SECRETS OF ANCIENT AMERICA, ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND LEGACIES OF PHOENICIANS, CELTS AND OTHER ANCIENT

SECRETS OF ANCIENT AMERICA “This is a fascinating exploration of the deep history of human migrations around the planet. Drawing from evidence systematically and irrationally dismissed by many of the professional archaeologists, Lehrburger shares his path of discovery, his pioneering field research, and his heartfelt observations about the peopling of the Americas. Clearly, there is a truer story here that has been right under our noses all along.”

JOHN MAJOR JENKINS, AUTHOR OF MAYA COSMOGENESIS 2012 AND DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR 2012 STUDIES

“Carl Lehrburger’s comprehensive documentation of the dizzying number of ancient petroglyphs, artifacts, and sites in the Americas is stunning. This work proves beyond any doubt that many cultures from around the world came to the Americas and permanently left evidence of their extensive knowledge in the rocks and people who inhabited this land.”

SCOTT WOLTER, FORENSIC GEOLOGIST, AUTHOR, AND HOST OF THE POPULAR TV SERIES AMERICA UNEARTHED

“Threatening to topple the ‘archaeopriests’ who still think Columbus discovered America, Lehrburger strikes at the heart of the matter with his New History. An intimate and brilliantly illustrated journey back to the time of ancient sky-watchers … a game-changing work.”

SUSAN B. MARTINEZ, PH.D., AUTHOR OF THE MYSTERIOUS ORIGINS OF HYBRID MAN

“Impressive insights into the spirituality of ancient stargazers abound in Carl Lehrburger’s compelling, personally guided tour of archaeological sites from Stonehenge to Newport and from Serpent Mound, Ohio, to the Hindu campsites in the Mojave Desert. Fascinating research by an inquiring mind will inspire those who are curious about the new dimensions of archaeoastronomy and spirituality.

Wherever a shaft of sunlight from the winter solstice has shined upon the ancient petroglyphs left by ancient Celtic seafarers in Ireland or along the eastern seaboard, you can bet Carl Lehrburger has been there to record it on camera. His easy-toread compendium of sacred sites and archaeoastronomy is a spectacular, exciting guide for our own journey.”

GUNNAR THOMPSON, PH.D., ARCHAEOLOGIST, ANTHROPOLOGIST, AND AUTHOR OF AMERICAN DISCOVERY: OUR MULTICULTURAL HERITAGE

Acknowledgments I was able to write a new history of America only by standing on the shoulders of others to whom I owe my gratitude, as follows: Peter Shotwell, editor Dorian Taddei for discoveries, insights, and reflections.

PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIAL Martin Brennan: The Hidden Maya (1998) and The Stones of Time (1994).

Barry Fell: America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World (1975) and Saga America (1980).

Epigraphic Society: The Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers (ESOP).

Wayne May, publisher: Ancient American magazine.

William McGlone, Phillip M. Leonard, James Guthrie, Rollin Gillespie, and James Whittall Jr.: Ancient American Inscriptions: Plow Marks or History? (1993).

William McGlone, Ted Barker and Phillip M. Leonard: Archaeoastronomy of Southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle (1999).

Gunnar Thompson: American Discovery: Our Multicultural Heritage (1994).

Wikimedia Commons and its contributors (commons.wikimedia.org).

Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia and its contributors (wikipedia.org).

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCHERS, MENTORS, CONTRIBUTORS, AND COLLEAGUES Ted Barker, Carl Bjork, Martin Brennan, Ida Jane Gallagher, Hugh Gardner, John Major Jenkins, Gerry Lehrburger, M.D., Phillip M. Leonard, Bill McGlone, Kean Scott Monahan, Roderick Schmidt, Dorian Taddei, Gunnar Thompson.

GUIDES, DUST KICKERS, AND FELLOW EXPLORERS Arlo Acton, Rubin Amador, Tarry Carter, Shawn Davies, Liev Eenes, Sig Lonegren, Toby Hall and Cheryl Yambrach Rose, Keith Jefferies, Michael Mideke, Peter Oatman, Chris Patenaude, Marc Saxe, Richard Simmons Jr., Steve and Anne Smith, Todd Stoddard, Cathy Taddei, Bill Tilley, Crystal and Wayne Trickle, Jim Walter, Michael Waugh, Earl Wilson, Fred Templeton, and Jim Walton.

INSPIRATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT The Lehrburger family and Julianaa Satie.

To all, including those unnamed: Thank you!

Americans aspire to be a “forward-looking” people, often failing to look back. But if we were to look back in time, at our history, and discover the true story of this land, what would we see? And how different our world, our existence, and our lives would be today … and can be tomorrow.

Major sites of ancient discoveries in North America described in this book

Contents Title Page Epigraph Acknowledgments Introduction: Challenging Long-Held Views THE HEART OF THE MATTER THE OLD HISTORY: ARE WE LIVING IN FLATLAND? THE ARCHAEOPRIESTS LANDING OF THE DIFFUSIONISTS

Chapter 1: Two Stories of Columbus DISCOVERING A NEW HISTORY THE USUAL STORY OF COLUMBUS THE REAL STORY OF COLUMBUS EMERGES THE DYNAMICS OF SLAVERY AFTERMATH

Chapter 2: American History ABC BARRY FELL’S AMERICA B.C. THE PHOENICIANS IN AMERICA THE PHOENICIAN NEWTON STONE IN SCOTLAND THE BOURNE STONE THE CRESPI COLLECTION FROM ECUADOR OTHER PHOENICIAN/AMERICAN DISCOVERIES THE CELTIC OGHAM WRITING ON THE NEWTON STONE COINS BY THE HUNDREDS THE DAVENPORT RELICS CONSPIRACY THE CRITICS PREVAIL

Chapter 3: The Stars and the Stones ARCHAEO—WHAT? MEGALITHIC IRELAND AND MARTIN BRENNAN

Chapter 4: Celtic New England FINDING THE TRAILHEAD EXPLORING CELTIC AMERICA AN AUSPICIOUS MEETING STANDING STONES AND PERCHED ROCKS

THE NEW HAMPSHIRE RING OF STONE AMERICA’S STONEHENGE

Chapter 5: They Settled in Mesoamerica MARTIN BRENNAN IN MEXICO THE HERO TWINS OF THE POPOL VUH THE MAYAN CALENDAR JOHN MAJOR JENKINS AND THE GALACTIC ALIGNMENT THE HIDDEN SIGN LANGUAGE OF THE MAYA CHICHÉN ITZÁ’S EQUINOX SERPENT THE AZTEC QUETZALCOATL AND THE MAYAN KUKULCÁN INFLUENCES FROM AFRICA AND ASIA? INFLUENCES FROM INDIA?

Chapter 6: Sacred Sexuality at the Pathfinder Site MEETING BILL McGLONE IN COLORADO THE PURGATOIRE RIVER CANYON ARCHAEOASTRONOMY BASICS THE PATHFINDER MEETING THE HUNTER AND THE GODDESS A SECOND PATHFINDER ALIGNMENT DIVINE SEXUALITY—THE STORY OF CHANGING WOMAN

Chapter 7: Equinox Sunrise: Celtic Sun Deities in Colorado DIFFUSIONISTS AT ODDS A COWBOY GUIDE CRACK CAVE, SOUTHEASTERN COLORADO EQUINOX SUNRISE AT CRACK CAVE

Chapter 8: Old World Cosmologies at the Anubis Caves CELTIC RELIGION IN OKLAHOMA MITRA, MITHRA, OR MITHRAS ANUBIS CAVES INSCRIPTIONS THE SIX MONTHS OGHAM INSCRIPTION AND THE NOSE POINTER ALIGNMENT THE SILENT OPERA AND OTHER SUNSET EQUINOX DISPLAYS CELTIC GODDESSES IN CAVE 2 COSMOLOGY AND CONSTELLATIONS

Chapter 9: More Celtic America LUGH AND THE FESTIVAL OF LUGHNASA CROSS-QUARTER DAY ALIGNMENT AT THE SUN TEMPLE COSMOLOGY OF THE SUN TEMPLE CELTS IN KANSAS CAVE HOLLOW SUNRISE

OTHER ENCOUNTERS EQUINOX SUNSET CAVE NEAR RUSSELL, KANSAS FURTHER INDICATIONS OF CELTIC MIGRATIONS IN AMERICA

Chapter 10: Westward to a Dwelling Place of a Great Spirit WESTWARD TO CALIFORNIA A DESTRUCTIVE LEGACY THE EQUINOX SUNRISE LIGHT SERPENT AT MOJAVE NORTH SCHMIDT’S THEORIES OF TRANSOCEANIC DIFFUSION MORE SOLAR MARKERS OTHER MOJAVE NORTH PETROGLYPHS THE SEA ROCK

Chapter 11: Mojave North II—Did They Come Across the Pacific?

WHERE HAVE ALL THE MYSTICS GONE? CROSS-QUARTER DAYS AT MOJAVE NORTH SHIVA’S LINGA? THE EPIGRAPHY OF MOJAVE NORTH LUNAR ALIGNMENT DISCOVERIES CEREMONIAL BASINS MYSTERY THE ROOTS OF MOJAVE NORTH ENDANGERED HISTORY AT MOJAVE NORTH

Chapter 12: The Great Basin Melting Pot THE GREAT BASIN GREAT BASIN JOURNEYS ENCOUNTERS WITH A ROCK ART INVESTIGATOR PETROGLYPH SITES NEAR BISHOP, CALIFORNIA A STORY OF THE KIVA THE STORY OF KOKOPELLI CUPULES AND GRINDING HOLES DIFFUSION OF VEDIC CULTURES VIA THE PACIFIC INTO THE GREAT BASIN? EAST MEETS WEST IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

Chapter 13: Midwest Relics, Mounds, and Controversies THE DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION OF MOUNDS IN NORTH AMERICA COPPER MINING IN MICHIGAN WAYNE MAY’S IDEAS AND THE MOUND BUILDERS’ CULTURE THE SERPENT MOUND OF OHIO THE CASE FOR OLD WORLD RELICS FROM THE MIDWEST FAKES? IN THE END, CONTROVERSIES AND SKEPTICISM

Chapter 14: Hebrews, Romans, and Early Christians REPORTS OF HEBREW CONTACTS IN THE NEW WORLD THE BAT CREEK STONE THE NEWARK HOLY STONES SEMITIC SCRIPTS HIDDEN MOUNTAIN—A HEBREW FORTRESS IN NEW MEXICO? HIDDEN MOUNTAIN CONSTELLATIONS OTHER HIDDEN MOUNTAIN CONNECTIONS ARTIFACTS FROM CALALUS, “AN UNKNOWN LAND” IN THE ARIZONA DESERT THE CHEROKEES, DNA, AND OTHER CONNECTIONS TO THE HEBREWS

Chapter 15: More to Learn about Ancient America INDUS VALLEY CONNECTIONS CHINESE CONNECTIONS JAPANESE CONNECTIONS MINOAN, PHOENICIAN, AND GREEK CONNECTIONS ROMAN CONNECTIONS MORE IRISH AND WELSH CONNECTIONS ARAB CONNECTIONS CONNECTIONS TO MESOPOTAMIA AND EGYPT VIKING CONNECTIONS A NORWEGIAN VILLAGE IN AMERICA AND THE SUPPRESSION OF THOR HEYERDAHL THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR CONNECTION DO WE NEED MORE PROOF?

Chapter 16: The Legacy of the Conquest AMERICA BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE SPANISH THE CHURCH AND THE SPANISH MONARCHY MAJOR FACTORS IMPACTING THE CONQUEST AFTERMATH: THE IMPOSITION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE COLUMBUS MYTH

Chapter 17: Awakening a New History A RETURN TO PLANET OF THE APES? A WORLD IN AMNESIA THE SEARCH FOR THE SACRED THE SERPENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS A RETURN OF THE MAGI? A MIND ADJUSTMENT IS REQUIRED MUCH TO BE DONE A FINAL PERSPECTIVE

Footnotes Endnotes

Bibliography About the Author About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company Books of Related Interest Copyright & Permissions Index

INTRODUCTION

Challenging Long-Held Views I set out to discover a new history of America. This is my story.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER How then to express oneself clearly? By image and by myth, as the sages of all times have done.

RENÉ ADOLPHE SCHWALLER DE LUBICZ (1887–1961)*1

I have always been fascinated with symbols, which, beginning in 1989, became an obsession in my study of ancient North American rock art. Yet, the more I studied, the more convinced I became that many of the petroglyphs and astronomical sites did not make sense if it was assumed that they were created by Native Americans alone, free from any outside influences, as established archaeology tells us. For some time now I have intended to write a chronicle of discovering a “New History” of America, as a record of what really happened, including the events lost or intentionally left out of the American creation myth that begins with “Columbus discovered America.” Thus, I began journaling, inspired by the ancient writers of old.

In the decades that followed, I read many books, visited hundreds of known and newly discovered archaeological sites, investigated claims by previous researchers, and became educated on the subject by meeting and collaborating with other researchers. All this resulted in a level of understanding that compelled me to write about these places, the guides I encountered, and the true stories behind historical events that have developed into what is now known as the New History of America; that is, I came to the conclusion that before Columbus’s arrival this land had many, many visitors from the Old World.

Phoenicians, Chinese, Celts, Africans, Indus Valley peoples, Hebrews, Romans, and others —I believe they were all here. Thus, the New History confronts the old historical paradigms, stories, and myths that, as I will demonstrate, were established to disguise an authentic past.

The New History as told in this book starts with two stories about Columbus. The first is the “usual story” we heard in school as children—that he thought the world was flat and that he believed he landed near the China of the great khan and that he accidentally discovered America. Based on this story, he was honored with his own special national holiday, not only in the United States, but also in all of Latin America and Spain. This is the legacy that we inherited. The “real story,” however, is very different. He knew where he was going and why. Then it highlights his lies about his slave trading and, most horrific of all, his cold-blooded, self-justified genocide of an entire Indian nation.

Following the stories of Columbus comes my journey of inquiry and enlightenment, which begins with an examination of some of the pioneers of the New History, which is largely based on the rock art, inscriptions, and artifacts left by the ancients. The New

History I uncovered, complemented by the historical record and well documented by the research of others, reveals the travels and settlements of the pre-Spanish explorers, miners, immigrant settlers, and teachers who made it to the Americas. They left their marks carved in stone for us to discover, to know they were here. Those artifacts convey more than most of us can imagine or give them credit for. These teachings, prayers, cosmologies, and remembrances are keys to demonstrating a greater awareness of what it means to be an American and what it means to be human.

This is the story of ancients in America. It is also our story because what we think matters. What we believe matters. It truly makes a difference if our thoughts and beliefs are built on truths or on lies that are at odds with what actually occurred and what is real.

The loss of our true history is akin to the absence of our memory. How can one possibly comprehend our inner nature and purpose without memory? The heart of the matter is our consciousness and awareness, for without them we are unable to discern the purpose of life. But how do we awaken from a thousand-year-long sleep; how do we restore a healthy memory from a situation of amnesia?

THE OLD HISTORY: ARE WE LIVING IN FLATLAND? The Old History has been established and maintained to sustain self-serving educational institutions and economic power structures invested in economic exploitation and dominion over nature and, often, over other human cultures. Thus, while a New History challenges the Old History, the idea that we’ve been living in a lie, populated by participants who remain asleep, is hardly new and was first presented to me in Edwin A. Abbott’s Flatland, a great but little book published in 1884. The place called Flatland was a two-dimensional world composed of only length and width; that is, until the main character discovered the third dimension: height. But to his amazement, no other Flatlander believed him. In spite of his tireless efforts at explaining the mathematics, the destitute hero was destined for prison and lamented: Hence I am absolutely destitute of converts, and, for aught that I can see, the millennial Revelation has been made to me for nothing. Prometheus up in Spaceland was bound for bringing down fire for mortals, but I—poor Flatland Prometheus—lie here in prison for bringing down nothing to my countrymen. Yet I exist in the hope that these memoirs, in some manner, I know not how, may find their way to the minds of humanity in Some Dimension, and may stir up a race of rebels who shall refuse to be confined to limited Dimensionality.1 There was no escaping the dogma of his peers for the revolutionary Flatlander who wasted away in prison. Indulge me, reader; can you name any real people who have wasted away in prison, or worse, for trying to bring in a new way of thinking?

Beyond the Greek mythological story of Prometheus, there are historical characters such as Socrates, who was forced to commit suicide for “seducing the minds of the youth of Athens.” Also from ancient Athens comes Plato’s story of the Cave, in which he suggested that shadows cast by candlelight were like our perceptions of reality. Almost two millennia later Nicolaus Copernicus refrained from publishing his On the Revolutions

of the Celestial Spheres until he was on his deathbed in 1543 because, as taught by the Catholic Church, Europeans believed Earth was the center of the universe.

After the death of Copernicus, Galileo Galilei became a proponent of the heliocentric view and championed the Copernican revolution, which was met with great controversy.

Despite the irrefutable evidence of his telescopic observations and his prominence as a physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, and philosopher, Galileo was condemned by the churchmen and scientists of his day and denounced to the Roman Inquisition. The Catholic Church rebuked the sun-centered solar system as “false and contrary to scripture,” and Galileo was convicted by the Inquisition of heresy and forced to recant.

While the greatest scientist of his day was then forced to spend the rest of his life under house arrest, his contemporary, Giordano Bruno, was not so fortunate. Sentenced to be burned alive at the stake, bravely he pronounced, “Perchance you who pronounce my sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it.” He was burned alive at the stake. The numerous charges against him included holding opinions contrary to the Catholic Church and erroneous opinions about the cosmos, Christ, the Trinity, and the Incarnation. He was also convicted of dealing in magic and divination and denying the virginity of Mary.

Before the fire was lit, when an image of “Our Savior” was presented to him he turned away. Then, according to a notice in the Torture Museum in Siena, Italy, a block that had protruding spikes was forced into his mouth to permanently silence both his opinions and screams while he slowly died on the pyre.

Fig. I.1. Giordano Bruno seeking the pardon of Pope Clement VIII. Bruno was burned at the stake for his heretical views by the Inquisition in 1600 after seven years’ imprisonment and a lengthy trial. ( The Trial of Giordano Bruno by the Roman Inquisition, bronze relief

by Ettore Ferrari, Campo de’ Fiori, Rome.)

(Photo © Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons) What was remarkable about these persecutions was the fact that the heliocentric view, as I will document in chapter 17, was not new at the time and had been understood for a thousand years before. Thus, Copernicus and Galileo actually rediscovered what had previously been known since before the Catholic Church was founded.

THE ARCHAEOPRIESTS The stories of the Promethean Flatlander, Socrates, Plato, Galileo, and Bruno all convey a sense of dismay. How can society present something called the rational, yet act irrationally? How can something be said to be factual, yet be contrary to the facts? In the context of our topic of the New History, how can history be stated as an accurate accounting of the past when the ancient records dispute and disprove such an accounting?

It is easy to conclude that efforts to change long-held belief systems will be met with opposition. The subject at hand, a New History of America that starts with a new look at Columbus’s so-called discovery, reinforces the view that society will challenge and resist change.

So who are the proponents and enforcers of the Old History? Can we put a name to deception and blind ignorance? Words will always fall short, but in the context of my story, such antagonists to progress can be called the archaeopriests. The word itself reduces the control of American history over time to two self-serving institutions: the church and the academic/anthropological/ scientific “priesthood.” In regard to outside contacts with the Americas they are isolationists, believing the Americas were largely isolated from global influences. Opposed to them are the diffusionists, of whom I am one.

LANDING OF THE DIFFUSIONISTS I must confess that over many decades I thought quite incorrectly that we were on the verge of a great leap forward, where a New History would shed light on the Old History.

After reading America B.C. by Barry Fell in 1986 (published in 1976) and American Discovery by Gunnar Thompson in 1996 (published in 1994) I was confident that the old paradigm would soon crumble. This seemed especially likely after reading a January 2000 Atlantic Monthly magazine article titled “The Diffusionists Have Landed.” While the article conceded that the archaeopriests retained the upper hand, it suggested a coming renaissance by raising fundamental questions not addressed by archaeologists.

The independent inventions theory, also referred to as the isolationist theory, is the idea that North America’s natives evolved free from cross-cultural influences and advanced internally until Columbus arrived. On the other hand, diffusionism, as advanced by Barry Fell, Gunnar Thompson, William McGlone, and others, bases its ideas on the premise that cultures came in from the outside to influence myths, artistic traditions, languages, and other cultural traits, as demonstrated by evidence left by transoceanic cultures. While it is now universally accepted that Norse settlers were in Newfoundland at least a thousand years ago, the mainstream archaeopriests vehemently oppose claims that they had any influence on the American Indians or that there was any other significant pre-Columbian New World contact. However, Mark K. Stengel, in the Atlantic article, wrote: To many, the inventionists have clearly gained the upper hand, having marshaled shards, spear points, and other relics that indicate the independent cultural development of a native people whose Ice Age ancestors came overland from Northeast Asia. Still, the diffusionists have a habit of raising awkward questions—

questions that even some mainstream scholars find hard to ignore, much less to explain away. Who carved Phoenician-era Iberian script into a stone found at Grave Creek, West Virginia? How did a large stone block incised with medieval Norse runes make its way to Kensington, Minnesota? Why would a rough version of the Ten Commandments appear in Old Hebrew script on a boulder-sized tablet near Los Lunas, New Mexico? Conversely, how could the sweet potato, known to be indigenous to the Americas, have become a food staple throughout Polynesia and the Pacific basin as early as A.D. 400?2 Stengel’s list goes on and on, yet the act of suppressing history is so insidious that it would not occur to the normal person that it has been happening. The conundrum is confounded by the many hoaxes and frauds that have been perpetuated over the centuries with fake artifacts. These have proved to be an obstacle to serious investigations and a source of discredit to many well-intended diffusionists. Equally disheartening, uncritical and often erroneous reporting of discoveries by diffusionists has created a disincentive for archaeologists to seriously evaluate promising and legitimate evidence of an Old World presence in America before Columbus.

Fortunately, there are an increasing number of books and articles documenting aspects of the New History, and the Internet has tremendously advanced access to information and independent research. Today, I believe we are in the same sort of transitional stage of acceptance for the New History that Europe went through in the debates over heliocentrism. However, there are many obstacles to overcome, one of which, in a double sense, could be called an ethnocentric problem.

In the bitter battles challenging the “Columbus discovered America” myth, anthropologists and many Native Americans have suggested that the diffusionist approach is insulting to Native Americans because it claims that “they didn’t do it all themselves.”

In addition, the diffusionists’ stance deliberately challenges long-held views within the mainstream academic institutions while also denigrating the economic and religious interests of the institutions that benefited from the conquest. The legacy of the myth that Columbus discovered America is an Old History that glorifies and justifies conquest, a policy that continues into the twenty-first century. To examine these issues and the subversion of our history, let’s begin with the myth of Columbus and then explore what remains of the visitors who came before him.

1 Two Stories of Columbus Truth must be our guiding light, because history sets the very tone and direction of our society, and only a truthful society can effectively meet the challenges that lie ahead. A society that denies the truth about its past will never be free to face the realities of the future; it will always have its feet mired in a false identity.

GUNNAR THOMPSON, AMERICAN DISCOVERY

DISCOVERING A NEW HISTORY I begin by noting that nobody, most notably this writer, can discover the New History by himself or herself. Before me there have been many notable and revealing people presenting the New History, emphasizing that Columbus did not discover America, our history books are false, and our identity as a nation is contrived.

Among the significant efforts that span centuries, Thompson’s American Discovery is among the most comprehensive and reader friendly. Unlike other leading New History proponents who are not trained in archaeology, Thompson is a professional anthropologist with a doctorate from the University of Illinois who has served on the faculties of seven universities. In his American Discovery, he articulates the New History of America—that America was known throughout the ancient world and that our shores were busy ports for visiting explorers, miners, settlers, and those seeking a new life.

According to Thompson, the lack of knowledge by the American public of Columbus in light of the New History has its reasons. In the following excerpt, he discusses some of these reasons and explains why academics and institutions like the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution have continued to ignore the New History.

The reasons are academic nepotism and ethnocentric bias. Most historians and anthropologists are loyal to a doctrine of cultural isolation that was originally promulgated by a medieval religious fraternity. During the 1800s, the Columbian Order promoted the ethnocentric belief that Columbus was chosen by God to bring the first Christian civilization to America. Although the modern scholars abandoned the religious premise of American discovery, they adhered to the belief that no significant voyagers preceded Columbus to the New World. This belief is often referred to as “The Monroe Doctrine of Cultural Isolation.” Because of this doctrine, establishment scholars automatically dismiss evidence of pre-Columbian cultural diffusion as heresy. The resulting academic myopia is a clear indictment of scholars who claim that their beliefs are based on scientific principles.1 Yet, as of this writing, academics and institutions like the Smithsonian have prevailed in keeping the Columbus myth alive and presenting the Old History as fact. Thompson’s work is more fully described in chapter 15.

THE USUAL STORY OF COLUMBUS We have all heard the usual story of Columbus and how he completed four voyages to the Americas between 1492 and 1504, thereby igniting the colonization and exploration of the Americas by Europeans. We are also told that he thought he had landed in the islands that abutted what was then known as the East Indies, so he named the natives Indians. The four voyages of Columbus took place during a thirteen-year period: First voyage: 1492–1493 Second voyage: 1493–1496 Third voyage: 1498–1500 Fourth voyage: 1502–1504 As for America, it was named after the little-known Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed farther along the South American coast than Columbus and so was the first to positively identify the new land as a continent. However, the veneration of Columbus as “first discoverer” and what are believed to be his ideals dates back to colonial times and has been interwoven into our cultural history ever since. For example, the name Columbia instead of America first appeared in 1738 in a weekly publication of British Parliament debates that was then sent over to the colonies.

Fig. 1.1. First Landing of Columbus on the Shores of the New World (Painting by Dióscoro Teófilo de la Puebla Tolin) Following the American Revolution, the use of Columbus as the founding figure of the New World nations and the use of the word Columbia, or simply the name Columbus, spread rapidly as numerous cities, towns, counties, and streets were named after him.

Today, in academic vocabulary, a lasting commemoration of Columbus is the term “preColumbian,” which is routinely used to refer to the peoples and cultures of the Americas before his arrival.

Writing in the October 2009 issue of Smithsonian, Edmund S. Morgan, Ph.D., Sterling

Professor emeritus of Yale University, gave an introduction to the legacy of Christopher Columbus: “Columbus surely expected to bring back some of the gold that was supposed to be so plentiful. The spice trade was one of the most lucrative in Europe, and he expected to bring back spices. But what did he propose to do about the people in possession of these treasures?”2 Columbus and Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had expected to take dominion of the newly discovered lands, but what might they offer that would ease the process? If it was deemed necessary to rule by force, what would justify such a strategy?

Morgan’s answer reflects the historical truth: The answer is that they had two things: they had Christianity and they had civilization… . Christianity has meant many things to many men, and its role in the European conquest and occupation of America was varied. But in 1492 to Columbus there was probably nothing very complicated about it. He would have reduced it to a matter of corrupt human beings, destined for eternal damnation, redeemed by a merciful savior. Christ saved those who believed in him, and it was the duty of Christians to spread his gospel and thus rescue the heathens from the fate that would otherwise await them… . The superior clothing, housing, food, and protection that attached to civilization made it seem to the European a gift worth giving to the illclothed, ill-housed and ungoverned barbarians of the world.3

THE REAL STORY OF COLUMBUS EMERGES A much different story of Columbus begins in the city of Toledo, located in the center of what became a united Spain in the early fifteenth century. Occupied since the Bronze Age, it had become an important commercial and administrative nexus for the Roman Empire.

After its fall to the Visigoths, Toledo served as their capital until the Moors conquered it in A.D. 712. During the following centuries, there were many revolts and many rulers as its population became largely Muladi, a mixture of Arab, Berber, and European ancestry, who were brought up in the Arab culture. Thus, Toledo became the center of la convivencia— the peaceful coexistence of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Then in 1085 it became the first city taken in la reconquista of Spain by the Christian forces led by Alphonso VI of Castile.

After the conquest, Toledo continued to be a major cultural center, in part because its twenty-eight Arabic libraries were not pillaged. Thus, a center was established where books were translated from Arabic or Hebrew into Spanish by Muslim and Jewish scholars and then from Spanish into Latin by Castilian translators. This allowed long-lost knowledge to spread through Christian Europe, and the results were major advances in medicine, mathematics, art, astronomy, and geometry—but not in geography.

It was in Toledo that Christopher Columbus and his brother Bartolomeo (or Bartholomew) set up a cartographic studio, and around 1490 they drew a map, but this was not a map of the world as they knew it to be. Christopher and his brother who followed him knew they were not going to sail to China, as the Old History tells us. Why? There were more than a few reasons.

Fig. 1.2. Map drawn by the Columbus brothers ca. 1490, in the Lisbon workshop of Bartolomeo and Christopher Columbus. (Wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus) First, they would have known the world was not flat, contrary to what has been commonly thought and taught in the modern West. A 1945 pamphlet issued by the British Historical Association, which was an organization dedicated to educating teachers, suggested that this was the second of twenty of the most common errors that were taught to schoolchildren.

Historian James Hannam explained: The myth that people in the Middle Ages thought the earth is flat appears to date from the seventeenth century as part of the campaign by Protestants against Catholic teaching. But it gained currency in the nineteenth century, thanks to inaccurate histories such as John William Draper’s History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874) and Andrew Dickson White’s History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896). Atheists and agnostics championed the conflict thesis for their own purposes, but historical research gradually demonstrated that Draper and White had propagated more fantasy than fact in their efforts to prove that science and religion are locked in eternal conflict.4 Another historian, Jeffrey Burton Russell, claims that “with extraordinary [sic] few exceptions no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the earth was flat.”5 The myth that the ancients thought the Earth was flat was largely an invention of the nineteenth century.6 Still another historian, Jack Weatherford, added, “The Egyptian-Greek scientist Eratosthenes … already had measured the circumference and diameter of the world in the third century B.C. Arab scientists had developed a whole discipline of geography and measurement, and in the tenth century A.D., Al Maqdisi described the earth with 360 degrees of longitude and 180 degrees of latitude. The Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai still has an icon—painted 500 years before Columbus—that shows Jesus ruling over

a spherical earth.”7 Second, Columbus would have known about the New World because of his access to both Viking and Arab maritime maps. His wife was Felipa Perestrello, whose family had intermarried with the Drummond-Sinclair family of the famous Henry Sinclair, prince of the Orkney Islands (located north of Scotland). Legend says that Sinclair had set sail a century earlier from Norway to explore the New England coastline and establish a colony in the Americas.8 If this were true, surely details of his voyages would have been available to Columbus through his wife’s family. However, more important, there were The Saga of Erik the Red and Greenlander and Icelandic stories and texts about the eleventh-century Vinland colonies.9 Third, Columbus knew how to get to the Americas because, in addition to Viking maps and information gleaned from his famous in-laws, Columbus and his brother would have seen Arabic and other charts that depicted the New World as they searched the libraries in Toledo for other maps to copy from. That these were in foreign languages would not have been a problem. Although Columbus was not a scholar, he nevertheless could speak and read Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, and perhaps Catalan, skills learned through collecting more than fifty thousand books by the time of his death. If he couldn’t read the maps himself, the libraries had translators, including Jewish scholars, who could.

Moreover, he had sailed in Portuguese ships engaged in the slave trade to the Gold Coast of Africa, and these ships, because of the trade winds, had to perform the volto do mar (“turn of the sea” or “return from the sea”) to get back to Europe. Thus he knew the trade winds would take him west to the new lands.

Fig. 1.3. Chart of Atlantic Ocean currents and winds used by early Portuguese explorers during Henry the Navigator’s lifetime, ca. 1430–1460, to perform the volto do mar

maneuver.10 Incidentally, in 1488, Columbus first approached the king of Portugal with his proposal for a cross-ocean voyage. However, the ruler was uninterested, especially after Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 in search of an eastern route to China, which was finally found in 1513.

Fourth, Columbus knew how much food to take—thirty days’ worth. And, at the end, where did the “Admiral,” as he called himself in his logs, get his map, before any land had been sighted? We read from his diary: “25 September 1492 Very calm this day; afterwards the wind rose. Continued their course west till night. The Admiral held a conversation with Martin Alonzo Pinzon, captain of the Pinta, respecting a chart, which the Admiral had sent him three days before, and in which it appears he had marked down certain islands in that sea; Martin Alonzo was of opinion that they were in their neighborhood, and the Admiral replied that he thought the same.”11 Columbus routinely falsified the distances he traveled each day so the crew would not think they were so far from Spain. On a larger scale, it is rather farfetched that the experienced navigator made a “mistake” in his calculations, as often claimed, by using the 1,480-meter Italian “mile” for the longer 2,177-meter Arabic “mile.”12 This gave him control over any maps that would be made from his notes. For example, in a diary entry from the same date, he wrote, “They sailed … four leagues and a half west and in the night seventeen leagues southwest, in all twenty-one and a half: told the crew thirteen leagues, making it a point to keep them from knowing how far they had sailed; in this manner two reckonings were kept, the shorter one falsified, and the other being the true account.”13 Fifth, another deception was that he was going to meet the great khan of the Moguls.

This was the name Europeans applied to a number of nomadic groups who at one time had almost conquered them, so, with this in mind, the king and queen gave Columbus a letter to give to him. Unlike most Europeans, Columbus could have learned from the Arabs and Jews who traded overland with China that the Moguls had ceased to rule in 1368 and had been replaced by the native Chinese Ming dynasty. As Weatherford commented in Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World: With so many empires striving to maintain the illusion of the [evil] Mongol Empire in everything from politics to art, public opinion seemed obstinately unwilling to believe that it no longer existed. Nowhere was the belief in the empire longer lasting or more important than in Europe, where, in 1492, more than a century after the last khan ruled over China, Christopher Columbus convinced the monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand that he could … sail west from Europe across the World Ocean and arrive in the land described by Marco Polo.14

Fig. 1.4. Handwritten notes by Columbus inscribed in the Latin edition of Marco Polo’s book Le livre des merveilles du monde.

In fact, Columbus carried Polo’s volume with him on his voyage, well annotated with his own notes.

Sixth, what was Columbus going to give the khan? This is a good question, because he only carried cheap trinkets, hawk bells, and little colored-glass beads; these were hardly presents for a great ruler, but they were what he would have seen in Africa that attracted “uncivilized” primitive peoples.

Seventh, if the khan had still ruled, what would his reaction have been to Columbus’s staking a claim on his islands, killing and enslaving his people, and taking their (his) gold?

Eighth, how much were Isabella and Ferdinand aware of these details? Probably not at all. They were openly disappointed upon Columbus’s return because there was so little gold and no spices to show for the voyage. Thus, to get funding for a second voyage (and a third and a fourth), Columbus had to make them believe that he had landed on the outer fringe islands of the khan’s empire.

Researcher Wade Frazier wrote: Columbus was so intent on saying that he found Asia that he engaged in a bizarre act in Cuba. In June 1494, after sailing along the Cuban coast for a month, he compelled his crew to swear that Cuba was not an island but was in fact, “the mainland of the commencement of the Indies.” He made his crew swear out a notarized statement to that effect, and told them they were subject to a “penalty of 10,000 maravedis and the cutting out of the tongue that each one hereafter should say contrary.” He also

threatened whippings. Columbus’s hagiographers again have a difficult time explaining such behavior, which was possibly to fulfill royal objectives to search for Asia. If Columbus could dot that “I” he could go back to Española and keep looking for gold.15 Ninth, another reason that Ferdinand and Isabella were deceived was the “discovery” of two “conflicting” tribes living on the islands, which were supposedly on the outer fringe of the khan’s empire, and who matched the thirteenth-century descriptions of Marco Polo and the fourteenth-century “journals” of “Sir John Mandeville.” (This was a fictional character who, for hundreds of years, was thought to be a real person, although now the writings, whose authorship is uncertain, have been shown to be a compendium of previous travel works).16 In the log of his initial voyage, Columbus spoke of meeting one of the two tribes, the peaceful Arawaks, a people seemingly still living in a “Golden Age.” Morgan, in his article in Smithsonian, describes the island and its inhabitants and imagines Columbus’s reaction. He writes that Mandeville had “told of an island where the people lived without malice or guile, without covetousness or lechery or gluttony, wishing for none of the riches of this world. They were not Christians, but they lived by the golden rule. A man who planned to see the Indies for himself could hardly fail to be stirred by the thought of finding such a people.”17 Previously, Marco Polo had written about a very different tribe: When you leave the island of Java and the kingdom of Lambri, you sail north about one hundred and fifty miles, and then you come to two islands, one of which is called Nicobar. On this island they have no king or chief, but live like beasts. They go all naked, both men and women, and do not use the slightest covering of any kind. They are idolaters. They decorate their houses with long pieces of silk, which they hang from rods as an ornament, regarding it as we would pearls, gems, silver, or gold.18 It didn’t seem to matter to Columbus’s contemporaries that the island of Nicobar had been known since the days of Ptolemy, more than a thousand years before, and was north of Java and part of the Andaman Islands in the East Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from where Columbus “supposed” he had landed. Nor was there a concern—given future developments—that Columbus’s description of some of the supposed inhabitants ended on a rather ominous note that signaled his absolute, unquestioned dominion: October 11–12, 1492: As I saw that they [the Indians] were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, I presented them with some red caps, and strings of beads to wear upon the neck, and many other trifles of small value, wherewith they were much delighted, and became wonderfully attached to us. Afterwards they came swimming to the boats, bringing parrots, balls of cotton thread, javelins, and many other things, which they exchanged for articles we gave them, such as glass beads, and hawk’s bells; which trade was carried on with the utmost good will. But they seemed on the whole to me, to be a very poor people. They all go completely naked, even the women,

though I saw but one girl… . Some paint themselves … with such colors as they can find… . Weapons they have none, nor are acquainted with them… . It appears to me that the people are ingenious, and would be good servants and I am of the opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion. They very quickly learn such words as are spoken to them. If it pleases our Lord, I intend at my return to carry home six of them to your Highnesses, that they may learn our language.19 But teaching the Natives Christianity or the Spanish language and clothing them were not the reasons Columbus was there. One often-taught idea is that Isabella pawned her jewels to sponsor the voyage, but what is seldom mentioned is that Columbus was primarily financed by Ferdinand’s financial minister and Italian bankers, with the condition that he had to pay the loans back. Thus, after land was sighted and visited, he explored another island and wrote about what was foremost on his mind while also showing his unconcern for whatever the great khan might think of his appropriations. This tends to reinforce my belief that visiting the lands of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire was merely a ruse.

