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Ancient Visitors and Settlers in the Americas
A Commentary on Barry Fell’s America B.C.
By Neil DeRosa
America before the Common Era?
Have the American continents been explored and even settled by Europeans long before
Columbus or Leif Erickson ever set foot on these shores? If so, then our knowledge of
ancient history is ruefully lacking—especially of our own American history. One
scientist, a world authority on many of the dead languages of the Bronze Age, thinks so.
Although the title of Harvard professor Barry Fell’s Bicentennial book, is America B.C.,
the ”B.C.” can be equally interpreted as “before Columbus” or “before Christ,” but the
latter seems more appropriate since most of the facts brought to light as a result of his
researches apply to the earlier time frame. This well-known epigrapher is the principal
scientist of the current paradigm challenge under discussion. His theory is applicable to
our ongoing theme that one highly qualified individual in a particular field or discipline
employing well substantiated evidence and a careful scientific approach, can present an
impeccable case for an extraordinary hypothesis that should be taken seriously by
mainstream science—but normally isn’t. This article does not dispute the credible
evidence that other, non western peoples, especially the Chinese, have explored and
influenced the Americas before Columbus’ arrival; but since Fell’s 1976 work does not
deal with this issue, it is not included in this article.
History begins wherever we find the written word; and here in America, if you know
what to look for, there is an abundant record written in stone, dating from the millennium
before the Common Era. But the stone inscriptions that Fell uses as evidence are scoffed
at by institutional archeologists, if not as outright forgeries, then as “marks made by
farmers’ plowshares,” or “scratches made by Indians sharpening their spears,” or “drill
marks made by colonial stonecutters.” These inscriptions however, are often identical in
shape, size, location, and scientific dating to known inscriptions in stone found in Europe
and other places. There they are recognized by scholars as written words carved out in
Ogam, the alphabet of the ancient Celts, or in any one of several other Bronze Age
alphabets and languages such as Libyan, Egyptian, Punic, Iberian, and Basque. Various
standard dating methods of these artifacts indicate extreme antiquity. Moreover, the
monuments, bronze implements, the pottery shards, and other art relics found in
conjunction with these inscriptions are known to be associated with these same cultures
and peoples.
Here then is another extraordinary, but most likely true hypothesis being relegated to
subjectivity. Why? Because the evidence is discarded with the explanation that it is not
what it appears to be. This evidence has been gathering piecemeal since colonial times,
but until recently most scholars did not know how to interpret it. Now that they do (or
should) know, as several ancient languages and their alphabets have since been
deciphered, mainstream science still refuses to take it seriously; thus reinforcing our
ongoing theme that there is something wrong with science. This theory, along with other
credible theories already discussed, must be entered into in the record of Apocryphal
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science for future reference. Perhaps more generations will pass before the opportunities
missed to add to our knowledge of the world around us will be recognized.
The Lapidary Record and an Oral Tradition
“The men of Tarshish established colonies in eastern North America, the settlers drawn
from the native Iberians (that is Celts and Basques) of the Guadalquivir valley in
Andalusia.” The most advanced culture in Spain at the time was Phoenician (or Punic).
The Phoenicians were world famous traders and seamen in the ancient world. Tarshish,
one of their major cities, was well known in antiquity for its great ships.
“The first authenticated find of an engraved Phoenician tablet in an American context
was that of a Tartessian inscription found in 1838. This tablet was excavated from a
burial chamber found at the base of Mammoth Mound, in Moundsville West Virginia.”
Although the inscriptions could not yet be deciphered, scholars recognized by its
similarity to Iberian writing that it must be of European origin. The idea that Europeans
had visited and settled North America in ancient times was an acceptable scientific
hypothesis until around 1870, at which time the opinion became widespread that no such
visitors or settlers had arrived before Columbus, and Moundsville was forgotten. (157; all
page references are to America B.C. Artesian Publishers reprint.)
