New York Graphic Society, Greenwich. In the 1960s, Henriette Mertz and Corey Ayoob both If it could be shown to work even better as Coelbren, bookstore. In our discussion below, we refer to these signs as i through viii, from left to right; sign viii is located just below the main body of the inscription. Independent scientific verification of an archaeologically excavated stone with ancient Hebrew inscribed into its surface has been completed in the Americas. Mainfort and Kwas does show that scroll. Gordon, Cyrus H. [10], In Mound 3, Emmert reported finding "two copper bracelets, an engraved stone, a small drilled fossil, a copper bead, a bone implement, and some small pieces of polished wood soft and colored green by contact with the copper bracelet". 1943 The Eastern Cherokees. typical of brasses formed by the cementation process, which was discovered during the last centuries B.C. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the Tellico Archaeological Project, conducted by the University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology investigated over two dozen sites and uncovered evidence of substantial habitation in the valley during the Archaic (80001000 BC), Woodland (1000 BC 1000 AD), Mississippian (900-1600 AD), and Cherokee (c. 16001838) periods. orientation, and although several of the letters are not perfect as Paleo-Hebrew, 5-18. Silverberg, Robert [3] The "Cherokee writing system was invented in 1819," and If the tablet were inscribed with Cherokee, this would suggest Mound 3 is much younger than "the solid archaeological data" that identifies it as much older. Fel1, Barry Whiteford, Andrew H. appears in BAR July/Aug. Hodge, Frederick W. (editor) As we discuss below, the Bat Creek stone received scant attention from . American Anthropologist 4(1):94-95. The specimens from Bat Creek (Figure 2), however, exhibit a seam and a hollow core indicating that they were wrought, rather than cut from brass wire. See also comment by TOM DAR MARCIN SNOPEK Company Profile | yszkowice, dzkie, Poland Pastor Murray is the scholar who finally translated the inscription. To read lyhwdm is also impossible on two grounds. 131. R. Stieglitz and Marshall McKusick, in the Bat Creek Stone - Volopedia John Emmert excavated Bat Creek Mound 3, doing so "alone and in isolation". 3, Such findings may finally provide precedent to re-examine the Newark Holy Stones which also bear ancient Hebrew inscriptions and were recovered from a Hopewell burial mound near Newark Ohio. Although now, "the mounds of North America have been proven to be constructions by Native American peoples for a variety of purposes" at the start of the nineteenth century, there was genuine confusion about who built the mounds. No reference to the stone appears in the following significant publications: Gilbert (1943), Harrington (1922), Hodge (1907), Mooney (1892, 1900, 1907), Moorehead (1910, 1914), Setzler and Jennings (1941), Shetrone (1930), Swanton (1946, 1952), and Webb (1938). Archaic and Woodland cultural materials were also recovered from the pre-mound deposits and were also present in the adjacent occupation areas. The inscribed signs generally penetrate through the patina, revealing the lighter interior matrix of the stone, but two signs (signs vi and vii on the left side of the stone as illustrated here) are noticeably shallower, as are portions of several others. Crown Publishers, Inc., New York. The Radiocarbon Date 1988). 14-16, and numerous Second, the brass bracelets reportedly found in association with the inscribed stone are in all probability relatively modern European trade items; the composition of the brass is equivocal with respect to the age of the bracelets. [2] This excavation was part of a larger series of excavations that aimed to clarify the controversy regarding who is responsible for building the various mounds found in the Eastern United States. Even more ambitiously, the mound and its Washington. The Bat Creek stone figured prominently in Gordon's (1971, 1974) major cult archaeology books, and subsequently received attention in a number of other fringe publications (e.g., Fell 1980; Mahan 1983; von Wuthenau . iv: Of all the characters on the Bat Creek stone this sign bears the most striking resemblance to Paleo-Hebrew script ("yod") circa 100 B.C.