October 15, 1492: From this island espying a still larger one to the west, I set sail in that direction and kept on till night without reaching the western extremity of the island, where I gave it the name of Santa Maria de la Concepcion. About sunset we anchored near the cape, which terminates the island toward the west, to inquire for gold, for the natives we had taken from San Salvador told me that the people here wore golden bracelets upon their arms and legs. I believed pretty confidently that they had invented this story in order to find means to escape from us, [Columbus had kept a number of them prisoners, several of whom escaped or were killed while fleeing.] still I determined to pass none of these islands without taking possession, because being once taken, it would answer for all times… . But in truth, should I meet with gold or spices in great quantity, I shall remain till I collect as much as possible, and for this purpose I am proceeding solely in quest of them.20 It is ironic that when Columbus returned to the island of Hispaniola on his third voyage, he sensed a hurricane coming and found shelter and warned the new Spanish governor, who ignored him. The result was the sinking of twenty-nine of the thirty ships carrying the first load of treasure back to Spain.

Thus, during his fourth voyage to the New World, Columbus wrote a letter to the king and queen that summed up his views of the world. He stated, “Gold is the most precious of all commodities; gold constitutes treasure, and he who possesses it has all he needs in the world, as also the means of rescuing souls from Purgatory and restoring them to the enjoyment of paradise.”21

THE DYNAMICS OF SLAVERY However, with so little gold actually found, Columbus had to come up with some other ideas. In a letter to Luis de Santángel (sometimes spelled de Sant Angel), the finance

minister who had helped sponsor his first voyage, Columbus wrote about the certain profits to be made with a second voyage: Another island, I am told, is larger than Hispaniola [Haiti], where the natives have no hair, and where there is countless gold; and from them all I bring Indians to testify to this. To speak, in conclusion, only of what has been done during this hurried voyage, their Highnesses will see that I can give them as much gold as they desire, if they will give me a little assistance, spices, cotton, as much as their Highnesses may command to be shipped, and mastic as much as their Highnesses choose to send for, which until now has only been found in Greece, in the isle of Chios, and the Signoria can get its own price for it; as much lign-aloe as they command to be shipped, and as many slaves as they choose to send for, all heathens.22 There were two rationales for Columbus’s proposed slave dealings with the “heathens.”

One was that in 1452 and 1454 two papal bulls by Pope Nicholas V had granted Portugal’s King Alphonso V the right to put Moors and unbelievers into hereditary slavery. The other was his convenient description of the second tribe (the counterparts to the Arawaks), the Caribs, whom he described as being like the Nicobarians*2 that Ptolemy had written about and described later by Frederic J. Mouat in 1863 using phrases from Shakespeare’s Othello (Act I, scene 3): [There is] a race of cannibals, formidable not only to their enemies, but to all who approached their coasts … a dreaded “anthropophagi” whose heads do not grow beneath their shoulders.23 While the Arawak people of the Caribbean, which included both the Carib and neighboring tribes, fit the European preconceived idea of the “noble red man” that was derived from Mandeville, Marco Polo, and others, the Carib tribe fit the equally preconceived role of “man-eaters.” Thus, Columbus could circulate stories of them having “dog-like” noses, which would sound reasonable to Europeans who had never seen monkeys. He added that they captured young boys, whom they castrated and fattened up like capons for their feasts.

However, Morgan’s account fails to mention that Columbus did not distinguish between the two stereotypes when the slave dealings commenced. More important, he failed to mention that there has never been proof that cannibalism existed in the Caribbean, except perhaps for the ritual eating of dead enemies. This would have been somewhat like the ingestion of Christ’s blood and flesh in the Catholic Communion rite or, as in the case of the Andeman Islanders, to prevent their evil spirits from returning to life.

The curator for the Anthropology Department of the American Museum of Natural History, David Hurst Thomas, in his book Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity, discussed this topic and the opinions of Columbus’s premier biographer, Samuel Eliot Morison (1887–1976): In his Pulitzer Prize–winning Admiral of the Ocean Sea, published in 1942, and the subsequent European Discovery of America (1971–1974), the Harvard historian

Samuel Eliot Morison uncritically employed Bad Indians to lionize Columbus, his lifelong hero… . He portrayed Columbus, in typically stirring language, as “an intrepid mariner and practical dreamer” who met the hardships of land and sea “with stoic endurance.” Among those hardships were the “dreaded man-eating Caribs,” said to live on the island of Dominica, killing and eating all who ventured ashore. One day, Morison relates, the Caribs became so violently ill after eating a Spanish friar that they swore off clerics for good. From that time forth, whenever Spaniards were forced to call at Dominica for water, “they either sent a friar ashore or rigged up the boat’s crew with sacking and the like to fool the natives.”24 The occasional brutality shown by Columbus and his men toward the Caribs was more than justified, Morison argued, because it was directed at club-wielding children of nature who existed halfway between humanity and animality. In Morison’s view, Columbus was sent to the New World because the Caribs were the antithesis of civilized Europeans. They deserved what they got, and Columbus was just the man to set things straight.

Even today, similar portraits turn up in books like James Michener’s Caribbean and other historical novels that are sold in tourist traps from Miami to Trinidad. Michener claimed, for example, that there was historical evidence for the life of the two tribes he portrayed.25 For his slave trade, Columbus clearly had a well-thought-out plan.

On his second voyage, after capturing a few of them, he sent them in slavery to Spain, as samples of what he hoped would be a regular trade. They were obviously intelligent, and in Spain they might “be led to abandon that inhuman custom, which they have of eating men, and there in Castile, learning the language, they will much more readily receive baptism and secure the welfare of their souls.” The way to handle the slave trade, Columbus suggested, was to send ships from Spain loaded with cattle (there were no native domestic animals on Española), and he would return the ships loaded with supposed Cannibals.26 Columbus also wrote about the home base he had built for the enterprises he had envisioned.

In Hispaniola, in the most convenient place, most accessible for the gold mines and all commerce with the mainland on this side or with that of the great Khan, on the other, with which there would be great trade and profit, I have taken possession of a large town, which I have named the City of Navidad. I began fortifications there, which should be completed by this time, and I have left in it men enough to hold it, with arms, artillery, and provisions for more than a year; and a boat with a master seaman skilled in the arts necessary to make others; I am so friendly with the king of that country that he was proud to call me his brother and hold me as such. Even should he change his mind and wish to quarrel with my men, neither he nor his subjects know what arms are, nor wear clothes, as I have said. They are the most timid people in the world, so that only the men remaining there could destroy the whole region, and run no risk if they know how to behave themselves properly.27

When the Santa Maria ran aground before Columbus left the New World, Guacanagari, the local native leader, gathered his people together and helped the Spaniards salvage their possessions. Columbus again was impressed by such good will, writing they were “so full of love and without greed, and suitable for every purpose, that I assure your Highnesses that I believe there is no better land in the world, and they are always smiling.” Columbus emphasized that Guacanagari “was greatly delighted to see the admiral joyful and understood that he desired much gold.”28 But when Columbus returned on his second voyage with thirteen hundred settlers, including soldiers and priests, he found the fort in ruins and the bodies of eleven of the thirty-nine men he had left behind. In retaliation, he designed a tribute system. Every native over fourteen was to provide a “hawk’s bell” of gold every three months, which is about the size of a thimble. Upon payment for the gold, the natives were made to wear tokens as proof the gold had been received. When the Spanish found natives without the tokens, they were made examples of by cutting off their hands, resulting in death.

Historian Howard Zinn wrote in A People’s History of the United States, “The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.”29 It is estimated that about ten thousand natives died handless that way. Other events occurred during the second voyage that are also not well known in our schoolrooms.

Columbus had named the small island of Saona to honor a childhood friend from Savona, Michele da Cuneo (who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage and was also named governor of the island): [Cuneo] … reported in a letter that Columbus had provided one of the captured indigenous women to him. He wrote, “While I was in the boat, I captured a very beautiful Carib woman, whom the said Lord Admiral gave to me. When I had taken her to my cabin she was naked—as was their custom. I was filled with a desire to take my pleasure with her and attempted to satisfy my desire. She was unwilling, and so treated me with her nails that I wished I had never begun. But—to cut a long story short—I then took a piece of rope and whipped her soundly, and she let forth such incredible screams that you would not have believed your ears. Eventually we came to such terms, I assure you, that you would have thought that she had been brought up in a school for whores.”30 By the time of Columbus’s third voyage, a few of the islands had been heavily settled and more gold had been found and was being mined. However, Cuneo had advanced and had been replaced as governor, and Columbus was shipped back to Spain in chains because of charges made by the settlers. In a letter defending himself Columbus observed, “Now that so much gold is found, a dispute arises as to which brings more profit: whether to go about robbing or to go to the mines. A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand.31 However, the queen wrote Columbus that she did not want her (baptized) subjects sold as slaves. Columbus solved that problem by not baptizing them, for which more than a

few churchmen criticized him. But he had witnessed the methods and the profits to be made off the slave trade when he sailed on Portuguese ships to Africa, so he apparently disobeyed the queen, and 560 Indians were shipped off to the welcoming slave markets of that country. But two hundred died, and half of those who remained were ill when they arrived. Of the ones who lived, some were allowed to return, and others were used as galley slaves. The experiment was not continued, and, in fact, soon enough there were almost no Indians to export or work in the mines and on the farms of the Spaniards. In addition, the islands simply did not have that much gold, while Indians who couldn’t deliver their gold quotas and tried to escape into the mountains were hunted down with dogs and killed. In fact, hunting Indians became a “sport,” and their babies were sometimes used to feed the dogs, there being no indigenous animals to supply them with food.

Morgan comments on the observations of one traveler in the New World: “Peter Martyr could rejoice that ‘so many thousands of men are received to bee the sheepe of Christes flocke.’ But these were sheep prepared for slaughter … From a population of 100,000 at the lowest estimate in 1492, there remained in 1514 about 32,000 Arawaks in Española.

By 1542, according to Las Casas, only 200 were left. In their place had appeared slaves imported from Africa [beginning in 1513]. The people of the golden age had been virtually exterminated.”32

AFTERMATH As mentioned, historians have traditionally argued that Columbus remained convinced to the very end that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia, but Kirkpatrick Sale, author of Christopher Columbus and the Conquest of Paradise, argues that a document in Columbus’s Book of Privileges indicates Columbus knew he had found a new continent.

Furthermore, his journals from the third voyage call the “Land of Paria” a “hitherto unknown” possible continent because the volume of water of the Orinoco River could not have come from an island. Thus, it was in this area that he thought the Garden of Eden might be found—that the new continent of South America was the “Earthly Paradise” that was located “at the end of the Orient.” On the other hand, his other writings continued to claim that he had reached Asia, as in a 1502 letter to Pope Alexander VI, where he asserted that Cuba was the east coast of Asia.33 To sum up his career as an explorer blessed by God to spread Christianity, Columbus began his Book of Prophecies (in Spanish, El libro de las profecías) on the third voyage.

Writing between 1501 and 1505, he laid out the events that must occur before the end of the world and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ: 1. Christianity must be spread throughout the world.

2. The Garden of Eden must be found. (Columbus may have thought he found it in Venezuela in 1498, when he eyed the verdant crags of the tupuys of Venezuela.)

3. The Christians must mount a Last Crusade to take back the Holy Land from the Muslims.

4. A new world emperor must be chosen to lead the final crusade against the Muslims, for which Columbus thought the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella would be well suited.34 These were not new ideas at the time, and apocalyptic medieval writers including Joachim Fiore greatly influenced Columbus. At the end of his life Columbus was infatuated with a vision that placed him at the center of the spread of Christianity and as a precursor to the Second Coming of Christ.

Besides Book of Prophecies, Columbus wrote Book of Privileges, also begun on the third voyage, which outlined his rights, including 10 percent of the profits of the New World, that had been part of his contract with the king and queen, which had been taken from him after the troubles of his third voyage. Those two books survived in their entirety; however, it is strange that the logs of his voyages did not. These exist only in partial records as recorded by Spanish bishop and historian Bartolomé de Las Casas, who apparently had access to complete copies. Some have pointed to their destruction as being the work of extremists in the Catholic Church seeking to hide the true facts of what happened during the conquest. Las Casas was initially a settler, slave holder, and feudal land owner who received free labor and tribute from Natives in exchange for theoretically protecting them in a system known as la encomienda. However, he eventually was horrified at what was happening and became the Indians’ fierce defender and was responsible for major changes in the laws governing them. In other words, he would have included more about the enslavement of the Indians if more had existed in the logs (and as one can see from the quotations in this chapter, there is plenty there about this sad subject).35 Moreover, Las Casas would not have known about the influence of the Arabic maps.

After 1492 and the expulsion of the Jews, the Inquisition (established in 1481 by Ferdinand and Isabella) took care to eliminate any remaining Moorish influence in Spain.

A linguistic imperialism also contributed to this endeavor after Columbus returned from the New World. The bishop of Avila, Antonio de Nebrija, was inspired to present the royal couple with the first Spanish grammar book and advised them, “After Your Highness takes under her yoke many barbarian towns and nations with strange tongues, and with the conquering of them, they will need to receive the laws that the conqueror puts on the conquered and with those, our language.”36 Looking forward to our time, it does seem that modern America has become that Christian nation that was envisioned by Columbus. Since winning in World War II, the United States has been in a perpetual war, while producing and selling more weapons and devoting resources to war and destruction by a factor many times greater than any other nation. The foreign policy of the country remains focused on domination and economic control. Conquest continues to be the guiding force in the exploitation of resources and the perpetration of a policy of unlimited growth characterized by excessive consumption and waste—the precedent and tradition established by Columbus and his church.

However, Morgan epitomizes this modern view by rationalizing the conquest of

Columbus as a forward march of civilization when he writes, “That the Indians were destroyed by Spanish greed is true. But greed is simply one of the uglier names we give to the driving force of modern civilization.”37 But there is another tradition and another story of the Americas. There is evidence that the Celts, Romans, Chinese, Egyptians, Africans, Hebrews, Arabs, and many other races and cultures seem to have come here. But where and when? And why is the evidence of their journeys to the Americas not common knowledge today? As I came to learn, their stories are carved on rocks, lead crosses, coins, and many other artifacts, surely demonstrating that many travelers arrived in the Americas long before Columbus.

2 American History ABC The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

MARCEL PROUST

BARRY FELL’S AMERICA B.C. It was more out of curiosity than anything else that I read America B.C. by Barry Fell in 1986, eleven years after it had been published. I thought to myself after reading it, “The telling of the New History of America begins with Barry Fell,” because his underlying conclusions were paradigm shifters in light of what I had been taught. Unfortunately, Fell, the most controversial and prolific diffusionist historian in my lifetime, died in 1994.

Although Fell was a professor at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, his first book, America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World, described a history where Columbus was one of the last and not the first explorers to arrive in the Americas. This book was followed by his other books, Saga America: A Startling New Theory on the Old World Settlement of America before Columbus in 1980 and Bronze Age America in 1982.

What became clear after poring over Fell’s information-packed pages, maps, drawings, and photos was that Old World peoples (Europeans, Indo-Europeans, Chinese, Africans, and others) traveled to the New World for centuries and millennia before the arrival of the Spanish in 1492. He used epigraphy to provide evidence of earlier peoples in the Americas, epigraphy being the study of ancient writing, including inscriptions engraved in stone or other material. Thus, he made translations of Old World inscriptions found in the Americas that included Ogham (or Ogam), Phoenician, and Egyptian hieroglyphs among others.

Fig. 2.1. Barry Fell’s concepts of diffusionism. A composite drawing by the author of concepts presented in Fell’s books America B.C. and Saga America, illustrating his ideas about early transoceanic contacts in the Americas.

I began to investigate some of Fell’s claims and read other books cited by the Harvard professor. One fascinating artifact he addressed was the Bat Creek Stone, which was discovered in 1889 in an undisturbed mound in Tennessee along the Little Tennessee River. Carved letters on the stone were misidentified by the Smithsonian as Indian markings because, after the discovery was published, it was discovered by Joseph Corey Ayoob and Henriette Mertz that the inscription was published upside down.*3 1 Later, in 1971, Semitic scholar Cyrus H. Gordon, Ph.D., identified this inscription as being written in Canaanite, and he translated a clear sequence of five letters as meaning “for Judiah.”2 Yet it is considered a fake by the archaeological community. (This subject will be returned to in chapter 14.)

Fig. 2.2. Map of Atlantic currents. (Map by U.S. Army, Wikimedia Commons)

Fig. 2.3. The Bat Creek Stone, found in Tennessee in 1889 (see also color insert). The words “for Judiah” are written in Canaanite, according to Semitic scholar Cyrus H. Gordon. (Photo by Scott Wolter) Fell’s thesis and the evidence he put forward astounded me at the time. Since he was able to integrate multiple areas of expertise, including maritime travel and European and Indo-European history as well as languages and epigraphy, he opened the eyes of thousands of enthusiasts like me, providing a key to rethink much of what we had been taught.

THE PHOENICIANS IN AMERICA In America B.C., Fell suggested that the greatest of the ancient mariners who crossed the Atlantic long before Columbus were the Phoenicians. They were of Semitic origin and spoke a language that was of the Canaanite subgroup, which used alphabetic letters similar to ancient Hebrew.

There are different theories regarding the earliest Phoenicians. The most predominant is that they emerged from a wider group known as Canaanites who had previously populated the land called Canaan, which stretched from modern-day Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinian territories to the western part of Jordan and southwestern Syria. In the West, this group was called Carthaginians, and the city of Carthage got its name from them when they settled there in 814 B.C. in what is now the northern tip of Tunisia. At the same time, they also established trading posts along the North African coast as far west as Morocco and into southern Spain. The Romans referred to them as the Punis, but this refers only to the Carthaginians in North Africa, who used the Punic dialect and alphabet.

The North African center of the western or Carthaginian ethnic stock of the Phoenicians was Carthage.3 Regarding the Phoenicians, Fell wrote in America B.C.:

Fig. 2.4. The alphabet family tree. The Phoenician alphabet is the root of the modern Western alphabets. (Adapted from S. Khalaf, phoenicia.org.)

In the wake of the Celtic pioneers came the Phoenician traders of Spain, men from Cadix who spoke the Punic tongue, but wrote it in the peculiar style of lettering known as Iberian script. Although some of these traders seem to have settled only on the coast, and then only temporarily, leaving a few engraved stones to mark their visits or record their claims of territorial annexation, other Phoenicians remained here and together with Egyptian miners, became part of the Wabanaki tribe of New

England… . Descendants of these visitors are also to be found apparently among the Amerindian tribes, several of which employ dialects derived in part from the ancient tongues of Phoenicia and North Africa.4

THE PHOENICIAN NEWTON STONE IN SCOTLAND The Newton Stone in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, demonstrates a Phoenician influence in northern Europe and can be compared with similar artifacts in North America. On one side of the pillar are faded, bilingual ancient writings in Phoenician and a Celtic script called Ogham, the vowelless writing system that was principally used long ago in the British Isles. On the other side is a design of a snake along with a variant of the barbell-shaped glyph often associated with astronomical phenomena.

While the translation of the bilingual monument is not conclusively accepted, Lawrence Austine Waddell’s study of the Newton Stone from the 1920s is perhaps the most reliable.

He used previous, unsuccessful efforts to help him identify the Phoenician script as Aryan Phoenician, one of the many different forms of the language. Once he began translating, he was able to find strings of personal, ethnic, and place names. His interpretation reads, “This Sun-Cross (Swastika) was raised to Bil (or Bel, the God of Sun-Fire) by the Kassi (or Cassi-bel[-an]) of Kast of the Siluyr (sub-clan) of the “Khilani” (or Hittite-palacedwellers), the Phoenician (named) Ikar of Cilicia, the Prwt (or Prat, that is “Barat” or “Brihat” or “Brit-on”).”5

Fig. 2.5. The Scottish stone pillar with inscription inserted found in Newton. (© Golux, from Megalithic Portal site, www.megalithic.co.uk.)

I was to discover several dozen good examples of Ogham inscriptions in my journeys throughout the United States, although most were etched horizontally, unlike the Newton Stone.

THE BOURNE STONE More epigraphic evidence of Phoenicians in America was offered by Fell. He identified an Ogham inscription on Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine to read, “Ships from Phoenicia, Cargo Platform.” According to Fell this was a posted inscription informing Phoenician captains where to load and unload trading vessels. Another artifact that Fell says was likely left in North America by Phoenician sailors is the Bourne Stone from Bourne, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. It was found in the foundation of a Wampanoag house around 1800 and was later used as the doorstep for a meetinghouse. It is currently on display at the museum of the Bourne Historical Society. Fell interpreted it to read, “A proclamation. Of annexation. Do not deface. By this Hanno takes possession.”6

Fig. 2.6. Inscription on the Bourne Stone of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The stone weighs three hundred pounds and is 4 by 1.5 feet.

The earliest authenticated Phoenician inscription in the Americas is a tablet in Iberian script discovered in 1838 in a burial chamber at the base of Mammoth Mound, in Moundsville, West Virginia.7 Fell also notes other examples of scripts found in Massachusetts and Oklahoma that were likely employed by Phoenician (Punic) colonists who came from their ancient homelands throughout the Mediterranean.

A comparison of Phoenician writing circa 800–600 B.C. from what is now Lebanon with the styles of Punic writing from Spain and the Massachusetts Bourne Stone demonstrates the similarities, as can be seen by comparing the letters representing the sounds b, g, and d (figure 2.7).

Fig. 2.7. Examples of Punic letters from Phoenicia, Spain, and Massachusetts circa 800– 600 B.C. with two tables showing the fifteen-character alphabet described in Fell’s America B.C., 161.

An April 2013 news article from a local Cape Cod newspaper had the headline “Bourne Stone Continues to Baffle the Experts.” The article cited Judy McAlister, director of the Jonathan Bourne Historical Center, who explained that Fell’s translation and the proposed connection with Phoenicia, along with several other theories regarding interpretations of the inscription, are still in vogue. These included the use of Native American and Chinese languages and the runes of the Vikings. For the latter, she noted author Frederick Pohl’s Atlantic Crossings before Columbus, where a Norse language expert from a century ago claims the inscription was related to “Jesus in Heaven.”

Regarding the confusion over the interpretations and the lack of any serious research since Fell, McAlister noted, “We need a real good researcher that knows all of these things and can decide which one it really is.”8

THE CRESPI COLLECTION FROM ECUADOR In Saga America Fell describes some of the many items collected by Padre Carlo Crespi (1891–1982) that are now housed in the Crespi Collection of Old World Artifacts in Cuenca, Ecuador.9 Born near Milan, Italy, Carlo Crespi Croci was ordained at age twenty-six into the Salesian Society, a Roman Catholic order devoted to helping the poor throughout the world. A tireless Renaissance man in the truest sense, he earned doctorate degrees in

anthropology, natural sciences, music, and engineering, spoke at least five languages, and was, in addition, a botanist, teacher, artist, and organizer of cinemas, along with being a humorous and humanist writer, musical composer, and conductor.10 He first visited Ecuador in 1923 to gather scientific data and artifacts for an international exposition and returned in 1933 to live there permanently.

Among his many passions, Crespi was a collector of the arts, including an extensive collection of archaeological relics that he built a museum to hold. By 1979 it contained paintings, figurines, and statues from many different cultures. Among these were golden statues and tablets with writing and images strikingly similar to those in Old World cultures. These artifacts had been gathered by natives from the Amazon and given to him.

Fell said that many of the surviving relics bear inscriptions in Phoenician, along with Assyrian and Babylonian images made on finely executed gold tablets. He also examined a photograph of a gold zodiac discovered in the Cuenca area and suggested that the letters were composed in the Paphian script of Cyprus, probably sometime before 300 B.C.11

Fig. 2.8. Metal tablet from the Crespi Collection in Ecuador. The relief image seems to portray a Phoenician astrologer-priest.

(From Ancient American, no. 68, vol. 11, 2) From the surviving Crespi artifacts and the photos of others there is also strong evidence that navigators in first millennium B.C. were trading with early Ecuadorians for the abundant gold of the Cuenca region. The date of 148 B.C. has been proposed for one of the plates known as the Masinissa plaque. Writer Warren Cook suggests that the relief image of the astrologer-priest could have originally decorated a temple or shrine as early as 1100 B.C.12 Ultimately, the Central Bank of Ecuador purchased the entire Crespi Collection for four hundred thousand dollars. It considered 6,500 pieces as legitimate; however, only one

thousand objects were placed in its Ethnographic Museum, so the shortcomings are many.

For example, the metal relief plates with strange languages were mysteriously not even mentioned in the bank’s inventory, and subsequently no relief plates were displayed. Also, many objects that had previously been photographed have not been accounted for or seen since, including photos of figurines and relief plates that were published by Erich von Däniken in his book, Gold of the Gods.*4 There remains confusion over the missing artifacts, with indications that some may remain with the bank or that the Salesians have them, while others may have ended up in private collections.

Fig. 2.9. Padre Carlo Crespi (right).

(Photograph by Warren L. Cook, Ancient American) A more recent researcher, Richard Wingate, offers evidence in Lost Outpost of Atlantis for the authenticity of many of the items in the Crespi Collection. He notes, “Similar epigraphy in Father Crespi’s collection was also labeled a clumsy Indian fraud until better trained scholars discovered some inscriptions were written in classically pure Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptian hieratic, Libyan and Celt-Iberian, and Punic.”13 Beginning about 2613 B.C., the Phoenicians had particularly strong cultural relationships with the Egyptians, who could have arrived in the Americas with the help of the extensive Phoenician mercantile navies, who, according to Fell, left evidence in places such as Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Massachusetts.

Another writer, Glen W. Chapman, addressed the mainstream scholars who have belittled claims of the Crespi Collection’s authenticity. He stated, “[The] genuine green porphyry patina on many of the articles … the enormous quantities of cheaply bought gold articles, the metallurgical uniqueness of some of the artifacts (such as the platinum nose cone and the radiators), the Mid-eastern artistic motifs, and the abundance of articles for which little or no market exists (such as the air pipes and the ‘wallpaper’) pose difficult questions for those who carelessly write the collection off as a hoax.”14

It is true that among the extensive collection there were items deemed to be fakes, but Crespi was probably aware of this and accepted and paid for them to ease the poverty of some of his flock. As for the rest of the Crespi Collection, because of negligence, controversy, and a failure to protect priceless artifacts, it continues to be almost completely ignored by professional historians.

OTHER PHOENICIAN/AMERICAN DISCOVERIES Fell cited two other examples of Phoenician artifacts in Saga America. He said that a metal urn discovered in an excavation carried out by the Middlebury Archaeological Research Center in New York contained Phoenician themes of the goddess Astarte with dancing women and was cited by Fell as being similar to Cypriot Phoenician ornaments from around 600 B.C.15 Fell also noted an engraved rock inscription in Nevada of Phoenician origin that had previously been described as an “Indian petroglyph.” He wrote that this rock inscription found at Massacre Lake, originally reported in 1958, was a prayer for rain in the Punic language of Carthage. Reading right to left, Fell interpreted it to read, “May the clouds spew forth rain.”16 In other passages of America B.C., Fell wrote that roving bands of Celtic mariners crossed the North Atlantic beginning around 400 B.C. to discover and then colonize North America. These included Irish, Welsh, and Gaelic speakers from Ireland, Britain, and France. He claimed that the Celts in these countries had originally come from Spain and Portugal by way of the Canary Islands where they found the trade winds that eventually carried them to America, as Columbus did much later. Fell explained his rationale: The advantage of this route was that the winds favor a crossing from east to west, but for Celts accustomed to a temperate climate it had the one drawback that it led them to the tropical West Indies, no place for northerners. So although their landfall lay in the Caribbean, it was on the rocky coasts and mountainous hinterlands of New England that most of these wanderers finally landed, there to establish a new European kingdom, which they called Iargalon, “Land Beyond the Sunset.” They built villages and temples, raised Druid circles, and buried their dead in marked graves. They were still there in the time of Julius Caesar, as is attested by an inscribed monolith on which the date of celebration of the great Celtic festival of Beltane (Mayday) is given in Roman numerals, appropriate to the reformed Julian calendar introduced in 46 B.C.17

THE CELTIC OGHAM WRITING ON THE NEWTON STONE On the other side of the previously mentioned Newton Stone from Scotland are inscriptions in Ogham, the ancient Celtic alphabet. Ogham survives mainly on stone pillars in Ireland and Scotland, but also in the Iberian Peninsula, Africa, and North America.

Fig. 2.10. Ogham lettering on the left side of the Newton Stone. (Re-created from the Lawrence Austine Waddell original in The Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots & AngloSaxons; © Golux)

Fig. 2.11. Detail of vertical Ogham lettering on the Newton Stone (left side).

Ogham is composed of one to five vertical strokes on either side of a stem line or transecting it. Diphthongs, or vowel combinations, are represented by more elaborate symbols.18 In his third book, Bronze Age America, Fell suggested that the Encyclopedia Britannica is mistaken in dating the origins of Ogham back to only the fourth century A.D. As proof, he cites the example of a circa 2200 B.C. amulet of the mother goddess Byanu that was made in the vicinity of Stonehenge in southern England by the Windmill Hill people.19 We shall learn in chapters 3 and 7–9 that Ogham inscriptions from New England, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, and West Virginia were created before the fourth century A.D. date.

COINS BY THE HUNDREDS Hundreds of buried ancient coins add evidence that ancient travelers and colonists were in the Americas, and in Saga America Fell noted that, based on the frequency and time frames of production, these coins were directly tied to the rise and fall of ancient Mediterranean navel powers, including the Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Greeks, and Arabs. In North America and Europe, the distribution of coins also shows a strong correlation with coastal and navigable river waterways. While ancient coins have most often been found by farmers plowing farmland, they have also been discovered (using metal detectors) on beaches and stream beds, in wells, and under building foundations. In all, nearly two hundred ancient coins have turned up on the Atlantic coast of New England, and as many as two hundred and fifty have turned up on the Gulf Coast, from

Florida to Texas, while the third largest distribution (ninety coins) is in the copper mining regions of Michigan.20

Fig. 2.12. Distribution map of ancient coins found in America. (From Fell, Saga America, 35)

Fig. 2.13. Roman coin from the fifth century A.D. found three feet deep in Springfield, Colorado (see also color insert). (From McGlone et al., Archaeoastronomy of Southeast Colorado)

THE DAVENPORT RELICS CONSPIRACY While America B.C. and other of Fell’s books and articles presented hundreds of examples

of Old World contacts with the New World before Columbus, one of the most compelling to me was what Fell referred to as the Davenport calendar stele, or tablet. It was said to have been uncovered in 1874 in a burial mound near Davenport, Iowa, by the Reverend Jacob Gas, who also had possession of two other inscribed tablets that he claimed he found while excavating other large earth mounds in Iowa.*5 21 Considered quite a significant discovery at the time, the tablet was twelve inches long and about ten inches wide and had inscriptions on both sides that Fell interpreted to be etched in three languages: Egyptian hieroglyphic, Iberian Punic, and ancient Libyan.

According to Fell, what seemed incontrovertible about this artifact is that neither Libyan nor Iberian scripts had been deciphered when it was discovered.

The stele appears to be of local American manufacture. It was perhaps made by a Libyan or an Iberian astronomer who copied an older model brought from Egypt or more likely from Libya on a Libyan ship, according to Fell. A priest of Osiris may have issued the stone originally as a means of regulating the calendar in far-distant lands. The date is unlikely to be earlier than about 800 B.C., for we do not know of Iberian or Libyan inscriptions earlier than this date.22 According to America B.C., this stone depicted an eighth-century B.C. Egyptian djed pillar festival that celebrated Osiris’s victory over Set by showing bundles of reeds encircled at the top by rings that represented the backbone of Osiris. Incidentally, Fell was not aware of the two other tablets when he published his interpretation of what he called the Cremation Scene tablet, so named because it depicts apparent dead bodies on the ground around a fire.

I learned that the Davenport tablets were steeped in controversy dating back to the time of Gas’s discoveries between 1873 and 1880. The three inscribed stones along with two elephant-shaped smoking pipes received wide attention in the scientific press, and heated debates arose about their authenticity. The director of Smithsonian Archaeological Investigations, Cyrus Thomas, became the most outspoken opponent, and most archaeologists came to accept his verdict despite his not providing conclusive proof.

Because scholars of the time were not able to read the scripts, the relics were not taken seriously, and their authenticity remained in doubt. Then, almost one hundred years later, in 1970, University of Iowa professor Marshal McKusick claimed in his book The Davenport Conspiracy to have found proof of a hoax.23 This was followed in 1976 by Fell, who claimed in America B.C. that he could read the inscriptions and thus prove their authenticity. However, in 1981, McKusick derisively wrote, “Fell provides us with a pretentious series of revelations, a visionary imagining, speculative might-have-beens, all constructed on phony artifacts, phony coins, phony inscriptions, make believe history, and preposterous linguistics. He has previously erred, and in deceiving himself has deceived the reading public. The fraudulent Davenport tablets of Iowa and an aboriginal petroglyphic tablet from Long Island become ‘Egyptian’ texts.”24

Fig. 2.14. The Cremation Scene Davenport tablet in the Putnam Museum, Davenport, Iowa.

Ten years later, McKusick published an updated version, The Davenport Conspiracy Revisited, which again refuted Fell’s claims.25 In light of the importance placed on the tablets I decided to travel to Davenport to see the controversial objects. I called the museum in advance and arranged to meet the curator, who was familiar with the controversy and history of the objects.

The object of most interest, the Cremation Scene Tablet, was mounted in plaster and situated on a wall enclosed in glass, while below and to the left were the other two tablets.

The curator provided a brief history of the stone tablets, which I was familiar with from reading McKusick’s first book. She said that in her opinion, they were hoaxes, as McKusick had posited. She also pointed out the pipes that Gas claimed to be real. They had been placed in glass cases next to what the curator said were authentic pipes from the indigenous Mound People.

McKusick’s arguments for a hoax included reference to Cyrus Thomas’s investigation in the 1880s that asserted that the slate material was the same as local slate roofs at the time.26 McKusick also repeated early claims by Thomas that many features of the inscriptions resembled images from Webster’s Dictionary that was published only five years before the Davenport discoveries.27 McKusick concluded that hoaxers had planted

the artifacts prior to their discovery by Gas, and to this day, the hoax theory remains the scholarly view.

One of the few serious critical challenges to McKusick’s claim of fakery is from James L. Guthrie, who investigated both Fell’s and McKusick’s assertions in his book The Blind Men and The Elephants: The Davenport Relics Reconsidered.28 Guthrie, a physical anthropologist and DNA expert, stated that McKusick’s hoax scenario, widely adopted by the archaeological community, is “a convenient way of dismissing the relics and discouraging further study. This account, though clearly fantasy, has enjoyed popularity because nothing else is available.”29 Guthrie, along with others, contributed to Ancient American Inscriptions: Plow Marks or History? and therefore is knowledgeable about ancient American epigraphy and many hoaxes that have been uncovered.30 In The Blind Men and the Elephants, he both criticizes Fell’s interpretations and credited him for determining that the Davenport objects reflect North African and Iberian scripts and motifs from the early centuries of the Christian era. Guthrie concluded that the main inscriptions are mainly hieratic, an Egyptian cursive writing that was used alongside hieroglyphics and to which it was closely related. It was primarily written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus and allowed scribes to write quickly without resorting to the timeconsuming hieroglyphs. Guthrie wrote: I have concluded, after a decade of studying photographic and other evidence, and through corresponding with Fell and McKusick about their beliefs, that the Davenport objects are old. The engravings reflect North African and Iberian scripts and motifs of the early centuries A.D., including striking features that would not have been known in nineteenth-century Iowa. Some observations by Fell and McKusick are valid, but many are contrived and can’t be taken at face value. Fell recognized the Iberic and hieratic signs, and some of his ideas provide good starting points for further work by specialists. McKusick has succeeded in erecting a formidable obstacle to further investigation and has provided a classic example of how this can be done.31 Guthrie is the exception in calling for more research into the artifacts. In a recent critique of Fell’s interpretation of the Davenport tablet, Randy Pinsky, a history buff who majored in anthropology from McGill University and is a critic of “pseudoarchaeology,” argues that the tablets are beyond question a fake.32 Echoing the archaeopriests’ views and referring to Fell’s “notorious” America B.C., Pinsky describes Fell’s theories as “replete with errors, self-contradictions and mismanaged facts.” He makes the case that acquaintances of Gas were probably culprits in a hoax and had manufactured the tablets, most likely with the participation of Gas. Not being an epigrapher or a trained archaeologist, I didn’t know if the inscribed stone in the display case was a fake or a real ancient artifact, or if Fell’s claim of three Old World languages was accurate. I found the inscriptions were undistinguishable from each other, and a perfectly etched circle seemed out of character with the other etchings. I left the museum with some doubts and not knowing what to believe about the Davenport tablets.

The story of the Davenport calendar tablet begins with and ends in controversy, and Fell’s association with it added more fodder for the archaeopriests’ campaign to discredit him. Perhaps that is why the relics are still on display, enshrined by the Old World historians as examples of so-called fakery and trickery.

THE CRITICS PREVAIL Despite his pioneering epigraphic studies documenting a New History, Fell made mistakes. For example, in regard to his rendering and interpretation of the Davenport Cremation Scene Tablet, Guthrie points out that he incorrectly drew twelve of the twentyfour signs in the lower arc, omitted three as illegible, and ignored other significant signs.

But more than his occasionally poor scientific methods, his single biggest detriment, according to many of his colleagues, was his temperament.33 Reportedly, he rarely could take criticism without feeling attacked.34 Once mistakes were revealed, Fell’s credibility suffered, and all his good work was thrown out. As with the Davenport material, he became an easy prey for the archaeopriests who were threatened by his overall thesis of a conspiracy by historians to ignore the evidence. Regrettably, it was not just Fell’s reputation that suffered; the entire field of investigation into Old World connections with the New World also became subject to ridicule. Fell’s work was to become the proverbial baby thrown out with the bathwater.

Despite the voluminous body and the depth of his pioneering research, he was largely considered a fraud.

Archaeologist and epigrapher David H. Kelley, both an admirer and critic of Fell, wrote, “We need to ask not only what Fell has done wrong in his epigraphy, but also where we have gone wrong as archaeologists in not recognizing such an extensive European presence in the New World.”35 Fell was a genius who pioneered the deciphering of the Old World presence in the Americas. Despite his mistakes, his three books and his more than two hundred articles in the ESOP journal (which he founded) are a profound introduction and starting point for understanding the New History of America.*6 As a result of the firestorm created by America B.C. and the subsequent campaign to discredit Fell’s work, his critics prevailed in academia. Perhaps the greatest tragedy resulting from the controversy was the failure of the archaeological community to investigate many of Fell’s or other diffusionists’ claims out of fear of losing credibility or, much worse, academic advancement.

With the suppression of Fell’s work and the heretical treatment of modern diffusionist thinkers, the deceptions by archaeologists and the anthropologists continue. Despite this, to thousands of us, Fell had demonstrated there was a great lie, a deception perpetuated by the archaeological community to keep the true history of America a secret. I became determined to discover why this was so and how it was done.

