Fell and Egyptian
By Richard Flavin
Work Copy
By Richard Flavin
Work Copy
Abstract
The aim of this article is to examine Fell’s claims of discernable ancient Egyptian and other North African languages and scripts in foreign petrogylphs, markings, writings and the like, and to show a pattern of poor scholarly standards, though arguing for a possible change of opinion which might have occurred had he lived longer.
Keywords
Barry Fell, Howard Barraclough Fell, Harvard, invertebrate zoology, epigraphy, Epigraphic Society, National Decipherment Center, diffusion, hyperdiffussionism, America B.C., pseudoscript, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Micmac, Mi’kmaq, Davenport, Calalus, Tucson artifacts, rouge professor, pseudoarchaeology, Stephen Williams, fantastic archaeology, amateur.
Part I.
The late Prof. Howard Barraclough "Barry" Fell (Harvard, Invertebrate Zoology) is often remembered in the media for his ability to read a hypothetical non-vowel version of the Irish oghamic alphabet found on New England field stones and his “ogham” being subsequently dismissed as “plough marks” by scholars (Reynolds & Ross 1978). But, Fell also made many varied claims regarding Egyptian hieroglyphs and their presence and influence far from North Africa and known contact countries.
Though born in England, Fell grew up, became an educator and passed more than half of his years in New Zealand, with periods in England for university and military service (Fell 1999; Fell 2001). The non-Western culture of the indigenous Maori made a lasting impression on him, as one of his earliest works was titled “The pictographic art of the ancient Maori of New Zealand (Fell 1941). A later article (Fell 1945), “Polynesian origins. An American View,” was a telling precursor to his 1972 Freshman Seminar program at Harvard which concerned "Polynesian history, art and tradition with special reference to the New Zealand Maori (Williams 1991; pp.270-271)." A textbook issued around that time, Introduction to Marine Biology (Fell 1975), contained a curious reference to a previously unknown claim of a hypothetical "Polynesian's epic voyage to America."
Images of the Reverend Richard Taylor (1805-1873) and drawing of rock art on Pitcairn Island (Taylor 1870; Fell 1975a).
After a rejection letter from the Royal Society of New Zealand with a suggestion to self-publish (Fell 1990), Prof. Fell established the Polynesian Epigraphic Society in 1974 (soon after changing its name to the Epigraphic Society and dropping “Polynesian”). His first article in the new amateur journal, The Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications (later, Papers), was “An Egyptian Shipwreck at Pitcairn Island” which purports to identify rock art from Java as an Egyptian inscription in a Libyan dialect (Fell 1975a). The process of Fell’s investigation, identification and decipherment began with his acquiring a copy of a century old book illustration (Taylor 1870) from a woman in Hawai'i. As an exemplary model of armchair scholarship, the majority of Fell’s inscriptions initially arrived at his desk in the form of sketches, casts, rubbings or photographs made by and mailed to him by others. Though none of his peers would likely question the identification of a new echinoderm, Fell’s area of expertise, the claim of the ancient Libyan script discovered on the other side of the planet from North Africa, in one of the remotest locations imaginable, would have been understandably dismissed by professional anthropologists as a continuation of late nineteenth and early twentieth century models of comparitive mythology (Tregear 1885; Tregear 1891) and cultural diffusion in which ancient Egypt influenced many distant societies (Smith 1911; Smith 1923). Though the claims of the Rev. Taylor (Church of England), Edward Robert Tregear, ISO and Prof. Grafton Elliot Smith (University of London, Anatomy) were dilettantish and heavily rebuked, because the individuals advanced their theories honestly and answered their critics openly and without being vindictive, their efforts were tolerated more than perhaps they should have been. A similar situation developed with Prof. Fell.
E. Tregear (1846-1931), The Aryan Maori (Tregear 1885); Sir G. Elliot Smith (1871-1937) and hyperdiffusion map (Smith 1923).
With the publication of America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World (Fell 1976), the soon-to-retire Harvard marine biologist achieved a readership not often acquired by traditional academics. Of course, America B.C. wasn’t an academic book. Rather, it was presented as a popular work which shared the excitement by Fell, amateur archaeology and history groups he’d encountered, and a steadily growing number of amateur epigraphers whose individual efforts all suggested proof of astounding ancient feats of high adventure and the finest kind of historical altruism. The claims were jaw-dropping and impossible, but ...successfully appealed to a public sense of “What if?” that sells a lot of books. Criticism was quick and ugly.
Prof. Glyn Daniel (Cambridge, Disney Chair of Archaeology) called Fell's claims "rubbish" in The New York Times Review of Books (Daniel 1977). Daniel had coined the term "hyper-diffusionism" in 1962 to describe earlier improbable models of cultural diffusion and had extensively investigated modern archaeological fakes and frauds. As editor of the prestigious journal, Antiquity, Prof. Daniel's views were highly regarded. Colleagues heeded Daniel’s advice to avoid Fell, but the public enjoyed America B.C. through several printings of different editions and also bought Fell’s two follow-up books, Saga America (Fell 1980) and Bronze-Age America (Fell 1982).
Fell's epigraphy trilogy; America B.C. (Ist and 3rd editions; 1976 & 1989), Saga America and Bronze Age America.
Fell began America B.C.’s Chapter 17, “The Egyptian Presence (Fell 1976; pp. 253-276)” with the hypothesis that the so-called Mi'kmaq hieroglyphs are "hieroglyphs" because of a conjectured ancient influence from either Egyptians or North Africans with knowledge of Egyptian. John Williams is given credit for much of the grunt work, though it's to Fell alone responsibility resides with the suggestion that trans-oceanic contact between the Old and New World occurred. The Mi'kmaq-Egyptian theory is based on the similarity of meanings described in old dictionaries from separate language families (Afro-Asiatic contra Algic or Algonquian-Wiyot-Yurok). Such lottery-style lexicography is common enough, though seldom exceptional.