-A.D. 100 (but not the second century of the Christian era). "The Bat Creek Fraud: A Final Statement". from Jersualem's City of David under the supervision Robert Stieglitz (1976) confirmed Gordon's reading of the A Review of Arnold Murray's Translation of the Bat Creek Stone Thomas, Cyrus and W.J. that looks nothing like the second Bat Creek letter. [2], North America has a vast and significant history, a "rich history" that belongs to "sophisticated Native American civilizations" and pre-dates the introduction of European settler colonialism. Note that we do not contend that these signs are Cherokee - only that there are some formal similarities (McKussick [1979] incorrectly asserts that the signs actually are a form of Cherokee). Thomas first published the inscription in his The Cherokees in Pre-Columbian Times (1890, Fig. Mound 2 was a burial mound approximately 3 m tall and 13 m in diameter. A lengthy discussion of the object, including a radiocarbon determination, in a local professional journal (McCulloch 1988) has recently enhanced the status of the stone as representing the best evidence of pre-Columbian contacts. This ratio of copper to zinc is The two vertical strokes above The University of Tennessee excavators didn't investigate Mound 2 or Mound 3, both of which no longer existed. standard Square Hebrew into the older alphabet, erroneously [4] But these claims by Gordon and McCulloh have been silenced by archeologists who "have rejected the Bat Creek stone as a fake". American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York. When. Peet 1890, 1892, 1895). [1] This interpretation was accepted at the time but was contested about a century later by Cyrus H. Gordon, a scholar of Near Eastern Cultures and ancient languages, who reexamined the tablet in the 1970s and proposed that the inscription represented Paleo-Hebrew of the 1st or 2nd century. in this alphabet, or what Welsh words they find there. Stone, Lyle M. In 1964, Chicago patent attorney Henriette Mertz and Hebrew linguistics expert Dr. Cyrus Gordon identified the writing as a form of ancient Paleo-Hebrew Judean. They discovered that the stone had been published by the Smithsonian upside down and that it was legible Hebrew, once the stone was rotated 180 degrees. The radiocarbon date and the publication of McCulloch's article in a local professional journal have significantly enhanced the Bat Creek stone's status as the "cornerstone" of the pre-Columbian contacts movement. by P. Kyle McCarter, BAR July/August 1993, pp. This small, inscribed rock was reportedly excavated from a mound in 1889 by John W. Emmert, a Smithsonian Institution field assistant, during the course of the Bureau of American Ethnology Mound Survey. Ventnor Publishers, Ventnor, N.J., 1972. that this affinity should have been recognized already in 1889 by sign iii), so to read lyhwdh or 1 yhwdym ("for Judea" or "for the Jews"), as advocated by Gordon (1971, 1972, 1974), is impossible (note that Hebrew is read from right to left). now a TVA Except for the identification of the characters as Cherokee, Thomas (1894: 391-3) is based almost verbatim on Emmert's field report. Macoy, Robert, General History, Cyclopedia and Dictionary of 1981 Radiocarbon Dating in Eastern Arctic Archaeology: a Flexible Approach. See also comment Institution, 1890-91 (Washington, GPO, 1894), pp. McCulloch, J. Huston (1993b). CrossRef; Google Scholar; Mickel, Allison and Byrd, Nylah 2022. Bat Creek stone - Michael Ruark coinscript letters to transcribe Judah or Yehud (YHWD in the conceivably be either an aleph or a waw, While we cannot be certain that he personally inscribed the signs on the Bat Creek stone, we are convinced that John W. Emmert was responsible for the forgery. Brain, Jeffrey P. 1979 Indian Social Dynamics in the Period of European Contact. Catalogue No. At the time the string LYHW- in the word LYHWKL, or a little like the second letter (Q) on Bat Creek, but in In early 1889, Emmert resumed his excavations under Thomas' direction; by February 15 he had "found" the Bat Creek stone (Emmert to Thomas, 15 February 1889). Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you have about our organization. uses a word divider. the fit as Hebrew is by no means perfect (McCarter 1993). Hebrew scholar and archaeologist separated by a dot or short diagonal stroke "Did Judean Refugees Escape to Tennessee? the Macoy illustration, begins with the Masonic The Little Tennessee River enters Tennessee from the Appalachian Mountains to the south and flows northward for just over 50 miles (80km) before emptying into the Tennessee River near Lenoir City. indication as to how they read the letters on the Bat Creek stone A further complication is that it is widely believed, It also seems worth mentioning that Cyrus Thomas was neither the first nor the last archaeologist to be taken in by a questionable artifact. Although largely laid to rest by the beginning of the twentieth century, both issues continue to surface periodically (e.g., Fell 1976; Carter 1978), falling within the realm of what is often referred to as "cult archaeology" (Cole 1980; Harrold and Eve 1987). Professional Geologist Scott Wolter of American Petrographic Services of St. Paul, MN explains the petrographic analysis of the Bat Creek stone. The Bat Creek (Tennessee) stone, an artifact discovered in 1889, was assumed . the first letter must be something different, and 118. First, the inscription is not a legitimate Paleo-Hebrew inscription, despite the resemblances of several signs to Paleo-Hebrew characters. (1747-1826), known also as Iolo Morgannwg. Bat Creek Stone - The Argumentative Archaeologist have, in addition to a loop on the right, an arm to the left The string YHW-, or Yahu-, the first three letters LYHW- beginning the longer second word in both cases. [3] He asserted that the inscription "could be translated as some variation of 'For the Jews'". These eight characters are, on average, 23mm in depth. www.rense.com/general28/weks.htm, dated 8/28/02. During the last 20 years, the assertion that the Americas were visited numerous times by Old World seafarers has seen a major resurgence of interest, as witnessed by numerous best-selling books on the subject (e.g., Fell 1976; Gordon 1971, 1974) and the establishment of several "epigraphic societies" (i.e., amateur societies interested in the decipherment of alleged pre-Columbian inscriptions) devoted to proving these claims. but as such is not well made, since in Paleo-Hebrew it should Madoc was a Welsh prince who is reputed to have sailed to According to him, the five letters to the left of the comma-shaped 1993, pp. 1993, pp. From the epigraphic standpoint, there is no clear cut reason to conclude that the Bat Creek Stone is a fraud or that it proves an Israelite origin for the . These inscriptions generally fail to stand up under close scrutiny by paleographers (i.e., they contain numerous errors, represent a jumble of several Old World scripts, or consist of random marks on stone that have the appearance of letters), while the circumstances surrounding their "discovery" are invariably dubious. 35 . The inscription consists of at least eight distinct characters. Emmert, John W. Refugees Escape to Tennessee? The Bat Creek mounds (40LD24) were located near the confluence of Bat Creek and the Little Tennessee River in Loudon County, Tennessee. that would itself be sufficient to vindicate the authenticity of main line would then read RQ , LYHWD[M], i.e. Antiquity 58(223):137-138. Refugees Escape to Tennessee?" 1907 Cherokee. reply by JHM BAR Nov./Dec. R is for "Ara" which is (Lion) QL is for "Qol" which is (voice) YH is for "Yah" which is (God) The January/February 2006 Crown Publishers, Inc., New York. Serenwen (undated). longer word, and identifed the second letter of the shorter Gordon claimed that by inverting the orientation of the stone relative to the published illustrations (i.e., Thomas 1890, 1894), it was clear that the inscription contained Paleo-Hebrew characters that could be translated as "for the Jews" or some variant thereof. [1] In the report, Cyrus Thomas "claimed that the marks on the Bat Creek stone represented characters of the Cherokee syllabary and used the inscription to support his hypothesis that the Cherokee constructed many of the earthen mounds and enclosures in eastern North America". Gordon demonstrates their incompetence to 124-133. In 1988, wood fragments found with Both inscriptions do contain two words, with the identical string 1902 Archaeological History of Ohio. Following McCulloch (1988), the signs are numbered i - viii from left to right, with viii appearing below the other signs. 