3 The Stars and the Stones ARCHAEO—WHAT? Even though astrology and astronomy were essentially the same discipline in ancient Egypt, Greece, and India, they have since the eighteenth century come to be regarded as completely separate fields. Today, astronomy is the study of objects and phenomena originating outside of Earth and is considered a scientific discipline. On the other hand, astrology uses the apparent positions of celestial objects as the basis for psychological experiences, the prediction of future events, and other esoteric knowledge. While the most important astronomers before Isaac Newton were professional astrologers (including Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo Galilei), interest in astrology declined after Newton with the rise of the Cartesian “mechanistic” outlook during the Enlightenment.*7 There are many different astrological systems, including those developed by the Celts, Chinese, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hindus, and ancient Americans. Moreover, now in the West, approximately 30 percent of Americans believe in its accuracy, but worldwide most astronomers scorn it.1 Nevertheless, Michel Gauquelin, a French psychologist and statistician, documented that there is a correlation between astrological birth charts and an individual’s profession.

Despite his skepticism about astrology, his book, Written in the Stars, revealed that individuals in some professions tend to have the same planets positioned similarly at birth with a greater frequency than the statistical average.2 Despite his studies being rejected, more sophisticated analyses have confirmed many of his original results. As an example, Suitbert Ertel reported in 1986, “A reanalysis of Gauquelin professional data using alternative procedures of statistical treatment supports previous Gauquelin results.

Frequency deviations from chance expectancy along the scale of planetary sectors differ markedly between professions.”3 In another study, psychiatrist Mitchell E. Gibson showed that mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and severe attention deficit disorders could be predicted by astrology. His examination of more than four hundred astrological birth charts using scientific statistical research models was able to predict mental illness by comparing chart indicators through the declinations (angles of separation) of planets and multiple other planetary aspects. The mental illness diagnoses included major depressions, anxieties, addictions, schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).4 Fortunately, a relatively new area of awareness and study has developed out of all this discord. The science of archaeoastronomy now encompasses how the astronomical practices of the ancients (and sometimes the moderns) affected their mythologies, religions, worldviews, architecture, and other remains of their cultures. For this, archaeoastronomers rely on many scientific disciplines, including astronomy, archaeology,

anthropology, philosophy, and epigraphy to observe and interpret the meaning of astronomical alignments of monuments, large structures, and petroglyphs.5 This integrated field of study has been critical to revealing, often for the first time, the stories and cosmologies of the ancients.

The alignment of the structures at Stonehenge in southern England to the summer solstice sunrises was the first to be discovered in modern times. Now after decades of research it has been demonstrated that megalithic alignments in Europe and, as we will see, in the Americas were not limited to solar and lunar astronomical events but were also designed to calculate and predict other events, including eclipses.6 Preoccupied with looking down rather than up, archaeologists missed the Stonehenge archaeoastronomical alignments for centuries. Nevertheless, after the discovery of astronomical alignments at Stonehenge, research accelerated worldwide through the 1960s and 1970s.

Megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge predated the Celts, but the Celts used them and inherited the knowledge of constructing these structures encoded with astronomical information. This became a characteristic of Celtic architecture that, as will be shown in chapter 4, was repeated in New Hampshire. However, before proceeding, there are a number of astronomical concepts used throughout this book that need to be defined.

Fig. 3.1. Stonehenge, the most famous archaeoastronomy structure in the world, was created four thousand to five thousand years ago. (Photo by Garethwiscombe)

Fig. 3.2. A computer rendering showing shadows at the Stonehenge site as seen looking at the winter solstice sunrise. (Rendering by Joseph Lertola) The term solstice means “sun’s standstill,” referring to a period of eleven days before and after the days of the winter and summer solstices, during which the sun’s position on the horizon moves so slowly that its movement is barely observable. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, and the summer solstice is the longest.

Fig. 3.3. Summer solstice sunrise alignment at Stonehenge.

(Photo by Cheryl Yambrach Rose)

The movement of the Earth around the sun is marked by the two solstices, which occur on or around December 21 and June 21 each year, and two equinoxes, which occur on or around March 21 and September 21. Because the daily shifting of the rising and setting sun’s position at the horizon is greatest during the equinoxes, it is easier to observe, and therefore it is easier to determine the precise day of the equinoxes compared with the precise day of the solstices. When observing the sun’s movement on the horizon over the year, its azimuth, or position on the horizon, also changes. In astronomy, the azimuth is measured from the north point on the horizon at 0° and moves eastward in a 360° circle around the horizon. The equinox sunrise, for example, is by definition at the 90° azimuth (due east), while the equinox sunset is at the 270° azimuth (due west), which is a projection of the terrestrial equator onto the celestial globe.

Declination results from the angle of tilt of the earth’s axis away from the celestial equator into space. The terrestrial equator lies on a plane perpendicular to the earth’s axis.

As a result of the tilt of the earth, the celestial equator is inclined by 23.4° with respect to the ecliptic plane. The ecliptic is an imaginary line on the sky marking the annual path of the sun. It is a flat projection of Earth’s orbit onto the celestial sphere created by the Earth’s orbit around the sun. When the sun is on the celestial equator its declination will be 0° 0′ 0″ (zero degrees, minutes, and seconds of arc), and day and night will be equal.

This is called the equinox days. When the sun reaches its extreme positions of 23.4° north and 23.4° south of the celestial equator, it will be the solstice days.

Fig. 3.4. Equinox, solstice, and cross-quarter days. Astronomical events measured on the horizon indicated the orientation and motion of the Earth and seasonal change. (From Brennan, Stones of Time)

In between equinox and solstice are the cross-quarter days. Cross-quarter days, as will be seen in chapter 9 and 11, are one of the signs of European influence.

MEGALITHIC IRELAND AND MARTIN BRENNAN The worldwide implications of the decoding of Stonehenge spurred on further investigations by others, including William Hawley in England, Michael J. O’Kelly’s study of Irish megalithic structures from 1962 to 1975, and Martin Brennan’s work in 1979 and 1980. Again, we focus on these examinations in Europe by way of introduction because in the next chapter we will explore similar structures in New England that are best explained by a Celtic presence.

My friend Martin Brennan is first and foremost an artist, so his approach to understanding ancient Irish megalithic monuments and archaeoastronomy was uniquely different from previous examinations. While he was not the first or best known for revealing the relationship between astronomy and art in Irish megalithic structures, he was an important researcher, and his book The Stars and the Stones: Ancient Art and Astronomy in Ireland incorporated new astronomical interpretations into the archaeology.7 For example, Brennan noted that the Celts and Indo-Europeans observed cross-quarter days that were tied to the seasonal cycles and that they used them to track the agricultural calendar, marking times for planting, harvesting, and moving domestic animals.

Eight Celestial Events

Celtic Celebration

Festival Dates

Modern Celebrations

Autumnal equinox

Mabon, Oghar, second harvest

Sept. 19–23

Jewish New Year*

November CQ

Samhain or Samain

Oct. 31–Nov. 1

Halloween, Día de los Muertos, All Saints’ Day

Winter solstice

Yule, midwinter celebration

Dec. 19–23

Christmas

February CQ

Imbolc (Gaelic festival celebrating Brighid’s Day), spring, Candlemas

Feb. 1

St. Valentine’s Day

Vernal equinox

Ostara, Lady Day, Festival of Trees

March 19–23

Easter,* Passover,* St. Patrick’s Day

May CQ

Beltane (Gaelic festival marking beginning of summer)

May 1

May Day

Summer solstice

Midsummer

June 19–23

St. John’s Eve

August CQ

Lammas, Lughnasa, festival of Lugh, harvest festival

Aug. 1

Labor Day

*These festival dates, based on the lunar calendar, do not fall on the same day each year.

Fig. 3.5. Eight celestial events celebrated by the ancient Celts and the modern celebrations. CQ = cross-quarter day.

While the equinoxes and solstices occur at precise moments that vary from one year to the next, celebrations associated with cross-quarter days such as Halloween (October 31), the Summer harvest festival in August, and Brighid’s Day in February did not necessarily fall precisely on the exact day between equinox and solstice, so they were sometimes fixed.8 As I will detail in chapters 9 and 11, earlier peoples marked the exact cross-quarter day, which will vary from year to year. For example, while the ancient Celts celebrated Brighid’s Day on February 1, in 2014 the February cross-quarter day, fell on February 3, and it occurs as late as February 8 in some years. Thus, Brennan suggested that large-scale Neolithic mounds such as Newgrange in Ireland demonstrated that earlier agrarian societies had a relatively complex way of life, since they included ritual gatherings related

to agriculture at precise times of the year.9 The three principal Irish monuments in what is called the Brú na Bóinne Complex are Newgrange, Knowth (the largest), and Dowth, but there are also as many as thirty-five smaller mounds in the region. Of the three, Newgrange is the most famous.

However, despite the fact that in 1897 the mystical Irish poet George Russell eulogized the sun-filled chamber of Newgrange in his essay “A Dream of Angus Oge,” archaeologists refused to consider investigating the astronomically significant role of the sun at this site until 1969.10 If they had, disastrous mound reconstructions could have been avoided.11 Brennan, who had no links with the archaeological establishment, also would have been able to avoid the same frustrations and challenges that men like Barry Fell encountered. For example, today there is a lottery so that fifty people can observe the solstice at Newgrange, but during Brennan’s investigations in the 1970s he had to sneak into the monuments before daylight because he was denied permission to enter. Having had the same experiences at sites in North America, I can surely sympathize!

In late 1979, Brennan began his on-site research by observing the midwinter solstice sunrise at Newgrange, and he ended it one year later in the chamber of Dowth. At Newgrange, when the rising sun is full above the horizon on that day, its rays enter the chamber through an opening in what is called a “light box” or “roof box” and pass through to illuminate a triple-spiral engraving (see figure 3.6 below and figure 3.13). On the other hand, at the Dowth chamber, it is the rays of the setting winter solstice sun that travel the length of the chamber and illuminate solar emblems on a wall.

Brennan also made comparable solar observations at other megalithic sites during 1980, and he and his colleagues gradually came to realize that the mounds were archaeoastronomical in nature, “whose structures are a celebration of light and measurement.”12 He reported, with his artist’s eyes and senses, that these occurrences became near-ecstatic events as he reexperienced ancient mankind’s connection to a spiritualized nature and the universal forces that were so integral to their lives.

Fig. 3.6. Ground plan of Newgrange. (Martin Brennan, Stones of Time, 79)

Fig. 3.7. Newgrange is a large rock-and-earth mound covering over one acre. This drawing shows sunrise light extending back into the mound’s passage. (Martin Brennan, Stones of time, 76)

Fig. 3.8. Front view of entrance at Newgrange in 1905 before reconstruction. (Photo by R. Welch) Newgrange is estimated to have been constructed around 3200 B.C., which makes it older than Stonehenge. This was about the time that the Mayan calendar begins and about five hundred years after the beginning of the Jewish calendar and about six hundred years before the famous large-scale pyramids were constructed along the banks of the Nile.

Cuneiform writing also appeared in the Middle East at this time, and Kali Yuga, the fourth and last stage of mankind, began in India.

Fig. 3.9. Main entrance to Newgrange in 1908. See fig. 3.13 for detail drawing of curbstone. (Martin Brennan, Stones of Time, 33)

Fig. 3.10. The reconstructed Newgrange surrounded by curbstones, facing entrance.

(Photo by Shira) The term Brú na Bóinne refers specifically to what is known as Newgrange. Together the three major mounds would also be termed the Boyne Valley Complex. The Boyne River is considered to be the earthly counterpart to the Milky Way, the Great River of Stars, so even its very name carries archaeoastronomical implications.

Surrounded by a stone circle consisting of twelve of the remaining large standing stones from an estimated original thirty-six, the base of the mound is encased with carved curbstones, some beautifully inscribed.

Light boxes (roof boxes) are a Neolithic design feature that controls the light entering a passageway, most notably during the equinoxes or solstices. Newgrange was built with a light box that permits the sun’s rays exclusively on the winter solstice to pass through the passage into the heart of the mound. In other European mounds and chambers the sunlight passes through the opening or door instead of a light box and, as we shall see in chapter 10, holes in the roofs of caves were employed in America by Native Americans. The winter solstice sunrise at Newgrange can only be viewed firsthand by a few lucky visitors, but videos of the light entering the chamber capture the excitement of the yearly event.14

Fig. 3.11. The Newgrange curbstones. Around the base of the mound are ninety-seven curbstones, many of them engraved with megalithic art. (Martin Brennan, Stones of Time, 101)

Fig. 3.12. Drawing of the triplespiral image from the Brú na Bóinne Complex. The triplespiral design is probably the most famous Irish megalithic symbol.

Fig. 3.13. Newgrange front view showing light box (roof box) (top) at entrance.13 (Martin Brennan, Stones of Time, 72)

Fig. 3.14. Martin Brennan, author of The Stones of Time and The Hidden Maya. (Photo by Cheryl Yambrach Rose) Brennan also discovered that the layouts of these three Irish megalithic structures were used for more than marking the seasons. Examining the name of Newgrange in relation to Brú na Bóinne, he found that it was merely an ignorant translation that describes the principal sacred mound simply as the “new grain storage” area. The Irish Gaelic term Brú na Bóinne (Womb of the Goddess Boyne) was the original name of what was formerly known as Newgrange. Fortunately an effort is being made by many to restore the original

name, and its English nomenclature has become outdated, according to Brennan.15 He wrote: The spatial arrangement of Newgrange symbolizes the universe demonstrating its governing laws. The interpenetration of two opposing forces—spirit and matter—is fundamental to the structure. The union of these forces constitutes the universe. The idea is basic to many ancient cosmologies. It is possible to interpret Newgrange as a symbol of this union. The moment of creation, the sexual union of male and female, heaven and earth, spirit and matter is depicted on one stroke of the day of the Winter solstice.16 He also stated: [In other words] the cave at Newgrange can be taken to represent a womb. Because it symbolizes the creation of the universe, it is a womb of the world, a sort of cosmic egg. It is female, earth, mother, and matter. At dawn on Winter solstice it is penetrated by a ray of the sun extending sixty-six meters down its passage. The ray of light is male, heaven, father, and spirit. This union symbolizes cosmic totality—the harmonizing of opposing forces—in a concrete way. It is a celebration of the marriage of spirit and matter and the birth of the universe through the fertilization of the cosmic egg using the earth and sun as the primary symbols, delivering its message each year in a universally intelligible language.17 Brennan’s insights into how the universal forces of nature are also revealed in many solar alignments found on petroglyphs in North America will be detailed later in chapters 8–12.

Brennan is also a fabulous storyteller, especially when he introduces his readers to the Tuatha Dé Danann, the pantheon of the earliest known native Irish gods. According to lore, they were a supernatural race of wizards and magicians who descended from the sky and inhabited Ireland before the emergence of the Celts. However, by following old legends he and others think that there is a historical basis for suggesting the Tuatha Dé Danann came not from the sky, but were members of the Tribe of Dan fleeing from the Levant. While the Hebrew Tribe of Dan is considered one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, their forefathers were thought to be indigenous people whom Greek Macedonians had intermarried with. And even though translating Old Irish can be imprecise, the phrase Tuatha Dé was also used in referring to the Israelites in early Irish texts.18 Thus, the timing of the earlier “Danite” migrations could have occurred a millennium earlier than the estimated date of the Exodus from Egypt ca. 1600 B.C. The territory occupied by the earlier Danites and the later Tribe of Dan was located on the Mediterranean coast, and being a seagoing people, the Danites would have sailed westward across the Mediterranean. Their possible multiple migrations could have resulted from climate events, including comet disasters, pressures from the Philistines and other neighbors around 1000 B.C., or foreign invasions, including the conquering of the Northern Kingdom (Samaria) by Assyria in 722 B.C. They would have first arrived in Greece before spreading north into western Europe, Ireland, and Scandinavia, where they

are now known as the Danes.19 As I will document later in chapter 14, my own process of discovery was in the future when I eventually came across evidence indicating that some of the Hebrews not only made it to northern Europe but also arrived in America thousands of years ago. In other words, reading Brennan’s book on Ireland set the stage for decades of investigations that lay ahead of me, exploring Celtic sites throughout North America and meeting many other investigators, including, by incredible serendipity, Martin Brennan himself.

4 Celtic New England FINDING THE TRAILHEAD Back in the spring of 1986 I was living in Wrentham, Massachusetts, a small town south of Boston. I had begun my New History studies, and after combing through America B.C. I excitedly began to contact other New Englanders interested in the area’s archaeology. I quickly learned about the New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA) and was soon on my way to its annual conferences in Albany, New York.

Founded in 1964, NEARA is a nonprofit organization, and its collection of books and journals includes significant archival material.*8 It also has its own press, NEARA Publications. For example, in 1998, one of its books, Across before Columbus? Evidence for Transoceanic Contact with the Americas prior to 1492 (edited by Donald Y. Gilmore and Linda S. McElroy), presented evidence of Old World contacts in the Americas that went back at least five thousand years.1 At the conference, I met a variety of people interested in one or more of the many aspects of the mysteries of our planet. They included dowsers, historians, preservationists, archaeologists, and academics, so that, for example, pagans interested in “sacred sites” could converse congenially with geologists and local college professors. Uniting these diverse individuals was a shared interest in the visits made by the ancient Celts and other groups to the Americas.

I found that the NEARA meetings were often organized with presen tations in the morning and field trips in the afternoon. The conference I attended was well organized, with formal presentations and smaller breakout sessions. Books, NEARA journals, and regional maps showing general locations of Celtic earthworks in New England were also available. These documents plotted and described the stone chambers, perched rocks, stone piles, and standing stones that have been discovered over the centuries. However, the maps did not reveal the precise location of sites, to prevent unwanted people from gaining access.

One of the greatest experiences was hearing personal recollections from researchers. I listened intently to one talk by Tom Brannan called “Great Ireland in New England.”

Brannan was a retired surveyor who had regularly come upon stone piles while surveying the New England countryside. He suggested that earlier Celtic surveyors marking the distances between their villages or monuments could have left many of these piles. Like many of the conference speakers and attendees, Brannan had his own stories about New England mysteries, and this was his special field of interest. But I also found out that, like that of many local researchers I would meet in the coming years, his years of tracking and documenting evidence of Old World travelers has been virtually ignored by scholars.

Other speakers discussed theories about oceanic travel. Most interesting were presentations by locals on diverse topics, including stone chamber archaeoastronomical research, recent finds, and New England earthworks. Thus I eagerly signed up for a day tour to a local stone chamber. I also bought a book by William McGlone, whom I was to meet the following year in Colorado. The conference had a distinct buzz of excitement, as though participants knew something that most Americans were unaware of. I felt right at home in this mix of amateur archaeologists, geologists, history buffs, neopagans, dowsers, researchers, Native Americans, and other not-so-easy-to-categorize members of the New England Earth-mystery community.

EXPLORING CELTIC AMERICA The Celts of Europe constructed structures encoded with astronomical information and archaeoastronomical features, and this is also a characteristic of some sites in the New World. With the aid of Manitou: The Sacred Landscape of New England’s Native Civilization by James W. Mavor Jr. and Byron E. Dix, I began visiting and researching stone chambers and other stoneworks in Massachusetts and surrounding states.2 With maps in hand, I spent many weekends driving to nearby townships and adjoining New England states to locate and record stoneworks and other noteworthy sites, mainly by myself, but often with my new acquaintances from NEARA. I discovered that there were many hundreds of identified stone chambers in New England and that they are concentrated in regional locations. For example, there are 156 chambers in Putnam County, New York, alone and perhaps more to discover. Most seem to be located in nonproductive, nonagricultural land, and some are quite accessible, like the dozens built near the Taconic Parkway in New York and Connecticut. They were often built into hillsides, and the in-curved, stacked stone walls are capped by lintels, which are large, long stones mounted to support the openings and roofs. The chambers in New England nearly all pointed easterly toward one of three astronomical horizons: Due east, aligned to the vernal and autumnal equinoxes Easterly (+23.5°) on the horizon, aligned to the summer solstice Easterly (−23.5°) on the horizon, aligned to the winter solstice According to Barry Fell, dedications to the Old World god Bel are found carved on the lintel stones and on the vertical stones supporting the openings of some of the New England stone chambers. The name of the Celtic god Bel, from the Akkadian BÄ“lu, is also a title given to various Babylonian gods and generally means “lord” or “master.” In Greek Belos and in Latin Belus, Bel is associated with the Babylonian god Marduk and is often identified as a sun god. The Bel that Barry Fell was referring to was known to the Druids of Ireland, who celebrated the return of this solar deity at Beltane, the May crossquarter day.

Fig. 4.1. Stone chambers in New York

Fig. 4.2. Stone chamber at Gungywamp in Connecticut (Reprinted with permission from Brad Olsen, www.cccpublishing.com)

Fig. 4.3. Old World stone chamber, cairn entrance at Slieve Gullion, Ireland.

(Photo by Cheryl Yambrach Rose) During the next twenty years, I was to come across what were translated to me as Celtic dedications written to Bel that were carved in stones on many New World inscriptions.

These included the lintel stones of chambers at Mystery Hill in New Hampshire; near South Woodstock, Vermont; and in Colorado (as told in chapter 7), Oklahoma (chapter 8), and Kansas (chapter 9).

Fig. 4.4. A statue of the Canaanite god Ba’al or Bal, from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries B.C. (Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen)

Fig. 4.5. The eye of Bel. This motif from near South Woodstock, Vermont, is also found in other New England locations. Fell proposes that the distorted top Ogham letter G was made to resemble an eye. Other examples are found at America’s Stonehenge. (Drawing from Fell, America B.C., 144) While earlier researchers*9 provided detailed documentation on the nature of stone

chambers and their archaeoastronomical importance, finding these chambers’ locations was not always easy. However, despite my knack for getting lost, I usually arrived at my intended destinations, albeit after several failed attempts.

I also learned that New England has many mysteries in addition to the stone chambers.

On a field trip with a group of dowsers I visited a large, circular underground kiva. It was an oddity, as most kivas are known to exist only in the American Southwest.

From my journal: A group of mostly young enthusiasts walked on a small path through New England’s damp forest on a cool spring day. Upon arriving at the property, we were led by our guides to a clearing. This destination revealed a mound of dirt about 10 feet in diameter. Inside was a large dug-out round chamber, lined with stone walls and the roof intact. It was nearly impossible to ascertain who built it or when, and there was no consensus among the group. It could have been built by Native Americans long before the colonial period. Or did ancient Celts construct it, I wondered.

Through a narrow opening we descended one by one on a hand-made wooden ladder. The shape was not as round as a typical American Southwestern-style Kiva, however, what struck me most was not its +15-foot diameter but the people in our group.

The men, dressed in overalls and work vests, scurried up and down ladders, taking measurements of stones and discussing details of construction. The women, wearing long dresses and shawls, sat on the ground outside, and later inside, with eyes closed in a circle while holding hands. Observing their connectivity, I thought I heard a light humming and my heart felt a deep resonance with their collective action. After the group’s informal gathering, the women told me that they were searching through visualization and had perceived other underground chambers, “yet to be revealed.”

What was noteworthy and amusing to me about this experience was the disparity between the yin, feminine approach and the yang, masculine response to this work. One listens, the other speaks. One path remains receptive, the other quickly forms opinions that must be defended.

AN AUSPICIOUS MEETING As mentioned in chapter 3, I had read The Stars and the Stones by Martin Brennan, the artist-explorer of Brú na Bóinne, who along with John Michell, Paul Devereux, and Nigel Pennick is considered to be one of the influential Earth-mystery writers. The reclusive Irishmen from Brooklyn had recently taken up residency in the small town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where I happened to be living in 1995. From my journal: It was synchronicity; Western Massachusetts was blanketed by a major snowstorm.

As travel by auto was impossible I stayed home from work to be with my family. To break the monotony, I bundled my daughter into a backpack and we headed out into three feet deep snow in the overcast and cold New England winter. As I walked toward the small New England town surrounded by unbroken snow, a very tall figure

gradually approached who was getting closer until we came face to face. He was somewhat hunched over, exuberant in disposition with a twinkle in his eye. After exchanging greetings, we discovered that we were both relative newcomers to the area. We also found we were mutually interested in many things and, as we conversed, the stranger mentioned that he was researching the subject of the Mayan calendar. He became quite animated and went on at length about his discoveries. The imposing figure introduced himself as Martin Brennan, the author.

When I met Brennan, he had moved beyond the subject of The Stones of Time and was working on a book about the ancient Maya of Central America with the help of a benefactor. He found it remarkable that I had read his book. And so our friendship began.3 Brennan and I made several expeditions into New England, but I generally explored these sites on my own and visited many stoneworks of various kinds, including some chambers in the winter. While shivering from the cold, I would sit inside a darkened chamber, gazing east toward the horizon through the chamber’s opening, imagining what the ancient landscape looked like with colonies of hundreds or perhaps thousands of Celts living and building structures, as Fell had written.

Fig. 4.6. A large and intact stone chamber from the Calendar Two site, near South Woodstock, Vermont. (From www.ensignmessage.com/archives/calendar.html; accessed July 8, 2014) Shortly after meeting Brennan, one expedition was to the Calendar One site in Vermont.

While many of the New England stone chambers have collapsed or are in ruin, chambers at the Calendar One and Two locations have remained intact. When I entered I found the length of the chamber was oriented toward the east at −23.5°, such that the dawning winter solstice sunlight would penetrate the chamber and strike the back wall, just as it

does at Newgrange and other sites in Ireland. Like Brennan had felt there, I was ecstatic and marveled over the forgotten knowledge of antiquity and how earlier historians had claimed that these were “root cellars” built by the colonists. Yet most of the stone chambers were not easily accessible, nor did they appear to be cellars at all.

STANDING STONES AND PERCHED ROCKS As I explored the mysterious sites of New England I became greatly interested in the placements of standing stones, tall, upright standing stones called menhirs, that represented the phallus. Finally, after hours of searching in Western Massachusetts, I was able to find one that had been pictured in Mavor and Dix’s Manitou. The ten-foot standing stone was at the edge of a field underneath a dying tree and encumbered by bushes, but it was quite magnificent once it was revealed.

It is difficult to prove that these standing stones are of ancient and not colonial origin.

However, the sheer number of them and earlier reports by New England colonists that indicated that these large standing stones were built before the arrival of the English settlers convinced me of their Celtic and non– American Indian origins. The New Hampshire Ring of Stone was even more convincing.

THE NEW HAMPSHIRE RING OF STONE One cool spring day I took a trip to visit the Ring of Stone at Burnt Hill, New Hampshire.

After several wrong turns and a slight misadventure, I arrived at the hilly location. It was quite windy as I made my way to the top of a hill, where I sighted the standing stones.

Being alone added to my feelings of awe and sacredness, but I was surprised that the remaining standing stones before me were much smaller than they appeared on the cover of Manitou. Still, the fourteen standing stones wedged into holes in the bedrock were striking. Mavor and Dix suggested that the site was created for ritual purposes, similar to the complex at the nearby Calendar One site.

Fig. 4.7. These standing stones from a pre-Colonial culture survive at Burnt Hill, Massachusetts.

On a group expedition later that summer, our guide pointed out a large rock boulder balanced or “perched,” as it is also termed, on top of three smaller rocks. This was a formation that is also called a dolmen. At first I didn’t notice the serendipity of such a peculiar position, and it took a second look from the ground level to notice that I could see underneath it. As I walked around the stone several times, the guide said that perched rocks often occurred naturally as melting glaciers dropped stones on top of others.

However, he believed that many of them are from the Celts because of their placement near mysterious stone mounds, standing stones, and stone rows. He also noted that Native Americans might have built some, but he suggested that it was likely they may have copied the ones that the Old Europeans had created. In the Old World, these structures were common but mysterious phenomena. As they appear in the Northeast of the United States, these stone chambers offered little shelter or room for sacred activities, so why would Native Americans have built them if they were not part of their culture, as they were with the Celts?

Fig. 4.8. Balanced rocks are found throughout New England and other northeastern areas of the United States. This one is in North Salem, New York. (From Mavor and Dix, Manitou, 111; www.InnerTraditions.com)

Fig. 4.9. Balanced rock from southeastern Colorado Mavor and Dix devoted an entire chapter of Manitou to perched boulders, and they sorted them into three types. These were balanced boulders uniquely placed to stand upright, large boulders supported by three or four smaller rock pedestals (dolmens), and rocking boulders. Regarding the last, Mavor and Dix wrote, “Several of the rocking boulders that we have encountered in New England have depressions carved into them that can be used as seats. Such a depression can be found on a rocking boulder located in the Shaker domain in northeast Harvard, Massachusetts. This stone, weighing about a ton, can be rocked back and forth easily with but slight pressure from one finger.”4

To sum up my adventures with the New England stone chambers, the kiva, dolmens, assorted mysterious mounds, and standing stones, I could not say for certain they were the work of Celts rather than Indians, but America’s Stonehenge soon convinced me otherwise!

AMERICA’S STONEHENGE Returning to the Boston area from an excursion to the Calendar One site in Vermont in 1995, I drove south toward North Salem, New Hampshire, to experience New England’s largest megalithic astronomical complex. Now known as “America’s Stonehenge,” it was opened to the public in 1958. The thirty-acre site is a restored archaeological complex containing a series of stone walls as well as large, shaped standing stones, stone chambers, and other earthworks.

The first known modern residents were Jonathan Pattee and his family, who lived there from 1823 to 1849. During and following the Pattee occupancy many tons of the stone were carried away and used as curbstones in the nearby town of Lawrence. However, in 1930 William Goodwin purchased the site because he suspected that Irish monks had built it around A.D. 1000, and he wanted to protect it.5 Twenty-eight years later, the complex passed to Robert E. Stone, an engineer who later, in 1964, was to found NEARA and become its first president and later its president emeritus. After revamping the site, he finally opened it to the public in 1958 while he continued to conduct research and investigate the astronomical alignments. Once the trees had been cleared, transit surveys could even anticipate the locations of many of the standing stones, because he had determined that an observer standing on the central, elevated viewing platform could see and sight the major alignment stones that had been placed around the perimeter, including the precisely placed standing stones that indicated the summer and winter solstice sunrises and sunsets. In short, Stone’s work revealed the complex to be an accurate astronomical calendar that could determine specific solar and lunar events. Moreover, it featured nearly all the components of Celtic megalithic sites in Europe. These included: A winter solstice sunset monolith A February 1 sunset alignment A November 1 stone An equinox sunrise boulder (a fallen monolith and pillar) A summer solstice sunset monolith A true north monolith A summer solstice sunrise stone A May Day monolith (fallen) An equinox sunrise stone A winter sunrise monolith (fallen) A lunar standstill alignment wall

Fig. 4.10. This map from America’s Stonehenge helps visitors locate and explore various standing stones and stone chambers. (Map courtesy of America’s Stonehenge)6

Fig. 4.11. Photo of summer solstice sunset.

(Photo courtesy of America’s Stonehenge) By the time I arrived in 1995, significant archaeological restoration had been completed throughout the area. Despite the fact that some of the stones were sagging from centuries of rain-soaked springs and freezing winters, several large chambers had been restored, and many of the walls were rebuilt so that an observer could comprehend their magnitude and importance.

Now, standing in the central observation area as Stone had first done decades earlier, I was able to identify the standing stones and line them up where the sky met the horizon.

According to Dix, these stones mark intervals of about thirty-nine to forty-three days, and it was possible to identify the sunrise and sunset positions for the eight major Celtic festivals—two equinoxes, two solstices, and four cross-quarter days. Most important was the presence of the cross-quarter day markers that linked the site to similar sites in Ireland and the Old World with only rare reports that early Native Americans marked their crossquarter days. Still another important factor, as we shall see in chapters 7–9, was the presence of inscriptions at America’s Stonehenge and elsewhere that use the Celtic Ogham alphabet.

As I returned to Western Massachusetts, my mind was racing about the idea that such a vast ceremonial complex was nearly destroyed a century earlier when stones that had been gathered, hewn, and precisely positioned so long ago were taken away and used for street curbs. It just boggles the mind. Yet, through the preservation efforts of Robert Stone and

the pioneering research of James W. Mavor Jr., Byron E. Dix, Barry Fell, and others, this Old World archaeoastronomy site in New England has been decoded and will remain accessible to future generations.

5 They Settled in Mesoamerica I concluded that, as is the case in North America, it is impossible to postulate a single explanation for the origins of and influences on the Mesoamericans. These are the people living in Mexico and Central America, south to Panama. Thus, going forward, I ceased lumping “Native Americans” or “Mesoamericans” or the Maya into one group or category and instead sought to discover their singular distinctions in origins, identities, and cultures.

MARTIN BRENNAN IN MEXICO After that exceptional first meeting in Massachusetts, Martin Brennan and I became the best of friends, and we would meet regularly and discuss Old and New World histories at length. I was honored to be in the company of such a knowledgeable researcher, and he was fascinated to learn about New England Celts and America’s Stonehenge in New Hampshire.

Brennan had lived in Mexico, learning the language and studying the Maya, and then had spent years in North American libraries reading everything he could while developing his theories about the origins of Mayan hand signing. I, too, had spent quite a bit of time in Mexico but hadn’t studied ancient Mesoamerica in much depth, so he urged me to begin by reading the Popol Vuh, admonishing me that without an understanding of the exploits of the Mayan Hero Twins and the creation of the Quiché people’s empire, I would be lost to any understanding of this ancient culture. And he was right.

Brennan explained that the first few chapters of the Popol Vuh included the essential creation myths that were replicated and embedded in the Mayan artwork and cosmology that he was studying and working with. The book has been likened to our Bible in its importance to the Quiché culture, and we are fortunate to have any account of the story, as the Spanish were so thorough in their destruction of the Mesoamerican historical records.

I present this story in detail as an introduction to what ancient peoples were capable of thinking about in terms of time, calendars, the history of the human race, and their relationships to the cosmos. There are also possible ancient ties to Africa, India, and China that will become apparent toward the end of this chapter.

THE HERO TWINS OF THE POPOL VUH One of the themes of the Hero Twins tale in the Popol Vuh links nonhuman creatures, corn, fertility, and a ball game called pok-a-pok. This was a sacred contest, heavy with symbolism, and it ranged from stickball to a type of “soccerbasketball” played on enclosed I-shaped courts so that balls could bounce off the walls. In the more complicated kinds of games, the players used yoke-like belts attached to their hips to try to drive the

balls through a stone ring. These balls were formed by using strips of rubber wound around objects and sometimes human skulls They weighed up to eight or nine pounds and ranged in size from our baseballs to beach balls.1 The losers were usually sacrificed, but in some portrayals of the game it was the winners who got sacrificed—having won the honor of feeding the gods.2 As we will see, the Maya fashioned a close connection of this game to their calendar, cosmology, and the features that they saw in the night sky during the changing seasons.

In the “empty” time of Chi Agabal, after the creation by the Forefathers of Day, Night, Earth, Sea, and the Animals, but before there was a sun, moon, or humans, the divine “Grandparents” Xmucane and Xpiyacoc became the mother and father of Hun Hunahpú, and Vucub Hunahpú—“One Hunahpú” and “Seven Hunahpú.*10 Together with Egret Woman, the brothers fathered two sons who were taught the arts, becoming flautists, singers, painters, sculptors, jewelers, silversmiths, and shooters with blowguns.

Unfortunately, their parents were addicted to playing ball games of pok-apok, in which a rubber ball is hit about by two teams. Their ball court was near the underworld of Xibalba, so their constant shouting while they were playing became annoying to the two chief lords of darkness, Hun Camé, called “One Death,” and Vucub Camé, called “Seven Death.”

They called together all the other lords of Xibalba who were in charge of making up many kinds of illnesses and deaths of humans and they all discussed what they should do. … . “Let us sacrifice them tomorrow, let them die quickly, quickly, so that we can have their playing gear to use in play,” said the Lords of Xibalba to each other referring to their annoyance with Vucub Hunahpú and Hun Hunahpú.

Using their owl messengers, the dark lords summoned the brothers to come immediately down the Xibalba be, the “Black Road,” past the “River of Blood” and the “River of Pus” to the underworld to play ball. Beyond these was a crossroads where travelers had to choose from among four roads that spoke in an attempt to confuse and beguile. However, after they arrived, the dark lords gave them a “test” that was impossible to perform. When they failed, the original brothers were sacrificed, and while Vucub Hunahpú was ritually buried, the head of Hun Hunahpú was cut off and put into a calabash tree that had been barren. Instantly it was covered with fruit, and the lords of death could not recognize the head; it looked exactly like the other calabashes, so they forbade anyone to go close to the tree or pick the fruit.

In spite of the pronouncement, Xquic, called “Blood Moon,” a maiden daughter of Lord Cuchumaquic, heard the story and was curious. “Why can I not go to see this tree that they tell about?” the girl exclaimed. “Surely the fruit of which I hear tell must be very good.”

So she went alone and arrived at the foot of the tree, which was planted in a place called Pucbal-Chah. This was the “Place of the Ball Game Sacrifice,” the name of the altar where losers of the game would lose their lives.3 “Ah!” she exclaimed. “What fruit is this, which this tree bears? Is it not wonderful to see how it is covered with fruit? Must I die, shall I be lost, if I pick one of this fruit?”

said the maiden.

Then the skull, which was among the branches of the tree, spoke up and said: “What is it you wish? Those round objects which cover the branches of the trees are nothing but skulls.” So spoke the head of Hun-Hunahpú turning to the maiden. “Do you, perchance, want them?” it added.

After the maiden answered yes, she stretched her right hand toward the skull, which instantly let a few drops of spittle … fall directly into Blood Moon’s hand.*11 “In my saliva and spittle I have given you my descendants,” said the voice in the tree. “Now my head has nothing on it any more, it is nothing but a skull without flesh… . Go up, then, to the surface of the earth that you may not die.”

The maiden returned directly to her home, and after six months her belly had swollen, resulting in a confrontation with her father, but with the intervention of the sympathetic owl messengers, she escaped being sacrificed. Blood Moon then traveled to the underworld and back up to the Earth’s surface, to live in her grandmother’s house. There, she gave birth to the Hero Twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué.

Later in their lives and after many adventures disguised as vagabond dancer-magicians, the boys journeyed to the underworld to avenge the death of their parents. Unaware that the vagabonds were really the twins, the lords of Xibalba tried to trick them, as they had their fathers, but they were foiled every time.

Next, the lords invited them to put on a show and a demonstration of their magic powers. The boys danced for the lords’ entertainment and then sacrificed a dog and brought it back to life. Next, the twins set a house on fire containing all the lords except Lords One and Seven Death and then brought the burned lords back to life. Xbalanqué then cut off his brother’s head and rolled it out the door, and removed the heart from the body, but then spectacularly put him back together and revived him. Enthralled by all this, One Death and Seven Death asked to be sacrificed and brought back to life, but the boys tricked them and did not revive them. This is how the Hero Twins defeated the lords of the underworld.

Afterward, the twins then went to the Place of the Ball Game Sacrifice and tried to restore Hun Hunahpú in the calabash tree by having him name all the features of his face.

However, since a dried calabash resembles a skull, he could only recall his eyes, nose, and mouth, so his sons left him there to be forever honored with prayer. His day, the one in the Mayan calendar called Hunahpú, is still reserved for the veneration of the dead.