Fell emerging from a "temple of the Eye of Bel" (Fell 1976; p. 153 & rear dust-jacket).
Prof. Fell enjoyed a smatter and “Gee Whiz!” sense of discovery. Amateurs, professionals and active lay-people alike may be intellectually excited with the prospect of revealing the hidden, restoring the lost, or otherwise contributing to a knowledge base. The study and recording of history (and its difficult younger sibling, prehistory) is an ongoing process and undergoes continual correction as further information becomes available. A multi-disciplinarian approach to history has emerged in recent decades which has engaged the work of scientists and professionals from many different areas of expertise – an easy example would be the sensational discovery of King Tut’s tomb, pushing the cobwebs off to the side and raising oil-lamps to view the marvelous treasures within, while an examination today would proceed no further than the entrance until paleobotanists were brought in to study any pollen remains on the cobwebs. History accepts help from all specialists and epigraphy has been a valuable resource in better understanding many important artifacts and historical events. Prof. Fell believed his Mi’kmaq work was important and had produced new paradigms for approaching New World societies and near-civilizations. Unfortunately, he was mistaken, though I'd argue he would've been open to self-correction concerning his conclusions had anyone bothered to present him with further information.
Fell reasoned that Egyptian hieroglyphs couldn’t have been a seventeenth or eighteenth century influence on the invention of the modern Mi’kmaq writing system because Egyptian hieroglyphs weren’t readable until the early nineteenth century. This approach is flawed and unsustainable. The anthropological model of stimulus diffusion helps to explain the emergence of Egyptian hieroglyphs inspired by Sumerian cuneiform, as the idea of writing reached North Africa from Mesopotamia c.3400-3200 BCE. The Egyptians didn't adopt or adapt the script or language of the Sumerians, only the idea of writing. Fell should have recognized that the “idea” of writing was and remains a powerful stimulus.
Over three millennia of writing Egyptian hieroglyphs ("sacred carvings") ended with an inscription on the Island of Philae in 394 CE, followed by Demotic graffiti dated to 452 CE, and finally concluded with the closing of the temple complex at Philae by Justinian in 550 CE. The ability to read Egyptian hieroglyphs was lost at about this time and it wasn’t until 1822 when Jean-François Champollion deciphered a cartouche for Rameses and exclaimed “Je tiens l'affaire!” (“I’ve got it!”) to his brother, that the ability was regained. It'd be incorrect to maintain that without the ability to read Egyptian hieroglyphs that the “sacred carvings” were without influence.
A Mi'kmaq web-site offers the following timeline for the modern emergence of their writing sytem:
In 1652, Father Gabriel Druillettes, a Jesuit missionary to the Abenaki, reports seeing the Mi'kmaq use ideograms to record lessons in the "Jesuit Relations" of that year:
"Some of them wrote out their lessons in their own manner. They made use of a small piece of charcoal instead of a pen, and a piece of bark instead of paper. Their characters are novel, and so individual that one could not know or understand the writing of the other; that is to say, that they made use of certain marks according to their own ideas as of a local memory to preserve the points and the articles and the maxims which they had remembered. They carried away this paper with them to study in the repose of the night."
In 1677 Father Chrétien Le Clercq, a Franciscan Récollet, made note in his journals of observing Mi'kmaq children taking notes using charcoal and birch bark as he was teaching them prayers. Seeing this as an opportunity for more effective teaching, Father Le Clercq, an accomplished linguist, learned the ideogrammatic system, and expanded it with Mi'kmaw-esque symbols to express Judeo-Christian concepts that had no representation in the Mi'kmaw symbology. In 1691 he published "Nouvelle relation de la Gaspésie" in Paris, wherein he discusses his development of this writing system:
"... our Lord inspired me with the idea of them the second year of my mission, when being much embarrassed as to the method by which I should teach the Indians to pray to God, I notice that some children were making marks with charcoal upon birch-bark, and were counting these with the finger very accurately at each word of prayers which they pronounced. This made me believe that by giving them some formulary, which would aid their memory by definite characters, I should advance much more quickly than by teaching them through the method of making them repeat a number of times that which I said to them. They preserve these instructive papers with so much care, and they have for them so particular an esteem, that they keep them very neatly in little cases of birch-bark bedecked with wampum, with beadwork, and with porcupine quills."
In 1738, l'Abbé
Pierre-Antoine-Simon Maillard (French Seminary of Foreign Missions)
also worked out the Mi'kmaw symbols, and published a grammar of the
language. It appears that his work was independent of Le Clercq's, and
Maillard devoted 8 years to the task. [From Mi'kmaq Spirit.]
The Apostles' Creed [No. 1] and The Lord's Prayer [No. 2] on birch bark in the Mi'kmaq - Récollet script (Thompson 1791).
Father Le Clercq (Leclercq) is credited with modifying a pre-contact communication system of the Mi’kmaq. The system was probably pictographic and ideographic with modifiers, though it remains unattested beyond the testimonials of the French missionaries and no actual examples are known to exist. Neither character design or period of usage may be advanced with any surety; the system could have been a local adaptation of the picture-writing of neighboring Native peoples or invented the day before the French missionaries arrived as another instance of stimulus diffusion with the Mi’kmaq being inspired by previous European explorers and trappers who could have carried books and examples of writing. [Note: Any pre-contact communications system of the Mi’kmaq would have been incorporated into rock art, both parietal and portable. The format of birch bark and charcoal shouldn’t be regarded as single-use as, like the Romans and their wax tablets, birch bark would have been washed clean and re-used. That no accepted examples of the pre-contact system exist, even in rock art, may indicate a somewhat recent invention.]
Well known
sixteenth century works about hieroglyphs (Bolzani 1556; Dee 1564;
Hoeschel 1595).