1938 An Archaeological Survey of the Norris Basin in Eastern Tennessee. is known. This range is consistent with Furthermore, if the 1941 Peachtree Mound and Village Site, Cherokee County, North Carolina. Review, Vol. American Antiquity 53(3)-.578-582. McCulloch, J. Huston, "The Bat Creek Inscription -- Cherokee or Hebrew?," Freeman, San Francisco. Hebrew writing inscription found in America- The Bat Creek Stone Perhaps more important, we hope that our efforts here will influence some of our colleagues to take an active role in countering claims made by cult archaeologists and particularly in providing the general public with accessible information about the remarkable discoveries made by mainstream archaeology (see Williams 1987, 1988a, 1988b). Nashville Tennessean, October 19, 1970, pp. Both Professors Cross and Williams read and commented on an earlier version of this paper. Revised and enlarged edition. McCarter, P. Kyle, Jr. "Let's be Serious About the Bat Creek Stone". "Report of Archaeopetrography Investigation on the Bat Creek Stone of 1889," July 14, 2010, http://www.ampetrographic.com/files/BatCreekStone.pdf. This arm in fact appears 1967 The English Brass and Copper Industries to 1800. ShLMYHW or Shelemiyahu. photograph, instead appeared to be ancient Semitic. This conclusion stems in part from the fact that there were few (if any) other noteworthy "recent" publications on North American prehistory, and certainly none that included large numbers of illustrations of both "ancient works" and artifacts. 145. For example, Stone's (1974) magnum opus on Fort Michilimackinac does not discuss the chemical composition of any of the thousands of artifacts recovered, and misidentifies as "copper" a number of kettle lugs (pp. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. online theory of the Bat Creek inscription. Above the vault, an intrusive Historic burial containing 2 brass (probably silver plated) trade brooches, a metal button, and fragments of preserved buckskin were encountered. Mainfort, Robert C., Jr. and Mary L. Kwas. 47, Issue. Likewise, the presence of this string on The brass used to form the bracelets from Bat Creek contains 66.5 - 68.2 percent copper and 26.5 - 27.5 percent zinc. The Bat Creek stone is an inscribed stone collected as part of a Native American burial mound excavation in Loudon County, Tennessee, in 1889. Mound 2 had a diameter of 44 feet (13m) and height of 10 feet (3.0m), and Mound 3 had a diameter of 28 feet (8.5m) and height of 5 feet (1.5m). The Bat Creek word also has the remnant of a sixth letter, both contain the string LYHW-. [16] It has subsequently been loaned to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, N.C., where it has been on display since 2015. Finally, if we focus exclusively on signs i through v, and accept Gordon's values, the text does not make sense as Paleo-Hebrew. Artifacts were associated with only one of the 9 extended interments. His findings indicate the stone is authentic, meaning that it is ancient and the Hebrew inscription on its surface is also authentic. in diameter and 5 feet in height," according to the offical Thomas, Cyrus, "Mound Explorations," in Twelfth Annual Report Journal of Archaeological Science 5(1):1-16. 1900 Myths of the Cherokee. Thanks to the late Warren W. Dexter, author with Donna Martin of You must have a Gab account and be logged in to comment. The proposed time period is of relevance because the forms of Paleo-Hebrew letters evolved over time. Bat Creek Stone | A lamp stand v: Despite problems with its relative size, this sign is normal for Paleo-Hebrew script ("lamed") between 100 B.C. (e.g. "The Bat Creek inscription (also called the Bat Creek stone or Bat Creek tablet) is an inscribed stone collected as part of a Native American burial mound excavation in Loudon County, Tennessee, in 1889 by the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology's Mound Survey, directed by entomologist Cyrus Thomas.The inscriptions were initially described as Cherokee, but in 2004, similarities to an inscription . Archaeology 41(5):62-70. The sign is impossible for Paleo-Hebrew. If nothing else, the Masonic illustration newly discovered by "Thomas also reports enclosed burial areas, vaguely similar to those described above, from Sullivan County. Testing by the Smithsonian (Thomas 1894) and the University of Tennessee (Schroedl 1975) suggests that this structure was a multi-stage Mississippi an platform mound (perhaps lacking associated structures on the mound surfaces). Similarly, the age differential class between the wood and the burial (or the stone itself) is not precisely known. Gordon, Cyrus, "Stone Inscription Found in Tennessee Proves that America was Discovered 1500 Years before Columbus," Argosy Magazine, Jan. 1971a. My reply to the new Mainfort as well as a pleasant destination for hikers and boaters. grape vines, planted on the rebuilt mound, in which case it might be a numeral indicating Year 1 or there are no signs of the two vertical strokes that now are present in the upper left corner. a plausible spot. McCulloch's paper includes the results of an AMS assay of some wood fragments apparently associated with the burial containing the Bat Creek stone. While it is possible that the wood fragments represent the remains of an object placed with the deceased individual, they might also have derived from the "dark soil" (possibly a midden deposit) at the base of the mound on which the 9 skeletons were located (Thomas 1894). J. Huston MuCulloch, an Ohio State University economics professor . 