Having revealed their true identities, the twins then mandated that the Xibalbans change their practice of sacrifices and in the future admonished that not hearts but flowers be used: “We … the avengers of the torments and suffering of our fathers … shall put an end to all of you, we shall kill you, and not one of you shall escape.”

Next, the Hero Twins ascended into the sky to become the sun and the full moon, and they were followed by the “Four Hundred Boys” (who had been killed in a previous bloody episode) to became the stars in the sky, a metaphor for the Milky Way. Later on,

men were made from blue corn and women from yellow corn, and the Earth slowly came to be as we know it today.

The Hero Twins are preserved in Maya art, including hundreds of beautifully painted ceramic vases. Each twin is assigned a day-sign in the Maya Tzolkin calendar discussed below. Hun Hunahpú also plays prominently in Mayan art and cosmology. His death and resurrection is symbolically revealed in the Maya system of numbers, as the Mayan god of the number four represents the sun god, which when doubled becomes the god of number eight, the resurrected Yum Caax, the corn god.

Later, diminished by the flower sacrifices, the fate of the lords is unclear, although Xibalba itself seems to have continued its existence as a dark place in the underworld.

There are other Hero Twin stories throughout the United States, including those of the Yuma, Menominee, Navajo, Seneca, Skidi Pawnee, Winnebago, Creek, and Iowa tribes.

For example, in a Canelos Quechua myth from South America, the twins Iureke and Shikiemona avenge the death of their mother, which is also the theme of the Pawnee myths.4 There, as in the Popol Vuh, both brothers championed goodness, but in most of the North American stories one is evil.

THE MAYAN CALENDAR Martin Brennan was preoccupied with Mayan timekeeping and provided an esoteric and cosmological perspective, in addition to a concept of the mechanics of how the calendar works. In one of our conversations he told me that one must first “recognize that there is not one calendar but at least twenty interconnected and inherently consistent calendars.

The Maya, like the ancient pre-Hindu people, tracked big time! And this grand time system is ingeniously conceived to be symmetrical with our relatively comprehensible time!” He became quite animated as he waved his hands in a circle to emphasize these points.

Brennan’s enthusiasm about the Mayan calendar convinced me of the importance of drawing the individual calendar day-signs as a daily ritual. Along with reading the Popol Vuh and other books and attending Brennan’s weekly lectures to a few interested friends, I was soon spending hours each week studying the Maya and their systems of tracking time.

These included their 365-day solar calendar called the Haab, the Tzolkin, a 260-day sacred calendar, and the calendar of the Long Count with its 1,872,000 days or approximately 5,128 years that famously pointed to a modern ending date, December 21, 2012.5

JOHN MAJOR JENKINS AND THE GALACTIC ALIGNMENT During this time I was also in correspondence with researcher John Major Jenkins, and I found after we met in Colorado in 2000 that we also shared an interest in archaeoastronomy in addition to Mayan timekeeping. Jenkins, a generation younger than I, was an avid Mayanist with a focus on the calendar. His scholarly approach to the Mayan systems of time and calendrics complemented Brennan’s teachings, but he took the

calendar to the next level by comprehending the larger dimensions and significance of an incredible celestial alignment predicted by their ancient ancestors.

Jenkins noted that a rare alignment of the solstice sun with the Milky Way’s equator (the galactic equator) occurs in the years around 2012, and he adopted the terms “galactic alignment” and “solstice-galaxy alignment” to describe it. The galactic equator is the precise midline running down the middle of the Milky Way. It is analogous to the Earth’s equator and divides the galaxy into two hemispheres, or lobes. The famous Mayan cycleending date of December 21, 2012, was, according to Jenkins, intended to target this alignment.

This galactic alignment occurs only once every 25,625 years, which works out to approximately five cycles of 5,128 years. Due to this phenomenon, the sidereal position of the solstice sun slowly shifts backward along the ecliptic and comes into alignment with the galactic equator in the years around 2012. This, by the way, approximates the 25,772year cycle of the precession of the equinoxes and is often confused with this cycle.

Despite the vast confusion about this idea, it is a fact of astronomy.

In an article titled “Alignment 2012,” Jenkins elaborated on how the solstice-galaxy alignment of the 2012 era was encoded by ancient Mayan thinkers into their basic cultural institutions:

Fig. 5.1. The alignment of the 2012 December solstice sun with the crossroads of the Milky Way and the ecliptic. A = position of the December solstice sun six thousand years ago; B = position of the December solstice sun three thousand years ago; C = position of the December solstice sun in our era. (From John Major Jenkins, Galactic Alignment) The solstice-galaxy alignment was conceived as the union of the male principle

(December solstice sun) with the female principle (the Milky Way’s center). The region of the Milky Way that the solstice sun will unite with contains not only the nuclear bulge of the Galactic Center (which, by the way, is recognizable with the naked eye) but also a “dark-rift” feature caused by interstellar dust. The modern Maya call this dark-rift or Great Cleft the xibalba be—the Road to the Underworld [that we saw in the Hero Twins tale]. This feature is the key to understanding the rebirth metaphor of the 2012 end-date, for it was also conceived, in Maya symbology, as the birth canal of the Great Mother (the Milky Way).6 According to Tedlock’s translation of the Popol Vuh, the astronomical Place of the Ball Game Sacrifice where Hun Hunahpú’s skull was hung is located at the intersection of the ecliptic and the Milky Way in Sagittarius.7 The cross is the “crossroads” that spoke as mentioned in the journey of the Twins, and it factors into Jenkins’s reconstruction of the astronomical alignment. What he found was a basic paradigm very similar to what Brennan discovered in the solstice chamber at Newgrange—the deeper meaning of the union of male and female energies that engender a cosmic renewal. In “Alignment 2012,” Jenkins explained: The concept of Father Sun being reborn at the end of the age is very similar to the events in Maya Creation mythology (the Popol Vuh) in which First Father/ One Hunahpú is reborn in the underworld ballcourt. The ballgame metaphor, too, encodes the alignment. If we look at accepted notions of ballgame symbolism, we learn that it is basically about the rebirth of the sun on the temporal levels of day, year, and World Age. The sun is reborn daily at dawn, yearly at the December solstice, and, in terms of World Ages, on December 21, 2012—when the December solstice sun aligns with the Galactic Plane, which is the precession cycle’s “finish line.” The dark-rift that lies along this plane is the “goal” toward which the December solstice sun, as the gameball, moves over many millennia. In this way, the Maya conceived of the gameball going into the goal-ring as a replication of cosmic time’s end-game.

In his 1998 book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 and in his essays for the Center for 2012 Studies, Jenkins decoded how the galactic alignment was embedded into many of the core traditions of the Maya.8 These interpretations resulted from his study of Izapa, an early Mayan site in southern Mexico. Many scholars had acknowledged that this location was involved in the formulation of the Long Count calendar, but it was Jenkins who found the key to its underlying archaeoastronomy features; that is, Izapa’s ballcourt lines up with the December solstice sunrise azimuth, which is when the iconography on its carved monuments comes into play. At that time, a solar godhead emerges from a throne on the west end of the ball court and faces the rising solstice sun. The event symbolizes a cosmological birth.

However, not unlike other independent researchers working in archaeoastronomy, Jenkins has been maligned by the establishment scholars, as many critics sought to denigrate and dismiss his work rather than assess the presented evidence rationally, at face value. Thus, he was frequently conflated with much of the doomsday hype in the 2012 marketplace, despite his long-held interpretation that the ancient Maya thought about 2012

as a period-ending renewal. We see this kind of treatment time and time again, especially in how the New History investigators are received by establishment scholars who are committed to isolationism and the dogmas of the Old History.

THE HIDDEN SIGN LANGUAGE OF THE MAYA In addition to the archaeoastronomical accomplishments of the Maya, further age-old mysteries are revealed in Brennan’s book The Hidden Maya. He explains that the Mayan system of counting originates from the hand, with five being the basic ordering principle.9 This idea evolved into a system of hand signing to communicate ideas and concepts, not just numbers. But how was he to crack the meaning of these hand signs that are displayed in thousands of Mayan frescos, stone carvings, and ceramic vases?

The traditions of the tribes in North America affirm that their sign language had originated in Mexico, and Brennan thought it was possible to use this language to penetrate into the meaning of the unknown hand signs of the ancient Maya. He decided to examine their cylindrical ceramic vessels that contain elaborate painted scenes. This work was made possible by a photographic technique developed by New York photographer Justin Kerr, which used special cameras with vertical slit apertures mounted on turntables.

The resulting corpus of photographs opened up a doorway to Mesoamerican art researchers and students, including Brennan.

Fig. 5.2. Drawing of a Mayan cylindrical vase from the Copan site in western Honduras.

(From Brennan, The Hidden Maya, 243) Brennan realized in reviewing the details of scores of Mayan vases three tiers of communication are being conveyed—the obvious picture story portrayed by actors, the artistically drawn Mayan glyphs, and the hand signs used to reinforce actions of the actors.

He surmised that only royalty and scribes could understand the glyphs, while the commoners relied on the hand-signing images to better comprehend the messages being conveyed by the artisans. This is much in the way that peasants of the European Middle

Ages came to understand the Christian message via its images in churches, since the rituals were carried on in Latin. Although Brennan used post-Mayan Native American sign languages from North America to crack the hand-signing code, ritualistic and symbolic hand gestures called mudras were being used in Buddhism and Hinduism long before the Maya came into existence.10 In India, there are 108 mudra hand positions used in worship and dance. Mudras also appear in Asian kung fu and in Christian iconography.11 Brennan supplied many examples of what he had learned about the drawings and paintings on the vases and plates, explaining that the images were not merely static pieces of art but instead were also moving pictures. They were “the great mother of communications.”

Fig. 5.3. A mudra hand position from India.

Fig. 5.4. The Resurrection of the Sun God (plate painting). In order to generate life from the death skull, Xbalanqué, who is named and depicted on the right, pours forth itz, the sacred essence of being, from a jar. (From Brennan, The Hidden Maya, 250) One of the great masterpieces of Mayan art is a painted ritual plate of the sun god resurrected as the corn god, and it is a chi hand gesture that predominates in the action. As previously told, after defeating the lords of death in the underworld, the Hero Twins attempted to bring their decapitated father, Hun Hunahpú, back to life (or at least to a “half-life”) before asking him about his skull. This was done largely through the magical power of mudra because the chi hands displayed by Hunahpú resonate with the chi hand extended by his father located in the center between the Hero Twins, thus creating a magnetic tension in a field of energy.

Fig. 5.5. Hand-sign drawing. The left hand when inverted carries the phonetic value “ye.”

To evoke the “ch” sound for the right hand the artist borrows from a hand sign that carries the phonetic value chi. (Martin Brennan, The Hidden Maya, 17) Behind the group of figures, the death skull within the turtle carapace symbolizes the seed that must die to generate the living corn plant. This emergence of life from the turtle carapace is compared to dawn with chi hands, evoking the regenerative powers of the sun and its triumphant appearance after a perilous journey through the underworld.

Moreover, out of the left side of the turtle carapace emerges Uo, the frog god, who represents the moon and is symbolic of the element water. Hun Hunahpú, “First Father,” appears to spring from the frog god’s headdress. The frog’s ear contains the sign of the god of the number seven, the heart of heaven, and from the right side Yahaute, the lord of the tree, issues forth. The central theme of the painting is rebirth and the triumph of life over death.12

CHICHÉN ITZÁ’S EQUINOX SERPENT During the 1970s, I traveled extensively throughout Mexico and visited some of the major ruins, including Palenque and then Chichén Itzá. Thirty years later, and after a year of studies with Brennan, my newfound interests in the Maya and their calendar led me back to the Yucatán Peninsula.

My excitement grew as I approached the archaeological park alone on the first day. I had learned from a previous excursion fifteen years earlier that the Mayan name Chichén Itzá means “at the mouth of the well of the Itza.” This refers to the Cenote Sagrado, or “Sacred Well,” one of two large natural sink-holes that were formed because all the rivers in Yucatán run underground. Some artifacts at the site are two thousand years old, and the location was in use at least six thousand years earlier. Into it, the early Maya sacrificed objects and human beings for their rain god Chaac, and around A.D. 400 they began building a city nearby, which, however, was abandoned around A.D. 1000 for unknown reasons.

Fig. 5.6. El Castillo at Chichén Itzá, probably the most famous Mayan archaeological site, is located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula. (Photo by Jaakko Sakari Reinikainen) As with other ancient cultures, the buildings, pyramids, temples, and other large stoneworks of the Maya were based on celestial alignments. Thus, the Maya integrated the macro into the micro in their architecture, replicating the relationships of celestial bodies in their buildings and temples.

In 1875, British-American photographer and antiquarian Augustus Le Plongeon and his wife Alice visited Chichén Itzá and afterward spent decades trying to prove that the Mayan cosmologies and architecture had come from the Egyptians. Their single-minded quest included ten months at Chichén Itzá over two seasons, and there were some significant discoveries, including a reclining sculpture called a chacmol. These sculptures are now called chac mools, but their meaning is still unknown.13 However his theory of a direct connection between the Egyptians and the Maya has been largely discredited by the establishment and his achievements diminished.

Fig. 5.7. Augustus Le Plongeon excavated one of the first chac mool sculptures at Chichén Itzá. This circa 1875 photo shows Le Plongeon and the chac mool, with his wife Alice standing in background. (Photo from Stephen Salisbury Jr., Project Gutenberg)

THE AZTEC QUETZALCOATL AND THE MAYAN KUKULCÁN Quetzalcoatl, according to many Aztec legends, was a light-skinned, bearded god-king who sprinkled his blood on some human bones in the Toltec underworld and thus created the Aztec race. Another mythical rendering, since the name Quetzalcoatl means “feathered serpent,” unites the magnificent green-plumed quetzal bird that symbolizes the air element of the heavens with a snake that symbolizes the Earth. These are the fertility symbols that ultimately created civilization.

Fig. 5.8. Quetzalcoatl, the “Feathered Serpent,” is the Aztec name for the ancient Mesoamerican feathered-serpent deity. In this photo from Mexico he is a triple deity: bird, serpent, and man.

In another of the Aztec versions of the Quetzalcoatl story, he became drunk through the trickery of the evil god Tezcatlipoca, who wanted people to make bloodier sacrifices than the flowers, jade, and butterflies they had offered to his rival. The drunken Quetzalcoatl then violated the laws he had himself established by committing incest with his sister. In self-punishment, he exiled himself and set off across the Gulf of Mexico on a raft of snakes. There he was burned by the sun, and his heart became Venus, the morning star, but as he arose into the sky ablaze, he vowed to return one day to rule again and destroy his enemies. Based on this legend, the Aztecs welcomed the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés as the returning Quetzalcoatl in 1519.

However, in the Mayan version Quetzalcoatl takes his place in their pantheon under the name Kukulcán. According to legend this was after he too had departed on the sea and returned, in this case, to build Chichén Itzá and its largest structure, the temple named after him but now called El Castillo (the Castle). As with other Mesoamerican structures, it was built on top of an earlier site of worship, and at its top is a temple that contained a chac mool and a red jaguar throne with inlaid jade spots. This is where Kukulcán appears at every equinox in a dramatic solar shadow display on the pyramid, which is attended by thousands of visitors every year.

At the rising and setting of the sun, the corner of the structure casts a shadow along the

west side of the north staircase, and this shadow moves down the side of the pyramid, portraying Kukulcán as a massive serpent snaking down the pyramid.

Fig. 5.9. Chichén Itzá on the spring equinox. The undulating triangles of light that dance on the back of the colossal serpent are connected to the massive stone snake heads at the base of the stairs. (Photo by ATSZ56)

Fig. 5.10. The Caracol observatory at Chichén Itzá. The Maya used the Caracol observatory to track three Venus alignments, other planets, and the Pleiades.

The Kukulcán structure was also designed to reflect the essence of the Mayan calendar.

Each of the four sides has steep staircases of ninety-one steps to the top platform. If one includes the top platform as a step, this adds up to 365, one for each day of the year. The nine main platforms of the pyramid represent the levels of the Mayan underworld, and the fifty-two panels in the upper temple represent the fifty-two-year calendar round. There are also alignments at Chichén Itzá relating to Venus, the Pleiades, and the moon, and a structure called the Caracol was built to observe them.*12

INFLUENCES FROM AFRICA AND ASIA? Keeping in mind the above discussions, we must realize that prior to the Mayan ascendancy, from about 1200 B.C. to 400 B.C., a group called the Olmecs had built an empire that included large cities, temple building, and calendar keeping. They also began to use astronomical orientations to direct the layout of several ceremonial centers where they constructed pyramids oriented to observe the sun and moon. But where did the Olmec come from? Based on the distinctly Negroid colossal stone heads they left behind, it is quite evident to many investigators that they originated from Africa.*13 15

Fig. 5.11. An Olmec head in the Denver Art Museum’s permanent exhibit on Mesoamericans, Denver, Colorado. Both the monumental head sculptures and jewelrysized stone Olmec “head beads” emphasize the Negroid features of the Olmecs.14 Osteology (the study of bones), numismatic studies (the study of coins) and epigraphy, along with DNA evidence16 have created much controversy about the Olmecs’ origins, while many questions linger, including the source of their language, calendar, and counting systems.17 Yet in spite of the contrary evidence uncovered to date, the mainstream archaeopriests’ consensus is still that the Olmecs were indigenous to the region.

However, while the Maya likely inherited some calendrics and writing from the Olmecs, the origins of the later Maya are less clear, and I remain unconvinced that there can be a single indigenous explanation. For example, the best evidence of a Chinese influence in Mesoamerica is provided by the similarity of specific artistic motifs, including the cosmic duality yin/yang symbols and flying serpents. These appeared during the late Olmec and Mayan preclassical periods from 500 B.C. to A.D. 200 and are found in Olmec cultures, but most notably in early Mayan symbols. In Nu Sun: Asian-American Voyages, 500 B.C., Gunnar Thompson tabulated thirteen artistic motifs derived from the tens of thousands of artifacts he examined that show striking similarities between East Asia and Mesoamerica.18 He also suggests this trans-Pacific contact began arriving from China on the southwest coast of Mexico around 500 B.C., the era of the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 B.C.) in China. Since it had taken thousands of years for Asian symbols to evolve in Asia, he feels that the sudden appearance of thirteen specific symbols so closely resembling their Chinese counterparts cannot be attributed to independent invention or random situations. Additional evidence connecting Mesoamerica and Asia as documented

by Thompson and others is provided in chapter 15.

Fig. 5.12. Four symbols that Gunnar Thompson speculates arrived in Mesoamerica from Asia (Gunnar Thompson, Nu Sun, table 2).

Fig. 5.13. Similar serpent motifs from Asia (left) and Mexico (right) indicate Old World cultural diffusion to America (Gunnar Thompson, American Discovery)

INFLUENCES FROM INDIA? While the Olmec glyphs have still not been translated, systems of hieroglyphic Mayan writing in the codices have been, and they demonstrate how astronomy was interwoven throughout Mayan culture, architecture, mythologies, and religion, just as it had been in India and even in Le Plongeon’s discredited Egypt. Was there a connection through diffusion?

Most obvious is the famous and interesting close correspondence between the beginning of the thirteen-baktun cycle of the Mayan Long Count on August 11, 3114 B.C., and the start date of the Hindu Kali Yuga. According to the Surya Siddhanta and calculating back using the Julian calendar, the Kali Yuga began at midnight on February 18, 3102 B.C. Using the Gregorian calendar, it began on January 14, 3102 B.C., and by both counts, it will last 432,000 years. It is also accepted that the dynastic Egyptians began their calendar around 3100 B.C., and these similarities seem to be not a mere coincidence. Donald Alexander Mackenzie (1873–1936) expresses these thoughts in his Myths of PreColumbian America. He wrote, “The doctrine of the World’s Ages (from Hindu Yugas) was imported into Pre-Columbian America … the Mexican sequence is identical with the Hindus. The essential fact remains that they were derived from a common source… . It would be ridiculous to assert that such a strange doctrine was of spontaneous origin in different parts of the Old and New Worlds.”19 So as I observed different influences on Mesoamerican art, I found it difficult to understand where the Maya originated. It was therefore quite remarkable that I met someone who thought he did. As so often is the case, the meeting was propitious in timing and good fortune, shining light on the path I was seeking to travel. It was my fortune to meet V. Ganapati Sthapati (1927–2011), a famous master of traditional temple building from southern India, who had traveled to Chichén Itzá in March of 1995, serendipitously when I was also there.

My time with Sthapati was rushed, and his heavy Indian accent allowed me to understand only a fraction of what he sought to convey. Yet this small, quite elderly man was able to reveal the story of the Maya through his knowledge of what he called pre-

Vedic writings in the Tamil language.

Sthapati took pride in recounting his lineage of Tamil temple builders of southern India, which was steeped in the tradition of the ancient Bharata Desa spiritual culture. This made him one of the custodians of the science of Vaastu Shastra, the ancient Indian science of energy and matter, light and sound, time and space, and spatial forms. The original writings had been passed down to him, and he was thus an expert in the Aintiram, an ancient collection of writings in the Tamil language that were allegedly authored by a spiritual guide named Maayan.

While there is controversy about the ages of Sanskrit and Tamil, Sthapati insisted that the Tamil language came first*14 and that the Mayan culture originated from Maayan.20 He taught me that Maayan was the “Man of the South,” who had authored a number of important books. The Mayamatam was a Vaastu Shastra text on art, architecture, and town planning; the Aintiram was about architectural philosophy, grammar, and cosmology; and the Surya Diddhanta the first-ever scientific treatise on astronomy. In other words, all of these books dealt with the supreme science of cosmology and how it was and is applied to architectural creations in the material world.21

Fig. 5.14. V. Ganapati Sthapati (1927–2011) was a master temple builder and student of ancient Indian and Tamil sacred sciences. He is pictured here with the author in 2008.

(Photo by Gerry Lehrburger) When I met Sthapati, he was quite adamant that the followers of Maayan taught the spiritual sciences to the Maya, including the “om” sound and the principles of light.

Sthapati also taught that the common heritage goes beyond architecture—which of course he was an expert in—and that it embraced dress and hair styles, mudra hand signs as they appear in art and dances, and the appearance of numerous Shiva linga sculptures, along with similar imagery and iconography of gods and deities.22 After Sthapati returned from his visit to the Americas, he talked about Chichén Itzá and Peru with Marcus Schmieke, founder of the Veda Institute in Kranzlin, Germany, halfway between Hamburg and Berlin. Schmieke reported:

Not only is its plot based exactly on the same geometric matrix, the Vasatipurusha Mandala, but also its form is identical with the South Indian Vimana (temple domes) even in details. Furthermore, [in Peru] there are amazing similarities as to measurements… . Dr. Sthapati discovered that the South-Indian measure/rule (Kishku yardstick approx. 33 inch) was used mainly in the Peruvian region of Kushku. Residential buildings were also built strictly according to the principles of Vasati, as developed by Maya Danava. Its plots, position of doors and windows, proportions, form of roofs, inclination angles of roofs, diameter of columns, width of walls etc. are perfectly in accordance with the rules of Vasati, which are still applied in 60% of all houses built in India nowadays… . .In addition, also the techniques applied by the Maya to erect their buildings and to hammer their huge stones for temples and pyramids are identical to those still taught and applied by Dr. Sthapati today. They have been described by Maya Danava in his books on Vasati.

[After discussing similar Mayan words for Kundalini and yoga] … . it is most interesting to investigate the connection between the Maya word Chilambalam which is the name for the temple room of the caste-pyramid Chichen Itza… The centre is formed by a square made of four squares, which corresponds to the Brahmasthana, the place of Brahma [with its strong divine energies] … . Both in the Vasati temples and in the Maya pyramids the most sacred place of the whole structure is located exactly in this square. The Mayas call this area Chilambalam, which means sacred room. This room is cubic and corresponds to the original form of room itself in Vasati… . Adhering to this principle, there is a Shiva-temple in South India in which the sacred room or the room of consciousness is being worshiped. This temple with immaculate proportions is called Chidambaram and ranks amongst the most famous Vasati temples of South India next to Shri Rangam. The same concept of the sacred room or hall of consciousness was called Chilambalam by the Mayas.23 What else but intercontinental travel could explain these similarities in temple building, art, and mudra hand signs? Years later in California and the Great Basin I was to discover many other apparent links between the Indian subcontinent and the Americas, which I will chronicle in the coming chapters.

6 Sacred Sexuality at the Pathfinder Site The aging Bill McGlone was willing to share his decades of rock art experience with me, but I wasn’t sure why. Now I realize he was passing on a tradition. It’s not that I had an archaeological background or even many prospects for sticking with it. It was my sincerity and willingness to return again and again that made the difference.

Fig. 6.1. Map of Colorado showing general location of the Pathfinder and other sites referenced in chapters 7, 8, and 9. Central Colorado Ogam Site (X), Pathfinder (P), Crack Cave (C), Sun Temple (S), Anubis Cave (A).

MEETING BILL McGLONE IN COLORADO In 1996, with little resources to fall back on during harsh economic times in New England where I had been living, I made the decision to move back to my native Colorado.

Upon arriving, I contacted William “Bill” McGlone, who lived in La Junta in southeastern Colorado to be near the canyons and subcanyons of the Purgatoire River.

Because there was an abundance of game, water, and shelter, these canyons had been the breeding grounds for the telling and retelling of ancient stories of the tribes who retreated from harsh weather on the Plains during winter. Imagine ancient teachers during the long nights instructing the next generation, describing and inscribing on their rock walls the most sacred stories that were then spread throughout the nations of Plains Indians as these

migratory people left the protective canyons every spring.

I had picked up McGlone’s 1986 book, Ancient Celtic America, (coauthored with Phillip M. Leonard) at an annual convention of New England dowsers before moving to Colorado.1 It was fascinating and scholarly, with a focus on documenting the presence of ancient Celtic peoples in Colorado and Oklahoma thousands of years before Columbus, but it also addressed diffusion-ism in America. After this book, McGlone had coauthored Ancient American Inscriptions: Plow Marks or History? (1993), which incorporated material from the earlier Ancient Celtic America, along with Petroglyphs of Southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle (1994). By the time I met him he was working on Archaeoastronomy of Southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle, which eventually was published in 1999.2 McGlone was painfully aware of the importance of Barry Fell’s research in revealing the New History of America, but being a methodical engineer type, he had severe difficulties with some of the methods that had been used. To address the discrepancies in Fell’s translations, in Ancient American Inscriptions he and his coauthors offered a systematic way of assessing the research, including recommendations for improving epigraphic methods and a rating system to determine the acceptability of epigraphic translations.

In the summer of 1996, I was admittedly naïve about how to approach this seasoned rock art researcher by phone. In my excitement to speak with him, I had sought an invitation to join him on one of his rock art outings. McGlone was silent for a while. He seemed cautious and inquired into my motivation and interests in Old World rock art inscriptions. I carefully invoked Martin Brennan’s name, and after I explained my close association with the pioneering but reclusive researcher, McGlone surprised me by excitedly announcing, “I’ve been trying to meet Brennan for over a decade! If you agree to get him down here one day, I’ll help you out!”

“Yes!” I said, just as excited. “It’s a deal!”

Contact established, I became a fascinated student, especially after the ex-engineer bragged he had driven half a million miles to visit petroglyph sites in over thirty-five states and more than a half dozen countries. Listening in wonder, I was imagining McGlone crisscrossing the country in search of evidence of ancient travelers, which was something I wanted to do and eventually did accomplish.

While we shared a professional interest in new technologies, including research and development projects and enterprises (I had founded two research and development companies), rarely did we discuss anything other than the work at hand. Even when the weather didn’t allow early-morning expeditions in pursuit of sunrise alignments in and around the canyons, I would be in his basement reviewing videos of rock art sites and photos of petroglyphs. Occasionally, our evenings were punctuated with watching a John Wayne Western, as he was a fan and had all of the Duke’s movies on tape.

McGlone proved true to his word, as I was true to mine when I arranged for Brennan to travel with me to visit La Junta several years later. So for the next four years until his

death in 1999, I spent every spare opportunity I could with him and his small entourage of researchers, epigraphers, and fellow rock art hounds.

THE PURGATOIRE RIVER CANYON ”Rock art” is generally divided into petroglyphs, pictoglyphs and large stone designs on the Earth’s surface. Of these, in southeastern Colorado petroglyphs predominate.

Petroglyphs are often found on cliff tops and on the vertical walls of the canyons, but it took years of working with McGlone to appreciate the many dimensions and skills required to identify and differentiate the great variety that can be found there. Examples include very early ”pecked” glyphs created with a hammerstone and/or chisel, and later “abraded” petroglyphs creating by scrapping, and, in the historic period, painted glyphs or “pictoglyphs” whose ages extended back over five thousand years ago.

Fig. 6.2. Looking down on the Purgatoire Canyon. The top capstone layer is hard basalt.

Softer sandstone and eroded materials make up the sloped hills.

Thanks to Petroglyphs of Southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle, a picturefilled book that McGlone and Leonard had self-published with local retired rancher Ted Barker, I acquired a concise guide to the rock art of the area. I would discover that among the diverse rock art of the region, a small number of the petroglyph sites included what

looked like ancient scripts from Old World Europe.

Fig. 6.3. Pioneering researcher William McGlone. He mastered astronomy, archaeoastronomy, and epigraphy to become a leading diffusionist scholar.

Although the Purgatoire Canyon is thousands of miles from New England, where I had previously found evidence for a Celtic presence, I was soon to learn that a small sampling of the hundreds of rock art sites had petroglyphs with links to visitors from Old Europe, although the vast majority had been made by different groups of Native Americans.

Fig. 6.4. Rock art styles from southeastern Colorado. The different styles distinguished the many people and time frames from which the rock art originated. (McGlone/Leonard, 1994)

ARCHAEOASTRONOMY BASICS Self-taught, McGlone had applied his analytical and engineering mind to become a master archaeoastronomer, which benefited me greatly in learning about rock art. My previous journeys to early New England sites, including America’s Stonehenge, had demonstrated that the ancients were preoccupied with recording celestial events. Thus, McGlone taught that archaeoastronomy was the scientific tool to understand these people, whether Native American or foreign. “The key to determining the validity of an archaeoastronomical alignment is its intentionality,” he emphasized on many occasions. “A light or shadow just hitting a petroglyph is meaningless, unless it can be tied to an intention by the creator.”

Accordingly, he and his colleagues developed specific criteria for determining this crucial factor of archaeoastronomical alignments.

Criteria for Determining Archaeoastronomical Intention A regional context of other alignments, as in the Newgrange area Deliberate or distinctive marking of a sighting point, as at Stonehenge Inclusion of an indexing pattern regarding the time to read, as in sunrise sites The use of important calendar days, such as cross-quarter days, equinoxes, or solstices An ethnographic involvement, as in ritual days important to the local culture The use of astronomical symbols, such as targets or sighting points

Definitiveness of construction, as in the placement of gnomons (sundial pointers) and the creative use of light or shadow shapes, such as sun daggers A progressive sequencing of lighting events, as in the Mayan Kukulcán pyramid The accuracy of alignments The chipping or shaping of shadow-casting surfaces to match target shapes Petroglyph in unusual places, such as on rough surfaces or high above ground

Fig. 6.5. William McGlone’s criteria for determining archaeoastronomical intention. Without being able to demonstrate intentionality, alignments may merely be coincidental or without a cultural meaning.

Solar Alignment Types in Southeastern Colorado Indirect

1. Shadow or light shapes from natural rock formations 2. Shadow or light shapes from man-placed gnomons 3. Image matches of shadow shapes to a petroglyph 4. Sun dagger or shadow appearances or disappearances 5. Grazing lights on petroglyphs or lines 6. Sunset simulations or animations 7. Moving shadow pointers 8. Commemorations of dates or events 9. Anticipatory, to predict dates or events 10. Stationary shadows

Direct

1. Petroglyph pointers 2. Standing stones or cairns 3. Placements of architectural features 4. Observing or sighting the sun from glyphs or gnomons using a foresight

Fig. 6.6. Solar alignment types in southeastern Colorado. William McGlone and his colleagues documented many types of solar alignments. (Adapted from McGlone/Leonard, Archaeoastronomy of Southeast Colorado, table III, “Solar Alignment Types”)

The primary purpose of solar alignments is calendrical—to anticipate upcoming ceremonial events with index markers or to set the time for planting crops and to schedule gatherings. At solar alignment rock art sites, which McGlone had found were not generally habitation sites, he and his colleagues discovered many types of “direct” and “indirect” alignments. Direct alignments involved sightings of the sun, as when standing stones are lined up to a point on the horizon, while indirect alignments involved the sun’s casting shadows or light shapes onto petroglyphs.

After I spoke with McGlone on the phone, my first visit was timed for the fall equinox.

Before I arrived, I had anticipated perhaps seeing a Celtic-related rock art site. After we greeted each other he showed me rock art photos he had in many ring binders and a video recording of a debate he participated in with some old school archaeologists. Before turning in for the evening, I asked him, “Will we see any Ogham inscriptions tomorrow?”

He replied, “Tomorrow is the equinox, and this is the time to be here. But it’s not going to be what you expect!”

McGlone was leading me on. He knew of my keen interest in Old World cultures but understood I lacked the skills to know what I would be looking for. “Being in the right place at the right time is essential,” he continued, “but knowing what to look for is the key to comprehending the story. We’re heading out early, and I want you to be open to seeing something quite fantastic.” As a result, I spent a restless night in his spare bedroom, anticipating what the day would bring.

We were up by 3:30 a.m., and after coffee and a hurried breakfast we headed south from La Junta in his well-traveled Jeep. As one descends from the high plains into the Purgatoire River Valley through which the river flows, on both sides and in many subcanyons there are diverse and significant rock art sites. However, it was still dark so I would not see any of them until later.

Just as first light began to brighten the horizon, we turned off the main road and proceeded down a winding dirt road. Spanish explorers had named the nearby Purgatoire River in the 1760s in remembrance of the unrecovered bodies of an ill-fated expedition up the river. As the story goes, the Spanish thought the lost soldiers had been left to wander in purgatory.

“These are not Celtic sites,” remarked McGlone, “but you’re going to see some really good things, and later we’ll visit a new site we just discovered. Just keep your eyes open, boy, because this is the real thing.”

THE PATHFINDER As we followed the river, the sun had not yet reached into the canyon when McGlone pulled his Jeep into the yard of a farmhouse. Jim Walter, a local rancher, along with his four daughters, greeted us. “Looks like it’s going to be a dandy,” said McGlone as he pointed toward the eastern sky. The clouds from the previous night had dispersed, and only a slight haze could be seen as the horizon brightened. The gentle chirping of awakening birds and the sweet smell of wet dew on the land, pinion trees, sagebrush, and fruit-bearing cacti greeted me as I stepped out of the Jeep to the sound of the Walters’ barking dog.

After greetings, McGlone, Walter, and I followed his children—Kaysie, Jamie, Erin, and Sarah—across an irrigation ditch into a long field populated by numerous large boulders of basalt, which in earlier times had rolled down from the canyon capstone above. Some were as large as cars, and they were all dark, almost black, with thousands of years of accumulated patina. This had formed on the rocks with the oxidation of magnesium and iron and the buildup of organic residue from lichen and other biological matter. In places with petroglyphs, this process goes on until it becomes nearly impossible to distinguish the peckings from background rock.

“You walked right by them!” McGlone suddenly shouted as he pointed toward a round boulder about five feet high that I had passed. I looked again and began to make out worn petroglyphs in the predawn light. They blended into the background rock and looked somewhat like wavy lines. I stopped to study them and had taken out my journal to draw them when McGlone called out, “Not now, man, the sun’s coming up. Hurry up over here!”

I caught up to the group, who were standing on top of another large rock, perhaps twenty feet by ten feet wide and four feet off the ground. It had the shape of a large sofa and faced southeast. They were looking down and studying the petroglyphs on the horizontal surface near the eastern edge of the rock. “You see these glyphs,” McGlone

said, pointing to a circle with a cross and an arrow extending toward the east. It looked almost like a compass. “That’s it, folks. That’s the target. Stand back to sight the arrow to the horizon, and that’s where the sun rises today on the equinox.”

When at last the moment of sunrise came and the sun gradually rose, sure enough the arrow pointed directly to that spot on the horizon.

After the excitement had abated later that morning, I remarked, perhaps out of place, “Sighting the sun to the horizon using a carved arrow leaves wiggle room. It’s hard to distinguish one or two days or even a week from the equinox on the Sofa Rock, don’t you think?”

Fig. 6.7. The Sofa Rock alignment. The directional petroglyph marker aligns with the equinox sun on the horizon. Accompanying the compasslike glyph on the horizontal surface was a petroglyph design that resembled an animal (see also color insert for photos of the Sofa Rock alignment).

“You’re right,” McGlone replied, and I smiled. “It’s not that precise, as many are nearby. Not all alignments are like Newgrange or Chaco Canyon (in New Mexico). These simple ones probably were used for ritual or general calendrical purposes. They could have been more for planting crops. But the point is that ancients made a practice of marking the equinox, and this is but one of these remembrances. Now let’s go see how the Boy Scouts did this morning.”

When we got back to the farmhouse, it was about 9:00 a.m. McGlone was getting on in years, and he was not able to climb or even hike much without pain, so he had organized some local Boy Scouts to assist in his rock art research at a nearby site. He had asked them to climb the mountain above their camp to observe and photograph a newly discovered rock art panel as the equinox sun was coming up, so they spent the night camped near it.

This was to avoid crossing the river in the predawn, a practice I would soon adopt and use many times on my own explorations.

Bill Tilley, a local rock art enthusiast, soon arrived at the farmhouse. He had discovered Pathfinder while hiking and looking for rock art in 1996. Naming it “Pathfinder” in honor of the Boy Scouts who had assisted in investigating it, he pointed out that, that unlike most of the rock art in the area, it was located high on a canyon wall below the capstone. After Tilley told McGlone about the large panel, McGlone found a long way around to drive to it. It took over an hour and was a difficult trek in the predawn dark.

Now, with the sun climbing in the cloudless but still hazy morning, we left the ranch in a caravan of three pickup trucks and headed farther up the dirt road that followed the Purgatoire River. Within several miles we came to a crossing used by ranchers going to the south side. The water was low and rose only to the top of the wheels of the trucks.

From the river crossing we followed cow trails for several miles before coming to a large hill. After opening and closing a cattle fence, our group arrived at the base camp where the group of Boy Scouts was packing up.

“Did it work?” shouted McGlone upon our arrival at the Boy Scouts’ camp. Excitedly, they showed us a handheld video recording of the sunrise event they had filmed earlier.

After a little discussion and words of appreciation to the Boy Scouts, McGlone became excited. “That’s really something, just as we predicted, an equinox morning alignment.

Perhaps tomorrow morning you’ll come up here?” he said, looking at me. “Why don’t you and Bill Tilley take a look now?”

From where we had parked the vehicles, I followed Tilley up a cattle path and climbed the steep hill toward the capstone. The last one hundred yards to the top was steep and left me winded. As we hiked around the capstone and approached some large boulders near the top, I could begin to see a large petroglyph on a southeast-facing flattened surface, where a vertical rock among the adjoining boulders had created a cavelike enclosure.