The Moundsville tablet was thereafter considered to be a recent Cherokee artifact or a
fake, and the mounds themselves, the product of Woodland Indian culture,
notwithstanding that they were similar to those found in Portugal. Other early efforts to
identify the tablet were spurious and further discredited epigraphy in America. Interest in
the Tartessian inscription was renewed in 1974 by Professor G. Carter who noticed
similarities to Libyan Inscriptions deciphered by Fell elsewhere. (163) Fell was familiar
with the style of ancient Semitic writing without vowels and written from right to left,
and he made rapid progress.
He translated the tablet to read: The memorial of Teth / This tile / His brother caused to
be made. (158)
During the 1940s Dr. W. Strong collected hundreds of inscribed stones from the
Susquehanna Valley. They were found by Fell to be of ancient Basque, Celtic and Punic
origins, grave markers from a Bronze Age settlement of 800-600 B.C. (170)
In 1901-02, F. Russell, of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, translated an ancient Creation
Chant of the Pima Indians of the Southwest. Although his effort was respectable, he
failed, according to Fell, to recognize the chant as an ancient Semitic hymn. Russell’s
translation, which renders the Chant childlike and nonsensical, is on file in the Bureau’s
archives. When Fell translated the Chant using a Semitic dictionary, the result was “a
conception of the Creation as logical as any found in ancient scripture,” (171) even
including a “flood myth” familiar to many from Biblical and Sumerian writings.
The first two stanzas Fell’s translation of this oral tradition Chant read: In the beginning
the world-magician created the earth. As time went by he set plants upon his handiwork.
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The Pontotoc stele, discovered or brought to light by field archeologist G. Farley, “found
in Oklahoma, is apparently the work of early Iberian colonists in America,” and is dated
~800 B.C. The inscribed words found on the stele identify them as extracts from the
known (to Egyptologists) Hymn to the Aton, by Pharaoh Akhenaton (circa 1300 B.C.).
(159)
Part of the stele reads: “When Baal-Ra rises in the east, the beasts are content, and when
he hides his face, they are displeased.”
The Davenport Calendar stele, found in a burial mound in Iowa in 1874, by Rev. M.
Gass, is a petroglyph comprised of a scene depicting a group of worshipers holding hands
and gathered around a ceremonial object—a kind of maypole—with a rendition of the
sun and stars, a “mirror,” and strange writing. It is now known to be inscribed in three
languages: Egyptian hieroglyphics, Iberian-Punic, and Libyan. The Egyptian writing
could have been deciphered at the time of its discovery but wasn’t. The stele was
condemned as a meaningless forgery by mainstream scientists from Harvard and the
Smithsonian on the grounds that they could not read the inscriptions. Because of poor
scholarship a national treasure and priceless artifact might have been lost; but luckily that
didn’t happen. In fact, this is one of the most important steles ever discovered because it
is the only one on which is inscribed related messages in a tri-lingual text of known
languages. It is kept in the Putnam Museum in Davenport, Iowa. (261) Fell’s translation
of the three languages follows:
The Libyan reads: This stone is inscribed with a record / It reveals the naming, the
length, (and) the placing of the seasons.
The Punic-Iberian reads: Set out around this is a secret sign/text defining the seasons
delimiting.
Neither the Libyan nor the Punic-Iberian scripts had been deciphered when the stele was
discovered in 1874, yet both yield mutually consistent readings which can be confirmed
by other competent epigraphers. This constitutes a priori verification of their
authenticity.
