickly scattered around us. Among the multitude of bowlders [sic] and erratics of all kinds and dimensions that spread over our hills and valleys, including the remarkable “Ship Rock,” now the property of the Institute, we have never examined one that presented such curious and striking features as this; and it is highly advisable that all proper action should be taken by this Society at once, to secure “Phaeton Rock,” as it has been named, for the property of the Essex institute, and thus prevent its destruction, either by the hand of wantonness, or the more innocent, but equally injurious work of the quarryman. A paper upon the subject has been received by the institute from C. M. Tracy.

After some remarks by Mr. Putnam on the subject of bowlders [sic] and the drift, the matter was referred to a committee, consisting of Messrs. C. M. Tracy, Benjamin Pickman and Henry Wheatland, to take such action on behalf of the Institute, as they deem advisable.”

As the property containing Phaeton Rock never passed to the Essex Institute and nothing more is mentioned in the Institute records concerning the stone structure, it may be safe to assume …everyone had more important things to do. A shame, actually…

Though Lynn contains many interesting stones, Dungeon Rock with its associated tales of pirates and treasure, and such fanciful effigy stones as Turtle Rock and Eagle Rock which some (incorrectly) attribute to the Native Americans, Phaeton (Cannon) Rock was looked upon as a geological curiosity, and nothing more. And so it remained until the 1930s when the suggestion was made that certain structures looked like the work of Celts, perhaps built by ancient Irish explorers or Druids. Yes, Druids in New England!

Theories of Norse incursions into New England were popular among antiquarians in the 19th century. Carl Christian Rafn, a Danish scholar, looked at drawings of Dighton Rock, located on the Taunton River in southeastern Massachusetts, and believed he discerned runic writing (Antiquitates Americanae, Copenhagen, 1837). Rafn also identifying the Newport Tower in Rhode Island as a Viking-era church.

Prof. Eben Horsford (chemistry, Harvard), the inventor of baking powder, believed Leif Erikson sailed up the Charles River and that the “Norumbega” of 16th century cartography is the area where Newton, Waltham, and Weston meet. Horsford paid for a statue of Leif to be erected on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall at Charlesgate East in Boston in 1887, by famed sculptress, Anne Whitney, so his conception of “history” would be honored and not forgotten.

The World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 featured the ‘Viking’, a reconstruction of an ancient Norse ship, which sailed from Norway, past New York, and into Chicago, implying the Vikings could have accomplished a similar feat. Shortly thereafter, the 1898 discovery of the so-called “Kensington Rune Stone” in Minnesota instigated fierce debate about its authenticity; a situation that continues to this day.

Around the turn of the last century, some Scandinavian Americans celebrated their culture by forming institutions and publishing lavish editions of Norse epics. Accounts of voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and beyond, were described in the extravagant, gilt-edged volumes produced by The Norroena Society. Contained in those sagas were explicit mentions wherever the Norse traveled, that the Irish had proceeded them, as in “Hvitramannaland,” or “Land of the White Men,” and “Irland ed mikla,” or “Greater Ireland. Subsequently a movement began in New England, probably influenced by the allegorical maritime adventures of the medieval Irish monk, St. Brendan, which attempted to give credit to the ancient Irish for every odd stone structure around.

Colonial-era root-cellars became the meditation chambers of Irish Culdee monks, the ruins of an old homestead in North Salem, New Hampshire were regarded as “America’s Stonehenge,” and Phaeton Rock achieved celebrity status as one of the finest examples of a ‘dolmen’ (from a Breton term meaning “table”) on this side of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, such speculation is fatally flawed, …as the Irish/Celts did not construct Stonehenge, dolmens, or anything belonging to the Megalith Culture (c. 6000-2000 BCE) in Europe.

In the early 1970s archaeologists and prehistorians began to combine dendrochronology (counting tree-rings) with radiocarbon testing. As a result of this new method, the dates of the Megalith Builders in Europe were pushed back from c.1000-500 BCE to several millennia BCE. Clearly, such stone structures in Europe predate the arrival of the Celts and their Druid-priests. Yet, for many years the popular press mentioned the Irish in connection with a possible explanation of various New England stone structures.