Upon approaching the large rock art panel I was drawn to a three-foothigh, heavily pecked howling dog petroglyph. I named him “Eight-Dog” after seeing the eight prominent spots on his body. I then began to study some of the many dozen other images.

Because of the envelopment of the petroglyph panel by the upright rock, it was not possible to fully observe the panel from any particular vantage point. Moreover, the constricted area and light conditions, most of the glyphs toward the inside were quite small and difficult to observe, so I just wandered about, trying to take in the enormity of the pristine pictorial site. I found subtleties and forms that I didn’t readily understand, but over the next several years, by taking the time to draw them, the images and the stories they told became clearer.

Fig. 6.8. Pathfinder. The petroglyph panel is on a flat twenty-fourfoot by twelve-foot vertical sandstone rock with a southeastern face. An adjoining boulder creates a cavelike structure.

Fig. 6.9. The Pathfinder howling dog petroglyph that I named “Eight-Dog.”

Fig. 6.10. A drawing of the Pathfinder howling dog petroglyph with its associated glyphs.

Although the Pathfinder site is without any historical graffiti or vandalism, many of its glyphs are fragile. As a result of thousands of years of flaking and erosion, mineral leaching has discolored some of them, and others have a white, chalky appearance where the protective patina has been worn off.

McGlone and I had a number of discussions concerning the preciseness and therefore the authenticity of the Boy Scout video. The shadow fit precisely into the equinox morning target glyph, but there was an irregularity in the fit at the top, so we decided that erosion had already taken a toll.

Fig. 6.11. Looking into the Pathfinder enclosure. The floor of the rock enclosure resembles a cave with an incline, the deepest point being located at the southern end of the panel.

Fig. 6.12. Drawing of petroglyphs on the twenty-seven-foot-long Pathfinder panel. I observed three subpanels, each telling a story.

Fig. 6.13. The equinox sunrise shadow cast on a Pathfinder petroglyph. This equinox sunrise alignment was created on the largest Pathfinder glyph, a vulva shape serving as a calendar marker. (See also color insert.)

Fig. 6.14. Drawing of the equinox sunrise alignment on the apparent vulva glyph. The shadow so closely followed elements of what McGlone called the “leaf-shaped glyph” that he considered the alignment deliberately made to operate on the equinox.

In his last remaining years, McGlone and Phil Leonard had organized a dedicated team, which I joined, to help document the morning equinox alignment. We provided numerous drawings and photographs, many of which were included in McGlone’s sadly posthumous 1999 Archaeoastronomy of Southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle that he coauthored with Phil Leonard and Ted Barker, both of whom will be described in more detail in succeeding chapters.

MEETING THE HUNTER AND THE GODDESS I spent the rest of that day looking over the Pathfinder site and photographing as many of the petroglyphs on the panel as I could. Following the vertical rock art panel to the west, the area became more confined between the panel and the boulder, creating a cave no more than several feet wide at points. To view the panel, I had to crawl up the sheltered incline. In this prostrated position, I came face-to-face with small, finely pecked glyphs at the back and lower corner of the panel, and later, in the deepest part of the cave, I found a handsome but worn glyph of a hunter holding a spear.

Below the hunter and toward the bottom was a six-inch-high feminine-looking glyph that appeared as if it was reaching out to touch a representation of a tree. The tree image resembled a tree of life glyph. I could see how the inner circle of the glyph, the Earth, was penetrated by the tree and was broken. A notch at the top of the outer semicircle was clearly the doorway to a world above. The finely pecked image looked like a tree, with roots that became rivers flowing to nourish the buffalo and deer petroglyphs that populate the panel.

Fig. 6.15. The thirteen-inch-high hunter is the first glyph from the back of the Pathfinder enclosure.

Fig. 6.16. Detail drawing of the back of the Pathfinder enclosure. The hunter, a feminine image, a tree of life, a deer, and buffalo petroglyphs are protagonists in the mythology of Pathfinder’s creators.

Located above the major protagonists which include the hunter, the feminine image, a tree of life, a deer, and buffalo petroglyphs is an almost undistinguishable collage. It is difficult to see toward the top of the narrow cave with poor light, complicated by apparent mineralization that has washed out the upper petroglyphs. Over years of looking at it I concluded it ressembles a woman giving birth.

But there was more. What were the many crescent-shaped glyphs? “Hoofprints” is how archaeologists refer to the horseshoe-shaped/hoofprint/ moon glyphs that are common at Pathfinder. James D. Keyser and Michael A. Klassen emphasized in their 2001 book Plains Indian Rock Art the visual similarity between these hoofprints and female human genitalia. They wrote, “The two functional explanations for ‘hoof print’ tradition rock art —symbols of fertility and hunting magic—are actually quite complementary. Clearly, female fertility and game animals (especially bison) are linked at many sites, often by symbolic association between hoof prints and representations of human genitalia.”3

Fig. 6.17. Drawing of the Pathfinder hoofprint glyphs, which perhaps represent a lunar count.

Fig. 6.18. Variations of the Pathfinder hoofprint glyphs, which are often considered to represent vulvas.

In the middle of the Pathfinder panel, a row of nine hoofprint glyphs may represent nine months, which is the human gestation period, and this is consistent with the birth theme of Pathfinder. Brennan had previously made the connection to these types of glyphs as representing a lunar count. Accordingly, a moon glyph represents one womb period, a lunar month.4 Given the diverse forms in which the hoofprint or moon glyph motifs appear at Pathfinder it is a mistake to suggest a single universal meaning. At Pathfinder, some of the different varieties and shapes appear to relate to counts; for example, the series of nine vertical hoofprint glyphs that perhaps relate to calendrics, to the female womb, or to copulation.

A SECOND PATHFINDER ALIGNMENT After a long absence that followed McGlone’s death, on a spring equinox excursion in 2004 I was revisiting the Pathfinder site. Around noon, I was again sitting on top of the Pathfinder rock complex. The rock on which I meditated was the roof of the enclosure containing the petroglyphs. It was positioned between the flat vertical rock art panel and another boulder, creating the enclosured cave with several holes in the ceiling that allowed some light in. From my perch I could see the rock art panel below through one of the holes.

There, to my amazement, I observed a sun dagger moving across the panel. A “sun dagger” is a ray or wedge of light cast on the rock surface that comes to a point. The triangular shape is created as the sunlight enters through a hole or rock formation and gradually progresses with the sun’s movement, interacting with petroglyphs at some sites, including Pathfinder. I was excited by the prospect of a new equinox alignment and returned from my perch to go back into the Pathfinder, where I had previously been working. As a reward for being observant I was able to photograph this unusual noontime alignment, which proved to be a sophisticated heliolithic animation. Heliolithic animations are light shows on petroglyphs set in motion by the sun’s movement. They take advantage

of the moving light-and-shadow interplay on fixed petroglyphs to create moving stories that unfold on specific days.

The first equinox noontime “target” was the Suncatcher glyph. This glyph has explicit sexual connotations and apparent association with human genitalia and the act of copulation. On the equinox, the point of light of the sun dagger and the tip of the Suncatcher glyph precisely line up, which only occurs on or a day before or after equinox.

Fig. 6.19. Pathfinder noontime alignment of the Suncatcher glyph. The wedge in the upper left is the approaching sun dagger. (Photo enhancements by author) The next target of the descending sun dagger was an abstract human-looking anthropomorphic figure whose elements were at first difficult to discern. However, a later analysis of my digital photographs revealed a spread-legged figure with a protrusion inside her body cavity, as if she were pregnant. The figure held a disc in one hand, and her left foot rested near the head of a clearly pecked serpent. As I watched, the point of light descended through the panel and, after passing through the Suncatcher glyph, it intersected with the genital area of the spread-legged figure in such a precise manner that its meaning could not be missed.

Fig. 6.20. Detail of the anthropomorphic figure identified by author as Changing Woman.

On the equinox, the sun dagger proceeded from the Suncatcher glyph to strike the spreadlegged figure in the genital area. The prominent placement of a large vulva glyph below the anthropomorphic figure reinforces the fertility theme by connecting the female womb and the male equinox sun dagger.

This Pathfinder light-animation sequence entails the sun dagger precisely intersecting with at least four petroglyphs. Over a ninety-minute period, after beginning with the sun dagger striking the tip of the Suncatcher glyph and traveling through the spread-legged anthropomorphic figure, it engulfed the Snake petroglyph at her feet, and finally struck a second anthropomorphic figure near his phallus.

After passing through the first anthropomorphic glyph, the head of the serpent below her feet becomes illuminated by the sun dagger. As the ray of light moves across the panel, first the head and then the entire body of the snake becomes engulfed by sun. The occurrence of the pecked serpent and its inclusion in the Pathfinder noontime equinox heliolithic animation reinforces the ancient worldwide association between snakes and the equinox, which is also seen at the pyramid of Chichén Itzá (chapter 5), at Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (chapter 16), and in the Light Serpent animation at a California site (chapter 10).

Fig. 6.21. Drawing of the Pathfinder equinox archaeoastronomical alignment and light animation. The noontime sun dagger path is illustrated by arrows on the left, and the morning alignment shadow on the edge of a vulva form is shown with arrows on the right.

The fourth target of the alignment is an anthropomorth holding in one hand high above his head a large animal while touching or petting a quadruped (four-legged animal) with his other hand. The sun dagger strikes a large divot between his legs before continuing on to the floor over the next fifteen minutes.

The Pathfinder noontime animation is quite precise. The “throw” of the sun dagger, the distance from the rocks creating the dagger and the point of light on the petroglyph panel, reaches seventeen feet to the serpent glyph. This means that each day before and after the equinox the point of the sun dagger moves significantly above or below the point at which the sun dagger strikes the petroglyphs on the equionox. This reinforces both the preciseness and intentionality of the equinox sun dagger animation.

DIVINE SEXUALITY—THE STORY OF CHANGING WOMAN Later in 2004, after viewing my photographs, Phillip Leonard (who is profiled in chapter 8) made a rather profound suggestion, proposing that the Pathfinder equinox could be a reenactment of an ancient story found in Native American mythology. He told me, with confirmation from Sam D. Gill and Irene F. Sullivan’s Dictionary of Native American Mythology, that there was a Yavapai-Apache story about Changing Woman, the Mother of Mankind. She personified the Earth and symbolized the cyclical path of the seasons. And most important, she was penetrated by the sun and in many stories conceived twins.5 Gill

and Sullivan noted, “A common and rather widespread story has Sun impregnating a woman [Widapokwi] who gives birth to warrior twins… . At sunrise, water from a spring had dripped into her vagina just as the sun rays touched her.”6 In another Native American version she became pregnant when touched by the rays of the sun and drops of water, followed by the birth to twin boys. 7 In a Navajo story about Changing Woman it is said: Changing Woman is the goddess created at the start of the fourth [present] world. She matures quickly, is impregnated by the Sun and gives birth to warrior twins, Monster Slayer and Child of the Water. They travel to their father to gain the power to rid the world of monsters. Changing Woman gives corn and animals to the humans. Later she is persuaded by her son to move to an island in the west, induced by the promise of a wonderful house, and great power over creation, and finally by the threat of war.8 These fertility themes at Pathfinder, along with their connection to Native American creation mythologies, are consistent with ancient myths and stories in other cultures. To name two, early Greek myths involved Zeus’s impregnation of Danaë in a shower of gold, and the same basic story is also found in a Hindu tradition involving Vishnu, who descended into Devaki’s womb as light and was born as Krishna.*15 Even today, an impregnation ritual is practiced in Hindu marriages, where on the day before the wedding the bride is made to look toward the sun to be exposed to the fertilizing solar rays.9 Thus, this universally acknowledged moment of creation recreated at Pathfinder is a union of light and shadow, petroglyph and sun that is, quoting Brennan, “celebrating the cosmic and sexual unions between man and woman, heaven and earth, spirit and matter.”10

Fig. 6.22. An image identified by the author as Changing Woman with sun dagger approaching, photographed on March 20, 2014, within two hours of exact equinox.

The Pathfinder petroglyphs tell a story. Through archaeoastronomy and a collaborative effort by McGlone, Leonard, myself, and others, we were able to propose an interpretation of the Pathfinder noontime heliolithic animation based on Native American mythology.

An observation and filming of the morning and noontime alignments on March 20, 2014, by videographer Kean Scott Monahan and me proved the preciseness of the morning and noontime equinox alignments; however, it will be left to other researchers to confirm my interpretations of the petroglyphic images and the story of Changing Woman.

Fig. 6.23. Detail of Changing Woman alignment (see also color insert). The interaction of the tip of the sun dagger and the petroglyph on the equinox is interpreted by the author to represent the act of primal conception in an early depiction of Native American emergence/creation mythology.

Many questions remain. For example, where did the knowledge come from such that these early Native Americans could so accurately and graphically create the equinox heliolithic animation? McGlone would eventually show me that other nearby archaeoastronomy sites with equinox alignments provided clues.

7 Equinox Sunrise: Celtic Sun Deities in Colorado The case for American (Old World) epigraphy and Ogham writing is so convincing that it can no longer be dismissed without fair and open consideration… . Everything considered, if understanding the minds of ancient people is a major goal of archaeology and anthropology, then reading a people’s own words in their own hand should be far preferable to merely studying the colors and patterns of their pottery.

WILLIAM R. MCGLONE AND PHILLIP M. LEONARD, ANCIENT CELTIC AMERICA

DIFFUSIONISTS AT ODDS After my first outing to the Pathfinder site and surrounding locations, I traveled regularly to southeastern Colorado to explore rock art sites and to visit the aging Bill McGlone.

Each trip was punctuated with time spent looking at rock art that included archaic Native American petroglyphs, archaeoastronomical sites, and, most important, a handful of American rock art sites that seemed to bear Old World Ogham scripts.

On the long drives of these expeditions I was able to engage McGlone in conversations to explain how the archaeopriests had been so thoroughly successful at corrupting the history of America. McGlone had much to say on the subject as he had dedicated the latter part of his life to methodically researching and deciphering the scripts left in rock engravings by ancient travelers. He believed that the empirical, scientific evidence proved that the Celts were in southeastern Colorado and throughout America thousands of years ago. The ancient Celts were not limited to Ireland or the British Isles, as one might presume, but lived on the European continent in Spain and France, and some of these Celts were seafarers.

Eventually McGlone, like Barry Fell, had to debate the archaeologists. He shared with me videos and transcripts of debates he and other colleagues had engaged in with archaeologists, arguing the pro- and anti-Fell positions on diffusionism. Often, these dialogues became heated, but inevitably they came back to the issue of Fell’s credibility.1 Early in their epigraphic careers, McGlone and his principal collaborator, Phillip Leonard, were colleagues with Barry Fell. But McGlone and Leonard’s 1986 book Ancient Celtic America criticized some of Fell’s work, with the result that Fell was furious, and a major rift evolved that persisted until his death in 1994. He saw McGlone and Leonard as trying to capitalize on his pioneering work while discrediting him in the process, as he claimed others were doing in his circle. The controversy reached a head when McGlone and Leonard resigned from the Western Epigraphic Society. While Fell continued to publish the ESOP journal, the most important and influential journal in the field, McGlone and Leonard pursued careful and scientific analysis of Fell’s thesis, with a focus on Colorado and Oklahoma rock art sites. Their research with coauthors J. L. Guthrie, R. W. Gillespie and J. P. Whittall Jr., culminated in Ancient American Inscriptions: Plow Marks

or History?2 Ancient American Inscriptions addressed the Old World presence in North America with a critical eye. The authors relied principally on their own research and epigraphic decipherments to make the case that Old World peoples traveled to the Americas before Columbus.

In providing a critical assessment of the state of diffusionism, the book has a particular focus on the epigraphic debate ignited by Fell. According to McGlone, his coauthors and he tried to walk the fine line between honoring and acknowledging Fell’s pioneering work while providing a necessary and discerning critique to advance a credible diffusionist perspective. While scrutinizing and severely criticizing Fell, along with other diffusionist researchers, the authors wrote, “These comments might suggest that the condemnation of Fell and his work is fully justified, and that his place in history will be only as a textbook example of a fringe lunatic. We do not believe this is the case. However unacceptable much of the work is, his overall thesis seems to us to be correct. Time will tell.”3 In the book, McGlone and the others went on to criticize both diffusionists and nondiffusionists for uncritical investigations of the evidence. Noting that, while there may be less evidence of Old World contacts than many diffusion-ists advocate, there is compelling evidence that supports the diffusionist perspective and the need for a rethinking of American history. They wrote, “It is important to keep in mind that the inscriptions indicating Old World contacts constitute less than one-tenth of one percent of the petroglyphs in this country. It could be argued that their small numbers makes them far less important than the others, but we contend that if any of the glyphs prove to be the work of Old World visitors or to show their influence, the impact on American history would be enormous. This is why the Epigraphic claims must be investigated with sobriety, fairness, and competence.”4 Besides listening to McGlone’s accounts of the Fell controversy and the state of diffusionism in America, I heard about his interactions with many of the other early site researchers, including Ida Jane Gallagher, Jon Polansky, and Gloria Farley. I was also introduced to other diffusionists, including David H. Kelley (1924–2011), one of the few scholars and epigraphers who was actually ensconced in the archaeology priesthood.

Kelley, a professor of archaeology at the University of Calgary, was famous for his early pioneering work on Mayan decipherments because he supported the controversial theory that the Mayan script had phonetic components.

Fig. 7.1. David H. Kelly was among a handful of diffusionists in the 1950s and 1960s who were also professional archaeologists and were willing to investigate and publish on Old World sites in America. (Photo from southeastern Colorado ca. 1995 by author) Kelley also criticized Fell’s research for distorting data and failing to present alternative views. But despite his doubts about some of Fell’s approaches, he was convinced of the overall thesis—that there was an extensive European presence in the Americas before Columbus. He wrote, “I have no personal doubts that some of the inscriptions, which have been reported are genuine Celtic Ogham… . Despite my occasional harsh criticism of Fell’s treatment of individual inscriptions, it should be recognized that without Fell’s work there would be no [North American] Ogham problem to perplex us.”5

A COWBOY GUIDE In addition to Phil Leonard, McGlone relied on Ted Barker, another colleague in his field of research. Barker was a rancher who had grown up and spent all his life in southeastern Colorado, so he knew where scores of old petroglyph sites were located. Almost as important, he also knew the ranchers whose permission was required to access them.

Barker’s familiarity with the terrain and McGlone’s discipline at identifying the archaeoastronomy resulted in dozens of discoveries over their twenty-year friendship.

McGlone was led on expeditions to remote sites that Barker knew from his youth, often accompanied by Alma, Barker’s wife. In his seventies when I met him, he was still tough as nails and not so far removed in spirit, manner, and style from the cowboys of the old West.

Ted Barker was born in 1921 in Indian country, and his parents were Native Americans from western Kansas. His dad grew up there on a homestead but ran away early in life, married while still in Kansas, and then moved his family to Deora, Colorado. There they received a land grant and raised a family in a one-room cabin built at the mouth of a little canyon (see color insert).

Staying in the area where he grew up, Barker took pride in the independence and self-

sufficiency embodied by settlers in the American West, as he was one of the first- and second-generation ranchers who had been through the Depression, several boom-and-bust cycles, and the more recent economic decline of the area Throughout it all, he and Alma stayed and raised a family, although the area was and remains very remote. Water was the limiting factor for the homesteaders, so Barker and his father traveled the area looking for regular sources of it on horseback, and this is how he became familiar with the rock art found throughout the region.

Fig. 7.2. Ted and Alma Barker at Crack Cave (Picture Canyon), Colorado.

A rancher and history buff, Barker explored rock art and archaeoastronomy sites throughout southeastern Colorado and introduced me to many often secret rock art locations. The insights and stories I gained from his knowledge of the history of the region were amazing and far distant from my urban upbringing. As I rode in his faithful Dodge pickup truck to faraway subcanyons, draws, and creeks, he would point out rock formations and locations of petroglyphs while describing the more recent history of ranchers and farmers of the region. He showed me several places where Kit Carson had carved his name, as well as noteworthy petroglyphs and historical sites.

Barker’s life took a turn when he first encountered Bill McGlone. They met on the prairie when Barker came up to a lost and frustrated McGlone and asked him what he was doing in the area. McGlone said he was looking for Native American petroglyphs. Barker pointed to a rock outcropping one hundred yards away and said, “The native petroglyphs you’re looking for are all over the place.” According to Barker, McGlone didn’t know much about how to look, and it was he who eventually led him to many important Native American and non–Native American sites known only to a few ranchers. On the other hand, there were also sights near towns that “everyone” knew about, although the meaning of these places remained a mystery.

CRACK CAVE, SOUTHEASTERN COLORADO In the 1920s and 1930s, locals and ranchers from Springfield, Prichard, Compo, and other small enclaves just north of the Colorado-Oklahoma border would travel by horse and

vehicles for Sunday picnics to Picture Canyon. There, the canyon walls were endowed with abundant rock engravings of many styles and ages, punctuated by more recent graffiti.

Barker had visited Picture Canyon many times since he was a boy so, when pioneering NASA engineer, astronomer Rollin W. Gillespie visited the region, Barker was his guide.

A mathematician and rocket engineer during the heady days of NASA’s Apollo missions, Gillespie is credited with developing the navigational calculus that plotted the trajectories needed to reliably transport men to the moon and safely return them to Earth. Gillespie asked Barker if there was a gathering place for the tribes in the canyon. Barker said yes, he had seen a cave in the canyon with fragile petroglyphs on the inside and showed it to Gillespie, who, after viewing it, explained how the archaeoastronomy might work. Barker immediately remembered that he’d always thought, “So this is how they kept time!” Thus, Gillespie and McGlone were the first to accurately predict that during the September 1984 equinox there would be a solar event in the cave.

The cave, located in Picture Canyon, is now known as Crack Cave, named after the vertical cracklike cave entrance. On my first visit to Crack Cave in 1996 I camped in the remote Picture Canyon campground the night before the equinox so I wouldn’t have to make the long drive in the predawn dark. Since Gillespie and McGlone’s discoveries, the town of Springfield hosted an equinox festival twice a year that featured a presunrise expedition to Picture Canyon. There, on the spring and fall equinoxes, staff members from the Comanche National Grasslands open the gate at sunrise, allowing onlookers the opportunity to enter the cave, although in recent years they have discontinued this practice.

I had arrived the day before with enough time to walk around the canyon and photograph some of the numerous petroglyphs on the canyon walls. After a night punctuated with periodic screeching by the resident screech owls, I was awakened in the predawn by a line of headlights shining into my tent. It was the day of the equinox, and the trucks and cars were moving slowly on the dirt road leading into Picture Canyon. The lead truck stopped and someone got out and unlocked the chained metal road gate; then the caravan of perhaps ten cars and pickup trucks proceeded into the site.

Fig. 7.3. Outside of Crack Cave in Picture Canyon. In front of it are the remains of an early twentieth-century homesteader’s foundation wall.

The twenty or so folks who had arrived to see the morning alignment were standing in a line outside the cave near the homestead ruins, waiting their turn for the event. Because the inside of the cave is small and confined, only three or four people can view the alignment at the same time without blocking the light through the narrow opening.

McGlone was going to do the interpreting. “I want you to sit right here,” he said to me, and pointed to a perch on a boulder at the far end of the cave. Unlike the onlookers who had lined up outside to take their turn to see the event, I was able to stay seated throughout the whole fifteen-minute light show. In this manner I heard McGlone repeat his story quite a few times, describing how the alignment worked to each new set of onlookers.

While graffiti cover many of the canyon walls around the cave, miraculously there has been no damage to the fragile inner wall where the sunrise light appears on the cave wall during the equinox. Because of the narrow cave opening, only on the days around the equinox does the early morning light actually strike the inner cave wall bearing the inscriptions. As the sun emerges on the horizon, what McGlone, Fell, and others maintain are well-formed Celtic Ogham inscriptions appear, inscriptions that reveal a message they deciphered to read as, “The sun strikes (here) on the day of Bel.”6 I had seen Ogham writing in books, but this was the first time I had seen what was claimed to be the real thing. To a neophyte like myself, it was exciting yet perplexing.

Even after I had reviewed the pictures in Ancient American Inscriptions and McGlone had explained the phenomena, it was no simple matter to comprehend how the equinox counter at Crack Cave worked.

McGlone pointed out the three sets of inscriptions inside Crack Cave, and what he called the Ogham lines were distinct and deliberately inscribed on the smooth, fragile sandstone. Characteristic of Celtic Ogham, the inscriptions had individual horizontal stem lines that served as a guide for positioning the vertical letters. McGlone warned me to be very careful around the finely pecked glyphs, noting that they could be damaged by just

rubbing up against them.

At the back of Crack Cave, on a curved rock face is a grouping of lines interpreted by McGlone to read “Grian,” a Celtic name for the sun. McGlone translated the lines as the letters G, R, and N, with the ia diphthong (or angled line) following the R to clearly spell out the word grian, which means “sun.”7 Another Ogham inscription was pecked on two rows on the south wall of the cave. The top row, made up of four lines, was interpreted as the letter S. Below are the letters for GRiaN, already referenced on the back wall. Leonard and McGlone interpreted this to be aoiS GRiaN, or, in English, “PEOPLE OF THE SUN.”8

Fig. 7.4. The back of Crack Cave. The inscriptions have been translated by McGlone and Leonard to read “People of the Sun” in Celtic. Note the stem line.

EQUINOX SUNRISE AT CRACK CAVE However, the most significant inscription was the one I had seen in the photo. On Crack Cave’s north wall were incised strokes that follow the curvature of the smooth rounded surface.

McGlone and Leonard interpreted the inscription to read, as already noted, “THE SUN STRIKES (HERE) ON THE DAY OF BEL.” Above the inscription are two rows of parallel vertical lines that count the days before and after the equinox.

Epigrapher David H. Kelley confirmed the interpretation of the Ogham script, also noting that evidence is provided by the repetition of the sequence of 2-5-3 strokes crossing the line at three different sites having astronomical alignments.9 According to my guides, Bel and Grian are Celtic deities relating to the sun, and they are noted in the Celtic inscriptions at Crack Cave. The Ogham grouping of lines for Bel appears in at least three locations, and Grian is found at six locations in southeastern

Colorado.10 While Grian is thought by some to be a Celtic solar goddess who was considered to be the queen of the waxing year, others claim it is solely a feminine word for the sun.11 The appearance of both masculine and feminine Celtic words invoking the sun may suggest a distinction between the spring and the autumn equinox deities.

Fig. 7.5. Crack Cave inscription translation. (From McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions)

Fig. 7.6 and Fig. 7.7.

Left: equinox inscription at Crack Cave in Colorado one day before equinox; right: equinox inscription at Crack Cave on the equinox with all of the vertical counting lines illuminated (see also color insert).

(From McGlone et al., Ancient American inscriptions, plate V, photos c and d) The specificity of the inscriptions referencing the Celtic sun deities Grian and Bel, combined with the precise equinox sunrise solar alignment, offers to many—and I was also becoming convinced—that there is overwhelming evidence of an Old World presence at Crack Cave. While travel to Picture Canyon for the equinox sunrise is not practical for most, several videos of the event have been documented.12

So what did this evidence from Crack Cave suggest? McGlone speculated that a group of Celtic travelers, originating in Iberia or from somewhere around the Mediterranean region, traveled across the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, where they headed up the Mississippi River to the Arkansas River and into the Western regions by way of the Cimarron and Purgatoire tributaries.

“But what were they doing in southeastern Colorado?” Barker mused.

Perhaps they were exploring and mapping North America or perhaps they were seeking a travel route to the Rocky Mountains, seeking mineral wealth and an easier way to the Rocky Mountains. On the way, the natural springs and protection of Picture Canyon would have offered a relatively safe settlement site to stay through the winter. And they wouldn’t have been the only ones to use it. Based on the abundance of different styles of rock inscriptions, the site was occupied at least seasonally for thousands of years. A party of Old World travelers would have found their way to it by following well-worn trails and/or through communications with the natives.

Fig. 7.8. Close-up of the Crack Cave gate. Thanks to the preservation efforts of public agencies and private citizens, a metal gate was installed to protect the Crack Cave entrance.

Most of the old-time ranchers and farmers and their next generation have loved and respected the land, and their willingness to protect and share the history is part of America’s dwindling heritage. Future generations will owe a debt to ranchers and farmers like Ted Barker, who passed in 2012, for his work identifying, preserving, and recording

ancient American rock art.

Today, the preservation efforts at Crack Cave have been a successful collaboration to protect the unique history left on the rocks by ancient travelers. Unfortunately McGlone’s education efforts have been less successful. During my last equinox visit several years after his death, the Comanche National Grassland ranger who opened the Crack Cave gate told the crowd of onlookers entering the cave that the marks were made by Native Americans with only a passing reference to “other theories.”

Fig. 7.9. Well-formed Ogham inscriptions west of Denver, on a natural rock shelter, before and after the cover-up.

Compounding the problem, sometimes the evidences of Old World journeys to the New World disappear almost as rapidly as they are discovered. For example, from McGlone I learned that west of Denver on the Colorado Front Range was a series of Ogham markings on an exposed rock outcropping known as the Central Colorado Inscription. McGlone, Leonard, and Fell worked on the translation, which they established as, “ROUTE GUIDE;

TO THE WEST IS THE FRONTIER TOWN WITH STANDING STONES AS BOUNDARY MARKERS.” In other words, based on the location and the Celtic interpretation, the inscription was created to direct ancient travelers to a nearby shelter.

I visited the site on occasion to study and document it, but sadly I have to use the past tense to describe this site. To keep the public away, all of the inscriptions have since been buried under more than four feet of dirt by the owners.

The inscriptions near Denver, based on the location and the Celtic interpretation, were created to direct ancient travelers to a nearby shelter. Little has been written about these Ogham inscriptions beyond the brief mentions in McGlone and colleagues’ books and in several ESOP journal articles. I recall this here less for what was inscribed and more as a reminder of how quickly the New History can disappear from view without conscientious perseveration and public education efforts.13

8 Old World Cosmologies at the Anubis Caves On days of the equinoxes, a group of petroglyphs in a small cave are lighted successively by the sun, much as actors on a stage are spotlighted in an opera.

Finally, just at sunset, after the other figures have been eclipsed by the shadow, only what we interpret as Anubis, the Egyptian jackal god, is left in sunshine on the cave wall. Some inscriptions at the site describe the opera. Others identify the site as equinoctial, and still others tell of additional interactions with the sun at that time of year. It is at once the most complex and epigraphically interesting petroglyph site the authors have yet seen. And it is located in the western United States—in the Panhandle of Oklahoma.

PHILLIP M. LEONARD, A NEW WORLD MONUMENT TO MITHRAS

CELTIC RELIGION IN OKLAHOMA I was fortunate over the years of exploring rock art to become acquainted with Phillip M. Leonard. He had a military career and was a medical researcher with a background in languages, having studied Arabic, Hebrew, and Semitic alphabets. During the 1970s Leonard had read Fell’s America B.C., and although fascinated, he thought it lacked convincing proof that Ogham had been used in the Americas.

Nevertheless, Leonard began to study Ogham writing and the Celtic language and became convinced that there were Ogham inscriptions at the central Colorado site outside of Denver, as described at the end of the previous chapter. As a blind test, he sent sketches to Fell of the writing he had found and requested a translation. Fell responded with essentially the same translation that Leonard had made, and this confirmed to him that “something was really going on.”

Then, in the early 1980s, Leonard was introduced to Bill McGlone. They quickly became friends and colleagues, and the two visited and researched many sites in Colorado and New Mexico, while eventually founding the Western Epigraphic Society. He also coauthored four books with McGlone and authored or coauthored numerous journal articles.1 The culmination of his research into the Anubis Caves and their connection with Old World cosmologies was a monograph he called A New World Monument to Mithras.2 On several occasions after I had been led to Crack Cave, I mentioned to McGlone my interest in visiting the oft-discussed Anubis Caves site, but he wouldn’t give up the guarded secret location.3 “We don’t just take anybody there,” he said gruffly on one occasion to remind me of my newcomer status. However, my perseverance paid off, and I was invited to accompany him and Leonard on a research expedition into the rugged terrain of crisscrossed canyons, arroyos, and washouts that occur periodically from torrential flash floods in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

While Crack Cave demonstrated equinox morning alignments, the alignments at the Anubis Caves were almost exclusively at equinox sunsets, the one exception being a summer solstice alignment. Elsewhere in the region there have been a number of Old World discoveries. One was the so-called Pontotoc County Stele, which was apparently uncovered in the 1930s while the Works Progress Administration was quarrying stone.

Barry Fell had determined it was carved by an early Celtic colonist writing in Portuguese Punic, which was associated with the Cachao-da-Rapa region in northern Portugal.4 There have also been numerous appearances of rune stones. One called the Heavener Runestone was cited by diffusionist researcher and Fell colleague Gloria Farley,5 who then became a driving force in the formation of Runestone Park close to the Arkansas border, where the inscription can be viewed.

Gloria Farley is perhaps best known for her research into the Anubis Caves. She presented articles in ESOP6 and published In Plain Sight: Old World Records in Ancient America, her seminal work recounting ancient travelers in America.7 She was among only a few researchers publicly supporting the diffusionist hypothesis in the Barry Fell era.

Fig. 8.1. Drawing of the Heavener Runestone characters. (Based on a drawing by Gloria Farley, from In Plain Sight) Also several Old World coins have been found in the Oklahoma region, including one found in the town of Heavener by Wilbert Stewart in 1976. This coin shows the profile of Nero, and the Greek inscription on the obverse says “Nero Caesar Augustus.”8 It was later identified to have come from Antioch, Syria, and was made in A.D. 63. But these and the many other artifacts relating to Old World travelers in the region pale in comparison to the Anubis Caves.

I arrived at Ted and Alma Barker’s ranch north of Springfield, Colorado, the day before the equinox. Phillip Leonard was already there and was catching up with the couple in their ranch kitchen. He, Ted, and Alma Barker were old friends, and Leonard had made the journey many times to their ranch from his home in Utah. As Alma Barker readied dinner, the three of us reviewed a video of the Anubis Cave light animation we would be seeing the next evening with Bill.

I would come to discover that Anubis Caves is one of the most significant examples of Old World contact in America before Columbus, and I was fortunate indeed to have McGlone and Leonard as mentors and guides. The two were the world’s experts on this remote and little-known, much less understood, archaeological treasure that is on private property and off-limits to the public. Each had thoroughly researched and documented the major calendrical alignments and their relationship to Old World cultures. Through their research and firsthand teachings and observations, I was able to begin to grasp in a few short years what it had taken McGlone and Leonard decades to unravel.

Fig. 8.2. Phillip M. Leonard of Utah, a retired military professional, cancer researcher, and author, has spent more than twenty-five years investigating the Anubis Caves.

We met up with Bill along the way at a designated meeting place in the late afternoon.

Our small group then arrived at the series of sandstone caves after a brief walk from our parked cars in a nearby field of corn. As I neared and began to make out markings on the wall, I was struck by how quiet it was at this remote location, which contributed to a sense of awe and reverence. After years of persistence, I had finally been invited to accompany McGlone and Leonard to see one of the most significant pieces of evidence for Old World travel in the Americas.

There are five main caves clustered together and a sixth farther north containing Plains Indian animal petroglyphs. Eroded windows between them connect Caves 1, 2, and 3. In each of the five main caves are found different markings, including petroglyphs and inscriptions that share commonality and cohesion. According to McGlone and Leonard the extensive engravings and archaeoastronomy make it one of the best surviving records of the cult of Mithras, an Old World religion that spanned the Persian and Roman empires.

Fig. 8.3. A gathering at Anubis Caves 2 and 3, facing west. The Anubis Caves are a series of six eroded caves in a low sandstone bluff.

Fig. 8.4. Anubis Caves engravings from Cave 2.

MITRA, MITHRA, OR MITHRAS After decades of study, McGlone and Leonard determined that the Anubis Caves complex was dedicated to Mithra, one of many Old World sun deities. But unlike the images of the Mithraeums (temples) found in Old Europe, they concluded that the imagery of the Anubis Caves is a blend of Mithraism and Celtic religion that incorporates Celtic inscriptions invoking Bel and Grian along with other Old World images adorning Cave 2.

The ancients had many different names for the sun god that were sometimes interchangeable and sometimes even represented its different aspects. Between 2000 B.C. and 1500 B.C. Aryan tribes including the Mitanni peoples from the Russian steppes swept south into India and Iran. Thus the names Mitra, Mithra, and Mithras were all derived

from the Indo-European root mihr, which translates both as “friend” and as “contact.” The two major branches who came from India in the East and the Iran region in the West worshipped and sacrificed cattle to Mitra, a god associated with fire. Afterward the Romans adopted him as the god Mithras. Following this, he underwent more changes when his religion spread to the Celtic peoples in Britain and Iberia, and back in India and Iran, the religion remains alive as the Parsees and Zarathustrians.9

Fig. 8.5. A Persian high-relief sculpture of Mithra (or Mitra) from Taq-e Bostan (western Iran), from a sculpture of Ardeshir II, king of Persia, A.D. 379–383 (not shown). (Photo by Philippe Chavin)

Fig. 8.6. Roman image of Mithras slaying the bull. (From Leonard, A New World Monument to Mithras) It was during later Roman times that a great emphasis was placed on a ritual of Mithras slaying a sacrificial bull that symbolized the creation of the cosmos. This was known as the tauroctony (the bull-slaying scene), which, in earlier Iranian and Indian observances

had been much less prevalent. However, an explanation of why the tauroctony scene does not appear at the Anubis Caves is that the inscriptions were made before the cult in Europe had adopted this ritual.

Fig. 8.7. Detail of petroglyph identified by McGlone as Mithra from Anubis Cave 2. The weathered open-mouthed sun god image appears to be chanting.

McGlone pointed out that the anthropomorphic figure in Anubis Cave 2 represented Mithras. Its head was about the size of a small coin and not easy to see among many different and somewhat confusing images on the cave wall. Like many other depictions of Mithra in the Old World, he has a cape and the rays of the sun create a halo or crown.

Also, what appears to be an erect phallus is positioned near his left hand.

The neo-Platonic philosopher Porphyry of Tyre (A.D. 234–305) reported that Mithras was “seated on the line of the equinox with North on his right, South on his left. That is, Mithras is placed on the celestial equator facing west.”10 Correlating with Porphyry’s description, the image identified as Mithras in Anubis Cave 2 also faces west. In addition, Porphyry also suggested that the Milky Way was related to the afterlife world. In this context, as will be seen, the Milky Way was very important to Mithraic symbolism.