Various histories acknowledge
the gross pretentiousness of the fifth century grammarian, Horapollo,
whose work
approached Egyptian hieroglyphs as narrative symbols and not ideograms
with phonetic modifiers. As Fate will out, Horapollo’s work
survived when others didn’t, it was brought to Florence in 1422,
manuscript versions were privately circulated for many years
before
it was eventually published in Manuzio's important Aldine edition of Aesop in 1505 (Aesop et al 1505). It was
soon translated into Latin and became an immensely popular work in the
sixteenth century (Bolzani 1556).
Fr. Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) and two publications of Egyptian hieroglyphs (Kircher 1650; Kircher 1676).
Travelogues of the seventeenth century contain many
references to
Egypt (La Boullaye 1653).
Fr. Le Clercq was sent back to France briefly in 1680 when he could
have viewed or acquired a copy of the recently published Turris Babel by
Fr.
Athanasius Kircher (Collegio Romano [Jesuit], Professor of Mathematics)
which
reproduces
Egyptian hieroglyphs (Kircher
1679). Ceasing his missionary efforts and returning
permanently to France in 1686, Le Clercq began five years of writing,
more than enough time to become aware of the German Jesuit's other
publications on Egyptian
hieroglyphs (Kircher 1650; Kircher 1676). It’s not
unreasonable to conclude that the Mi’kmaq
- Récollet writing system is often
called “hieroglyphic” because Le Clercq was
familiar with the idea of Egyptian hieroglyphs as “sacred carvings”
and applied the term to reflect a holiness associated with the writing
of Catholic material in his new Native American orthography
(Le Clercq 1691).
The idea of hieroglyphs may well have been reenforced by
the enigmatic symbolism of Horapollo and/or direct knowledge of
character design from antiquities, medieval paintings, alchemical
writings or travelogues and guides. The influence of Egyptian
hieroglyphs has long exceeded the ability to understand the signs and
is understood to have prompted the rise of the Renaissance
emblems.
[Note: Fr. Kircher preceded
Fell in imaginative epigraphy and as the victim of epigraphic hoaxes;
for more click here.]
Page of the Mi'kmaq-Récollet script (Mi'kmaq-Récollet Date Unknown) and early article (Shea 1861). Click for larger images.
It’s troubling that Fell would bother to cite a call number from
Widener Library, praise the collections of Harvard College, but not mention a usage or awareness of
Harvard's Department
of Anthropology, the Peabody
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology or the Peabody
Museum Library. In 1974, when Prof. Fell should have
benefitted the most from its resources, the Peabody Museum Library was
reopened in a new building connected to the museum and renamed the Tozzer Library,
after its second librarian. The Tozzer Library has been referred
to as a “National” library (Weeks 1987) and
for Fell not to avail himself
of its
collection seems self-defeating and shoddy. Unless, that is,
Fell purposely avoided mention of Harvard’s archaeologists and
their
expertise.
In much the same way that America B.C.
wasn't released as an academic book, Fell’s argument for cultural
diffusion between the ancient Egyptians and the Mi’kmaq Nation
didn't need archaeology
because Fell’s
evidence was linguistic. Later, Fell would describe his theory as
dependent on “North African epigraphy” and claimed validation when
“North
African professors” stopped by his “epigraphic laboratory” at the "National Decipherment Center
(Fell 1979)." The
declared
position and main support for Fell’s approach to Mi’kmaq was expressed
and is still maint (ained by The Epigraphic Society
president,
Prof. Norman TottenBentley College, Emeritus
Professor of History); it’s about linguistics (Totten 1981).
Part
II.
The Davenport Tablets (Farquharson 1877a; pl.
I,II, III
& VII). Click for larger images.
Elephant effigy pipes from Iowa claimed
to be
ancient (Pratt 1880; p. 348 and XXXX xxxx; p. xxx).
The Reverend Mr. Jacob "John" Gass (1842-1924); 1868 Wartburg, 1882 Postville and in retirement.
Images of Oltingen, Switzerland in 1756 and 1762 [click for more] (Buckner 1762).
St. Nicolas Church in Oltingen with pre-Lutheran 14th century murals [click for more].
St. Sebald (Wartburg), IA c. 1868 and 1878 & 1879 maps.
Assisted by three young Wartburg seminarians, the Rev. Gass found human remains, stone and clay pipes, copper beads and axes, and other artifacts which were favorably written up in 1875 and 1876. On a cold January morning in 1877 (Farquharson 1877a; Gass 1877a), Pastor Gass conducted an emergency dig necessitated by the access rights to the mounds on the Cook property passing to a new tenant farmer (as A. W. Cook was concentrating on raising short horn cattle and Norman Percheron horses). This hurried investigation produced the engraved tablets which Fell would later claim to be able to read as North African writing. During later digs by Gass in 1878 and 1880 at the Cook property, with access rights reacquired, he uncovered another engraved tablet and a pipe in the shape of an elephant (an earlier pipe was "obtained" by Gass in 1878: see Pratt 1880; p. 348). [Note: Brief mentions of five other tablets discovered by Gass are not usually discussed, as they were never described and apparently bore no relationship to previous discoveries (Peet 1886; p. 56). It could be, as three of the “tablets” were too heavy to transport, that the terminology used was incorrect due to the inability of Gass to write English.]
1875 Charles City, IA with visable mounds and 1875 map with Charles City, IA.
Getting the first name of the discoverer and the number of helpers wrong, as well as Prof. Fell's incorrect date of discovery for the engraved tablets and elephant pipes as 1874, when 1877, 1878 and 1880 were solidly established in published accounts, doesn't require the postulation of nefarious intent, but rather indicates a pattern of sloppy scholarship. Fell was excited by his linguistic "evidence" and allowed his previous academic standard of professionalism to diminish. A guess would have Prof. Fell being unfamilar with accepted styles of religious address and perceived "Rev. Mr. Gass (Farquharson 1877a; p. 107 & Peet 1886; p. 46)" as "Mr." being short for a hypothetical first or given name (e.g. Jos. for Joseph). Or, perhaps, the "r" was dropped in a type-setting error, and remained uncorrected as of the 1989 third and final authorized edition of America B.C. Or, guessing again, Fell may have read the obituary of M. T. Gass, a former superintendent of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home (Daily Times, Scott Co., IA; Aug. 16, 1900) and confused the names. Some irrelevancies should be reserved for an exceptionally rainy day.