The Irish in New England before Columbus? Of course such a thing is not entirely out of the realm of possibility, it’s just …there’s no credible evidence to suggest it happened.

Harvard University and its various faculty members have contributed much to the debate over Old World visitors to the New World before Columbus (an argument/model often termed diffusionism, or hyper-diffusionism, though “Pre-Columbian inter-societal contact” works just as well). The theories and efforts of Horsford, his claims of the Norse sailing in the “dirty water” of the Charles River, were tolerated by Harvard, as he had retired from his teaching position some years previously. He gave many public lectures about conjectural Norse visits to New England, such as one to the American Geographical Society at a special meeting held in Watertown in 1889, but Harvard never officially rebutted his claims.

Stone structure in Hopkington, MA; © 2000 RDF.
Replica built in the early 1940s by Henry Cheney
(who introduced Malcolm Pearson to William Goodwin),
of a structure on the nearby Navez property.
The original collapsed in the winter of 1958.

While announcements of ancient Norse finds were being made in the early 1930s, such as an ax in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and rune-stones in Maine, Malcolm Pearson had uncovered a wonderful chamber built of rocks on his family’s property in Upton, MA. A second, though much smaller, structure was located on the property of Prof. Albert E. Navez (botany, Harvard), in nearby Hopkington. These stone structures were thought to be of Irish origin and served as the initial inspiration to investigate other areas of New England. When Malcolm Pearson introduced William B. Goodwin, an antiquarian from Hartford, CT, to the abandoned Patee homestead in N. Salem, New Hampshire, both believed they had located an archaeological find of tremendous importance that would rewrite American prehistory. The stage was set for confrontation and Harvard was ready at last.

Reacting to private correspondence from Goodwin concerning Columbus and the possibility of Vikings in New England, Samuel Elliot Morison (history, Harvard), formulated his “no explorers before Columbus” position. In 1938, Goodwin sent Morison, founder and editor of the journal, The New England Quarterly, an article which made a case for the N. Salem site as being Irish in origin. Morison then sent the article to Hugh O’Neill Henken (archaeology, Harvard), who contacted Goodwin and arranged to visit and critically examine the site. Goodwin must have hoped for a conformation and not a challenge to his Irish hypothesis, yet what happened next set the standard for relations between professionals and amateurs with fantastic ideas. Things got ugly with ad hominem attacks and such exchanges remain all too common today.

Goodwin’s article was rejected for publication. Instead Henken published “The ‘Irish Monastery’ at North Salem, New Hampshire” in the September, 1939 issue of The New England Quarterly, which dismissed Goodwin’s claims and put forth the theory the structures date from between 1826 and 1848 (though allowing for a somewhat earlier nucleus).

1941 saw the publication of The Truth About Leif Ericsson And The Greenland Voyages To New England (Boston: Meador Press) which claimed a Viking landing in Portsmouth Harbor, NH. In 1942 Morison published his Admiral Of The Ocean Sea: A Life Of Christopher Columbus (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co.), which won the Pulitzer Prize for history the following year. Goodwin’s The Ruins Of Great Ireland In New England (Boston: Meador Press, 1946) is regarded as highly collectable, includes invaluable photographs of various stone structures in New England (taken by Malcolm Pearson), and …contains the most unabashed, purulent attack by an amateur against a professional ever to stain the printed page. Goodwin couldn’t even bring himself to name Morison, but rather calls him “Young Columbus.”

Fantastic ideas often gain popular acceptance when noted authorities weigh in. Such was the case with Worlds In Collision (New York: MacMillian, 1950), by Immanuel Velikovsky, who was on friendly terms with Albert Einstein. Einstein apparently supported the unconventional out of principle, but personally dismissed Velikovsky’s ideas as a “wilde Phantasie.” His endorsement of Velikovsky, though qualified, …helped sell copy.