10. forms the dative case, indicating for, to, or belonging to The inscriptions were initially described as Cherokee, but aformentioned Dr. Gordon correctly identified them as Hebrew. Mainfort 1979:357-359). 46-53 ff. The completion of Tellico Dam at the mouth of the Little Tennessee in 1979 created a reservoir that spans the lower 33 miles (53km) of the river. A Reply to Mainfort and Kwas in, http://druidry.org/obod/lore/coelbren/coelbren.html, http://www.ampetrographic.com/files/BatCreekStone.pdf. sign iv) or he_ (cf. [9] Historian Sarah E. Baires writes that the attribution of the mound builders to "any groupother than Native Americans" reflects the "practices" of European settlers that primarily "included the erasure of Native American ties to their cultural landscapes". Hodge (ed. Underlying the earthwork were a number of early Mississippian features. Appleton and Co., New York. 87-93. [7] The Myth of the Mound-builders is a damaging belief that discredits Native American peoples by claiming they were not the creators of the phenomenal mounds, and another group of people, frequently referred to as a "Vanished Race", are responsible for their creation and persisting splendor. Gab builds Freedom Of Speech Software. Hebrew writing inscription found in America- The Bat Creek Stone Biblical Truth 144 280 subscribers Subscribe 303 views 10 months ago Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright. ), Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, p. 610. It does not, Wilson et al. Mounds 2 and 3, on the west side of Bat Creek, had been leveled prior to the University of Tennessee investigations, and no testing was conducted near these earthworks (Schroedl 1975:103). Stones bearing inscriptions in Hebrew or other Old World characters have at last been banished from the list of prehistoric relics. The Bat Creek Stone. Mainfort, Robert C., and Mary L. Kwas, "The Bat Creek Stone Revisited: A Fraud University of Iowa Press, Iowa City. More conclusive evidence regarding the stone's authenticity comes from two additional sources. Hodges, New York. After examining the stones inscribed grooves and outer weathering rind using standard and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and researching the historical documentation, the team of Scott Wolter and Richard Stehly of American Petrographic Services conclude that the inscription is consistent with many hundreds of years of weathering in a wet earth mound comprised of soil and hard red clayand that the stonecan be no younger than when the bodies of the deceased were buried inside the mound. This was an undisputed Hopewell burial mound, and therefore the Hebrew inscribed artifact falls within the time frames of the Book of Mormon in the heartland of America. The Bat Creek Stone was recovered during a professional archaeological dig by John W. Emmert of the Smithsonian Institutions Bureau of Ethnology in 1889, during its Mound Survey Project. [1] According to Emmert, the site consisted of one large mound (Mound1) on the east bank of the creek and two smaller mounds (Mound2 and Mound3) on the west bank. New York: Basic Books. The BatCreek Stone Harrold, Francis B. and Raymond A. Eve of the 19th century setting, as well as shade for picnickers. "Canaanites in America: A New Scripture in Stone?". Moreover, Cyrus Thomas, director of the Mound Survey, claimed that the marks on the stone represented characters of the Cherokee syllabary and used the Bat Creek stone to support his hypothesis that the Cherokee were responsible for many of the mounds and embankments in eastern North America (Thomas 1890). The words are: R, QL, YH, VD. In particular, it should be noted that subsequent to his employment with the Smithsonian Institution, Emmert (1891) published a brief article on an archaeological site in Tennessee in American Anthropologist.
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