A current photograph of the Cook Farm and a copper axe-head found in 1874.
Strawberry Point (St. Sebald) to Davenport to Charles City, IA.
The bad press took its toll. Gass moved from Davenport to Postville, IA in 1882, became pastor of an existing congregation (German Lutheran Church of Postville; 1882-1894), was involved with the building of a new church and delivered its cornerstone dedication address in August of 1890 (it was renamed the German Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's Church in 1894). According to parish accounts, Pastor Gass was called “John,” rather than Jacob, and was highly thought of and known for his good deeds and thoughtful sayings (Schroeder 1971). After leaving St. Paul’s, he tried farming, but with little success. Gass eventually sold the farm and purchased a Sears Modern Home (Model No. 52?) through the mail, erecting it across the street from the church. Today, it’s home to several Hasidic rabbis who work at AgriProcessors, the world's largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse. The Rev. John Gass started a German language newspaper in 1892, the Iowa Volksblatt, and was its owner and editor for three years. The newspaper wasn't profitable and the business was sold in 1895, becoming The Postville Herald in 1917 and publishing in English. Gass then retired to a life of growing flowers and strawberries; a box of his fruit sold for ten cents each. He’s buried in the Postville Cemetery.
In describing the 1877 and 1878 digs at the Cook property by the Rev. Gass, Dr. Robert J. Farquharson, the president of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, encouraged:
"Therefore, let us not despair, but rather let us indulge the hope, though it may seem to some a frail one, that this is but the first of a series of such discoveries; that in time our Rosetta stone may be found, and that in the line of our learned occidentalists, there will arise a future Champollion, having a key to unlock this American language (Farquharson 1877a; p. 104)."
The first to apply for the impossible position of a new Champollion for a hypothetical "American language" was, notably, Canadian and not American. Almost immediately after the 1880 release of the second volume of PDANS, Prof. John Campbell (Presbyterian College of Montreal, church history and apologetics) claimed to be able to read the "Mound Builder" pseudoscript characters of the "Cremation" tablet as a corrupt form of ancient Hittite with Cypriote and Aztec elements (Campbell 1882). In advance of Fell, Campbell had earlier published an article attempting to connect Mi'kmaq with Indian, Japanese and Malay-Polynesian (Campbell 1881). To the credit of the non-refereed publications of that time, Prof. Campbell's imaginative theories appeared in the same journal, American Antiquarian, which later featured one of the earliest and finest refutations of the Davenport hoax material (Peet 1886). Unfortunately, the Reverend Dr. John Campbell didn't accept the criticism, published an expanded work (Campbell 1890) and entered Canadian history for being tried and found guilty of heresy for his imaginative epigraphic work and writing against the beliefs of his employers. [Note: While not a suggested decipherment like Campbell’s, two other efforts were made to find meaning in the Davenport tablets (Rust 1882; Seyffarth 1882). Both efforts argued for an interpretation of the inscriptions as Native American picture writing, though each proposed far different dates for their manufacture. Rust attempted to associate the tablets with the historical Dakota Nation and Seyffarth imagined the tablets were made by pre-historic descendants from Noah’s Ark.]
The Davenport hoax materials are modern and certainly date from the
early to the middle of the second half of the 19th century
(1869-1877/1878/1880). Whether they were in the ground for
several minutes
or several years appears extremely difficult to determine today.
The
question of who the hoaxer was, whether there were more than one and
the motivation for the hoax has been often heatedly discussed.
The
first guess proposed the Mormons
(Farquharson 1877b; p.
65), but this explanation hasn’t been
pursued other than with a passing mention some years later (Peet 1892; p. 72). Much work
remains in understanding the Mormonite cult pseudoscript, "reformed Egyptian,"
and related invented scripts (Flavin
2006).
In 1970, the Iowa State Archaeologist, Dr. Marshall Bassford McKusick, published evidence that members of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences and their associates were behind the hoax (McKusick 1970). Afterwards, as Prof. McKusick (University of Iowa, associate professor of anthropology), he updated and rewrote the book, adding a lengthy criticism of the work of Fell (McKusick 1991). The hoax continues to fool the gullible and the Davenport Tablets were recently featured in a wacky, anti-masonic Christian fundamentalist film, The New Atlantis (Bay 2005). McKusick mentioned the possibility of “Masonic symbols (McKusick 1991; p. 128)” among the characters of the Davenport pseudoscripts, however this suggestion gets lost among the other components of the pseudoscripts (letters, scientific signs, astronomical symbols, musical notations, numbers, etc.). Taking into account new research, it wouldn’t be too crafty to suggest that 19th century Freemasons (and similar fraternal societies) had ready access to libraries and collections in which all manner of occult, eclectic and exotic background information and inspiration could be had.
David Bay's superimposing of America B.C. (Fell 1976; p. 144) with the reverse of the US Great Seal (Bay 2005).
Smith's "Reformed
Egyptian" from a 1844 broadside for The
Book of Mormon. (Smith 1830)
In 1970, the Iowa State Archaeologist, Dr. Marshall Bassford McKusick, published evidence that members of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences and their associates were behind the hoax (McKusick 1970). Afterwards, as Prof. McKusick (University of Iowa, associate professor of anthropology), he updated and rewrote the book, adding a lengthy criticism of the work of Fell (McKusick 1991). The hoax continues to fool the gullible and the Davenport Tablets were recently featured in a wacky, anti-masonic Christian fundamentalist film, The New Atlantis (Bay 2005). McKusick mentioned the possibility of “Masonic symbols (McKusick 1991; p. 128)” among the characters of the Davenport pseudoscripts, however this suggestion gets lost among the other components of the pseudoscripts (letters, scientific signs, astronomical symbols, musical notations, numbers, etc.). Taking into account new research, it wouldn’t be too crafty to suggest that 19th century Freemasons (and similar fraternal societies) had ready access to libraries and collections in which all manner of occult, eclectic and exotic background information and inspiration could be had.