The skinny is as follows: Velikovsky signed a contract with Macmillan Press (an international publisher of textbooks and academic publications) in 1946, shortly before Worlds In Collision was released in 1950, Harper’s Magazine ran two articles condensed from the book which attracted a great deal of public interest, Prof. Harlow Shapley (astronomy, Harvard) contacted Macmillan and criticized the publisher, the book was formally released, and after other outcries from the scientific community, Macmillan sold the rights to Doubleday Books, whose edition is often (though erroneously) regarded as first. Science fought back against silliness, but the achieved victory was limited and nonbinding to further speculation.

Erich von Däniken’s Chariot Of The Gods? (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1968), as well as his In Search Of Ancient Astronauts, Parts 1 & 2 (narrated by Rod Sterling, 1975, 52 minutes each part, color, Xerox Films), were immensely popular and financially successful, but unfortunately even less scientific than Velikovsky’s work. Though roundly criticized for the absurdity of promoting extraterrestrial visits in Earth’s past, …the ‘idea’ our science, history, and knowledge of ourselves is somehow incomplete and therefore wrong, greatly influences and inspires a certain readership. The readership of pseudoscientific works apparently could care less that science and other disciplines allow for error, revise models based on new data, and admit levels of incompleteness (as, say, in the archaeological record).

Much of such speculation appears to derive from and consist of issues of poor self-image, a negative world-view, and a stance against the consensual. Finding the door of ‘authority’ open just a crack, many believe they can force the door open wide enough to allow their personal agendas to pass. An accessible investigation of such disturbing convictions may be found in Cult Archaeology And Creationism: Understanding Pseudoscientific Beliefs About The Past, ed. by F. B. Harrold and R. A. Eve (Iowa: U. of Iowa Press, 1995).

In 1976 Prof. Howard Barraclough Fell (marine biology, Harvard) stepped forward with speculation about pre-Columbian American history and gained international renown, a dedicated following, and …perhaps the harshest of all possible criticisms from the scientific community. “Barry” Fell published his America B.C.: Ancient Settlers In The New World (New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co., 1976), which was reviewed by Glyn Daniels, editor of the journal, Antiquity (“Review of AMERICA BC and THEY CAME BEFORE COLUMBUS,” New York Times Book Reviews, March 13, 1977, p. 14), who called Fell’s work: “ignorant rubbish…” Ouch!

The works of Fell have been partially criticized elsewhere and need not be addressed here. [Note: See, Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side Of American Prehistory, by Stephen Williams, Philadelphia: U. of Penn. Press, 1991, Frauds, Myths, And Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience In Archaeology, by Kenneth L. Feder, 3rd edition, California: Mayfield Publishing, 1998, and “Proto-Tifinagh and Proto-Ogham in the Americas: Review of Fell; Fell and Farley; Fell and Reinert; Johannessen, et al; McGlone and Leonard; Totten,” by David H. Kelley, The Review Of Archaeology, Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring 1990.] Whether correct or not, what Fell claimed is, however, important in understanding the popularity of Phaeton/Cannon Rock.

With America B.C. Fell claimed diverse Old World peoples (Basque, Celts, Iberians, Libyans, Egyptians, etc.) sailed to the New World in ancient times and left behind evidence of their presence in the form of inscriptions and certain stone structures. While the epigraphic evidence (alleged “inscriptions”) are attributed to many different cultures using various scripts and are drawn from across North and South America, the majority of the stone structures cited in America B.C. are located in New England and are said by Fell to be Celtic (or Irish) in origin and design. This may seem to be a recycled argument of Goodwin’s from the 30s and 40s, but Fell goes much farther afield.

“There is clear evidence that some of the megalithic monuments of Europe are indeed very ancient, antedating the Celts, though the Celts chose to use them, as indeed the Romans did sometimes. But that does not mean that all such megalithic monuments antedate the Celts, or that the Celt was so helpless as to be unable to build a building should he require one. Now we can take a look at the chief classes of megalithic monument, and the names appropriate to each

Best known on account of their bizarre appearance are the dolmens, a Breton word meaning stone table. Other names are used in Ireland, but these are not sufficiently well known to detain us. A dolmen is a memorial to a chief or to some event of importance, and takes the form of a huge central boulder, sometimes ten tons or more in weight, supported on three, or four, or five vertical stones like pegs. Good examples are to be seen at Bartlett, New Hampshire, and North Salem, Massachusetts. [sic] Other examples occur in Maine and at Westport, Massachusetts, the latter of relatively small proportions.” [America B.C., pp. 129 and 131.]