Mithras is often shown wearing a cape covered with stars. At the Anubis Caves he wears a capelike adornment and is positioned between rising and set-ting suns. Seven rays emanate from his head. The seven rays may also relate to the seven grades of Mithraic initiation. Each grade had its own set of teachings, represented by a celestial body and a symbol, and these are found on the Anubis Panel in Cave 2.11 The cult of Mithraism had both exoteric and esoteric aspects. Exoteric manifestations included calendar keeping, retelling of ancient mythology and the observation and

performance of rituals, all of which are identifiable in Anubis Cave 2. But less apparent are the hidden esoteric aspects of the religion. This “coding” of esoteric information is demonstrated in a collage of figures embedded in the main panel in Cave 2. Leonard interprets the “complex glyph,” a combination of seven symbols, as the symbols for the seven grades of Mithraism. His research indicates that each stage of advancement represented a level of understanding embodied by a planet, a day of the week, and its own metaphoric image. In the Mithraic mystery rites, these symbols were used to instruct initiates in proper attitudes and conduct. The seven symbols were: (1) Corax (raven), (2) Nymphus (bride), (3) Miles (soldier), (4) Leo (lion), (5) Perses (the moon, son of Perseus), (6) Heliodromus (one who proceeds like the sun, Lugh), and (7) Pater (Mithras).12 There is also a direct connection between Mithras, Christ, and the religions that bore their names. For example, both are solar deities (sun/son), and both are said to be born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem on the winter solstice. Jesus had twelve human disciples, while Mithra had twelve heavenly constellations. In other words, Mithraism was reinvented as Christianity. The archetypal symbol of the sun god, who evolved from Mitra to Mithra to Mithras, was overlaid onto the life of Christ, the son of God.13

Fig. 8.8. Drawing of details of the Cave 2 “complex glyph,” showing an exploded view of a compact cluster of some of the Mithraic grade symbols. From top to bottom on the left side are Leo, Nymphus, and Corax. Miles can be seen on the extreme right. (From Leonard, A New World Monument to Mithras) It is worth mentioning a few other connections between the two religions. Catholics engage in a ritual Eucharist, as do the Mithraists. Purification through a ritualistic baptism was required of the faithful in both religions. The resurrection of Jesus is celebrated every year on Easter, which is recognized as the time he was resurrected. Mithra’s resurrection was also celebrated every year during his principal festival—a date that later became Easter. Some of the major traditions of the original Christian Church of Rome—including miters, wafers, water baptisms, altars, and doxology—were all adopted from the earlier traditions of Mithraism dating back to ancient pre-Christian Persia and India.

ANUBIS CAVES INSCRIPTIONS The name of the site itself came from Gloria Farley, who was shown the caves by a local rancher in 1978.14 She then identified the doglike figure in Cave 2 as the Egyptian jackal god Anubis, hence named the location the Anubis Caves.15 What clearly associates the canine at the Anubis Caves and the Egyptian Anubis god is a flail, a staff used for beating wheat, which rests on the back of the Oklahoma petroglyph figure. Also, the “white crown” of Egypt, a distinctive headdress common to Egyptian images, adorns the Anubis at Anubis Caves.

There are also Ogham and Ogham-like inscriptions in five of the six Anubis Caves. (“Ogham-like” refers to untranslated inscriptions that have the appearance of Ogham.)

These engravings were notably different from the pecked abstract or pecked representational-style petroglyphs more common to indigenous dwellers of the region. At the Anubis Caves, as had been the case at Crack Cave, the Old World god Bel is identified, as is Grian, the Old Irish name for Apollo and another word for the sun. Other names for the sun god include Lug (Lugh), Apollo, Bel (Belus, Baal), and Perseus.

Judged by their appearance compared with nineteenth- and twentieth-century graffiti on the panel, the Anubis Caves inscriptions are quite old. McGlone had sought the assistance of an expert in the cation ratio dating, an experimental technique that involves chemical analyses of the rock varnish and patina that remained in the pecked areas, which indicated the inscriptions are two thousand years old, plus or minus three hundred years.16

Fig. 8.9. and 8.10. Two examples of the Egyptian Anubis figure. Known as the jackal god, Anubis ruled over the night in Egyptian mythology. (The drawing on the right is from

Leonard, A New World Monument to Mithras and McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions) In Cave 1, the engravings can be seen from the ground, but unlike Cave 2 and 3, there has been no light and shadow interplay discovered. There are seven marks located about five feet above the cave floor, and these have been interpreted as representing seven constellations.17 These constellations are visible at night looking westward from the cave from September through December. This three-month period runs from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice, or from the time the ancient god Mithras crossed into the “dark world” below the celestial equator until his birthday around Christmas time, when the sun begins to increase in strength. According to Leonard the constellations are Boötes, Corona Borealis, Serpens Caput, Hercules, and a female figure composed of a combination of Lyra, Aquila, and Cygnus.18 Cave 2 is inscribed with more petroglyphs than any of the other caves and is the home of the “Silent Opera” heliolithic animation described. The autograph and birth date “Tom Ogima 1896” at the top of the Cave 2 Anubis Panel is a graffito from a cowboy known to have traveled the area. One of the strokes of the m in “Tom” is superimposed over the Anubis flail. The graffito proved useful, however, as it covered up part of the Anubis image, deflecting accusations that McGlone and Leonard had created the inscriptions themselves.

Fig. 8.11. Details of the Cave 1 petroglyphs, which are thought to represent an IndoEuropean star map visible after dusk on the fall equinox some fifteen centuries ago.

Fig. 8.12. Anubis Cave 1 constellations. (Photo by Kean Scott Monahan, © 2005 and 2008 by TransVision)

Fig. 8.13. Animal figures in Cave 2. (From McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions) On the northern wall of cave 2 are animal figures, some so worn they can barely be seen. These have been interpreted to represent constellations. These animal figures have been construed by McGlone and Leonard as depicting Taurus (a bull), Aries (a ram), and Pegasus (a winged horse).19 However, the soft sandstone is fragile and has suffered severe wear, while cowboy markings and more recent graffiti have damaged several glyphs. Most discouraging, an early researcher callously affected the site by taking molds of many of the petroglyphs without using a release coating to protect the outer layer of patina. As a result, the latex molds stuck to the patina, and what had slowly built up over the eons was removed, resulting in damage to many of the glyphs. McGlone decried that some of the petroglyphs easily seen twenty years ago cannot be discerned today. For example, an image of the horse (Pegasus) on the left side of Cave 2 cannot be discerned by the naked eye anymore.

THE SIX MONTHS OGHAM INSCRIPTION AND THE

NOSE POINTER ALIGNMENT Cave 3 contains the most significant inscriptions and multiple archaeoastronomical equinox alignments. The first inscription to receive attention was the so-called Six-Months Ogham Inscription.

In Cave 3, McGlone and Leonard identified “Grian” spelled out in Ogham at the extreme left of an Ogham inscription. Above and slightly to the right is a thirteen-day counter, or “vernier” as Bill McGlone called it, meaning that it counts a smaller range of time than the larger one that is predominate on the site. The inscription was originally translated by Fell as, “The sun is six months in the north; in the south for the other months.” This early translation led to the original suggestion by researcher Jon Polansky that the site was associated with the equinox. After much discussion among other researchers, the translation was modified to, “The sun six months north, sinks south for space of months equal number.”

Fig. 8.14. Anubis Cave 3. The Six-Months Ogham Inscription.

The Six Months Inscription alignment, indicating the arrival of the equinox, is created by the sun shining on a rock that generates a shadow in the shape of a man’s profile.

The shadow of the Nose Pointer rock conjuncts with a series of lines, which were identified by Fell, McGlone, and Leonard as well-constructed Ogham writing. They are composed of a horizontal stem line with vertical Ogham lines and a count of days before and after the equinox, as observed at Crack Cave, that is, before the equinox, the noselike shadow moves upward and to the right until it reaches the stem line of the inscription and the shadow of the forehead begins to align with the first vertical mark on the left of the vernier scale. The line marking the seventh day after the equinox begins is longer than the others in the series, setting the six marks before and after it apart. In this fashion, the forehead and nose shadows move over one line at a time to the right until the thirteen days of the equinox are concluded. This process is, of course, reversed in the fall.20 It is noteworthy that in Iran, the six days up to and including the equinox in September are called Mihregan or Mehrgan, which is the name of an Iranian celebration of Mithras.21 Other Ogham inscriptions can be observed in Caves 3 and 4. An inscription in Cave 4 has been reliably interpreted by Fell and others to say in Celtic, “The sun belongs to Bel. This cavern on the day of the equinox is consecrated for chanting of prayers to Bel.”22

Fig. 8.15. The rock that creates the Six Months Inscription shadow. (McGlone et al. 1993, fig 60.)

Fig. 8.16. The shadow face with the prominent Nose Pointer.

Fig. 8.17. Nose Pointer alignment drawing. The forehead of the shadow moves over one mark each day following the spring equinox. The reverse occurs during the fall equinox.

(McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions).

Both Crack Cave and the Anubis Caves contain equinox alignments with Ogham script labeling the sun god as Bel. Both locations also have the name of Grian nearby, and both have images of a “balance device,” the equinox being the day of equality, or balance, between the hours of light and darkness.

Libyan-like writing containing a Semitic language has also been discovered in the Anubis Caves. Below and to the right of the sun god’s feet in Cave 2 are Libyan-like letters that Fell proposed to read as, “Enact at sunset the rites of Bel, assembling at that hour in worship.”23 Bel is the same sun deity invoked at Crack Cave. At the Anubis Caves, the sun god stands on a three-dimensional image of a cube. This Egyptian symbol has been associated with the ether element that combines space, volume, and the material world. Others, like Leonard, associate the cube with the Earth, citing Plato as a source among others. Inside it the name Bel appears, surrounded with additional Libyan-like writing urging the reader to enact his rites at the appointed hour. According to Leonard, “Thus the Anubis Cave Sun God rules over the earth and the shadow of the thumb pointer traces the path from the earth (cube) to the guide of the souls (canine figure) who will take them back to their place in the starry sky.”24

Fig. 8.18. Libyan-like inscriptions from Cave 2. Libyan-like characters are interspersed within and around the cube that the sun god stands on. (From McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions)

THE SILENT OPERA AND OTHER SUNSET EQUINOX DISPLAYS Toward sunset on the equinoxes, a sequence of alignments begins in Cave 3 and progresses to a final sunset sequence in Cave 2. Caves 2 and 3 were inscribed so that onlookers standing outside could view the interplay of light and shadow on the petroglyphs as the late afternoon turned into twilight.

Along with the many different inscriptions and petroglyphs in Cave 2, McGlone and Leonard spent years researching the so-called “Silent Opera,” a term they coined to describe the heliolithic light show that occurs at sunset on the equinox. This light animation is created as the sun sinks on the horizon by casting a wedge of light on the petroglyph panel from the wedge-shaped notch at the north end of the opening of the cave.

As the sun sets, the light wedge moves up and to the right across the petroglyphs, creating the dramatic visual sequence of an opera.

This equinox enactment is consistent with the previously noted Ogham inscription that urges the beholder to assemble at sunset to enact the rites of Bel in worship. The light animation portrays the story of the sun god Mithras and Anubis, the Egyptian jackal god.

As the sun sets, the last rays of light are seen on the panel as the illuminated Anubis, who stands above the shadowed sun god. Here, the dialectic between day and night and the upper and lower worlds is revealed. And the message seems clear: the sun has moved from the upper realm of the sun god to the netherworld of Anubis, also known as the god of the night.

Fig. 8.19. The Anubis Panel in Cave 2. The main elements include: (1) rising sun, (2) sun god, (3) cube, (4) phallus, (5) setting sun, (6) dangling sun, (7) Anubis, and (8) flail on the back of Anubis. (Drawing by Martin Brennan)

Fig. 8.20. The Anubis Panel in Cave 2 about fifteen minutes before sunset on the equinox (see also color insert). The sun god goes into shadow as Anubis is illuminated. (Photo by Bill McGlone) As the Silent Opera comes to an end, other light animations can be observed in Cave 3 as the setting sun approaches the horizon. The preciseness of these calendrical alignments

made approximately 2,000 years ago attest to the skill and abilities employed by the creators of the Anubis Caves. The specificity of the sun god character and the Egyptian jackal god offers onlookers a moving story. The placement of the petroglyphs in the caves makes for an ideal amphitheater for onlookers to observe the movement of light and shadows on the panels, which today is best seen in time-lapse progression.25 Another elegant yet challenging-to-interpret alignment happens on a Cave 3 eroded pillar that is called the Balance Alignment. On the pillar there are six lines to the left and six lines to the right, both set at angles. The twelve inscribed lines on the pillar interact with the sun on the equinoxes to create an alignment. The six lines on the left are placed lower than the six on the right, and when illuminated one by one by the setting sun of the equinox they represent the months the sun spends on either side of the equator. Below the twelve lines, a triangle of light forms and the alignment continues on to interact with the balance image resembling a scale, a vertical line intersected by 45-degree lines pointed upward on each side. The simply constructed image, referred to as a “swing indicator” by McGlone, reinforced the “balance day” message of equinox.

Fig. 8.21. The Balance Inscription. Between Caves 3 and 2 is a natural pillar made of sandstone with twelve inscribed lines.

Fig. 8.22. Detail drawing of the Balance Inscription alignment on the equinox. Six lines are in shadow and six in light on the equinox. (McGlone et al., Ancient American

Inscriptions)

CELTIC GODDESSES IN CAVE 2 The diversity of petroglyphs in Cave 2 is remarkable. In addition to the Silent Opera, the animal petroglyphs representing constellations, and the Ogham inscriptions, there are at least two noteworthy goddess figures that were identified by Farley. In her book In Plain Sight, she undertook one of the most comprehensive investigations of Old World goddess images that appear in America, including at the Anubis Caves. She also identified numerous images she claimed were Tanith (Nith) throughout the central United States.

Tanith is a lunar goddess, a protector of mariners, and a fertility goddess who is often depicted with a triangular body, circular head, and outstretched arms. However, many of the Tanith-like images identified by Farley could have been made by Plains Indians, and the case for Old World affinities is not as solid as for the Sheila na Gig petroglyph described below.

Sheila na Gig as a fertility deity symbol dates back to at least 4000 B.C. in Europe.

Biblical scholar Efram Stern shows two similar-looking figures from the Phoenician coast dated to the first millennium B.C.26 Later versions appear in Ireland, and in the main Anubis Cave 2 she is positioned on the southern wall of Cave 2 between the main Anubis Panel and a petroglyph grouping portraying a bonfire ritual. The Sheila na Gig image from the Oklahoma Panhandle indicates that travelers thought it important to preserve her as part of the Cave 2 pantheon of deities.

Farley also wrote about a feminine image on a horse in Cave 2 she called Epona, a Celtic goddess. While this too has been claimed to be the work of very early Native Americans, there are other examples in the Midwest that call this into question.

Thus, I believe Farley’s identification of Epona is likely correct, as these Oklahoma and Kansas images (see figures 8.26 and 8.27) appear in caves accompanied by archaeoastronomical aspects, Ogham and Ogham-like writing, and other Celtic images.

This clearly establishes a context that these are Old World Epona images. The chart on page 155 compares Old World and New World characteristics of these two female Celtic deities.

Fig. 8.23. Sheila na Gig–like figure in Anubis Cave 2. This petroglyph is similar to Old World representations of this Celtic fertility goddess.

Fig. 8.24. Sheila na Gig figure, Rahara, County Roscommon, Ireland. (Drawing by Martin Brennan)

Sheila na Gig

Epona

Description Carvings of naked a woman holding open her exaggerated vulva. A pre-Christian mother goddess who survived into Roman times.

Epona was a protector of horses, donkeys, and mules; a goddess of the hunt and fertility.

Old World

Celtic goddess, popular among Romans and Germans. Known as Epane in northern Spain.

Best known in Ireland (>101 images) and Britain (45 examples). Found on churches, castles, and other buildings.

New World Image found in Anubis Caves, Oklahoma. Carved in sandstone. Nearby glyphs portray a bonfire ritual.

Image found in Anubis Caves, Oklahoma, and in central Kansas.

Both female images are riding horses.

Fig. 8.25. Comparisons of Old World and New World aspects of the two likely Old World goddess images found at the Anubis Caves.

Fig. 8.26. Gloria Farley identified an image in the Anubis Caves as the European goddess Epona.

Fig. 8.27. This petroglyph from Kansas, which is similar to the Anubis Caves Epona figure, is from a cave with equinox archaeoastronomy features and other Celtic

resemblances (see chapter 9).

COSMOLOGY AND CONSTELLATIONS It was only after many years of study that McGlone and Leonard concluded that the sun god glyph identified as Mithras conformed to the constellation of Perseus. This is consistent with the story that unfolds in the Anubis Caves Silent Opera equinox imagery.

As the sun sets and Mithras goes into shadow, above him and to the right the illuminated Anubis stands in the light of the setting sun ready to begin his nighttime journey through the Milky Way, which includes passing through the constellation Perseus. This region is considered to indicate the place of the “descent and return of souls.”27 Other writers have also suggested that Perseus, the Greek mythological figure who killed Medusa, symbolizes Mithra.28 Consistent with the celestial location of the constellation Perseus, the cube below the sun god in the Anubis Panel was identified as the constellation Auriga, which lies directly below Perseus in the sky.

Fig. 8.28. Drawing shows the possible connections of the stars in the constellation Auriga to represent the cube in Anubis Cave 2. (From McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions) After making the important connection between the figure in Anubis Cave 2 and Perseus, McGlone and Leonard were able to identify the adjacent constellations as Orion and Canis Major. The presence of the human figure of Orion and the animal figure of Canis Major in their proper positions, although slightly rotated, adds persuasive evidence for the hypothesis that the outlines on the cave wall represent the constellations in the section of the sky that marks the spring equinox.29 These constellations include Orion,

Canis Major, and Gemini, which McGlone and Leonard determined appear in their proper positions on the Anubis Cave 2 panel. Added to the association with Mithraism is the cube petroglyph with Auriga and the “dangling sun” image with elements of the constellation Taurus, providing additional evidence that the Anubis Caves imagery represents constellations in the quadrant of the sky that is central to Mithraism.

Thus, McGlone and Leonard were able to recognize that any singular image was multidimensional, not only representing a mythological deity such as Anubis or Perseus/Mithra, but also the corresponding constellations in the sky. This is the classic paralleling of the astronomical and mythological domains that we see in many ancient worldviews. More than just a religion, Mithraism was an integrated cosmology that wove together rituals, stories, constellations, planets, and calendrics. The deeper esoteric side of Mithraism relates to the journey of the soul through its incarnation on Earth and its return back to heaven, and the Anubis Caves’ iconography seems to preserve this ancient paradigm.

While ruins of Mithraeums survive in Europe, none display the astronomical, cosmological, and mythological details found in Oklahoma at the Anubis Caves. Whoever inscribed these caves in Oklahoma had to know Ogham script, the Celtic language, astronomy, and the Mithraic religious symbolism in use more than 1,500 years ago.

I was indeed fortunate to be in the company of McGlone and Leonard at the Anubis Caves and to benefit from their decades of research and observations. Not all my excursions to study the equinox alignments were successful, as cloud cover interfered so that planning and travel sometimes ended in disappointment. However, on several occasions the weather cooperated, and under the tutelage of my mentors, I witnessed the sun and its shadows engulf or enlighten the petroglyphic representations.

Ultimately I came to see these different sun deities not as Mithra, Perseus, Lugh, or Apollo, but as One Being. In the subtlety of the equinox sunset, accompanied by light and shadows moving accross the Anubis Cave, a door had opened, triggering my awakening to a universal message.

9 More Celtic America The church was so thorough in erasing Lugh of the Long Arm from memory that, save the celebration named after him, there remains little evidence of his importance to the Celts.

LUGH AND THE FESTIVAL OF LUGHNASA One of Bill McGlone’s strongest advocates is Kean Scott Monahan, whose videos from March 1984 to the present captured dozens of date-specific solar interactions with regional rock art and inscription finds.*16 Monahan’s documentary film History on the Rocks features the Anubis Caves and includes interviews with Bill McGlone, Phillip Leonard, Rollin W. Gillespie, Ted Barker, Gloria Farley, Barry Fell, and others. As a former news broadcaster, he produces videos and commentaries on the archaeoastronomy of that region that have provided wellinformed and masterful documentation of the Caves’ difficult-to-film sunrise and sunset heliolithic animations. In addition, his archaeoastronomy website gives an extensive background to the science along with links to documentaries and other resources. Later on, Monahan and I were to team up to write an article for Ancient American magazine, “Evidence of Old World Travelers in Colorado: The Sun Temple and Crack Cave.”1

Fig. 9.1. Kean Scott Monahan, whose documentary films Old News and History on the Rocks document the work of Bill McGlone and Phillip Leonard at the Anubis Caves, Crack Cave, and the Sun Temple.

After I had introduced Kean to the Pathfinder site of chapter 6, he reciprocated by

inviting me to join him at the August 6, 2006, cross-quarter day event at the Sun Temple, which was located on a large ranch property situated on the high plains in eastern Colorado. McGlone and Leonard first brought him there in March 1984, more than a year before the alignment was known. Since then, it is likely he has viewed this cross-quarter day alignment there more than anyone in recent history.

Local ranchers knew of the Sun Temple petroglyphs for many years before McGlone and Leonard arrived in 1982. In addition to what was instantly recognized as an ancient Celtic alphabet, the modern explorers also found the engraved profile of a human head, featureless except for an upturned, button nose. Some forty feet away, an isolated, eastfacing, fourteen-inch-diameter (35.5 centimeters) circle was found inscribed at the back of the amphitheater-like cove. It was then that McGlone and Leonard decided to name the place the Sun Temple.

Kean and I had previously secured permission to camp at the site and arrived in the late afternoon. After preparing a simple campsite while fanned by a warm, dry evening breeze, Monahan readied his cameras and equipment for the following morning as I explored the Sun Temple grounds and became more familiar with its petroglyphs. After a light meal, we talked late into the night and speculated about how the ancient Celtic people might have migrated to and from the Crack Cave, Anubis Caves, the Sun Temple, and other sites in the region.

Kean credits NASA veteran Rollin W. Gillespie, who had helped reveal the timekeeping aspects of Crack Cave (as related in chapter 7), with many of the profound insights and deductions relating to observed archaeoastronomical phenomena in the area. Likewise, McGlone and Leonard had laid the foundation for the study of the Sun Temple inscriptions with their epigraphic work on interpreting its symbols and Ogham marks.

Monahan believes the Sun Temple was used to celebrate the Lughnasa festival because an Ogham inscription was translated by McGlone and Leonard to read, “At Lughnasa the summer sun restores the gathering for sports.”

Lughnasa (also Lughnasadh) is the cross-quarter day festival named for the Celtic god Lugh (also known as Lugus, Lug, and Lugos), which is interpreted as meaning “light” or “shining.” In Old Irish, Lunasa means “August,” but he was was also referred to as Lugh of the Long Arm and is often depicted with a slingshot or spear.2 To the Celts, Lugh was the god of the arts and traveling and had an influence in money and commerce. In later times he became associated with Mercury by the Romans.3 (More information on Lugh is provided in chapter 11).

Lughnasa is a midsummer festival celebrated near the summer cross-quarter day, the midpoint from summer solstice toward the autumnal equinox. The actual date of Lughnasa has shifted over thousands of years. It was originally celebrated on the cross-quarter day or on the nearest full moon to it. In 2014, the precise cross-quarter date is August 7.

However, over time the celebration date became a fixed day, and different traditions use August 1, August 5 (Old Lammas), and August 7 for Lughnasa.

Lughnasa is the first harvest festival and also a celebration of the coming darkness, so

many traditions have evolved from it. The celebration of Lughnasa was said to include the cutting of the first grain. In England, this god of the harvest was eventually to become the Green Man, also known as John Barleycorn, the “man” who every year sacrificed himself to sustain life on Earth. An old English song memorialized this.

There was three men come out o’ the west their fortunes for to try, And these three men made a solemn vow, John Barleycorn must die.

They ploughed, they sowed, they harrowed him in, throwed clods upon his head.

And these three men made a solemn vow, John Barleycorn was dead.4 During the pre-Roman times in the British Isles, Lugh of the Long Arm was one of the most popular Celtic deities, and statues were placed at crossroads to honor him. For centuries in what was to become Roman Gaul, the Council of the Gauls met in Lyons, which was also referred to as Lugdunum, or the City of Lugh until it was conquered by Julius Caesar in 53 B.C. Despite the inroads made by the Romans, the Festival of Lughnasa was celebrated until 1169 in Ireland, when it underwent a name change to Lammas. Eventually the “patron saint” Patrick replaced Lugh, which was one of the many earlier indigenous customs that were supplanted by Christian ceremonies and stories. Even the early Christian legend of St. Patrick climbing the Tailitu Mound to banish the false idols evolved from earlier Lugh stories. The Tailitu Mounds are named after Tailitu, Lugh’s foster mother, whom he buried beneath the mounds. She is also referred to as an earth goddess and a goddess of the harvest and is likened to the goddess Brigid.5

CROSS-QUARTER DAY ALIGNMENT AT THE SUN TEMPLE The Sun Temple is located amid numerous five-story-tall, wind-sculpted “hoodoos” standing as sandstone sentries above a wide and shallow canyon.

Most of the Sun Temple’s alphabetic grooves appear on the ceiling of a small, shallow cave approximately seven feet above the amphitheater floor, which is elevated well above the canyon floor. Protected somewhat by the ceiling’s overthrust is a panel tilted skyward on the lower lip of the wedgelike cave that has a bold but short inscription with several crisscross carvings.

Nearby, about twenty feet higher up, is a clue that nearly escaped the attention of McGlone and Leonard because the splotchy black patina on the cliff face had camouflaged the grooves. What initially appeared to be a crudely etched tree trunk with branches on the cliff face was later understood to be the Sun Temple’s key Ogham inscription, which underscored an ancient scribe’s intent to memorialize when and where to see a date- and site-specific sunrise alignment.

Fig. 9.2. The Sun Temple’s wind-sculpted sandstone features are called hoodoos. Amidst them, the Sun Temple alignment coincides with Beltane (May festival) and Lughnasa (August festival), two of the four Celtic cross-quarter days.

Fig. 9.3. Some of the Sun Temple’s alphabetic grooves, located above the floor of the amphitheater, remain untranslated.

Fig. 9.4. The Tree Ogham at the Sun Temple was inscribed vertically, similar to inscriptions on nearly all Irish monuments. (© 2005 by TransVision) The Tree Ogham, along with some grooves to the left, was written in Celtic and was translated by McGlone and Leonard to mean “The ring along with the shoulder by means of sun and hill.”6 Because of the site’s orientation, they supposed the Sun Temple might have an alignment at dawn on the summer solstice, but a number of sunrise vigils on June 21 yielded no obvious solar alignments and nothing involving the conspicuously inscribed ring.

Fig. 9.5. Drawing of the Sun Temple cross-quarter day alignment (McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 198)

Fig. 9.6. Sighting technique for the Sun Temple, showing a boy placing his head in a pecked sun ring petroglyph to see the notch bracketing the horizon. (McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 198) In this type of solar alignment, the sun is observed from a fixed target, or at sunrise in the case of the circular pecked “ring” mentioned in the inscription (the circular petroglyph). By looking at the “sun and hill” from the pecked ring on the cross-quarter day the specific event is seen. The word “hill” clearly refers to the topology on the opposite side of the canyon, which is called a mesa, from the Spanish meaning “table,” in today’s terminology. However, one of this site’s most remarkable features is a massive rock overhang that juts out from the northern cliff wall. The overhang is parallel to and just above the horizon from the northern cliff wall, as viewed from the front of the fourteen-inch-diameter inscribed pecked circle or ring.

On subsequent investigations, the researchers discovered that when one’s head is positioned in the pecked ring only on Lughnasa and Beltane, its springtime cross-quarter mirror day in May, the rising solar disc is perfectly framed within the gap formed by the overhang, the cliff face, and the distant hill. Thus, the jutting overhang must be the “shoulder” mentioned in the Tree Ogham inscription.

COSMOLOGY OF THE SUN TEMPLE Much of the Sun Temple’s association with Lughnasa evolved from the translation of the Celtic Ogham. In addition to the Tree Ogham message, as previously noted, there are

other Ogham inscriptions on the roof of the wedge cave. A small circle dominates the ceiling within which appears the bold Ogham consonant sl, representing the word sol (sun) and announcing in Gaelic (as in other ancient scripts) that this place is a solar observatory. Strokes on the other side of the “sol” petroglyph form the inscription, “At Lughnasa the summer sun restores the gathering for sports.”

Fig. 9.7. A Celtic Ogham inscription at the Sun Temple. The prominent circle contains the Ogham letters sl, understood to stand for sol, or “sun.”

Fig. 9.8. This Sun Temple inscription reads, “Season for reaping” in Ogham. (From

McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 195) Close by the “sol” inscription is another inscription translated by McGlone and Leonard as “season for reaping,” which coincides with the harvest festival of Lughnasa. The inscription includes a large pointed arrow or triangle aligned toward the rising sun in August. The triangular glyph could represent a cornucopia opening that is filled by the rays of the sun.

Adding to the astronomical references, Leonard has translated the bold Celtic Ogham on the lower lip of the cave to read “Noble Twins,” an Old World synonym for the Gemini constellation.

Rollin W. Gillespie also was involved in unraveling the mystery of the Sun Temple and had visited many of the Colorado Purgatoire River sites with Barker, McGlone, and others. At the Sun Temple he postulated that the pattern of the marks resembled the Gemini constellation, with the slightly elongated two lead marks representing the stars Castor and Pollux.

The age of the Sun Temple has been unclear. However, two dating methods have been used. Ron Dorn, a geography professor at Arizona State University, used an experimental cation ratio technique involving chemical analyses of the patina embedded in the grooves of the Noble Twins and Tree Ogham inscriptions that resulted in a dating of about 3,000 years ago, +/− 500 years.

The second dating method involved astronomy, as suggested by Gillespie. He showed that the marks in the inscription that are about one inch long represent Castor and Pollux in the Gemini constellation, whereas the three-inch-plus marks are most likely planets.

Gillespie, helped by Leonard and associates at Evans and Sutherland in Salt Lake City, the leading manufacturer of digital planetariums in the world, identified an extremely rare triple planetary alignment in Gemini that occurred in the predawn skies of August A.D. 471. This alignment involved Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn and would have been seen from the site. Since it coincided with the season of Lughnasa it would undoubtedly have been worthy of memorializing in rock by posterity-conscious traveling Celts. Nevertheless, McGlone and Leonard suggest this dating method is too uncertain to be useful in establishing the date of the site.8

Fig. 9.9. The Noble Twins inscription. According to Rollin Gillespie, this Sun Temple petroglyph has a specific association to the Gemini constellation.7 (Photo and graphics by Kean Scott Monahan, © by TransVision) While the dates of Dorn’s experimental cation ratio technique and Gellespie’s on-site astronomy findings vary greatly, they are not necessarily inconsistent because the tested

petroglyphs could have been created at different times. However, it will take additional research with more advanced dating methods to determine with surety when the Sun Temple was created.

All in all, my visits to the Sun Temple site were certainly memorable, and observing the sun disc fill the specified notch on the horizon, as instructed by the Celtic Ogham inscription, was an absolutely inspiring event. But it was Monahan’s videos that made the compelling case for the preciseness and intentionality of the Sun Temple alignments, which thus supported the Old World origin thesis presented by McGlone and Leonard.9

CELTS IN KANSAS After our trip to the Sun Temple Monahan and I planned another expedition, this time to central Kansas. There I met Crystal Trickle, an avid rock art investigator and organizer who served as president of the Epigraphic Research Association, a local Kansas organization.

With local mentors Keith, Ben, and Ron Jeffries, who had spent time with Bill McGlone in Colorado, Crystal and husband Wayne began exploring and chronicling the rock art and other ancient artifacts of their region.

During three days of excursions throughout their central Kansas location, the Trickles and Keith Jeffries were guides for Monahan and me, along with Ida Jane Gallagher, a published diffusionist scholar. With Warren W. Dexter, Gallagher had coauthored Contact with Ancient America, which presented many examples of Old World contacts in the New World. The book is notable because a significant part addresses different writing systems, including Native American syllabaries.10 Gallagher shared her research experiences with our group as we visited the Kansas rock art sites that included equinox sunrise and sunset alignments and Ogham-looking inscriptions.

Fig. 9.10. Crystal Trickle and Keith Jeffries pointing out petroglyphs in Kansas (2008).

Fig. 9.11. From left to right: Bill McGlone, Judy Morehouse, Rollin W. Gillespie, Ida Jane Gallagher, and Phillip Leonard in front of Crack Cave in 1986. (Printed with permission from Ida Jane Gallagher, Contact with Ancient America)

CAVE HOLLOW SUNRISE Cave Hollow, the site we visited first, is a long rock shelter located in Ellsworth County, and it is one of the most intriguing caves in Kansas that contain rock art. A cylindrical cave approximately ninety feet long and housing many petroglyphs, it has a large, tunnellike entrance facing west and a portal facing east that one can maneuver through with effort.

Right after sunrise on the equinox, the sun rays pass through the tunnel’s east portal and focus on a rock carving. At first light, a crescent interacts with a vertical mark inside the tunnel adjacent to a pecked half circle. The alignment consists of the light crescent following the edge of the mark as the sun rises.

On the north wall of Cave Hollow amidst graffiti and complicated rock art inscriptions is a rayed sun figure. A possible rebus for “sun” could spell Grian in Gaelic Ogham, with the strokes grouped in a clockwise manner, 2-5-3 to spell G-R-N, and there are earlier reports that associated images on the other end of the tunnel once memorialized a winter solstice sunset alignment.

Unfortunately, a large exterior panel with many ancient petroglyphs, including a twenty-foot-long reclining anthropomorphic figure, was lost in 1996 when a slab collapsed due to the instability of the wall above a spring that runs beneath the cave.

Fig. 9.12. Cave Hollow, Kansas. (See also color insert.)

Fig. 9.13. Stone seat for onlookers to sit and view the equinox sunrise at Cave Hollow. Ida Jane Gallagher is pictured.

Fig. 9.14. Cave Hollow equinox sunrise alignment. (See also color insert.)

Fig. 9.15. Rayed-sun petroglyph surrounded by modern graffiti in Cave Hollow, Kansas.

Fig. 9.16. Detail of the Cave Hollow rayed-sun figure.

OTHER ENCOUNTERS During this eventful excursion to Kansas, our group investigated other types of artifacts, including an intriguing tablet housed in the Kyne House Museum in Lincoln, Kansas. On display was a stone tablet with etched characters surrounded by an arrow, with lines and dots below. Reportedly unearthed by a farmer in the local community in 1913, it is said to be from ancient times, but no one really knew much more, so it was named the Beverly Mystery Stone after the nearby town of Beverly. It is on loan to the Kyne House Museum from the Lincoln County Historical Society. Keith Jeffries had been instrumental in arranging to have the stone displayed there, and the friendly and gracious local museum staff allowed us to take the tablet out of its display case and photograph it.

The Beverly Mystery Stone measures eleven by nine inches, and the hole in the center is said to have been created when the farmer who discovered the stone accidentally hit it with a pickaxe as he tried to dislodge it. Dean Jeffries contends that the stone, which was dug up more than one hundred years ago, was inscribed around A.D. 500, and he assembled a translation of the sixteen-symbol inscription on the tablet, which he claims is Gaelic Punic. His translation suggests that it marks the grave of a fallen comrade, while others have suggested that the lines below indicate the year 1322, so at this point nothing has been definitively interpreted.11

Fig. 9.17. The Beverly Mystery Stone (with U.S. quarter in upper-left corner to show size), at the Kyne House Museum, Lincoln, Kansas

Fig. 9.18. Serpent Intaglio earthwork from central Kansas. (Painting from the Coronado Quivira Museum, Lyons, Kansas) Another interesting Kansas monumental artifact is the Serpent Intaglio,*17 a 160-foot

(48.7 meters) earthwork resembling a serpent in Rice County. It has the shape and theme of a serpent facing east with a disc in its mouth. Intaglios are geoglyphs or ground sculptures created by removing or scraping rocks on the surface to achieve a design with a contrast of color and are found throughout the world. The Kansas Serpent Intaglio was first noted by schoolchildren attending a nearby one-room schoolhouse in the 1920s and is one of more than 600 that have been reported in the southwestern United States. It is generally accepted that Native Americans created it around A.D. 1200, and the same mythological snake-and-egg imagery is found at the Ohio Serpent Mound (see chapter 13) and in California (see chapter 10), among many other places.

EQUINOX SUNSET CAVE NEAR RUSSELL, KANSAS The final expedition of our trip was to witness the equinox sunset at a remote cave near Russell, Kansas, in the middle of the state. Because of high water, we had to hike energetically several miles up and over a swampy and bush-covered hill to find the rock shelter to observe what Keith Jeffries described as an equinox sunset alignment. It proved to be more than the “little hike” we had anticipated, but we found the location in time to prepare for the equinox sunset. Neither our companions nor anyone else had visited it in a long time, and overgrowth now created shadows on the cave entrance. With some effort, we trimmed trees to the west to allow the sunlight into the cave at sunset.

The triangular opening of the cave faced west (see color insert), and inside we were rewarded with the sight of numerous petroglyphs of figures, animals, and Ogham-like inscriptions.

Crystal then pointed out an image of a woman on a horse, whom she identified as Epona, the horse goddess of the Celts (see Epona-like photos, chapter 8). There were also many other remarkable images, including a serpentlike glyph and an image with a strong resemblance to a dragon.

Fig. 9.19. Petroglyph in the shape of a dragon inside the equinox sunset cave.

Several of the other cave walls were etched with collages of petroglyphs, many difficult to recognize. A large panel on the cave’s western wall contained a multitude of glyphs, and I could make out a man and woman, a large rectangle with a vertical line, and an abraded downward-pointing arrow. Unfortunately, the panel was punctuated with graffiti such as “Dave 1968” and “P. F. 1976.” There was also a wide array of pecked or abraded lines. Some of these were probably day counts, but others appeared to be well-formed Ogham. However, as yet, no interpretations have been attempted.

Other tantalizing rock art features in the cave also needed to be studied, but as the sun was getting close to setting, Monahan and I had to ready the camera equipment so we could document the equinox sunset alignment.

We waited for the alignment, not knowing what to expect. Our group was now squeezed into the rock shelter and huddled around cameras on tripods. There, we were finally rewarded for our long trek when the light from the setting sun began to strike the wall in the distinct shape of a fish (see color insert).

Over the next fifteen minutes, the illuminated image sharpened as it rose up the rock surface while the sun moved downward toward the horizon. Then, as the light began to dissipate, the image disintegrated, and the last image of light on the panel was an upsidedown triangle that fit neatly within the abraded arrow-looking glyph on the cave wall (see color insert).

Fig. 9.20. The shelf of the equinox cave, creating alignment imagery.

As we packed up to leave the shelter it was getting dark, and we still had to navigate the return trek to our cars at dusk. In spite of our exhaustion we were excited with having made the journey to observe the equinox alignment.

By the time we left Kansas the following day, Monahan and I had visited nearly a dozen sites within a hundred-mile radius, and our excursions had been enriched by meeting fellow explorers and researchers.