The Egyptian Hieroglyphics found on the Davenport stele, written in the informal or
Hieratic style (as opposed to the formal Temple style), reads as follows:
To a pillar attach a mirror so that when the sun rises on New Year’s day it will
cast a reflection on the stone called The Watcher. New Year’s day occurs when
the sun is in conjunction with the constellation Aries in the House of the Ram,
the balance of the night and the day being about to reverse. At this time (the
spring equinox) hold the festival of the New Year, and the religious rite of the
New Year. (265)
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This translation can also be confirmed by other epigraphers. In another line of evidence it
can be shown that the Davenport stele is an example of the known Djed Festival of
Osiris, an Egyptian rite discovered by A. Erman from a tomb inscription of the XVIII
Dynasty in Thebes, Egypt. The Djed Festival is one and the same as that depicted and
described on the Davenport Stele found in Iowa.
The Orient Point stele, discovered in 1888 in a shell bed on the eastern tip of Long
Island, NY, now sits in the Museum of the American Indian in New York. No one
questions its authenticity; it is simply considered to be an example of Amerindian rock
art, depicting a hunt. In fact it is inscribed in two languages, Egyptian and Libyan. The
stele, which dates from ~ 900 B.C., could not have been forged since the Libyan alphabet
was not deciphered until 1973. (270) Though Fell concedes that this may be an
Algonquian copy of the original, since some of the symbols coincide with Micmac, a
related tribe to the Algonquian, who Fell believes learned hieroglyphics from the ancient
Egyptians.
The Egyptian script reads: A ship’s crew from Upper Egypt made this stele with respect
to their expedition.
The Libyan text reads: This ship is a vessel from the Egyptian dominions.
Many inscriptions found in Ogam in the New England area and elsewhere are cited by
Fell. Some examples are as follows: An Ogam inscription found near South Woodstock
Vermont reads: The precincts of the Gods of Iargalon. (240) Another is on a tomb marker
nearby that reads: Lugh son of Valiant. (60) A stone chamber near South Royalton
Vermont disclosed two Ogam inscriptions. The entrance lintel reads: Temple of Bel.
Fell’s translation of an inscription inside the chamber reads: Pay heed to Bel, his eye is
the sun.
Epigraphy
After these introductory examples and remarks on some of the least ambiguous evidence
we have, the reader is probably wondering by what authority Fell is making his claims.
What allows him to render the translations and interpretations he makes? Fell devotes
considerable space in America B.C., and also in Bronze Age America and in numerous
other articles and scholarly publications in making his case. Our task here is to
demonstrate if possible how Fell’s work is consistent with the science of epigraphy and
also with archeology, as it was originally understood; that is, as a science which studies
ancient manuscripts and inscriptions. A brief recounting of the history of epigraphy
follows:
During the 12th Century A.D. Irish monks continued the work of many centuries of
preserving the knowledge of the ancient classical civilizations. One beautiful work
written by them at that time was the Book of Ballymote, which contained numerous
ancient alphabets; “alphabets galore,” as the Irish say. One part of the book, derived from
an even earlier manuscript, is called the “Ogam Tract” because it contains some seventy
varieties of Ogam, the ancient script of the Irish. (28) Modern linguists and epigraphers
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ridiculed this work when it first became known to them, considering it the childish
meanderings of secluded monks with nothing better to do. Eventually as more evidence
came in from field archeologists, “Line 16” of the alphabet list was recognized as the
variety of Ogam that had been recently discovered in lapidary writing inscribed on
ancient monuments in the British Isles. (47) Ogam was thereafter recognized as the
ancient alphabet of the Celts who had come from Iberia to settle Britain, finally migrating
to Ireland and Scotland after they had been driven out of England by the Gauls. But if
these Irish and Scottish Celts had ancient roots in Iberia, perhaps their written alphabet
had also.
Besides “Line 16” of the Ogam Tract, which became the model for the recognized
“grooved writing” or “finger writing” of the ancient Celts in Britain, Scotland, and
Ireland; the Tract also contained, in Lines 1 - 15, several earlier versions of Ogam not yet
recognized by epigraphers and archeologists of the day (indeed, they are not recognized
to this day). The Book of Ballymote also contained the ancient alphabets of Punic,
Iberian, Phoenician, Libyan, and Egyptian scripts; (58) many of which could not be read
or understood until modern epigraphers later deciphered them, beginning with
Champollion’s famous deciphering of the Rosetta Stone under Napoleon’s decree.