If one overlooks the proper location of North Salem (New York was meant), Fell’s identification of certain New World stone structures as “dolmens” is problematic and lacks substantive demonstration. He says it’s so and his readers are expected to believe him. Proof? Counter-arguments? No; Fell decided not to be conventional and propose models, cite pertinent contemporary publications, argue from data interpreted and results produced, allow for alternative interpretations, or any of the other common methodological procedures usually associated with a scientific investigation. And, as a retired Harvard professor with many published academic articles to his credit, …he knew better. This is the prevailing complaint that will never go away.

Goodwin, in his The Ruins Of Great Ireland In New England, drew attention to the New England corbelled chambers he claimed were built by Irish Culdee monks, c. 500-850 CE, and interpreted the stone structures in Upton and Hopkington as New World examples of these ancient monastic huts. Though buried mid-book, a lone qualifier holds:

"One cannot, however, deny the very apparent hold-over of the pagan past into that first and early present of Irish Christianity. At the same time history, traditional or factual, is not at all satisfactory until we have more information along certain lines. Anything, indeed everything, we have written must be taken as a suggestive answer, not a solution. 'Ea discamus in terris quorum scientia perseveret in coelis,' which paraphrased means 'Let have the truth!'”

Before the use of dendrochronology to recalibrate radiocarbon dating, it was believed megalithic structures (as well as communities, such as Skara Brae, Orkneys, Scotland) were somewhat recent and nearer in time to Celtic migrations into the islands, c. 750-450 BCE. We now understand the Megalith Culture as existing deep into Neolithic times and date their structures between 6000 and 2000 BCE, well before the arrival of the Celts and any social/ethnic emergence of what is today regarded as the ‘Irish’. There’s simply too much time between the megaliths and the Irish to make a valid connection.

However Goodwin rejected professional assessments that the Upton and Hopkington structures were Colonial root-cellars. Instead he likened the structures to similar beehive constructs as the Tomb of Nestor in Greece and stone houses in the Sinai Desert, he could have easily made a comparison with the medieval trulli in Alberobello, Apulia, Italy. So, why the ancient Irish in pre-Columbian America instead of the Italians?

As mentioned above, Norse records include an Irish presence in the North Sea and the legend of St. Brendan have combined quixotically to suggest in the minds of certain individuals a history apart from the one taught in our schools. An entry under “St. Brendan” in The Catholic Encyclopedia (1905-1912, Robert Appleton/The Encyclopedia Press, unsigned, with a recent update at www.newadvent.org) reads:

"It is therefor, perhaps possible that the legends (of St. Brendan), current in the ninth and committed to writing in the eleventh century, have for foundation an actual sea-voyage the destination of which cannot be determined. These adventures were called the “Navigatio Brendani,” the Voyage or Wandering of St. Brendan, but there is no historical proof of this journey."

Early in his career, the historian Geoffrey Ashe investigated the legend of St. Brendan in his Land To The West: A Search For Irish And Other Pre-Viking Discoveries Of America (New York: Viking Press, 1962), and concludes:

"As to the question of St. Brendan himself, and the Irish generally before the Norse advent among them, I have sadly admitted the obligation to give up my early opinion, or rather hope, and concede that it is no use hunting for the Kerry missionary in Mexico. The hypothesis of a crossing by Brendan or his contemporaries is in any case not helpful in solving the problems as defined. If someone cares to suppose that his written legend was a long-delayed outcome of geographical researches by him, so that he discovered America (as it were) on paper, there is no cogent reason to object. It has emerged as more likely, however, that the legend is a gigantic distension of an actual sea-pilgrimage of his in the Hebrides." [Pp.285-286.]

The dramatic find of a Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in Labrador demonstrates a presence at least that far south, but no evidence has come forward to prove a visit to New England by either the ancient Norse or the Irish. Well, no generally accepted evidence that is; Barry Fell believed otherwise.