Later that year, Monahan returned to Kansas to photograph a cross-quarter day alignment identified by Keith Jeffries. Like the Sun Temple in Colorado, this alignment had an engraved circle about one foot in diameter where one can sit and look from the center of the circular petroglyph outward to the sunrise. When looking toward the west on the equinox, the sun fit under a square notch formed by a rock outcropping.

Thus, evidence from our Kansas excursions complemented the existing evidence of Celtic travelers at Crack Cave, the Anubis Caves, and the Sun Temple. But there was even more to document about Celtic movements in Kansas and elsewhere.

Fig. 9.21. August cross-quarter day alignment in Kansas similar to the one at the Sun Temple, Colorado. (Filmed by Kean Scott Monahan, © 2005 and 2008 by TransVision)

FURTHER INDICATIONS OF CELTIC MIGRATIONS IN AMERICA The Old World petroglyph sites documented by McGlone, Leonard, and others make a convincing case that Celtic travelers made it to Colorado and surrounding areas. Ida Jane Gallagher also documented the archaeoastronomical details of a Wyoming County, West Virginia, rock shelter where she saw Ogham writing that had been identified and translated

by Barry Fell.

Gallagher observed the sunrise over the mountain ridge and how its rays entered the rock shelter through a three-sided notch formed by the rock overhang and cliff face.12 As Fell’s reading had predicted, the light of the rising winter solstice sun struck a sun figure and moved across the petroglyph. After Gallagher reported her observations Fell declared that for the first time in modern history an Ogham site that recorded the winter solstice had been predicted and successfully demonstrated.13

Fig. 9.22. Old Irish petroglyph in Wyoming County, West Virginia. (© Ida Jane Gallagher)

Fig. 9.23. Horse Creek petroglyph in Boone County, West Virginia. According to Fell, the Ogham Old Irish inscription memorialized the Nativity of Christ. (© Ida Jane Gallagher) Professor Robert Meyer, an authority on Old Irish from the Catholic University of America, also confirmed the West Virginia Ogham and expressed his opinion that the inscriptions were made by Irish monks of the sixth century A.D.14 However, despite noting that the markings were likely Ogham, McGlone and Leonard rejected most of Fell’s translations of the West Virginia petroglyphs as containing errors in transcription

and translation.

Nevertheless, taken as a whole, the West Virginia Old Irish Ogham inscriptions described by Gallagher, along with the Celtic Ogham inscriptions from Colorado and other locations demonstrate a Celtic and later Old Irish presence throughout much of North America. Assuming these people arrived from across the Atlantic, McGlone suggested they had come into the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi and its major tributaries, including the Arkansas River. Alternatively and at other times, they could have arrived from fortified strongholds in New England and the mid-Atlantic region, including the Susquehanna Valley between Maryland and Pennsylvania. From there, they would have made their way inland, perhaps down the Mississippi and up the Missouri River, first to Kansas and then to the Arkansas River tributaries of Colorado and Oklahoma.

The Celtic expansion westward seems to have included what is now Colorado, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Peterborough, a city in the Canadian province of Alberta, where there are Norse figures that have Tifinag and Ogham inscriptions. However, the Celts’ progress seems to have stopped at the Rocky Mountains.

In summation, it would be a mistake to believe Old World inscriptions are plentiful.

They are extremely rare especially in light of the vast repositories of Native American petroglyphs and pictoglyphs throughout North America. However, in making the case for diffusion, Phil Leonard argued that of all the evidence of Old World visitors, the “smoking gun and slam-dunk” cases are to be found at the Celtic archaeoastronomy sites in Colorado and Oklahoma. According to Leonard, if the skeptics were ever to visit Crack Cave, the Anubis Caves, and the Sun Temple, they could no longer deny the ancient Celtic presence in North America. “We have inscriptions,” he wrote, “which can be read as Ogham and in a Celtic language. The inscriptions are readily dated as pre-Columbian.

Whoever inscribed them had to be skilled in the Ogham script, the Celtic language, archaeoastronomy, and religious symbolism.”15 Yet after decades and despite the evidence presented by McGlone, Leonard, Gallagher, and others, the old archaeological paradigm remains dominant and the New History virtually unknown. As for the markings, mainline archaeologists continued to claim that Ogham and other signs were merely random marks made by Indians sharpening their spears. But how do you sharpen a spear by grinding it into a rock and leaving indentations that would dull their edges? Rubbing on a flat rock would seem to serve the purpose better.

10 Westward to a Dwelling Place of a Great Spirit WESTWARD TO CALIFORNIA My focus on Celtic rock art sites in the New England, Colorado, and surrounding states was about to change as I became aware of sites in the expansive states west of the Rocky Mountains. The region between California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Rocky Mountains in Colorado contains the largest repository of ancient petroglyphs in the world.

In modern times it is a mostly dry and arid region, but in earlier days it was a different landscape altogether because the climate and availability of water provided ample opportunities for the survival of animals and humans.

I was first drawn to an eastern California site north of the Mojave Desert, located on public lands. The location has an official government site designation, but because it is unprotected and extremely vulnerable to any disturbances it will simply be referred to as Mojave North.*18 Despite Mojave North’s obvious importance and its many mysteries, the site remains virtually unknown outside of a few early archaeologists, a handful of diffusionist rock art enthusiasts, and anyone who has visited the Equinox Project website created by Roderick L. Schmidt.1 Schmidt was a colleague of Barry Fell in his later years, and both had described the site in papers presented at the Epigraphic Society. Since 1986, Schmidt had focused on researching Mojave North and creating his website, which provided enough information to suggest an Old World origin, contrary to assertions by archaeologists and local tribe members that it was created by Native Americans.

Fig. 10.1. Rod Schmidt was the resident expert on Mojave North until his tragic death in a house fire in 2012. (Photo by Julianna Satie) Schmidt and I had been in e-mail contact during 2003. There was an immediate clash in our first communications, and our initial e-mails were quite contentious and inflammatory.

He was an arch defender of Barry Fell and saw Bill McGlone and Phillip Leonard, my mentors, as Fell detractors. The e-mail arguments went back and forth for several months, hashing over controversies revolving around Fell and Gloria Farley’s methods of rock art research and her conclusions during the 1980s and 1990s. However, despite our prickly beginning, Schmidt welcomed our meeting in California and enthusiastically agreed to serve as a guide for my 2004 spring equinox expedition to the site.

Almost from the onset, Schmidt and I were able to work through our arguments, and a healing transpired with a mutual memorial of the passing of Fell and McGlone and the fact that the feud and accusations between the two were insubstantial in light of the overarching dichotomy between the diffusionists and the archaeopriests. Soon after that first visit, we became good friends, and over the next seven years we would often meet before equinox sunrises, waiting for first light to grace the obscure California rock art site that had become my new obsession.

A DESTRUCTIVE LEGACY The Mojave North site has only been superficially documented and researched by archaeologists. In 1929, Julian Steward noted it, which was followed by a site survey in 1931 by Clifford P. Baldwin. In 1962, J. C. von Werlhof briefly visited the location. These early archaeologists all believed that Mojave North was a rather typical Great Basin–style petroglyph site, and their work was summarized by Robert Fleming Heizer and Martin A. Baumhoff in Prehistoric Rock Art of Nevada and Eastern California.2 They all assumed the place was related to “sheep hunting” because some of the prevalent petroglyphs resembled sheep. Unfortunately, none of these or any government archaeologists had any insight into the possible Old World influences that were discovered during the 1990s or of Mojave North’s immense importance as an archaeoastronomical center.

The site is located on the edge of a dried lake bed and contains outcrop-pings of weathered dolomite limestone over an area less than one acre. The rock outcropping contains abundant rock art and archaeoastronomy, much of which is still visible. For millions of years, wind and water erosion created smooth white surfaces covered by an almost-black combination of patina and discoloration from acid rains that followed volcanic eruptions. This made the rocks perfect for inscribing petroglyphs. However, most of them are now quite aged, worn, and often difficult to see for untrained viewers.

Fig. 10.2. Mojave North site, facing north, with the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in the background.

Unfortunately, many of Mojave North’s petroglyphs have also been destroyed by human activities, beginning in 1865, when a famed silver and lead mine was discovered and worked by Mexican prospectors during the Great Basin silver mining boom. Although mining operations continued into the 1950s, a boomtown located near the site was completely destroyed by a major flood in 1872, and by the 1880s most of the silver had been removed.

This very special place also received disrespectful treatment from modern commercial interests, and the damage was quite extensive. In clear violation of the 1903 Antiquities Act, a mining company leased the area for its dolomite limestone and dynamited the cliff side sometime prior to 1929, causing huge chunks of stone to rain down and damage the site.3 Next, sometime in the mid1950s, a contractor for a federal road construction project blew the top off the cliff face and crushed it for road fill while professional archaeologists did nothing to save the site. Schmidt reported that at least 30 percent of the petroglyphs have been lost since the first survey by Baldwin in 1931.

Then, in 1985, locals Anne and Vince Yoder identified a morning equinox marker, which is called the Light Serpent (see here). Following this, in the early 1990s, diffusionists Alan Gillespie and Jon Polansky became interested in the site and visited Schmidt. They had studied the Anubis Caves equinox alignments in Oklahoma with McGlone (see chapter 8) and wanted to look for equinox alignments. What they discovered were an evening marker, a summer solstice alignment, and one cross-quarter day alignment. Schmidt and Earl Wilson, a local videographer, also found several key alignments, including a display that marks the winter solstice.

Fig. 10.3. Damage to petroglyphs at Mojave North from blasting (light areas). The pecked circles are targets for a summer solstice sunset alignment.

Other researchers have made it to the site, too, including Farley, who visited in 1992 and discovered an image of the goddess Tanith (briefly discussed in chapter 8). After seeing a Colorado image of Tanith as drawn by Farley, Fell wrote that “as usual [the goddess] is draped in a doll-like crudely represented dress” and that she “holds aloft the Phoenician word for sun-disk.”4 The Mojave North image also holds a similar-looking disc above its head.

Schmidt pointed out what he called, because of its shape, the Shepherd’s Crook petroglyph at Mojave North, but it showed signs of repecking, and his close inspection revealed that the upper crook could have been added by much later travelers. Both Roderick Schmidt and independent researcher Dorian Taddei believe the top of the Shepherd’s Crook petroglyph was added at a later time based on visual inspection. It is apparent from several other glyphs on this rock that different images were carved at varying times.

Fig. 10.4. The Mojave North Tanith image. (Author-enhanced photo)

Fig. 10.5. The Shepherd’s Crook petroglyph at Mojave North. Below the crook but on a separate rock is the six-line equinox marker.

THE EQUINOX SUNRISE LIGHT SERPENT AT MOJAVE NORTH Schmidt recognized that the morning equinox marker discovered by the Yoders was a heliolithic animation involving a “light serpent.” As the sun rises above the eastern horizon on the equinox, for more than an hour a sun dagger in the shape of an open

serpent’s mouth moves across a south-facing side of the boulder that contains a circle surrounded by a spiral curving around it four times.

The precise conjunction of the Light Serpent’s open jaws consuming the pecked inner circle produces a heliolithic animation in the early morning of the equinox, best viewed with time-lapse photography. The open jaws of the Light Serpent fit perfectly around the inner circle or egg, as Roderick Schmidt called it (see figures 10.6–10.8 below).5

Fig. 10.6. An enhancement of the target petroglyph for the equinox Light Serpent animation and cross-quarter day lunar alignments described in chapter 11. A spiral uncoils from an inner oval, referred to by Schmidt as an “egg.”

Fig. 10.7. Mojave North equinox morning Light Serpent. The Light Serpent progresses toward the target (see also color insert).

Fig. 10.8. The equinox alignment as the Light Serpent consumes the pecked ring (drawn in white).

Schmidt wrote, “The image of a snake, made from sunlight, emerges from the stone.

This begins shortly after the sun rises… . It is in slow but constant motion. The serpent continues directly to the innermost circle and begins to ‘eat’ it. During this portion of the display, the serpent starts to expand as if to join the illuminated portions of the site. Once the center is consumed, the serpent merges with the sunlight that has now almost totally enveloped the site.”6 The association of the serpent with the equinox is found at sites around the world, including at the Mayan pyramid of Kukulcán at Chichén Itzá, the Pathfinder site in Colorado, and a sun dagger site at Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon (see chapter 16). Other depictions of serpents associated with archaeoastronomy are found in chapter 17.

However, the specificity of the image of a serpent consuming a disc or egg is noteworthy.

While the Mojave North Light Serpent is several feet in length, it is similar in imagery to the Kansas earthwork noted in the previous chapter and the famous 1,330-foot-long Ohio Serpent Mound constructed in the shape of a serpent with an open mouth around an ovalshaped mound, as will be seen in detail in chapter 13. They all point to the importance of this motif, yet the symbology cannot be simply explained.

Fig. 10.9. The Ohio Serpent Mound. The Mojave North Light Serpent is a petroglyphic light animation that conveys a similar motif as this mound.

Fig. 10.10. “Typhon’s Egg.” (From Jacob Bryant, Ancient Mythology, vol. III, 1174) The intrepid Schmidt posited that the inner circle likely represents an egg that is suggestive of the renewal and rebirth celebrated on the equinox. He noted that the story of the “serpent eating an egg” is known to many Native Americans, and Shoshone scholar Curtis Buff suggested that the egg is the fruit of a sky animal.7 In great contrast, however, Schmidt became convinced that the original story came from an ancient transoceanic culture, who taught it to the ancestors of the Native Americans.

This is because the motif shows up in Old World cultures. For example, there is the image of a snake wrapped around an egg in the Orphic mysteries of ancient Greece, where it symbolized birth and rebirth, the phallus and the womb. Also, the Egyptian creator deity Cneph is represented as a serpent with an egg thrusting from its mouth. The serpent passing through the circle was his hieroglyphic emblem, which became the ninth letter of the Egyptian alphabet (thita) and evolved into the Greek letter theta.8

SCHMIDT’S THEORIES OF TRANSOCEANIC DIFFUSION Aside from the serpent/egg motifs and as further proof of his theories, Schmidt maintained that Mojave North contained several “easily recognized” alphabets, including Ogham and Arabic Kufic, as first advanced by Fell. I was swayed by Schmidt’s insistence that Old World peoples and not Native Americans created the petroglyphs, but I wasn’t convinced there was anything easily recognizable in his interpretations of the several scripts he showed me.

Fig. 10.11. Clifford Baldwin’s 1931 drawings of inscriptions at Mojave North. They do not provide an accurate sequence for correctly reading the panel. (Schmidt, Roderick, The Equinox Project. “Clifford Baldwin and the Inyo Zodiac,” www.equinoxproject.com/zodia.htm)

Fig. 10.12. An enhanced rendering of the Mojave North Inscription Panel. When looked at straight on, there is little resemblance to either Fell’s or Baldwin’s drawings.

For example, Schmidt defended Fell’s interpretation of the so-called Kufic Inscription, which had become steeped in controversy ever since Fell published “An Ancient Zodiac from Inyo, California” in 1979.9 The problem is that he never visited the site and relied on the drawings that Baldwin published in 1931.10 While Baldwin’s drawings clearly showed some key glyphs, they also provided mistaken placements, which Fell had based his Kufic readings on. His theory was that the characters were a continuation of the symbols on

adjacent rocks, but in fact they are not sequenced in that way.

If one stands and faces the panel, it is apparent that there are three sets of inscriptions and not a continuous one as shown by Fell (see figure 10.12 above). When Schmidt investigated that claim he saw the misarrangement of the characters in Baldwin’s notes, but he still, despite my arguments, continued to believe that Fell was correct in asserting the inscription was Kufic. Nevertheless, despite this disagreement the inscription suggests Old World influences, which will be explored in the next chapter.

MORE SOLAR MARKERS In addition to the Mojave North Light Serpent animation, Schmidt introduced me to another equinox occurrence on my first visit to the site. Toward evening, he pointed out six prominent vertical lines carved on a three-foot pyramid-shaped rock. The six heavily worked lines are divided by sunlight and shadow on the equinox, three lines in shadow and three lines in light (see color insert). This same technique was employed at the far-off Anubis Caves in Oklahoma using twelve lines, as described in chapter 8.

In addition to the six-line equinox alignment, there are several other panels at Mojave North with twelve lines, suggesting that more astronomical alignments such as these remain to be discovered. Schmidt also identified several solstice markers. In one of the alignments, the target is a spiral that is pierced by a sun dagger as the sun sets on the summer solstice.

With Earl Wilson, the local videographer whom I often met at the site, I observed yet another summer solstice sunrise alignment in 2005. As the sun rose, a cylindrical, columnshaped shadow resembling a phallus retracted on the petroglyph panel, with the head of the retracting shadow/serpent/phallus intersecting a pecked circle “target.” At the finale, the outline of the “open mouth” shadow snuggly fit into a pecked target, which was one of three prominently pecked circles on the panel. Thus, unlike the spring equinox Light Serpent, which moves forward to consume the disc, this shadow serpent retreats backward. While yet to be determined, it is likely that the other pecked circles have astronomical significance as well.

Fig. 10.13. Summer solstice sunset alignment at Mojave North: the triangular ray of light pointed west (left) intersects the pecked center ring. Damage to the dolomite surface from blasting reveals the underlying white rock color.

Fig. 10.14. The summer solstice sunrise alignment. A shadow image retreats in this summer solstice heliolithic animation (see also color insert).

I eagerly followed Schmidt around the site, and he showed me other petroglyphs associated with known alignments, including a shelf where the rock overhang that once cast an alignment shadow had fallen.

Though Schmidt and I came to disagree about the nature of the so-called lingual texts, we did agree that the extraordinary archaeoastronomical features at Mojave North included at least one cross-quarter day alignment he had discovered. This is important for the transoceanic hypothesis that will be explored in full in the next chapter, and even

though cross-quarter day alignments created by early Native Americans are known, it seems Native Americans rarely celebrated or marked cross-quarter days, while paying attention to the equinoxes and the longest and shortest days.

OTHER MOJAVE NORTH PETROGLYPHS The petroglyphs at Mojave North appear quite old, and many are not visible to the casual observer. Broadly speaking one can distinguish numerous and different-shaped petroglyphs, grids, abstract-looking designs, sun and star symbols and inscriptions, although at first glance many of the pecked images seem unintelligible, if they can be seen at all.

I was also to learn that at Mojave North there was nothing simple about any one petroglyph, alignment, or even a grinding hole. What appears as a basic petroglyph image often turns out to be complex and multidimensional, requiring astronomical knowledge to fully grasp the meaning or meanings. For example, there are at least thirteen sun or star symbols at the site, and many are known to be associated with archaeoastronomical events, but all of them are very different in form and function. Perhaps the most striking symbol in the stellar category is the interconnected double-sun petroglyph, which is connected to the cross-quarter day alignment mentioned above. See chapter 11 for a detailed description of other solar alignments on this panel that are much more elaborate than Schmidt suspected because they involve the four cross-quarter days.

Fig. 10.16. The double-sun petroglyph. The upper sun is a target for the August and May cross-quarter days.

While the upper sun is visible throughout the year, the lower sun is usually unseen because of the slightly different angle of the rock and weathering. This representation of two interconnected suns is rare and presents a profound cosmological symbol addressing

two stars, two worlds, two universes.

On the same vertical rock wall panel as the double-sun glyph, a simple etched masculine figure appears on a vertical rock wall facing south. He is referred to by Schmidt as “Lugh, the Long Arm,” who was introduced in chapter 9 and will be described in more detail in chapter 11. The image stands approximately eighteen inches tall and is composed of three major components: a triangular head, a rectangular body, and a large triangulartipped phallus (see figure 10.17 below). Looking at the panel, most observers are unable to see a single line or any part of the disguised image, yet the fading anthropomorphic petroglyph is perhaps the single largest glyph at the site and is also the target for all the cross-quarter alignments, which are described in the next chapter.

Fig. 10.17. Mojave North petroglyph depicting a figure named by Schmidt as “Lugh, the Long Arm.” Like the mysterious tripartite symbol below the anthropomorphic figure, there are other glyphs at Mohave North whose meanings are unknown. For example, there are two winged arch-shaped petroglyphs that seem to be unique to Mojave North.

There are also mysterious starlike images, as shown in figures 10.19 and 10.20.

There are also notable animal-shaped glyphs. The largest animal panel has three of what early archaeologists called the Great Basin–style of bighorn sheep, but they actually look like ibex since the horns are so big. However, ibex are not native to the Americas.

The panel in which the “sheep” appear was identified as being the Mojave North Zodiac

by Fell, who concluded that constellations are shown in the order in which the sun passed through them at the time of the spring equinox.11 However, again, he was relying on imprecise drawings and misplaced the order and position of the petroglyphs. Fell also held

many other mistaken assumptions regarding this panel, including naming an image as a bull instead of a sheep in order to describe the glyph as “Taurus the Bull.”12 Moreover, an examination of the sheep panel indicates a reworking of the petroglyphs. The original and earlier work appears to have been pecked, while the patina coating in some of the glyphs was removed by abrading. Schmidt credits the reworking to the Shoshone, so what the original artist or artists had in mind remains a mystery.

Fig. 10.18. One of the two winged arch-shaped glyphs found at Mojave North. (Author’s enhancement of the damaged left wing)

Fig. 10.19. This starlike petroglyph is assumed to have archaeoastronomical significance.

Fig. 10.20. The symbolic meaning of this and other starlike glyphs at Mojave North remains unknown.

Fig. 10.21. The “three-sheep” panel.

In addition to these petroglyphs, I was able to identify other animal glyphs and figures that had not previously been seen by Schmidt or others. The first image I discerned was on the side of a prominent boulder near the center of Mojave North during the late afternoon of a summer solstice. As the sun began to set, near the bottom of the rock a long-legged doglike glyph with an upright tail became discernible within a confusing collage of pecked petroglyphs, mineral stains, and natural lines. I had stared at this area of the stone many times, yet I had been unable until then to comprehend it. Just like the inscribed jackal image I saw in the Anubis Caves that became “enlightened” on equinox as noted in chapter 8, the doglike glyph in California became illuminated by the setting sun, but on summer solstice.

Fig. 10.22. Mojave North Anubis-like petroglyph. This photo captures the last rays of light at the summer solstice.

On that day I was also to identify a petroglyph of a bird located above the dog glyph, similar in shape to a crane, heron, or possibly an ibis. While Schmidt cautiously agreed with my interpretation of the Anubis and the bird, he was unprepared for another image I could just barely make out: a winged figure above and to the left of the bird. This anthropomorphic image appeared to have an extended snout and a pointed head or hat.

Surrounding the head was a circle, and I became excited with this discovery because the head seemed to contain discernible facial features, although they were difficult to fully make out, as the pictures in figures 10.23 and 10.24 below make clear.

Fig. 10.23. Mojave North rock art panel showing the additional animal figures and an anthropomorphic figure above the Anubis petroglyph.

Fig. 10.24. Enhancements by author reveal the images in the rock art panel.

THE SEA ROCK After a few years of studying Mojave North under the tutelage of Schmidt, I had become one of the few people seriously investigating the virtually unknown-to-the-rest-of-theworld site. But it was no longer merely an archaeoastronomical location for me; it had become a sacred, living, breathing temple with a story to uncover and to reveal. Yes, it was damaged and desecrated, but at least some of the essences of its creation remained, and I thought I might have discovered one of them on the spring equinox of 2007.

It was the late afternoon; I was hiking above the main, windswept site, looking at petroglyphs but ever mindful of how sidelighting by the sun on the rock surfaces could reveal hidden images at this special time of the year. I had been trained to do this by McGlone, and it was now time for the weathered peckings to tell an ancient story.

As I passed a pyramid-shaped rock extruding from the top of the site just before sunset, I could make out a small glyph situated within a natural triangle created by cracks. This rock was approximately twenty-five inches wide, and the one- by two-inch glyph sat among numerous natural grids and crevices on its surface, which created a tangled collage of parallel lines, triangles, and diamond shapes, while lighter areas, especially toward the bottom, had been damaged by blasting operations.

Fig. 10.25. In the foreground, a pyramid-shaped rock above the main site at Mojave North, facing south (see also color insert).

As my eyes struggled to sort out foreground and background, I began to see what looked like an etched face with a pointy hat in the apex of a natural triangle created by the

cracks. There was momentary confusion in my mind, but confirmation that more was happening came next: there also was a shadow image with a complete body and profile with an open mouth, a large nose, and what appeared to be a pointy hat approaching the coin-sized petroglyph. I watched in awestruck anticipation as the face of the shadow moved toward intersecting the petroglyph, creating an incredible shadow face-onpetroglyph face alignment at sunset.

It was difficult to recognize the petroglyph among the natural lines and crevices, and perhaps it was the image itself that seemed to go in and out of focus. A modern-day example of this phenomenon is a three-dimensional art known as autostereograms, or more commonly, Magic Eye images. If one stares intently at Magic Eye graphics, the eyes will refocus on the “hidden” images within them.13 Thus, while observing a twodimensional graphic having height and width, the viewer must learn to focus eye and brain to see a “hidden” 3-D graphic having a depth that was not initially recognized.

Fig. 10.26. Close-up of the glyph on the pyramid-shaped rock identified by author as the subject of an equinox heliolithic animation (see figure 10.29 below).

Fig. 10.27. The one-inch by two-inch petroglyph is adorned with a pointy hat (shown with scale marker to indicate its size).

Fig. 10.28. This enhanced photo shows the placement of the carved head glyph within an inverted triangle. The upright triangle shape and the inverted triangle are created by natural cracks in the pyramid-shaped rock.

Fig. 10.29. An autostereogram? This series of pictures shows the sequence of the shadow moving across the petroglyph over two hours, leading up to sunset on the equinox. The animation incorporates a monkeylike image that is revealed as the shadow nose-pointer fits into the nose of the petroglyph (see color insert).

Looking down on the rock, the small profile had become quite apparent to me.

Excitedly, I named the rock the SEA Rock, for “Sunset Equinox Animation.”

My mind raced on to speculate about its origins because I thought I could see a resemblance between the SEA petroglyph at Mojave North and Hanuman, the monkey god of India, who plays a prominent role in the Indian epic poem the Ramayana, the major Hindu epic poem of India.

Hanuman represents one of the most common manifestations of the concept of bhaki, or devotion to God, and he is considered to be an avatar, the eleventh incarnation of Lord Shiva. Often depicted holding a mountain or geometrical shape in front and a club behind, portrayals of Hanuman are also pictured with a pointy, Pythagorian hat. These depictions are similar in many respects to the image in the Mojave North SEA glyph I found. Both had a diamond shape and bore something like a club or phallus behind their heads.

Fig. 10.30. A sculpture of Hanuman with a triangle representing a mountain and a club in his hand.

Could this coin-sized glyph I had discovered represent an Indus Valley connection to America? Despite the striking visual connotations, I still had to wonder if there was a real, meaningful parallel here, or was I just seeing an illusion, a coincidental simulacrum?

Simulacra are unreal, vague semblances of apparent representations, especially likeness to faces; in this case a coincidence of natural features, light, and shadow might have created a phenomenon on an auspiciously located rock. The occurrences of simulacra in rock art are traps for both the trained and the untrained observers.

Later on, as I shared time-lapse photographs of the image with others, I became aware of the possibility of multiple interpretations, thereby preventing the formation of a consensus about its meaning. In other words, I had to think carefully about the possibility

that I was doing what Fell sometimes did when he made assumptions that were later proved to be wrong. If that was the case, would I be venturing an interpretation that would cast doubt on the credibility of my telling of the New History? Or worse, might I be reporting an interpretation that was solely a figment of my imagination?

Accordingly, upon returning to Colorado, I assembled a presentation for colleagues, including Martin Brennan and Kean Monahan, to address the Mojave North site with a particular emphasis on my SEA Rock discovery. Hugh Gardner, another friend, who was trained in archaeology and who had accompanied me on several expeditions to the Purgatoire River, also attended the gathering. They were intrigued and quite amazed at my Mojave North Light Serpent animation video and, along the six-line equinox alignment, were excited with the archaeoastronomy of Mojave North and the prospect of its being an Old World site. But to my surprise and dismay, they were skeptical about the SEA Rock discovery and its identification as a microheliolithic animation. The consensus of my peers was that it wasn’t credible. “Let this one go,” recommended Brennan. “Why lose your reputation over something so small, when there are bigger stories to tell?”

But the placement of the petroglyph at the upper triangle that conjuncts with the equinox shadow image was too convincing for me to ignore, and instead of taking their advice, I chose to be inspired by the Jesuit priest, psychotherapist, and lecturer Anthony de Mello, who once said, “Seeing is the most arduous thing that a human being can undertake because it calls for a disciplined, alert mind. Seeing calls for dropping the controls, which society exercises over you, a control where the tentacles have penetrated to the very roots of your being, so that to remove it is like tearing yourself apart.”*19 But I found that I was not alone in proposing new alignments at Mojave North. At the time of the SEA Rock discovery, in addition to Schmidt and me, there was another serious rock art researcher focusing on the archaeoastronomy of Mojave North. He took an interest in the SEA Rock and my theory that it was a microheliolithic animation. Together we produced a time-lapse video of the phenomena that helped to validate the intentionality of the alignment.14 In the next chapter, which also discusses Mojave North, I will describe Dorian’s work and far-reaching conclusions.

11 Mojave North II —Did They Come Across the Pacific?

Looking beyond established fact, Dorian Taddei,*20 my esoteric friend, once suggested, “It might well be said that the old Silk Road trade routes, as we know them today, were really but a subset of a global trade network spanning both the great oceans as well as the major continents of earth.”1

WHERE HAVE ALL THE MYSTICS GONE? Taddei had found his way to this most sacred of sites by connecting with my colleague Kean Monahan, the Sun Temple video documentarian described in chapter 9. I first met him at the Anubis Caves on the fall equinox in 2003, and during the next nine years, I came to know him quite well over dozens of extended sojourns to isolated desert sites. It was with his urging that I made my first trip to Mojave North in 2004.

Taddei is one of my few friends whose orientation is more esoteric than mine, but my youthful investigations into alchemy and Hermetic and Eastern philosophies helped me to comprehend his grand perspective. On the other hand, my other colleagues found him too overbearing to work with and his lengthy and esoteric explanations beyond comprehension or historical basis.

Nevertheless, the focus of Taddei’s research is to explore his ideas about the deeper symbology left in stone by the ancients relating to an earlier “One World” religion.

According to him, the Magi, or Magu, were esoteric masters of the Indus Valley Empire that once extended to the Armenian highlands who once led expeditions across the Pacific to North America. While the term in modern times refers to the Three Wise Men in the New Testament, it was used at least since the sixth century B.C. to refer to Persian followers of Zoroaster, a man whom Hellenistic chroniclers believed had the ability to read the stars and manipulate the fates.

Fig. 11.1. A true mystic of the desert, Dorian Taddei has been investigating petroglyphs, archaeoastronomy, and alchemy connected to transoceanic voyages to the Americas for many years.

However, despite general academic opinion that “Magism” was spread throughout the ancient world by the expeditions of Alexander the Great from 334 to 323 B.C., Dorian claims that this science, magic, and esoteric knowledge had come from far earlier sources, from before the last cataclysmic event— a devastating comet bombardment of the Earth around 3200 B.C. Thus, the occult knowledge of these early astrologers and their ancient alchemy was preserved in the mountainous regions of Indo Europe, including ancient Armenia and the Himalaya, and became part of the Zoroastrian traditions over millennia of cultural diffusion. After time, all that remained of this were the many avenues of culture that became known as the Silk Route.

These Magi (or Magu), Taddei suggests, were scientists, navigators, alchemists, astrologers, and teachers who commanded expeditions to the bays of Los Angeles or San Francisco, only a few hundred miles from Mojave North, to obtain minerals and gems and also to teach the local people. Thus, he thinks that long before the Celtic visitations to New England and Colorado, this global religion fertilized the indigenous religions of the day with alchemical and calendrical insights and supported those who followed it in advancing the human condition.

In fact, archaeologists have found that the Indus Valley culture that began around 3200 B.C. had the technical expertise to accomplish such voyages, especially during its peak from about 2900 B.C. to 1900 B.C. During that time, the valley fostered a vast empire— the largest in the world—that stretched from Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean, with cities of multistory brick buildings, vast irrigation networks, and other public works, along with the most advanced metalwork in the world. They also had compasses, planked ships, and a sea-based trading network that stretched to western Asia, Mesopotamia, and Africa, far beyond their borders.2 The subject of Indian influences and other possible influences will be further explored

in the chapters that follow, but first the question of why visitors from overseas would be so attracted to Mojave North needs to be addressed.

I think one answer to the question, “Why Mojave North?” lies in the rocks themselves.

The smooth, darkly patinated surfaces of the white dolomite rocks invited pecking so that, once removed, the bright white images would have had a striking visual effect compared to the darkened background. Of course, since that time the markings have turned dark, which now makes many of them nearly impossible to detect.

But there is one more geological feature that makes Mojave North distinct. The rocks themselves have fractures that resulted in patterns of triangles that were often used as a background for the petroglyphs.

Once I recognized the importance of the triangular shapes, it became easier to identify previously unseen glyphs. Clearly the ancients who made them used the natural fissures or triangular-shaped rocks to frame some of their works of art.

Fig. 11.2. The natural triangular and fractal patterns in the dolomite limestone at Mojave North are an essential component of many of the engravings.

While watching the shadows move across the rocks, they must have realized that Mojave North was a wonderfully natural archaeoastronomical location for memorializing their deities and wisdom. This would certainly have been the case with the triangular rocks employed in the equinox morning Light Serpent animation and the SEA Rock, among the many other alignment features of the site. And the compelling evidence for a unique transPacific migration comes from the fact that these petroglyphs are unlike those of any of the sites known to have been developed by Native Americans.

CROSS-QUARTER DAYS AT MOJAVE NORTH Thus while returning to Mojave North over many years, I participated in a number of new discoveries with Taddei. However, in regard to Schmidt’s coining of the name Lugh of the Long Arm (chapter 10), he cautioned me that problems often arise when choosing to name glyphs or rock art panels. By naming a figure after a Celtic deity, it colors the objectivity of one’s mind, and before long it is assumed that the site is Celtic in origin. For example,

he wrote me, “Instead of being Lugh, this image was more likely Shiva, Mitra, or Hercules, the same underlying light deity with a different name from the earlier Indus Valley culture.”3 Taddei’s point was reinforced by Proinsias MacCana in his 1970 book Celtic Mythology.

It has been suggested more than once that Lugh is a relatively late arrival among the Celtic gods, but this is unlikely. It is true that he appears in the literature as a newcomer to the Tuatha Dé Danann, but one cannot assume that this reflects a historical process… . Not only is it virtually certain that he was known to all the Celtic peoples, but he is analogous in several respects, notably to his use of magic, to the Germanic Odin and the Indian Varuna. His usual epithet, Lámhfhada “of the long arm,” may refer to his mode of fighting with a spear and sling, but it has also been compared with the similar epithet of the Indian god Savitar, “of the wide hand,” who stretches out his hand to control sun, moon, and stars to regulate the succession of day and night. In short there is no good reason to suppose that Lugh does not belong to the Indo-European heritage.4 THE EXPLORERS

Kean Scott Monahan and Phil Leonard at Crack Cave (2005)

William R. McGlone (1926–1999)

Dorian Taddei and Carl Bjork (2011)

Martin Brennan in Mexico (2014) (Photo by Cheryl Yambrach Rose)

Ted Barker, Bill McGlone, and Phil Leonard (From back cover of Petroglyphs of Southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle, 1994)

Carl Lehrburger and Rod Schmidt at Mohave North (2012) (Photo by Julianaa Satie)

PATHFINDER ALIGNMENTS (CHAPTER 6)

Light entering cave from top creates the Light Dagger Pathfinder Equinox Noontime Alignment

Light Dagger on Pathfinder Panel

Light Dagger passing through Changing Woman and interactng with Serpent glyph

Noontime alignment: Suncatcher (left) and Changing Woman (right)

Noontime Pathfinder alignment: Serpent (left) and the second anthropomorph (right)

CRACK CAVE (CHAPTER 7)

Crack Cave Gate in Picture Canyon, Colorado (2005)

Crack Cave looking east from inside cave (From Ancient American Inscriptions)

Crack Cave alignment on equinox

Crack Cave inscription (by Kean Scott Monahan)

SOUTHEASTERN COLORADO ALIGNMENTS (CHAPTER 7)

Ted Barker family homestead built in early 1900s in southeastern Colorado

Winter solstice shaman from Salt Arroyo in southeastern Colorado

Sofa Rock equinox alignment (Colorado) petroglyph and target

The author, ca. 2004, at a southeastern Colorado petroglyph site

ANUBIS CAVES (CHAPTER 8)

Bill McGlone in Cave 2 (1995)

The Anubis Panel in Cave 2 (Drawing by Martin Brennan)

Photo of the Anubis petroglyph from Cave 2

The Anubis Panel in Cave 2 about fifteen minutes before sunset on the equinox. The sun god goes into shadow as Anubis is illuminated. (Photo by Bill McGlone)

SUN TEMPLE COLORADO AND CAVE HOLLOW IN KANSAS (CHAPTER 9)

Sun Temple cross-quarter day alignment at sunrise on May 5, 1985. Photo by Bill McGlone, Ancient American Inscriptions

Sun Temple alignment at sunrise on August 7, 2005. Photo by Kean Scott Monahan © Transvision

Cave Hollow, Kansas. The sunlight passes through tunnel to strike the petroglyphs

Cave Hollow, Kansas equinox morning alignment

Damaged concentric circles from Central Kansas

Detail of a yoni-style petroglyph with face from Central Kansas

Central Kansas evening equinox cave

Evening alignment begins with an image of a fish rising on the panel

Evening alignment ends with a triangle of light (bracketed by petroglyph)

MOJAVE NORTH, CALIFORNIA (CHAPTERS 10 AND 11)

Mojave North site with the Eastern Sierra Mountains in background and camera equipment in foreground

A prominent rock that resembles a large Shiva Linga

Equinox morning alignment as Light Serpent approaches the “target,” a pecked “egg” surrounded by concentric circles

Summer solstice morning alignment with retracting shadow

Lunar alignment, Feb. 1, 2007 (Imbolc), photograph by Dorian Taddei with enhancements by author. A “light dagger” hits the center of the Luni-Solar target (above) as the moon’s light/shadow line aligns to the six-rayed conjunction index

marker (below), but only on this Imbolc cross-quarter day. On the previous crossquarter day (Samhain) on Nov. 6, 2006, a “dark dagger” struck the center of the Luni-Solar target from another angle (see inset photo).