David Bay's superimposing of America B.C. (Fell 1976; p. 144) with the reverse of the US Great Seal (Bay 2005).
In Febuary of 1846, the first of the Mormonite cult passed through Iowa
on their exodus (read: escape) to Utah after founder Joseph Smith’s
1844 Carthage, IL murder,
yet the Freemasons were already there and had the previous year made
formal plans for the Iowa
Masonic Library (1845). A growing collection was
formed around Iowa City, moved to Davenport from 1870 to 1872, then
relocated back to Iowa City before moving into its Cedar Rapids
location in 1884 (building replaced in 1955). It is, squarely
put, one of the finest libraries in the world. Overlooking a
somewhat embarrassing choice of names in 1853, “Shibboleth,”
Mason City, IA, is a straight choice as an example of an early presence
and
influence of fraternal societies in the territory.
1874 photograph of Mason City, IA , 1875 map of Davenport & 1884 photograph of the Iowa Masonic Library.
Since the Rock Island Railroad was built across the Mississippi River
at Davenport in 1856, the city has been a bustling community of
industry, culture, and fraternal societies. Prof. McKusick
speculates that if members of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences
were responsible for the manufacture of the tablets, that they were
likely made in the Odd Fellows Hall building, where the Davenport
Academy met in “rented back rooms” before their own building was
completed in 1878. (McKusick 1991;
p. 130). The Odd
Fellows are a
quasi-masonic fraternal society and a narrow approach could conclude
that the Iowan amateur scientific group was, at least originally,
sympathetic to fraternal
societies.
1872 Colorado ranch and Odd Fellow graffiti, a close-up (1996 RDF) and Oklahoma graffiti (Fell 1976; p. 183).
Sniff Ranch brands, mailbox (1996 RDF) and derivative Illinois hoax (Flavin 2003; pt. ii).
Fraternity was important on America’s frontier during the later half of the 19th century and many farmers, ranchers and their helpers were Odd Fellows. Some, while avoiding secret society paranoia, dismiss clear evidence of important contributions to American history and culture by such groups. One such researcher was the late Gloria Stewart Farley (1916-2006), who was a dedicated and determined enthusiast, and is appropriately associated with her interest in the “Heavener Runestone,” an enigmatic runic message located in Oklahoma, far from where one would normally think of finding a Norse inscription. For twenty years before Prof. Fell's passing, whenever Farley believed she'd discovered “writing,” she made tracings and drawings of the rock art and sent them to Fell for “translation.”
In the text of her book (Farley 1994; p. 368), but not in a drawing or photograph, she remarks upon the presence of the name of a “B. Kelley,” some associated Independent Order of the Odd Fellows graffiti, and accuses this “B. Kelley” of vandalizing the ancient art depicting the horse. I have serious issues with this approach.
It’s almost impossible for the naked eye to distinguish between graffiti incised on these canyon walls during WWII, 50 years before that, or 500 years before that, even. The engravings only begin to show their age when they’re 1000, 2000, or 3000 or more years of age. All of the markings on the Hays Canyon, CO panel, pictured above, appear less than a thousand years of age. Sure, there’s graffiti from different time periods, but all the markings appear relatively recent. Farley mentioned Kelley, the I.O.O.F. (but not the F.L.T.), and saw vandalism. Apparently it didn’t occur to her that “B. Kelley” was a bored cowboy at one point, a member of the Odd Fellows (as were many cowboys at that time), and the drawing of the horse was his. He wasn’t the vandal; he was the artist.
A “Bert Kelley” is known to have worked for the "Box-And-A-Half” Ranch (the name being taken from its brand). The ranch has been around for nearly 150 years and has changed ownership an unremarkable number of times. The current ranchers, Jack and Darlene Sniff, have added their own unique brand, but retain the box-and-a-half, as well.
In America B.C., Fell published photographs of plaster replicas made from latex molds taken from parietal engravings discovered in Colorado, which showed designs consisting of the pairing of a four-sided closed rectangle and a three-sided open square. The “box-and-a-half” occurred in several of her reports and Fell transcribed the “letters” as Ancient Berber and meaning Ras (“head”or “chief”). As misfortune would have it, Ras and "chief" were later utilized by a retired gravel salesman and local museum curator, Jack Ward, of Vincennes, Indiana (Ward 1984). Within months of the publication of Ward's book, an associate, Russ Burrows, began selling inscribed stones claimed to have been discovered in a cave in southern Illinois. The Burrows Cave Hoax continues to this day.
Prof. Cyrus H. Gordon (1908-2001) and the Metcalf Stone (Gordon 1971, p. 91).
Another example of how Masonic groups can sometimes, perhaps inadvertently, confuse researchers concerns the late Prof. Cyrus H. Gordon (New York University, Director of the Center for Ebla Research). Gordon was a cultural diffusionist and argued for many exchanges and borrowing among various Mediterranean peoples (Gordon 1965; Gordon 1967). In 1968, he responded to a query from Dr. Joseph B. Mahan, Jr. (Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts, Director of Education and Research) and identified the so-called Metcalf Stone from Georgia as being engraved with characters from the Aegean syllabary (Mycenean Linear A and B). With this incredible advancement, as well as his controversial support for the authenticity of the infamous Paraíba Inscription (Gordon 1974), said to have been discovered in Brazil in 1872, he became a hyper-diffusionist (Gordon 1971; Buchanan 2006). While the Metcalf Stone remains difficult to classify with certainty (as either Native American portable rock art, a post-Columbian engraving made for unknown reasons or a post-Columbian attempt to forge an ancient script), the suggestion that Phoenicians sailed to Brazil is generally accepted as untenable by all but the most hardened believers.
Tracing of an 1874 facsimile of the Paraiba inscription and cryptanalysis (Gordon 1974, p. 25; Gordon 1974, pp. 83).