In his Saga America (New York: Times/Quadrangle, 1980) Fell publishes a list of words he suggests are Celtic in origin and are now found in the Native American ‘Takhelne’ language of British Columbia. Also, he includes a drawing (p. 201) and a photograph (p. 202) of Phaeton/Cannon Rock in Lynn, referred to in captions as a “dolmen.” No mention occurs in the body of the text itself.

Bronze Age America (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1982), Fell’s last book before his 1994 passing, likewise argues for a pre-Columbian presence of the Irish in the New World, but here he not only publishes a photograph of the Lynn “dolmen,” but refers to it explicitly:

"The largest of the dolmens utilize natural boulders, sometimes weighing up to 90 tons, supported precariously, so it would seem, on the underlying peg stones, yet their duration through 4,000 years shows their builders to have had a fine sense of stable construction. An example is depicted in Figure 2-10, from Ireland, and another in Trelleborg, Sweden, is shown in Figure 2-11. Corresponding examples from North America are illustrated in Figures 2-12 to 2-16. Figure 2-12 shows the dolmen at Lynn, Massachusetts, locally known as Cannon Stone. Figure 2-13 is an example from near Lake Lujenda, northern Minnesota, discovered recently by David Harvey, and the first to be reported from that state. The other examples are from Bartlett, New Hampshire (Figure 2-14), and North Salem, New York (Figures 2-15, 2-16).

I find it difficult to distinguish the North American examples from the European ones and believe that both sets were produced by ancient builders who shared a common culture. When the evidence of inscriptions is taken into account, as in later chapters of this book, the relationship of the American examples to those of northern Europe becomes undeniable." [P. 63, with photograph on p.66; the above references to “Figures” are for Fell’s Bronze Age America and not this article.]

Aside from the possibility of prior mentions in newsletters or amateur publications, the two brief mentions by Fell are the first occurrences of an identification of Phaeton/Cannon Rock as a “dolmen.”

Is Fell correct? Who can say with surety? What one may offer is the observation Fell didn’t check his facts (i.e., his usage of “Cannon Stone,” an expression not found elsewhere). He forsook and abandoned academic convention (i.e., methodology and models) to propose an “undeniable” association between New World glacial erratics and Old World dolmens. It works in the popular press, but doesn’t cut it in academia. Fell knew it, but he was too eager and overwhelmed with the possibility of a new historical paradigm to appropriately argue his case.

Lynn residents, Fell’s general readership, tourists stopping by to check out a possible “dolmen” in the New World, all shared in Fell’s excitement over Phaeton/Cannon Rock. It must be stressed that science demands more than a simple identification. Over the years certain Fell-supporters have chanted: “No one has proven the claims wrong!” That’s not how it works… It begins with someone initially demonstrating something is possible, then critics are encouraged to respond. Fell didn’t prove Phaeton/Cannon Rock was a dolmen; he just said it …and moved on.

Taylor Armerding, wrote recently (“Let’s not lose a sense of place,” North Shore Sunday, March 16, 1997, p. 4):

"James P. Whittall III of Rowley, in an article reprinted in a number of publications, notes that the three supporting stones are set at a 75-60-45 degree triangle. 'This dolmen seems to have been erected with mathematical precision,' he says, adding that it is 'extremely difficult to consider this monument a glacial erratic.'

He adds that there is no way to determine how old it is, but notes that if it were found in Western Europe, it would be assumed to be thousands of years old, and to come from the Megalith Culture.

He says a better term for such things are 'pedestal rocks,' noting that they don’t appear to be burial markers, but could have some ceremonial meaning, or be there to guide travelers.

He knows 'official' historians like Simon [Note: Simon refers to Massachusetts State Archaeologist Brona Simon. RDF] consider him and others who believe such pedestals were put there by design, not accident, to be 'part of the lunatic fringe.'

'But I have no respect for her either,' he says. 'She thinks nobody can know more than she does. It’s called ego. But she doesn’t know anything about lithic stone work.'

So what’s the point of carrying on about Phaeton Rock? It’s been sitting right where it sits now for thousands of years, and doesn’t appear to be in any danger of being toppled anytime soon."