But the honor of being the first scientist to decipher an ancient inscription in stone goes to
Charles Vallancey, who in 1784 predicted the location of, and deciphered, the tombstone
of an ancient Celtic hero named Conan Colgac, who as legend had it was killed in battle
and buried on a certain mountain top in Ireland in 283 A.D. (31) Vallancey sent a field
assistant named O’Flannagan to climb the mountain to see if there indeed existed the
inscribed ancient tomb of Conan Colgac. O’Flannagan found the tomb and inscription,
whereupon Vallancey deciphered it using Line 16 of the Ogam Tract, which was
variously translated in several versions since then. Thus began the history of epigraphy,
but not without the usual incriminations and accusations of fraud.
It has not yet been mentioned that the many varieties of Ogam in the alphabet list were
accompanied by line-by-line translations into Gaelic, the language of Ireland, and written
in the well-known Romanesque or Gothic alphabet. The Gaelic translation of Line 16,
(and also of the other alphabets of the Tract), was the key to the new science of
epigraphy. This key also seems to have been independently discovered by Champollion
in his deciphering of the Rosetta Stone, on which the Egyptian hieroglyphics were
juxtaposed line-by-line with an accompanying translation in ancient Greek, a known
language. This ingenious but simple method of Vallancey and Champollion bears
mention here because it is the key that unlocked the door to all future epigraphy, and the
deciphering of ancient languages and alphabets in general—including Fell’s deciphering
of the ancient inscriptions found in America, which by a consistent application of the
same principle, must be credible.
Lines 1 – 15 of the Ogam Tract, which included the most ancient forms of Iberian Ogam,
remained a mystery because out of some 400 known inscriptions in Great Briton, no
examples of it were found. Lines 1 - 15 were still considered to be mere monkish
shenanigans; special codes used among the monks the way “pig Latin” is used by
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children today, not real alphabets representing real languages. But eventually many of
these alphabets too were deciphered by Fell, and confirmed by other epigraphers with
similar discoveries of inscriptions with similar dating in the Iberian Peninsula. The work
is still ongoing. One interesting and ironic twist in this saga is that much of the field
evidence and examples of these ancient languages and alphabets, dating from the first
millennia B.C. and before, was found not in Europe, but in the Americas, because the
inscriptions had not been erased as “pagan writing” by the over-enthusiastic early
Christians of Europe. They were found where no European was ever supposed to have
gone before Columbus or Leif Erickson.
The New England Celts
Before 467 A.D. when “the lamps went out all over Europe,” which was of course the
year Rome fell, the memory of a “land beyond the sunset,” Iarghal or Iargalon, survived
among Irish scholars. (45) But gradually over the centuries that followed that memory
faded, and by 1492 it was all but forgotten. Nevertheless it had happened that the Celts
and other peoples of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East had crossed the Atlantic
and had visited or settled those shores many times over thousands of years. The Celts
favored New England, perhaps because it reminded them of their homeland.
The New England Celts employed an Ogam alphabet of at least 12 letters without
vowels, the same as that used in Spain and Portugal of the time (~800 B.C). For those
willing to attribute to coincidence anything that doesn’t fit into their preconceived biases,
consider the unimaginable odds against identical alphabets in two separate places arising
by chance. In other words, the people who made the inscriptions in Iberia were the same
people and culture as those who made them in New England. (193)
Julius Caesar wrote an account of the Celts after his invasion of Briton in 55 B.C. He
noted their considerable knowledge of the stars and of their motions, and of the
dimensions of the earth. He also noted their great ships, (to be discussed in the next
section). The scientists and teachers of the Celts, in those days thought to be magicians,
were called Druids. (195) The monuments built or used by the Druids, such as the famous
Stonehenge in England, are proven by modern studies of them to have been astronomical
observatories, made by a people with advanced scientific knowledge and engineering
skills. (196) Fantastic though it may seem, similar monuments were also built in New
England in the millennium before the Common Era.