Around ten years ago, I took an interest in the Paraíba Inscription. Prof. Gordon opined that the Phoenician script dated to the sixth century BCE and offered an identification of the “Merchant King” and “King Hiram” mentioned in the text as the Tyrian King Hiram III (r. 554-533 BCE). As the inscription names a “King Hiram” and not specifically King Hiram II (r. 739-730 BCE) or Hiram III, a far simpler identification would be the builder of the Hebrew King David’s personal house and a temple for David’s son, King Solomon (2 Samuel 5:10-11 RSV; 1 Kings 5:1-12 RSV). Later, Hiram was used as the inspiration for the dramatic character of Hiram Abif in Freemason initiation rituals beginning in the early eighteenth century. I subsequently attempted to uncover a connection between the Paraíba Inscription and Masonry, which meant I had to go to the library, or in this case, The Samuel Crocker Lawrence Library at the historic Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts located across a corner of the pastoral Boston Common at Boylston and Tremont streets. I’ve written:
“In the Grand Lodge Library I examined many books and pamphlets from the mid to late 19th century on Brazilian Freemasonry and the name da Costa appeared often. [Note: A letter from a “Joaquim Alves da Costa,” along with a copy of the Paraíba Inscription was sent to the Instituto Historico in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which was dated Sept. 11, 1872. All subsequent attempts to locate the author failed.] Several Grand Masters of lodges in Brazil bore the name, da Costa. A few also contained Joaquim, as well as Alves, but none, in my cursory examinations of the Brazilian Freemasonic material, contained the exact name. These are common Portuguese names and the presence in a Brazilian Freemason setting proves nothing. However, it does allow for an alternative to blindly accepting the authenticity of an inscribed stone no one has ever seen. Prof. Gordon saw the alternative as well, and in his last years began to hedge on his previous opinion regarding the Paraíba Inscription (Flavin 2001).”
After a lively back-and-forth with Prof. Frank M. Cross, Jr. (Harvard, emeritus Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages) in the pages of Orientalia (Gordon 1968a; Gordon 1968b; Cross 1968; and Gordon 1968c), Prof. Gordon added to his argument by proposing cryptograms derived from an acrostic and telestic ordering of the text (Gordon 1974, pp. 71-92). Cross continued to occasionally poke fun at the Paraíba Inscription (Cross 1979) and, politely, the least said about the cryptanalysis the better.
1872 Bat Creek Stone and contemporary Masonic illustration (Macoy 1868).
Gordon also used his formidable linguistic and epigraphic experience in support of an earlier claim that the Bat Creek Stone from Tennessee is not an example of a nineteenth century Native American script (Thomas 1894), but rather written in Phoenician (Mertz 1964). Modifying the claim, he proposed the characters to be Hebrew letters from after the Second Jewish War, c. 135 CE, based on similarities with Maccabean coin inscriptions and letter-forms from Qumran, as well as utilizing a smidgen of narrative creative license. With new research indicating a modern manufacture based upon a contemporaneously published Masonic illustration (Mainfort and Kwas 2004), a consideration that a remnant from a staged ritual might have been misidentified is readily allowable. I have little doubt Prof. Gordon would have been receptive to this research and incorporated the new information into his thinking.
Manier
(in black) and diggers, c. 1925 (Bent 1964) & "Mason Emblems"
headline (NYT 1925).
While no single etymology is generally accepted for ‘Arizona’, many believe the 48th state’s name was coined from arizonac or Ali-Shonak (Pima “place of the little spring”), or perhaps was a happenstance application of árida zona (Sp. "arid zone"). Another possible origin could be arizuma (Nahuatl [Aztec] "silver-bearing"). Such an etymology certainly hints at the mining history that has been, and remains, a significant part of Arizonian life and lore.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (c. 1490-1557) was one of four survivors of a disastrous early Spanish expedition into the interior of North America (De Vaca 1542), who made their way, first as slaves and then as traders, through the lands which would one day become known as Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. De Vaca’s account provided information for Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1510-1554) to undertake his search for the “Seven Golden Cities.” Though Coranado was unsuccessful, valuable metals were eventually mined in Arizona and stories of lost and hidden treasures from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are still discussed.
In the late nineteenth century one particular mine showed such promise that it encouraged the founding of a nearby town, Silver Bell, which soon became known by one of the worst of all possible appellations, “The Hell-hole of Arizona.” Perhaps a closer look is needed with the suggested Aztec etymology for Arizona. While silver was found in profitable quantities, gold, copper and lead were also significantly present. Around 1920, when the mining operation was longer able to produce enough silver to meet the operating costs, the mine was closed and Silver Bell became a ghost town.
Despite the departure of the mining folk, the names they’d given to their surroundings stayed. Like Silverbell Road, where in 1924 Charles E. Manier took his family out for a Sunday drive and stopped to view an old, abandoned lime kiln. The lime produced by the kiln had interacted with the surrounding soil and created large, stratified deposits of caliche or “desert cement.” Manier saw something protruding from the caliche, retrieved a shovel from his car, and soon had in his possession a sixty-two pound cross, which closer examination revealed was actually two lead crosses riveted together.
Inscribed
lead crosses found on Nov. 28,
1924
off of Silverbell Road, Pima County, Arizona & Prof. Cyclone Covey.
Manier found thirty one (some say thirty-two) lead objects on Silverbell Road, several miles outside of Tucson, between 1924 and 1930. The objects consisted of crosses, swords and ritual items, many of which were inscribed in Latin and Hebrew. Masonic emblems, specifically the square and compass symbol, were recognized early, but most investigators were apparently too concerned with the fantastic tale as told on the various inscribed artifacts to pursue any possible Masonic significance or origin. The tale, according to initial translations, involved Romans from early Medieval times sailing to North America. It was thought by the translators that a North American destination was named in the inscriptions, as “Calalus, the Unknown Land.” No one, at the time, dared to venture an explanation or etymology for Calalus and though some interest persisted, the matter was essentially forgotten until a history professor in the early 1970s became involved and eventually published a book which argued for acceptance of the fantastic tale (Covey 1975).