I strongly suspect such published ambiguity and conflict between a local expert and a state official greatly contributes to how Lynn residents regard Phaeton/Cannon Rock. By the way, one might be able to date Phaeton/Cannon Rock by lifting the capstone, scraping between the stones, and convincing paleobotanists to perform a pollen analysis. However, science generally dislikes breaking something to find out how it works…

From its discovery in 1856 by Rowell, of Lynn’s Explorers Circle, and its subsequent description as an “erratic” by the Essex Institute, Phaeton/Cannon Rock has remained a remnant of the Laurentide Glacier which departed from New England some 10,000 years ago. Claims by Goodwin, Fell, and others, of ancient Irish construction (or some vague association with the Old World Megalith Builders) fail because they are unsupported. Saying so, does not make it so, and a dozen, a hundred, or a thousand maybes, will never equal a single fact.

The residents of Phaeton Rock Road have privately paid for a couple of extra street-signs marked “The Irish Way., though they were taken down several weeks ago. I’m sure most of them were/are proud and excited to be associated with a forced controversy and one that could possibly affect American prehistory. However, the odds of such a thing? Dear me!

Prof. Stephen Williams (archaeology, Harvard), at the end of a chapter on Fell (“Tales the Rude Monuments Tell,” Fantastic Archaeology, Philadelphia: U. of Penn. Press, 1991, p. 285), writes:

"You may ask how dare you judge? I can only reply: if one forswears the admittedly heavy burden of making critical evaluations and speaking them, one must also, I believe, give up the painstaking pursuit of knowledge and the happy, but seemingly endless, pursuit of truth. I haven’t." [Note: For a balanced reply to Williams, see: “Epigraphy and Other Fantasies: Review of Williams,” by David H. Kelley, The Review Of Archaeology, Vol. 15, No. 2, Fall 1994.]

Truth, as we all know, whether in the classroom or elsewhere, is consensual and agreed upon. The majority agrees Phaeton/Cannon Rock is not a dolmen. This is a current “truth,” and though it may be exciting, romantic, or challenging to claim it is otherwise, …the structure remains a perched rock from the Ice Age.

Just north of Lynn, in the fishing community of Gloucester, is a park surrounding the one-time home of Fitz Hugh Lane (1804-1865), an artist of extraordinary talent and who inspired the Luminist tradition. Lane’s home, sold after his death and used as the city jail, was restored in the 1960s with a statue of Lane, as well as interesting rocks for decorative effect and functional usage, erected to honor this great Gloucester artist. Those interesting rocks of functional usage? Dolmens… Benches or tables, it doesn’t matter; the designers choose a design to both serve and satisfy the tourists. Dolmens in Gloucester? Sure, why not?

The developer who encased Phaeton/Cannon Rock promises it will be restored in four or five years, or less. It is believed the cement-bentonite mixture can be safely sandblasted away without disturbing the structure. We look forward to this time, in a doldrum of inactivity, as nothing further may be done until the structure is restored. And then? Well, there’s always a theme-park!

For the second time, my name has been attached to an article about Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact with the Americas which contained inaccuracies about Phaeton Rock. The first (“Written In Stone," by Bill Strubbe and Rick Flavin; Historic Traveler, February 1999; pp. 30-35) inspired the above work and the second, “Goodbye Columbus” by Barbara Taormina ; North Shore Sunday; Oct. 9, 2005; pp. 1, 4 & 5), which ends with “North Shore-based freelance writer Richard Flavin contributed to this story,” is ...yet another example of the difference between lazy popular writing and sincere effort. I apologize and promise to try and pick better co-workers.

The portion of the article which concerns Phaeton Rock follows; my comments are in bold.
---
Were the Irish in Lynn?