One of the most important findings of (Fell’s) work in Vermont has been the
demonstration that certain megalithic monuments are related to astronomical functions
of a like nature to those in Briton and other parts of Europe, and that some of them
carry Celtic inscriptions referring to their astronomical functions. (196)
But it was the solstice monuments first discovered by R. Stone at Mystery Hill in North
Salem, New Hampshire that are the most impressive. Before 1965, it was not known that
an ancient astronomical observatory built 3000 years ago had existed there. This
discovery was the first clear indication that the ruins of Mystery Hill were the work of
people who regulated their calendar in the same way as the builders of the megaliths of
Europe. (205) The Celts used the calendar attributed to the Greek philosopher
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Hippocrates, but is perhaps much older. This “Hippocratic” calendar year begins on the
day of the spring equinox in March (when the sun is directly over the equator); the next
important date is the summer solstice when the sun reaches its furthest northern
declination of 23.5°; next is the autumn equinox in September; and then the winter
solstice of -23.5° south azimuth (when the sun is in declension at its furthest angle to the
south of the equator).
That the ancient Celts of New England had this knowledge is evident in the many
monuments and inscriptions discovered by Fell and his associates. These include a
calendar circle at Mystery hill in which azimuth angles related to these seasonal dates can
be shown to coincide with several standing marker stones seen from an observation
platform, with the mean deviation from the calculated angles being only minutes of an
arc. (206) These calendar sites were designed so that certain marker stones, notches or
excrescences would be identified as places where the sun would rise or set on key dates,
when viewed from a specified observation platform or position. For a year that begins
with the spring equinox there is a stone to mark the position of sunrise or sunset, another
stone for Beltane on May 1st, another marking the June solstice, and so on. (215)
To accomplish this feat of engineering, the Druids would obviously have to be able to
predict in advance the position of the sun on these dates in order to set the markers or
build their monuments accurately. They would also have to be able to determine true
north. All of this presupposes that a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy existed in
New England, 3000 years ago.
Mysterious “root cellars” have been known to exist in New York and New England since
colonial times. But they were not built by the early colonials who themselves found them
here when they arrived. Neither were they built by the American Indians who denied
building them, and who could not have made the Ogam inscriptions found in many of
them nor have made the astronomical calculations. Neither were the structures
constructed as root cellars. Most were temples to the Celtic god Bel, who was probably
the same personage as the Semitic god Baal. They were also used as calendar regulators,
which is the same thing as saying that they heralded the arrival of important religious
festivals, such as Beltane on the first day of summer, dedicated to the sun god Bel. (209)
They were built to the same precise specifications as the calendar regulating structures
described above. As pertains to the stone buildings, Fell collaborator B. Dix comments:
The building of so many substantial stone buildings (over 200 are now on record)
shows that the work was done by permanent colonists from Europe, and that New
England was occupied by Celts as early as the first millennium B.C. Reiterated claims
that the buildings are “root cellars” made by colonial farmers during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries must be dismissed, though it is true that some of the stone
buildings were converted to mundane uses by those settlers who discovered them on
their property. (214)
The advanced understanding of astronomy and other sciences, and the ability to put that
knowledge to use in the construction of buildings, megaliths, dolmans, and monuments
often used to regulate the calendar, implies that they also had the ability to navigate
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accurately by the stars and the position of the sun. They even possessed navigational
instruments, as we shall see. Many other examples of these structures are described by
Fell, and can be found in the References section.