The Epigraphic Society’s web-page for Vol. 19 lists the following about Calalus and the Tucson Artifacts on pp. 115-146.
Dating the Calalus Texts
(5 pp) Barry Fell & Marshall Payn 19-p 115
Calalus: a Hard Look (3 pp) Michael Skupin 19-p 120
The Tucson ArtiFacts: A Fingerprint (1 p) Michael Skupin 19-p 122
The Tucson Artifacts: Starting from Scratch (1 p) Michael Skupin 19-p 123
The Tucson Artifacts: A Rebuttal to Skupin (4 pp) Chris Hardaker 19-p 124
On the Level with the Tucson Artifacts (17 pp) Bill Rudersdorf 19-p 128
Comments on Criticism of Calalus (1 p) Cyclone Covey 19-p 145
If They were Aspirin: Questions About the Tucson Artifacts (1 p) Jane Eppinga 19-p 146
Calalus: a Hard Look (3 pp) Michael Skupin 19-p 120
The Tucson ArtiFacts: A Fingerprint (1 p) Michael Skupin 19-p 122
The Tucson Artifacts: Starting from Scratch (1 p) Michael Skupin 19-p 123
The Tucson Artifacts: A Rebuttal to Skupin (4 pp) Chris Hardaker 19-p 124
On the Level with the Tucson Artifacts (17 pp) Bill Rudersdorf 19-p 128
Comments on Criticism of Calalus (1 p) Cyclone Covey 19-p 145
If They were Aspirin: Questions About the Tucson Artifacts (1 p) Jane Eppinga 19-p 146
- Calalus Land Unknown? -
At the end of the preface to Calalus, Covey wrote: “Eventually, when the evidence exhibited here (most of it already venerable) has been frontally faced and more missing evidence has come to light, whichever way the final decision goes, common sense will again have been a casualty.” What eventually came to “light” did suggest that the “PUZZLING ‘RELICS’,” as The New York Times called them, were “venerable” to some, though not for reasons which depend upon a pre-Columbian discovery of America.
Bill Rudersdorf, in his “On the Level with the Tucson Artifacts,” humbly concluded that the lead objects were part of a Masonic ritual, the inscriptions do not express Latin, but is instead Spanish with unique Mexican attributes, and that “Calalus” is a form of the Spanish “acá la luz,” or “here [is] the light," and refers to a Master of the Lodge (Rudersdorf 1990).
As caliche forms when soil is exposed to lime, it appears the “relics” were buried after use and when a lime kiln was built nearby, a hardening of the soil occurred which gave the burial an appearance of great age. No accusations of hoax, fraud or forgery should be attached to the Tucson Artifacts, as none was intended.
Western edge of the Siver Bell Mountains and 2006 Google Map of Calalus, AZ.
Part III.
Engravings from Barrett's The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer (Barrett 1801). [Click for larger images]
Barrett's Jupiter talisman, Smith's "Masonic Jewel" and Smith family magical manuscript (Owens 1995).
Linguistic evidence or grandiose delusional disorder? Kelley’s
suggestion Fell may be correct with script identification, but not
translation (Kelley 1990b; Kelley 1994). Phaistos Disk?
C. S. Rafinesque (1783-1840), 1833 Walum Olum ms., "Red Score" pseudoscript (Williams 1991; p. 107) and 1838 "Ancient Glyphs."
Early description (Unknown 1839) and facsimile of the 1838 Grave Creek tablet (Tomlinson 1843); Henry R. Schoolcraft (1793-1864).
Daniel G. Brinton, MD (1837-1899)
1893 "Long Island" tablet inspired by the Davenport hoax (Brinton 1893, Delabarre 1928 & Fell 1976).
C. S. Rafinesque (1783-1840), 1833 Walum Olum ms., "Red Score" pseudoscript (Williams 1991; p. 107) and 1838 "Ancient Glyphs."
Early description (Unknown 1839) and facsimile of the 1838 Grave Creek tablet (Tomlinson 1843); Henry R. Schoolcraft (1793-1864).
Daniel G. Brinton, MD (1837-1899)
1893 "Long Island" tablet inspired by the Davenport hoax (Brinton 1893, Delabarre 1928 & Fell 1976).
Trans-oceanic pre-Columbian contact supporters (diffusionists); Totten, Mahan, Gordon, Carter, Jett, Covey, and Kelley.
Elephant (mammoth) hoax referenced in Williams 1991; p. 127 [“Even Fell’s 1988 Epigraphic Society Occasional Publication volume branded it a fake based on the carbon 14 finding!"] and artistic misinterpretation, Johanson conversation at 2002 ISAC regarding anteaters.
Other Egyptian Claims
In baseball, hitting .500 is exceptional, if not impossible; in scholarship it is not a passing grade, and I would figure Professor Fell's batting average at an anemic .100, to be on the generous side. How many of Fell's inscriptions in North America, which now must number in the thousands, are real messages from scribes writing in non-Native American languages (European scripts)? The real count, I fear, is few or none. (Williams 1991; p. 283)
Books which question wild claims and explain pseudoarchaeology (Williams 1991; Harold & Eve 1995; Feder 2001).
Addendum
Fr. Le Clercq may have been the first to assist a New World people in the development of a writing system, but he wasn’t the last. After Mi’kmaq (1691), writing systems for Blackfoot, Carrier, Cherokee, Cree, Inuktitut, and Ojibwe emerged in the nineteenth century.
The Cherokee syllabary and the Chippewa and Cree scripts; used without permission.
La Hurreau's "Mide Scripts of the Algonkians (La Hurreau 1986)" is online; click individual page numbers.
Farley's "The Ancient Origin of the Cree Syllabary (Farley 2006)" is online here.
Guthrie's transcription and transliteration of the 1878 Davenport hoax tablet (Guthrie 2005; p. 17 & 19).