     In 1976, when the United States was in a bicentennial mood, Barry Fell, a retired marine biologist who had a distinguished career at Harvard, wrote a booked [sic] called "America B.C." [Fell taught at Harvard from 1964-1979; he was three years away from retirement when America B.C. was released.] Fell's hobby was ancient languages and he spent much of his free time studying rock structures and carvings in stone.
     Fell was convinced that many rocks in and around New England had marks that were ancient inscriptions left by Irish explorers who had landed in America somewhere around 1500 B.C. In his book he lays out the case that the Irish beat Columbus to America by about 3,000 years. [New England stone structures and anomalies which some claim resemble Europe's megalithic monuments and Fell's confusion of the dates and ethnicity of the so-called megalith builders and the ancient Celts are one problem and Fell's claims of identifying ancient inscriptions are another. Examples of straight lines on New England were believed by Fell to date from the 4th to 6th centuries of the Common Era. Rocks and rocks with marks--two different problems.]
     Fell continued that claim in two other books, and part of his evidence was a North Shore rock formation that would get just about anyone's attention. In a small patch of woods near the Lynn-Peabody border sits a huge 65-ton triangular boulder that is carefully balanced on three smaller stones. A local group of 19th century amateur naturalists named the stones Phaeton Rock [Its modern discoverer, Joseph M. Rowell, named the anomalous rock structure, not the group he belonged to.], because it resembled a chariot like the one the Greek mythological character, Phaeton, rode a little too close to the sun. [Phaeton stole the chariot Helios used to drag the Sun across the sky, went for a joyride and rode too close to the Earth, allegedly burning the skins of the ancient Ethiopians.]
     But when Fell learned of Phaeton Rock, he immediately compared it to ancient monolithic [Mega is "large" and mono is "one" or "single," megalithic was meant.] monuments called dolmans [sic] that he believed were built by the Druids. According to Fell, dolmans [sic] were often erected to honor dead chieftains or leaders.
     "I find it difficult to distinguish the North American examples from the European ones and believe that both sets were produced by ancient builders who shared a common culture," writes Fell. "When the evidence of inscriptions is taken into account ... the relationship of the American examples to those of northern Europe becomes undeniable."
     The idea was a great kiss-me-I'm-Irish-pride moment in a year when multiculturalism was just starting to take hold. One of the residents in a nearby home even put up a sign that nicknamed his street the Irish Way. [Actually, it was a few residents and a couple of signs...] And people in the neighborhood still remember when Laurie Cabot, Salem's famous modern-day witch, pulled up in a limo to check out any magical Druid spirits at the rock.
     But serious historians and archaeologists ridiculed Fell's theory and his lack of evidence. Kinder critics called Fell's claims fantastic history. Others, like a writer for the New York Times Book Review, had less patience and called "America B.C." "bulls-t archaeology." [The "writer" was Prof. Glyn Daniel, Disney Professor of Archaeology at the university of Cambridge and the editor of Antiquity, the most prestigious journal in archaeology since the 1920s. Also, "bullshit archaeology" was not used in his review, but elsewhere and used to group Fell with several others.]
     Cooler heads believe Phaeton Rock is a glacial erratic, a random whim of nature left during the Ice Age. [Phaeton Rock was immediately identified as a glacial erratic by amateurs and professionals alike. More than 120 years passed before Fell claimed otherwise.] Robbie Dawe, who grew up in a home that's almost spitting distance from Phaeton Rock, says he used to pretended it was a fort when he was a kid. He's pretty sure the rock is a lucky accident compliments of the Ice Age and not an ancient Celtic sculpture.
     "The only people who ever really got excited about it were Laurie Cabot and her friends," says Dawe. "To us it was fascinating because it was a rock on three rocks."
     Could it possibly be evidence that ancient Irish mariners beat Columbus to the new world?
     Dawe says he has no clue, but if the story protects the woods at the end of his street from being developed, he's all for it.
---
      Ouch!

Another update will follow soon with a few important developments about when the supports will be removed from Phaeton Rock and its continued open access by the public. There's talk that the access land at the end of Phaeton Rock Road has been sold, a home will be built, and another developer is now responsible for removing the supports. More soon.

In memory of James P. Whittall, Jr. and David Barron. The stones of New England have lost two of their greatest admirers!

*The author would like to thank the Lynn Museum and the Phillips Library of the Peabody/Essex Museum for help in research and procuring photographs for this article. Also, conversations with Andre Navez and D. Buchanan greatly assisted this article. A version of this article was presented as "Phaeton Rock: Diffusion or Delusion?" at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Conference, October 11-14, 2001, Columbus, GA.