Bronze Age Navigation
Although the exact location of the ancient city of Tarshish is not settled science among
historians, Fell maintains that Spanish archeologists are fairly certain that it was in
southwestern Spain; and also that the Tartessians used a distinctive variant of the
Phoenician alphabet. (93) From the Bible we learn that the ships of Tarshish were the
largest known to the Semitic world of ancient times, and are referred to in several places
in the Old Testament. The merchants of Tarshish were renowned for their transport of
riches and precious commodities to all parts of the ancient world. These facts are also
corroborated by Spanish archeologists. The Celts, who moved down from the North in
large numbers were in intimate contact with the Tartessian and Phoenician cultures, and
must have learned the art of shipbuilding from them. (94)
It is not unlikely, given Fell’s evidence, that these different cultures cooperated in
voyages to America in order to mine precious metals and engage in the fur trade. (94)
One inscription, called the Bourne stone, recorded the annexation of the Massachusetts
area by the Punic king Hanno. (95) An inscription found in Paraguay reads: Inscription
cut by Mariners from Cadiz exploring. (98) One found at Mount Hope, Rhode Island
reads: Mariners of Tarshish this rock proclaims. (99) An inscription in Ogam found on
Manana Island, off the coast of Maine reads: Ships from Phoenicia, cargo platform. An
Ogam inscription found in Saint Vincent Island in the West Indies, dated ~800 B.C.
reads: Mabo discovered this remote western isle. (115) A long and detailed inscription in
Phoenician script found in Parayyba, Brazil in 1886, now lost, reads in the first two lines:
This monument has been cut by the Canaanites [i.e. Phoenicians] of Sidon who, in order
to establish trading stations in distant lands…set out on a voyage in the nineteenth year
of the reign of Hiram [i.e. 536 B.C.]. (111)
It is now a well established scientific fact that late Bronze Age sea-going commerce was
well developed and highly organized by at least 500 B.C. This is not disputed; what is
disputed is of course that such commerce ever extended to the Americas. For example, a
letter was excavated in Pergi, Italy and written on gold-leaf. “This letter (written in
Etruscan, which Fell deciphered) deals with a shipment made from Tyre to Italy, and
shows that extremely valuable cargoes were entrusted to the Tyrian vessels, is this case
almost certainly one of the ocean-going Tarshish class.” (102) The letter is in effect a
detailed contract, with several references to the local and national gods of the parties
involved in the transaction.
The counter argument is that all of the good evidence is found in Europe, and this does
not prove that it applies to any oceanic travel outside of the Mediterranean Sea. But there
are also well documented records of early voyages across open oceans. In 140 B.C.
during the Han Dynasty, the emperor of China commissioned ocean voyages spanning
thousands of miles reaching southern India, with subsequent trade routes being
established between the Chinese, Indian, and Arab civilizations. Greek shippers had long
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established trade routes to India; and in 30 A.D., using the monsoon winds crossed the
Indian ocean. Upwards of 100 ships set out for India each year to pursue the lucrative
commodities trade in silks, spices, and gems in exchange for Roman gold. There is little
doubt that these were sailing ships exploiting the monsoon winds, and not galley ships
with crews of rowers. (109)
Contrary to folklore, the ancients did not think the earth was “flat;” in fact the Greek
philosopher Eratosthenes had calculated the circumference of the world in 239 B.C. as
being about 28,000 miles, an error of only ~13%. Longitude was set by dead reckoning,
that is, by the sun, moon, and stars; and “the astronomical observations were set into an
early type of astrolabe which combined with the cross staff for measuring the elevation of
the midday sun…at the time of their meridional passage, yielded a direct reading of
latitude.” (110) Other mechanical instruments discovered by archeologists, for
calculating the time of day, the position of the stars, for converting angles from polar to
elliptical coordinates, and so on; were invented in ancient Libya and ancient Greece.