Mid-nineteenth century illustration claimed to feature a Zuni-Libyan alphabet (Guthrie 2005; p. 21).
Close-up of painted axe-head, drawing and invented symbol for Atum (Guthrie 2005; p. 21).
Guthrie wrote (Guthrie 2005; pp. 20-22 + errata):
Barry Fell became aware of the sun god tablet in about 1989 and was working on a translation as Berber when his health began to fail. He saw only ten letters in the poor photo at his disposal. I sent him a better on and he pointed out two letters he had missed. In a letter of April 24, 1992, Fell told me that he intended to publish his reading in ESOP 21 (1992), but it never appeared.
Support for my suggestion that
is Atum comes from inscriptions of
Zuni. In America
B.C. (p. 174), Fell mentioned but did not illustrate a white
leather sun disk with the standard Libyan letters T-M,
meaning Atum,
obtained at Zuni in 1891 and held by the Peabody Museum. In
looking for other examples, I found a sketch of a Zuni altar, drawn in
1853 or 1854, showing apparent Libyan letters on an upright wooden
monument (Figure 15). Reading downward, the legend begins T-M
and continues R-H-W.
It had been recorded by a government expedition dispatched to find the
best route for a railroad between St. Louis and the west coast
(Whipple, et al. 1856). A large party, complete with scientists
and artists, came back with an invaluable illustrated account of the
western tribes.These early ethnographers described an altar with inscribed boards, as illustrated, reporting on page 42.
“One of the most remarkable circumstances regarding the insignia represented was the regularity with which the sticks were carved. There were, probably, hundreds, lying in a pile, cut into the same figures as represented in this sketch, and different only in the degree of decay which time had produced.”
They were puzzled also by the occasional presence of Zunis with light skins, auburn hair, and blue eyes (like some Berbers), and were told by Zunis that such people had always been among them. I suspect that the same people brought both the exotic features and the Libyan letters with apparent reference to Atum.
Transliteration of the entire sequence carved on the boards as Libyan would be T-M-R-H-W, where H (or Q) would be pronounced approximately as KH. A similar sequence that included a sun sign was discovered in Utah by Philip M. Leonard and James Glenn (1984). If the Utah petroglyph is read top to bottom, left to right, the sequence is T (or Y)-M-L-R-Q (or H).
Fell studied this inscription and read the series R-Q-W as rising,” so that L-R-Q-W could be pronounced approximately as Al-Ra-Kh-We to mean “its rising,” referring to the sun. The Utah Q (or H) was carved as ,a legitimate alternative to the of the Zuni version. Without passing judgement on Fell’s interpretation, it is clear that there are two very similar sequences of apparent Libyan letters in the southwest, referring almost certainly to the sun as Atum. This boosts my confidence that the Davenport sun god tablet also bears the name of Atum.
[....] ERRATA [....] Pages 21 and 22 - the H in five places should be
, indicating the “hard H,” (KH
or Q). Page 22 - The
signs IIII and T were omitted from the statement:
“The Utah Q (or 
) was carved as IIII, a legitimate alternative to
the T of the Zuni
version.” [....] New
Finding - Photographic enlargement of the central sign of the
sun god inscription confirms that it was carved to portray a serpent
(see drawing). It had been interpreted as having a dual function
as the ligature T-M (Atum) and as a snake, which is
the sun-god sign. Red ochre filling the interior of the sign led
early writers to see an “axe,” “hut,” or “cottage.”
1875 engraving (Andreas 1875), drawing of 1877 Davenport "Creation" pseudoscript (Peet 1892, Fell 1976; p. 261) and detail of "Creation" pseudoscript.
Detail of a 1875 engraving, a "Libyan" claim (Fell 1976; p. 262) and detail of 1877 "Creation" pseudoscript.
Detail of a 1875 engraving, a "Punic-Iberian" claim (Fell 1976; p. 263) and a detail of the 1877 "Creation" pseudoscript.
Script or "Islands in the Stream" and sloppy typography?
Part IV.
CollectionsMi'kmaq Resource Centre
Patrick Johnson, Director
University College of Cape Breton
P.O. Box 5300
Sydney, Nova Scotia
B1P 2L6
Telephone: (902) 563-1660
Online at: http://library.usask.ca/native/directory/english/mikmaqresource.html
Peabody Research
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Harvard University
11 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA, 02138
E-Mail: pmresrch@fas.harvard.edu
Tozzer Library
Gregory Finnegan, Associate Librarian for Public Services and Head of Reference
21 Divinity Avenue
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Telephone: (617) 495-2253
Online at: http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/#tozzer
Institutional and Library Requests to:
Interlibrary Loan - Rm G-30
Widener Library
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Edward E. Ayer Collection
Brian Hosmer, Director
The D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History
The Newberry Library
60 W. Walton St.
Chicago, IL 60610
Automated Answering: (312) 943–9090
Online at: http://www.newberry.org/collections/ayer.html
The Joseph Mahan - Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) Collection - MC 32
Reagan Grimsley, Archivist, Assistant Professor of Library Science
Simon Schwob Memorial Library
Columbus State University
4225 University Avenue
Columbus, GA 31907
Archives: (706) 568-2247
General Information: (706) 562-1492
Online at: http://archives.colstate.edu/findingaids/mc32.shtml
The New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA) Library Collection
Anne Wirkkala, Assistant Director
New Hampshire Technical Library
New Hampshire Technical Institute
31 College Drive
Concord, NH 03301
General Informaton: (603) 271-7186
Online at: http://www.nhti.edu/library/
The Samuel Crocker Lawrence Library
Cynthia Alcorn, Librarian
Wor. Michael Kaulback, Asst. Librarian
The Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of Massachusetts
186 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02111
Telephone: (617) 426-6040 ext. 4221
E-Mail: Library@glmasons-mass.org
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Acknowledgments
Forthcoming.
Gloria
Farley, F.E.S.
Rest now,
ma'am.
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