(120) It is a mistake to think that the “age of navigation” began only with Vasco da
Gama, Diaz, and Columbus. (110)
Columbus’ expedition in 1492 amounted to 88 men in 3 small ships, two of which were
only 50 feet in length. The ships of the ancient world were often considerably larger and
surprisingly well built. As mentioned above, no less an authority than Julius Caesar
attested to the great size and seaworthiness of Celtic ships. (113) In the battle of Britain
in 55 B.C. the combined Celtic forces placed a fleet of 220 sailing ships against Rome,
ships that could even sail into the wind. But they lost to the disciplined Roman army, who
threw grappling hooks from their galleys when the wind died. (116)
The well designed Celtic ships had hulls which were held together with heavy beams
bound with iron chains; they also used iron anchors. (117) A sunken Celtic ship
discovered by Dr. Margaret Rule off the coast of Guernsey, (in the English Channel)
demonstrated the truth of Caesar’s words. It had timbers made of oak beams two feet
thick. (124) But just as Rome had earlier destroyed the sea power of Carthage (the capital
city of the Phoenician civilization), in 149 B.C., it is clear that Rome broke the power of
Celtic Navigation, although there is some evidence that under the Romans, Celtic
voyages continued for some time. (200)
Evaluation – Pros and Cons
There are several possible reasons why Bronze Age exploration of the Americas is not in
the written record that has come down to us from classical civilization. One obvious
reason is that the “Dark Ages” following the fall of Rome in 467 A.D. really were in
many respects dark. Tribal warfare erupted, lines of communication broke down, and
centers of learning were destroyed. It took Europe hundreds of years to recover from this
collapse. It would be a mistake to say that the ensuing “age of religion” was completely
detrimental to learning and the preservation of classical civilization. The example of the
Irish monks given above is certainly one example where this was not so; and there are
others. Still there were many cases where religious intolerance and suppression had a
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chilling effect on learning and the preservation of ancient knowledge. The burning of the
famous library of Alexandria is an oft quoted example.
Another reason there is no ready memory of ancient voyages to America is that written
language during the bronze age was still essentially in its infancy. Most writing was done,
and only rarely, on stone or clay tablets, with gold leaf later coming into play, and for
obvious reasons only for the very wealthy. Another reason is time. Perhaps a thousand
years went by between the heyday of the Classical Age and the Renaissance when
interest in knowledge and discovery were again renewed. During that length of time, it is
not surprising that historical facts and oral traditions could be forgotten, besides which,
the earth’s whether cycles tend to bury old evidence under layers of sediment.
Archeologists must dig it up; it is not an easy process.
So it is not surprising for new generations to forget the knowledge of the past. What is
surprising to this writer is the tendency of today’s science establishment to resist new
ideas and new discoveries, in patterns that often seem to repeat themselves. The good
evidence found in America, inscribed in stone, is dismissed automatically because it
would require a paradigm shift to accept it. And those are presently out of fashion.
On the negative side; it is true that science must proceed cautiously. Archeological finds
must be provenienced carefully to assure against fraud and mistakes. Translations must
be corroborated by other epigraphers who are qualified to make the attempt. And new
hypotheses must not claim more than they are entitled to claim. In a work of this type it
would be inappropriate for this writer to draw any final conclusions, except to say that
based on patterns we’ve seen before, and based on what seems to be the ubiquity of
Kuhn’s Law, we find Barry Fell’s case to be compelling, though much more research is
needed.
The Method of the Detractors
One other reason this writer tends to lean toward the validity of Fell’s thesis is
observation of the methods of detractors, a phenomenon we’ve noted before. A certain
method of argument is used when the paradigm challenger’s case is strong. The key to
this method is to attack the weakest points, (in this case of Barry Fell’s argument), and to
ignore all of the good evidence. If the good evidence is critiqued, it will necessarily have
to be misrepresented.
A case in point is a short article by W. Hunter Lesser, entitled “How Science Works And How It Doesn't,” published in The West Virginia Archeologist Volume 41, Number
1, Spring 1989. The article is critical of Fell’s decipherment of an petroglyph found in
West Virginia and reported on by Fell in an article in 1983 entitled, “Christian Messages
in Old Irish Script Deciphered from Rock Carvings in W. Va.,” (Wonderful West Virginia
47(l): 12-19). Lesser begins with a veiled ad hominem attack on Fell’s credibility as a
scientist by giving a primer for beginners on the scientific method and by listing typical
techniques of a bad scientist. He also states explicitly that Fell is working in a vacuum,
that is, without support or feedback from his peers. This is all absurd on the face of it
since Fell is a world renowned epigrapher with innumerable credible publications and
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contributions to the field; he is the founder of the Epigraphic Society, and has had
numerous collaborators and supporters in his work over the years. As the point of the
Lesser article was to discredit the earlier Fell article, we leave our reportage there since
Lesser makes no comments on the actual article.
Another website, Straight Talk about God, engages in more abuse and ridicule of another
decipherment of Fell supposedly inscribed in ancient Hebrew, of the Ten
Commandments, called the Las Lunas Decalogue, an apparent forgery made by
Mormons. Other critics have ridiculed Fell’s contention that the Irish monks have visited
America during pre-Columbian, Christian times.
No one can reasonably argue that any scientist dealing in cutting edge, paradigm
challenging subjects can possibly get it all right. It may well be that some of Fell’s work
is erroneous or partly so. But this does not invalidate his thesis as a whole. After all, it
would only take one correct decipherment, dated and provenienced correctly, to prove
Fell right. There is much more than that.
Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank Donal B. Buchanan, Secy/Treasurer of The Epigraphic Society, and
Editor, ESOP, for reading, commenting on, and suggesting corrections for this article. An
excerpt from his comments follows:
Nice treatment of Fell, if somewhat rosy. Fell COULD and DID make errors (and
would admit them eventually; he always fought mightily in defense of his
decipherments). I know, for instance, that in one case he read an Iberic inscription
backwards and across the puncts (dividing marks used in some ancient scripts --rather
like reading a word across a period or semicolon). This does not really matter. What
matters is that I would not have had the knowledge to spot that if I hadn't studied Iberic
--and I studied Iberic because I was inspired by Fell. And because of all the times he
was RIGHT.
References:
Fell, Barry: America B.C., Pocket Books, NY, 1989; (2006 reprint by Artesian
Publishers)
—— Bronze Age America, Little Brown & Co; Boston, 1982
Websites with information relating to the work of Barry Fell:
The Epigraphic Society website: http://www.epigraphy.org/index.php
The Equinox Project is an organization that currently supports the work of Barry Fell:
http://www.equinox-project.com/drfell.htm
Lesser, W. Hunter: “How Science Works - And How It Doesn't,” The West Virginia
Archeologist Volume 41, Number 1, Spring 1989:
http://cwva.org/ogam_rebutal/lesser_how_sci_works.html
12
Straight Talk about God website: http://asis.com/~stag/americab.html
History Channel website:
http://boards.historychannel.com/thread.jspa?threadID=935&start=0
ESOP Vol. 13; contains Fell’s work on the Las Lunas Decalogue:
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:KogInY6xdfwJ:www.epigraphy.org/volume_13.ht
m+The+las+Lunas+Decalogue+%22Barry+Fell%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us
Fell, Barry: “Christian Messages in Old Irish Script Deciphered From Rock Carvings in
W. VA” Wonderful West Virginia, 47(1): 12-19:
http://cwva.org/wwvrunes/wwvrunes_3.html
Irish in America Before Columbus:
http://www.aislingmagazine.com/aislingmagazine/articles/TAM17/Columbus.html
Trans-oceanic Connections of the Ancient Americans:
http://www.trends.net/~yuku/tran/tran.htm
Some megaliths, stone structures, and dolmans can be viewed at:
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=10510
http://www.stormfront.org/whitehistory/hwr6c.htm
http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/mysthill.htm
The Djed Festival of Osiris: http://www.egyptianmyths.net/djed.htm