Mojave North SEA Rock with tape measure on approximately 25-inch wide rock

Sunset Equinox Alignment (SEA) petroglyph with a U.S. quarter

SEA drawing of sunset animation showing two faces in one with color

This series of pictures shows the sequence of the shadow moving across the petroglyph over two hours, leading up to sunset on the equinox, and revealing a monkeylike image (shown in color above)

The Mojave North six-line equinox alignment, three lines in light, three in shadow

One of several grid designs at Mojave North

THE GREAT BASIN (CHAPTER 12)

Map of the Great Basin (Map by Karl Musser)

Petroglyphs from a petroglyph site near Bishop, California

Petroglyphs from a site near Bishop, California #2

Pictoglyph of apparent boat from Chumash Painted Cave Historical Park, California

Petroglyph from Little Petroglyph Canyon near Ridgecrest, California

Red Rock equinox alignment near Bishop, California

Cupules on vertical rocks from two different Nevada sites

OTHER EVIDENCE (CHAPTERS 14 AND 15)

Fifth-century Roman coin found three feet deep in Springfield, Colorado (photo from Archaeoastronomy of Southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle, from McGlone et al.)

The Bat Creek Stone, found in Tennessee in 1889. According to Semitic scholar Cyrus H. Gordon, the words “for Judiah” are written in Canaanite. (Photo by Scott Wolter)

Hidden Mountain, New Mexico, Ten-Commandment Stone and detail.

Notice the first line of inscription has been scratched out by vandals.

Sculpture from India (A.D. 100–A.D. 1300) showing maize. Photo by John Jones for the New World Discovery Institute, G. Thompson, Director, 1995.

Also, it turned out there was more to this Lugh image than any of us had previously imagined. Building on Schmidt’s discovery of a sunrise alignment on the August crossquarter day Lughnasa that strikes the upper double-sun petroglyph, Taddei suggested that the well-endowed petroglyph figure was also likely involved in the cross-quarter day sunrise event. As it turned out, he was right, but the image was the target not just for the August cross-quarter day but also for the February and November cross-quarter days as well. This was ingeniously accomplished by placing the image in such a way that two different rocks created light and shadow lines that intersect the figure differently on the four cross-quarter days.

While there are four cross-quarter days, there are only two cross-quarter day positions of the sun. This means that the sun is in the same position for the February and November cross-quarter days and for the May and August cross-quarter days. Thus the Lughnasa (August) alignment is repeated on Beltane (May), and the Imboc (February) position of the sun on the horizon creates the same alignment for Samhain (November). It is generally understood that Beltane (May) and Lughnasa (August) celebrate male dieties, while Imbolc (February) and Samhain (November) honor female deities.

Previously, Taddei had commented to me: The cross-quarter days were the main ritual events for ancient esoterics and were linked to the timing of alchemical operations as well; alchemical elixirs and their manufacture being an integral part of all myths of antiquity, especially those of India

and Asia Minor. Martin Brennan is one of the few to understand the importance of these cross-quarter, luni-solar calendar dates for Old World cultures, something that has been completely missed by mainstream archaeologists. Without a framework for understanding how they thought, it is no wonder that much of the story of their presence in the Americas has been completely overlooked.5 The Celtic cross-quarter days, as noted in chapter 4, were named, before their Christianization, Imbolc in early February, Beltane (May), Lughnasa (August), and Samhain (in early November).

Putting Taddei’s theory to the test, he and I agreed to meet at Mojave North to observe the cross-quarter day at sunrise on August 7, 2005, with a focus on documenting his predicted light show. We arrived in the predawn to set up our camera equipment and were ready for an anticipated sunrise event. With the exception of the cross-quarter alignment on the double-sun petroglyph, we didn’t know exactly what to expect.

Fig. 11.3. The Lugh panel as drawn by Martin Brennan. The major elements of the panel include the long-armed figure, the double-sun petroglyph to the left, and the tripartite symbol below.

Fig. 11.4. The petroglyph named “Lugh” by Rod Schmidt.

However, our preparation and anticipation were rewarded when we observed and photographed a display not witnessed for perhaps thousands of years. Unlike the gradual equinox Light Serpent animation that had transpired for more than thirty minutes, the August cross-quarter day sun/shadow line abruptly appeared the instant the sun emerged above the horizon. As the light struck the petroglyphs, the sun/shadow line traversed the entire panel, intersecting both the petroglyph figure and the pecked upper-sun portion of the double-sun petroglyph. But the conjunction with the manlike image was not random: the sun/shadow alignment line precisely divided the triangular head from the rectangular body of the anthropomorphic image. When finally comprehended, the May/August crossquarter day alignment was dramatic: the head/spirit was “enlightened” or reborn, while the body that remained in shadow was dying (see figure 11.6 ).

On a following February cross-quarter day Taddei and I returned to the site to observe the same petroglyph panel again. The previously described May/ August alignment had occurred six months earlier, and the sun’s position on the horizon was now significantly different, and this altered the light interplay on the rock panel considerably.

A different rock above and to the east of the petroglyph now cast the sunrise shadow on the rock wall. Unlike the horizontal and straight sun/ shadow line in August, the February/November line was irregular as it traversed the panel (see figure 11.7). In February, the sun/shadow line missed the top of the pecked figure that was observed in August, and while the triangular head remained in light, the sun/shadow line divided the tip of the phallus, leaving the triangular top in light and the rectangular shaft in shadow.

At the time it was too difficult to confirm an alignment because of the significant glare and direct sunlight that blighted the nearly hidden petroglyph on the rock wall. In earlier times, the alignment would have been visible, but the buildup of patina in the peck marks and the glare disguised the figure at sunrise. However, by examining our photographs, we

were able to clearly see the alignment showing the shadow splitting the phallus. The February/ November cross-quarter day alignment celebrating the female principle mimicked the August/May alignment, but instead of the masculine figure’s triangular head being illuminated, his triangular penis tip became enlightened.

Fig. 11.5. The August/May cross-quarter day sunrise. The shadow divides the petroglyph’s rectangle (the body) from the triangle (the head) at dawn. (Photo and graphic by Dorian Taddei)

Fig. 11.6. Detail of the August 2005 cross-quarter day sunrise. (Photo and graphic by Dorian Taddei)

Fig. 11.7. The February/November cross-quarter day sunrise shadow line. The sun’s position on the horizon at dawn on the February and the November cross-quarter days is the same.

Fig. 11.8. Detail of the February 2006 cross-quarter day sunrise. (Photo and graphic by Dorian Taddei) To summarize our findings, the four cross-quarter day alignments on this single petroglyph first of all indicate artistic abilities and a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy. The creators of this heliolithic story used triangles, circles, and rectangles carved into the god figure to convey profound and underlying cosmological principles that

are now understood by using the methods of archaeoastronomy. Thus, Taddei suggested that the bisecting of the solar deity image by the rising sun/shadow was, symbolically, a “rising into the light.” This alchemical “return to spirit” was a universal phenomenon I recognized from my former studies as similar to the rising of Christ from the dead and the resurrection of Osiris in ancient Egypt. On the other hand, the rising sun/shadow line bisecting the large phallus on February/ November cross-quarter days suggests a theme of fertility consistent with the feminine principle.

Moreover, Taddei suggested that the larger triangle (the head) represents godhood and the creation of life as celebrated on the May/August cross-quarter days. These crossquarter days are devoted to the sun god or gods, while the “little triangle” forming the tip of the phallus represents the masculine co-creative ability, celebrated on the cross-quarter days that honor the feminine.

In this way, the Lugh cross-quarter day panel alignments can provide significant clues regarding the use of the Mojave North site as a ceremonial platform by acknowledging the importance of both the female and male aspects of creation.

SHIVA’S LINGA? Returning to the subject of India, Taddei’s research proposed many heretofore unrecognized aspects of Mojave North. Making a direct connection between the Mojave North site and ancient Armenia and later India, he identified a large and prominent boulder at the center of the California site as a Shiva lingam, a “mark of Shiva.” In India, Shiva lingas are fashioned in different shapes, usually a phallus, in both large stone monuments and smaller icons. The phallus is often accompanied by a basin or bowl, a symbol of femininity and the yoni, or vulva. Together, they embody the blending of the universal masculine and feminine forces of creation, encompassing more than physical sexuality.

Followers of Shaivism, called Shaivas or Shaivites, believe that Shiva, meaning the “Auspicious One,” is “All in All”—the creator, preserver, destroyer, revealer, and concealer of all that is. Shaivism is at least four thousand years old, making it the most ancient sect of Hinduism, and today it is still widespread throughout India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.

Fig. 11.9. A Shiva stone in front of the Elephanta Caves in Mumbai (Bombay), India.

Seeing the Shiva linga simply as a phallus undermines the sacred premise of the universal creative forces of masculinity. (Photo by Shuri) The Mojave North rock outcropping has an extended stone shaft at least seven feet high facing to the west with a shallow basin on the eastern side. Previous researchers ignored this prominent fixture of Mojave North, perhaps because the natural features disguise the importance of this central stone and also because the remaining petroglyphs on it are nearly unreadable, although in early 2012 Schmidt and I observed a pecked grid toward the top, facing west. Of these natural features, two large natural stones in front of the main Shiva linga rock give the appearance of being testicals.

Fig. 11.10. Mojave North Shiva linga. This unique and centrally placed Shiva rock includes a triangular stone with a basin.

Fig. 11.11. Detail of the Mojave North Shiva linga from another angle, showing pecked grid marks.

In the meantime, the phallus-testicular stone complex had been photographed by Taddei, and he sent the information to the Armenian anthropologist and esotericist Gevork Nazaryan, who hosts a popular Armenian Highland website.6 Nazaryan suggested that the “lingam” could have been a creation of the priests of ancient Armenia. The Armenian practices preceded those in ancient northern India by perhaps five thousand to seven

thousand years or more, according to Taddei.

THE EPIGRAPHY OF MOJAVE NORTH To continue in the examination of the background and possible sources of the Mojave North artwork and epigraphy, as discussed in chapter 10, Barry Fell suggested that at least some inscriptions were written in Kufic, the earliest calligraphic form of the Arabic languages, which was discussed in chapter 10.7 Roderick Schmidt pointed to the Lugh figure and what he claimed to be Celtic Ogham script.8 Dorian Taddei, on the other hand, thinks many of the inscriptions are alchemical and astrological in nature. This is because of the cross symbol found above the main Inscription Panel, which he interprets as the symbol of the prima materia, the first matter, which incorporates the four elements of air, fire, earth, and water. The entire symbol then represents alchemical mercury, or the quintessence, a mark of the elixir of life, as well as the original magical symbol that influenced the structure of the ancient drinking chalices associated with the story of the Holy Grail.

Fig. 11.12. Petroglyphs on the Mojave North Inscription Panel with sidelighting.

Fig. 11.13. Petroglyph identified by Dorian Taddei as the prima materia symbol. See fig.

10.12 for view of complete inscription. (Enhancement on glyphs by author) Taddei also presented the case that the script on the Mojave North Inscription Panel that Fell interpreted as Kufic is actually ancient Samaritan, a proto-Hebrew script used exclusively by the northern tribes of Israel (ca. 930– 720 B.C.). Ancient Samaritan is known to have preceded the cursive scripts by as many as six hundred years and was the language of the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, outside of Fell and Taddei, the inscription has yet to receive much attention by epigraphers, despite the fact that the pecked glyphs are so distinctive, offering one of the best opportunities to identify a culture and time frame at this part of the site.

Fig. 11.14. Enhancement of a serpentlike glyph, smaller Lugh sun god, and anthropomorphic figure below the inscriptions.

Taddei’s detailed pursuit of interpreting the Inscription Panel yielded yet another Mojave North discovery: there are images below the inscription. Two previously unnoted petroglyphs suggest a mini-serpent and a smaller version of the Lugh sun god image located on the cross-quarter day panel.

There are other unidentified scripts and possible writing systems that appear at Mojave North. The most predominate of these, with at least a dozen examples, includes images employing circles and straight or wavy lines (see figure 11.15 below). They are called abstract images because we don’t know what they say or mean. Some may even be maps.

Other symbols in Mojave North resemble those in Vinca, an ancient system of more than five thousand ritualistic symbols used in southeastern Europe that predated the development of writing by more than one thousand years. A second, altogether different style includes lozenge-shaped petroglyphs that are found throughout North America, including many variations found in the Purgatoire River canyons of Colorado and throughout the Great Basin (see figure 11.16 below).

An open-minded academic effort is required to read the ancient writing left at Mojave North. Perhaps with renewed interest by epigraphers and scholars, more light will be shed on the meaning of the many inscriptions.

Fig. 11.15. The “abstract” designs at Mojave North represent one of several styles of epigraphy-like petroglyphs at the site.

Fig. 11.16. A “lozenge” glyph from Mojave North. Similar styles are common throughout the Great Basin and along Colorado’s Purgatoire River.

LUNAR ALIGNMENT DISCOVERIES The broad view of some of the complexities of discerning the origins, meanings, and mysteries of the Mojave North art and epigraphy have been presented in the manner in which I came upon them. Next to come was another aspect of Mojave North that I thought could unite the site with other civilizations from over the seas. While many hundreds of solar alignments have been identified throughout the world, less research has been directed at lunar phenomena.

After discerning the solar aspects of the Lugh panel, Taddei and I discussed by phone the possibility of lunar alignments, so once again with his urging, I decided to coordinate my next journey to the site with a full moon. But this was not just any full moon. Over the next several months the moon would reach its highest position in the sky, the time known as a lunar standstill, a term first used in 1971 by archaeologist Alexander Thom in his book Megalithic Lunar Observatories.9 A lunar standstill happens at the southernmost and northernmost extreme positions of the moon over a cycle of 18.6 years. It is the time it takes for the moon to return to the same rising position on the horizon before it speeds up to its regular pace. The term standstill refers, in the case of the sun’s horizon position on the solstices, to a period of ten days twice each year when the sun’s extreme northerly and southerly positions on the horizon remain essentially the same. The extreme positions of the moon occur every 9.3 years, known as a major and a minor lunar standstill, when the moon reaches the extreme azimuth position on the horizon.

The lunar standstill phenomenon was noted by Bronze Age cultures and was celebrated in ancient pagan and neopagan religions. Precise alignments that were integrated into megalithic architecture and monuments throughout Britain and Ireland indicated the southernmost moonrise and northernmost moonset. In addition, lunar standstills were tracked at Chimney Rock in southwestern Colorado, the Hopewell sites in Ohio, and at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, where spiral petroglyphs that mark the equinoxes and solstices have been shown to also mark the major and minor standstills of the moon.10 There are clues throughout Mojave North that the site contained lunar alignments. The phases of the moon are presented on one panel as small petroglyphs. Other lunar-related indications included numerous small and obscured “horseshoe” marks. At Newgrange, Martin Brennan had identified these shapes as having an association with the moon. In North America, petroglyphs with these marks can be associated with the womb and/or lunar counts, with each glyph representing a lunar month. (Refer to the previous discussion in chapter 6 related to hoofprint glyphs).

Taddei predicted that ancient alchemist-astrologer-priests marked the lunar/ solar oppositions that occurred at intervals of 19 years and 11 days, which is the “Metonic cycle,” not to be confused with the lunar standstill cycle of 18.6 years. The Metonic cycle was used to predict eclipses and to align ancient lunar and solar calendars and is addressed in more detail in chapter 12.

Recognizing that the ancients considered the two cross-quarter days of Samhain (November) and Imbolc (February) as lying in opposition and balanced against the spring and summer cross-quarter days of Beltane (May) and Lughnasa (August), he predicted lunar alignments could occur on full moons near the cross-quarter days in November 2006 (Samhain) and early February 2007 (Imbolc). It was a propitious time during 2007, with two full lunar eclipses (March and August) and full moons that fell on these cross-quarter days and new moons on the equinox days.

Thus, the timing of everything was just right to test his hypothesis of a potential lunar alignment, so I traveled to meet Dorian at the Mojave North in coordination with Samhain (November), which also fell during the extreme lunar standstill period. I arrived at 6:30 p.m. on November 6, 2006, and the high desert night sky was perfectly clear. This remote location, far from city lights, was made for a perfect viewing of the rising full moon.

It was obvious at the outset that the equinox Light Serpent animation rock described in chapter 10 was the target for this cross-quarter day lunar alignment, and I observed a double conjunction. First, a shadow dagger (a pointed moonlight/shadow line) interacted rather precisely with the concentric circle from another angle as the equinox Light Serpent penetrated the same inner-circle target about forty-seven days earlier. The second and simultaneous lunar alignment occurred on a star-shaped petroglyph located about six feet from the concentric circles that Taddei called a “conjunction index marker,” or calculator.

This was split by the moonlight/shadow line.

For the November alignment this proved to be an inverted shadow triangle (literally a dark dagger), which pierced the central circle of the target. Additionally, a shadow line was verified to fit one of the four wavy lines intersecting the conjunction index marker, and was precisely aligned only at the moment that the shadow dagger pierced the center of the conjunction index marker target glyph. The shape of the lunar alignment, intentionally or unintentionally, was a profile of an enlarged testicle and a penis.

Fig. 11.17. The Mojave North Samhain lunar alignment, November 8, 2006, with a shadow dagger piercing the luni-solar target just as the full moon rises and as the moon shadow/light line aligns to the 6-rayed conjunction index marker. (Photograph and rendition by Dorian Taddei)

Fig. 11.18. The Mojave North lunar alignment, February 1, 2007, with a light dagger piercing the luni-solar azimuth target petroglyph. (Photograph and rendition by Dorian Taddei) Remarkably, on the following Imbolc/February, 2007, cross-quarter evening when Taddei joined me, the lunar alignment proved to be a moon Light Dagger, with a corresponding shadow aligning with another of the four conjunction index marker’s grooves! The complexity of Mojave North’s lunar alignments falling on the two petroglyphs along with an alternating lunar light dagger and shadow dagger phenomena on the different full moons is perplexing but can be explained by the moon’s position intersecting differently with the cracks in the rocks or in the different time of observing the phenomena on the two days. Dorian postulates that the moon’s light/shadow line aligns to the six-rayed conjunction index marker, but only on the cross-quarter days dividing lunar and solar eclipses of a new Saros eclipse cycle.

Taddei also noticed a second potential lunar alignment, a “sighting” alignment, as the

full moon rose above the edge of the distant Inyo Mountain range on the February 2007 full moon described above. In the spot where the Shiva linga stone seemed to touch the visible edge of the Inyo range, the moon rose into position.

Fig. 11.19. The full moon rising over Mojave North’s Shiva linga stone on the February cross-quarter day in 2007. (Photo by Dorian Taddei) Taddei claims that these conjunction index markers are devices that allowed for the critical isolation of two elements of the lunar alignment on a single stone, making them accurate calculators. He pointed out that similar petroglyphs are found at rock art sites in other countries, including Egypt, Switzerland, and Mexico, as well as at other sites on the eastern seaboard of the United States. For example, an ancient glyph at Carschenna, Switzerland, is similar to the Mojave North image and has been observed to be an astronomical target. Unfortunately, since this lunar/solar conjunction marker was moved to a museum, it is no longer correctly positioned.

Fig. 11.20. Conjunction index and lunar eclipse marker at Mojave North.

Fig. 11.21. Marker stone from Carschenna, Switzerland.

Fig. 11.22. Detail of the Mojave North six-rayed conjunction index marker used in specific cross-quarter day full-moon alignments. (Photograph and detail rendering by Dorian Taddei) It was indeed a remarkable accomplishment by the ancients to use the same “egg” and concentric circles for the biannual equinox sunrise Light Serpent animation and as a target for rare full-moon cross-quarter evening alignments. It will take other archaeoastronomers to verify and confirm the nature of the Mohave North lunar alignments and their relationship with the cross-quarter days and/or lunar standstill cycle; however, it is clear from our discoveries that the ancients tracked the moon in addition to the sun at Mojave North.

While some may think it was just luck that we were on-site for the amazing lunar and cross-quarter evening alignments, Taddei demonstrated that understanding what the ancients were tracking, including the cross-quarter days and cross-quarter evening full moons, proved to be a key to unlocking the secrets of the petroglyphs and was useful for predicting when to be at the site. To date at least thirteen of these archaeoastronomical alignments at Mojave North have been documented, including four heliolithic animations.

This makes it one of the most prolific ancient archaeoastronomy locations in the

Americas.

Season

Time of Day

Name/Type

Heliolithic Animations

Equinox

Sunrise

1. Serpent animation 2. Pecked sun petroglyph

1. Serpent consuming egg 2. Phallus-shaped shadow fits in pecked star on horizontal surface (more recent pecking)

Equinox

Sunset

1. Sunset six-line marker 2. SEA Rock

1. Three lines in light, three lines in shadow 2. Animation and conjunction on petroglyph

Summer solstice

Sunrise

Retracting shadow animation

Serpentlike shadow fits into pecked circle

Summer solstice

Sunset

1. Spiral alignment 2. Companion alignment

1. Sun dagger pierces inner circle 2. Edge of shadow aligns with arrow

Winter solstice

Sunrise

Split pecked circle

Light pierces/separates inner circle

Feb./Nov. CQD

Sunrise

1. Pecked circle glyph 2. Cross-quarter panel

1. Light splits pecked circle 2. Triangle-shaped phallus is “enlightened”

May/Aug. Sunrise CQD

1. Cross-quarter panel figure 2. Double-sun petroglyph

1. Light/shadow line separates head from body 2. Light/shadow line splits upper sun and inner circle

Lunar

Serpent animation rock: Full moon on Samhain (2006) and Imbolc (2007) crossquarter evening lunar alignment(s)

1. Moonlight/shadow line splits conjunction marker 2. Moonlight dagger penetrates same concentric circles as in sunrise equinox animation

Rise of full moon

Fig. 11.23. Major archaeoastronomical alignments at Mojave North. CQD = cross-quarter day.

CEREMONIAL BASINS MYSTERY Yet another mystery is lurking on the ground level of Mojave North, below the elevated areas that display most of the inscriptions and artwork. Besides the dolomite outcroppings rising above the dried-up lake bed, the site is graced with a smooth rock base that features many natural basins that collect rainwater. These basins are not to be confused with the metates that were ground into smooth horizontal rock surfaces and used for grinding corn, nuts, and seeds. Instead, some of them have a combination of natural and worked lines.

This makes it apparent that Mojave North was a ceremonial site where, if our theories are correct, Old World travelers gathered to observe the equinoxes, solstices, and cross-quarter days, as well as to celebrate their revered deities enshrined in stone. Taddei theorizes that it was these travelers who taught such things to the Native Americans, who, however, have long forgotten them.

Fig. 11.24. A basin at Mojave North with worked and abraded lines. These were interpreted by Roderick Schmidt as Ogham script, but that is disputed by others.

Fig. 11.25. A ceremonial basin in the morning light. The notion that the ancients observed ceremonies at Mojave North is supported by the location of large, eroded natural basins.

But how were these basins used? Taddei suggested that some of these basins were “libation” or celebratory mixing bowls. He also noted that they often are aligned to the local sunset positions that occur on the May and August cross-quarter days. He observed an Imbolc alignment in February for the local sunset at another similar bowl on the western rim of the site in 2006 and in 2009 verified that the two parallel rays on what Schmidt referred to as the Lugh bowl did in fact align with the cross-quarter day evening sunrise (which occurred the evening before the actual cross-quarter day).

And what do we make of the grinding holes and finely ground cupules that are additionally found at the site? I will address these in the next chapter when I discuss the general features of the Great Basin area.

THE ROOTS OF MOJAVE NORTH Once the bigger picture is accepted as a reality, the esoteric secret knowledge of the existence of the New World in ancient times becomes clear. Yet to accept this knowledge, we need to accept a simple reality: the esoteric adepts from many regions of the Earth shared both a high science and a knowledge of global navigation and transoceanic ships that carried them around the world.

However, the archaeopriests demand artifacts to prove Old World contacts. But no traditional artifacts remain at the Mojave North site because it has been washed clean in torrential flooding events such as what destroyed the mining town nearby. In fact, Schmidt recovered some smelted artifacts from the nearby dried lake bed, but these never underwent further testing. However, the archaeoastronomical artifacts—the petroglyphs and the carved lunar and solar markers—are still there.

While Taddei and I have made significant claims concerning Mojave North and a transPacific connection, to date there hasn’t been any third-party verification. The existence of the Shiva linga, the lunar standstill alignment, the SEA Rock, the cross-quarter day alignments, and the equinox and solstice alignments, among other discoveries remains far from mainstream archaeological research. Thus, independent verification is the key to unlocking Mojave North’s secrets and recognition of its importance. Until then the unprotected and vulnerable site remains an enigma.

Based on our discoveries and many of the petroglyphs with apparent Old World connections, I came to agree with Taddei’s analysis—that the images at Mojave North were carved by early visitors from the Indus Valley, Indo-European and Indo-Turkish cultures from around 3000 B.C. to about 1300 B.C., when the influence ended, probably due to drought caused by failure of the monsoons. If this is so, then the inventory of petroglyphs and the extraordinary light animations found at Mojave North will continue to preserve the myths, cosmology, and esoteric symbols of these Old World peoples, while conveying the beauty and sacredness intended by them.

ENDANGERED HISTORY AT MOJAVE NORTH Because of its proximity to the Shoshone/Paiute Native American reservation, Schmidt on several occasions sought the tribe’s assistance in protecting and studying Mojave North.

Regrettably, these attempts were greeted with skepticism and even anger. When meeting with local tribe members, Schmidt played down his theory that Native Americans did not create Mojave North and instead tried to focus on establishing alliances and preservation efforts. But he was Caucasian, and they eventually became aware of his conclusions, which infuriated some tribal leaders. Ironically, we discovered that few in the tribe had visited the site or knew much about it, and our efforts to forge an alliance to advance cooperation with the tribe were rejected on several occasions. They saw Schmidt’s efforts as a whitewash of native culture, and he died in 2012 without achieving any reconciliation with the local tribes or any success in securing their involvement in protecting the Mojave North site.

It wasn’t just the local Native Americans who perceived our attempts to organize research projects at Mojave North as a threat. The Bureau of Land Management archaeologists did their best to discourage serious study as well. On one occasion, I invited one of them to view the equinox sunrise Light Serpent animation and to attend a lecture Schmidt and I had prepared for local residents. The local archaeologist told me I needed a “research permit” to study the site and that I was not welcome because my investigation was “commercial” in nature. As a result, I spent two hours on the phone with the senior archaeologist in the Bureau of Land Management’s California office, and she, in support of her colleague, explained that I did need a permit because my research would result in a book, but she then went on to say that I wasn’t qualified to get a research permit because I didn’t have an archaeology degree. After I pleaded my case, she called the local archaeologist, then gave me “permission” to return to the site, which, after all, was situated on public land.

As for a professional investigative presence at the site, during my dozen research visits to Mojave North I only encountered one U.S. government archaeologist. He happened to see my parked car and wanted to know why I was there. We spoke for a while, and while I tried to engage his perspectives, he was absolutely adamant that there were no Old World connections, and more extraordinary, he said he had little interest in the site. When I proposed some type of effort to protect it, the location being on U.S. government land, he replied it would attract people who in the end would damage the site. To him and many other professional archaeologists, leaving it exposed to occasional vandals, or even unknowing tourists, was a better course of action.

It was during that same excursion that I arrived one late afternoon to find a family casually walking around the site. There were no signs to inform the visitors about the petroglyphs or unique alignments. When I observed one of the young boys throwing chunks of rock at one of the rock art panels, I intervened. Neither the boy nor his parents could make out the petroglyphs the boy was throwing stones at.

From my vantage point of twenty-five years of investigations, I have learned that Mojave North in California, along with the Anubis Caves in Oklahoma, are among the great repositories of records left by Old World peoples in North America. The archaeopriests holding onto academic biases against diffusionism, combined with Native American indifference and incompetent archaeologists, have left Mojave North virtually unknown and vulnerable to further destruction. It is fittingly ironic that each year scores of academics and archaeologists comb the Four Corners region, investigating the Anasazi, Mogollon, and other tribes, yet none have devoted significant time to studying Mojave North.

While the faded petroglyphs still dance in the sunlight, the Mojave North site is in desperate need of protection and further study. Perhaps by the time these words are read it will have been recognized for what it is, one of the few remaining great archaeoastronomy parks of the ancient world that offers more evidence that ancient peoples arrived in North America thousands of years before Columbus.

12 The Great Basin Melting Pot They were in the Great Basin before and during the last Ice Age; they came from the northwest via the Columbia River system, from the south up the Colorado River system, east from the Southern California coast, and west from Wyoming and the Four Corners area. They came from Egypt, India, China, the South Pacific Islands, Middle East, and Europe. Perhaps others went from the Americas to the outside world. There is a story about great floods that covered many lands, which says that the early people to the Great Basin were survivors of that flood. It is all carved on the rocks to see.

CARL BJORK, ROCK ART INVESTIGATOR*21

THE GREAT BASIN The Great Basin encompasses nearly all of Nevada and parts of southeastern Idaho, southeastern Oregon, northwestern Arizona, western Utah, and eastern California. Within this ten-thousand-square-mile area are more petroglyphs and ancient rock art than in any other known location.

The Mojave North archaeo-complex was ground zero for me. Situated at the western edge of the Great Basin, it provided a jumping-off point for rock art expeditions throughout the western United States. To the south were extensive rock art sites of the California Mojave Desert, the principle one being Little Petroglyph Canyon on U.S. military property near Ridgecrest. To the north were significant petroglyph sites near Bishop, California, on Donner Pass, and farther north, in western Oregon and Idaho along the Snake River. To the east were numerous ancient rock art sites in western Nevada, including Pyramid Lake and Grimes Point and farther south sites near Las Vegas, including the Valley of Fire.

For nearly ten years Dorian Taddei and I pursued extensive expeditions throughout the Great Basin regions of California, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. In those areas, the water levels had risen and fallen dramatically over the past 30,000 years, with high water marks occurring between 13,500 and 15,000 years ago. At that time, Lake Lahontan dominated western Nevada, encompassing an area of 8,665 square miles, with depths reaching down to seven hundred feet.1

Fig. 12.1. Map showing the modern and historic climates in the Great Basin. Large pluvial (rain-made) lakes have dominated life throughout the Great Basin, with more than one hundred substantial water basins in western Utah. (Map by U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, adapted in R. B. Morrison, Quaternary Nonglacial Geology) Geological and weather conditions dictated the habitation in the Great Basin. At the end of the ice age 12,000 years ago, the area became filled with water and life, and sites such as Crater Lake formed about 7,600 years ago. However, the eruptions of Mount Mazama in central Oregon that began 6,845 years ago (± 50 years) generated ash, which blew eastward and southward, causing animals and humans to flee. At the end of that period new peoples came, including the Northern Paiutes, who date their migrations from that time. Finally, beginning around A.D. 1050, drought changed things dramatically, and as will be detailed in chapter 16, many of the great tribes and civilizations from the region were dispersed, including the Chaco Canyon cultures and the Anasazi of the Four Corners area.

However, the prolific and diverse rock art these cultures left behind is found throughout the area. There are a host of different styles, and thanks to extensive preservation efforts many petroglyph sites are now accessible to view and photograph.

Fig. 12.2. Little Petroglyph Canyon, one of several significant Mojave Desert sites.

GREAT BASIN JOURNEYS In 2007, during one of our many Great Basin expeditions, Taddei and I visited the Grimes Point near Fallon, Nevada. There, the dark varnish that covers the rocks and rock art was largely due to the acid rains caused by the numerous eruptions of Mount Mazama and other volcanoes. The earliest dating in that area, at a site on the shore of ancient Lake Winnemucca in Nevada, northeast of Reno, goes back 14,800 years.2 Most surprisingly, among the hundreds of petroglyphs at three different areas in the Grimes Point complex, we found a heavily varnished and patinated petroglyph with the distinct likeness of an elephant with a rider on top (see figure 12.4 below).

The rock itself, with the elephant and rider petroglyph, had the shape of an elephant’s head. Taddei suggested that the elephant petroglyph seemed to have no tusks; therefore, this petroglyph would not have represented an African elephant. Did the aboriginal peoples of the area witness and record the coming of mariners from the Pacific, accompanied by little elephants?

The friezes of the Borobudur Temple (ca. 543 B.C.) and the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia clearly illustrate small boats carrying little Asian elephants (see figure 12.5 below). “How could they have done it?” I asked Taddei, realizing that a journey from India to the California coast would be considerably more difficult than an Atlantic crossing from Europe.

Fig. 12.3. Grimes Point, Nevada, shaman rendition in the shape of a fleur-de-lis.

Fig. 12.4. Rendition of the pecked image of an elephant with a rider from the Grimes Point, Nevada, site.

Fig. 12.5. This drawing is a reproduction of a fresco from ancient Ajanta caves showing elephants being transported to Sri Lanka showing small boats carrying elephants, from

about 543 B.C. (K. M. Panikkar, India through the Ages)

Fig. 12.6. Map of currents and shipping paths from the Indus Valley. (Drawing by Dorian Taddei) “After crossing the Indian Ocean the travelers from India would have island-hopped through the Islands of Malaysia before crossing the Pacific with stops along the way at Palau, the Island chain of Vanuatu, and other lands now under the sea.”3 Taddei continued, “While oar driven boats in a gentle sea would be hard pressed to make it to the Americas, ancient Indian mariners would have used the Pacific Equatorial Counter Current to take advantage of the wind and sea currents, both coming and going.

As such, these ancient mariners could use the ocean’s ‘expressways’ to plumb the seas for God, as well as for gain! These ancient ‘India Indians’ not only visited the North and South American continents on an on-going and regular basis, but set up outposts and trade zones in the New World; a place known to them as Patala.”

“Seafaring in Ancient India” by Sushama Londhe on the Hindu Wisdom website, does a good job in summing up what we know and what is theory.

Indian traders would set sail from the port of Mahabalipuram, carrying with them cinnamon, pepper, and their civilization to the shores of Java, Cambodia, and Bali.

Like the Western world, the Indian world stretches far beyond its border, though India has never used any violence to spread her influence… . It has been proved beyond doubt that the Indians of the past were not, stay-at-home people, but went out of their country for exploration, trade, and conquest. Sir Aurel Stein (1862–1943) a Hungarian, whose valuable researches have added greatly to our knowledge of Greater India, remarks: “The vast extent of Indian cultural influences, from Central Asia in the North to tropical Indonesia in the South, and from the Borderlands of Persia to China and Japan, has shown that ancient India was a radiating center of a civilization, which by its religious thought, its art and literature, was destined to leave its deep mark on the races wholly diverse and scattered over the greater part of Asia.”4 These Indian ships were both fast and very large. Ordinary samanya ships were used for

inland waters, and visesa ships were meant for sea journeys. The largest of these were called manthara ships, and they measured 120 feet in length, sixty feet in breadth, and sixty feet in height. In his book Foreign Trade and Commerce in Ancient India, Prakash Charan Prasad notes: Big ships were built. They could carry anywhere upwards from 500 men on the high seas. The Yuktialpataru classifies ships according to their sizes and shapes. The Rajavalliya says that the ship in which King Sinhaba of Bengal [ca. sixth century B.C.] sent Prince Vijaya, accommodated full 700 passengers, and the ship in which Vijaya’s Pandyan bride was brought over to Lanka carried 800 passengers on board.

The ship in which Buddha in the Supparaka Bodhisat incarnation made his voyages from Bharukachha (Broach) to the “sea of the seven gems” [Sri Lanka], carried 700 merchants besides himself. The Samuddha Vanija Jakarta mentions a ship that accommodated one thousand carpenters.5 According to Marco Polo, “An Indian ship could carry crews between 100 and 300. Out of regard for passenger convenience and comfort, the ships were well furnished and decorated. Gold, silver, copper, and compound of all these substances were generally used for ornamentation and decoration.6 Did Indus Valley civilizations have the infrastructure to manufacture, manage, maintain, and direct such large vessels for overseas trade and investigations? Consistent with revelations of Indus Valley and Indo-European presences in the Great Basin, the discovery of a giant underwater city off the coast of Cambay in India is challenging the archaeopriests’ version of the physical nature of the origins of civilization. The finding by India’s National Institute of Ocean Technology reveals man-made structures composed of giant granite blocks at a depth of forty meters. Artifacts dredged from the site during excavations beginning in 2000 helped date the site to around 7,500 B.C. In other words, this city found in the Bay of Cambay is older than the Sumerian civilization by several thousand years.7 But like any discovery that threatens the status quo in archaeology, these discoveries continue to be challenged.8

Fig. 12.7. Tall-masted Indian ships would have made crossing the Pacific from the Bay of Cambay perfectly feasible. Drawing of a Javanese galley, ca. A.D. 880, from a relief

carving in Borobudur, Java. (Drawing by Gunnar Thompson, American Discovery, 214)

Fig. 12.8. Drawing of an Indian ship referred to as a “yanapatra,” ca. A.D. 600, from a temple painting. Ancient relief sculptures from Cambodia show ocean vessels capable of making the long crossing of the Pacific Ocean to the Americas. (Drawing by Gunnar Thompson, American Discovery, 214) An unusual pictoglyph of a boat in the Painted Cave at the Carrizo Plain National Monument in California depicts what appears to be a smaller version of these big vessels from India (see figure 12.9).

In addition, established oral traditions of the Native American Paiutes, passed down from their ancient ancestors, tell of ships sailing into the Death Valley area, making an unimpeded passage from the Gulf of California to the Pacific Ocean. It is therefore possible that the ancients sailed into Lake Lahontan in Nevada, thus explaining the mysterious and ancient Grimes Point petroglyph carving what appears to be of a small Asian elephant carrying a rider.

An overview of this scenario is provided by Ricardo Palleres in his Archaeology Online article “Who Discovered America?”9 and the exciting prospect of visitors from India. This will be examined in detail later in this chapter and in chapter 15 but by way of introduction, some of the possibilities of influences from India on the languages and traditions of the American Indians need to be briefly examined.

Fig. 12.9. Painting of a boat from the Chumash Indians. This pictoglyph is from the Painted Cave, Carrizo Plain National Monument, California (see also color insert).

Author and researcher Gene D. Matlock, who has written many books about India’s connections to Jesus, Moses, Atlantis, and countries such as Mexico, Turkey, and Israel, is certain that seagoing people from India reached America. The Amazon.com blurb for his 2000 book India Once Ruled the Americas! boldly states, “The people of India have long known that their ancestors once sailed to and settled in the Americas. They called America ‘Patala, The Under World,’ not because they believed it to be underground, but because the other side of the globe appeared to be straight down. Now, at last, many mysteries about Ancient America, such as the identity of the Mexican Quetzalcoatl, the true origins of our Native-American, etc., will be cleared up, once and for all.”10 Matlock claimed that traders from the Indus Valley or the Indo-Turkish region reached the Americas in 5,000–4,000 B.C. where they mined minerals in Michigan, Colorado, southern Arizona, Peru, and other parts of both North and South America. More reliably, he demonstrated a direct connection between specific Native American tribes and peoples from India.

Matlock’s thesis is that migrations from India inundated the American Southwest with conquest, colonization, and mining expeditions that engendered and influenced many modern-day Native American peoples, including the Navajo, Hopi, Hohokam, and Tohono O’odham (Pima) tribes. He suggested that the exoduses of these peoples and cultures were set in motion by devastating floods, political instability, wars, and purges as a consequence of the Indian caste system. However, it all ended after about A.D. 1200, when sectarian and religious wars between Indian Brahmans and invading Moslems divided and isolated India.

According to Matlock, the Nagas (the “People of the Snake” in Sanskrit) were a highly civilized mercantile class from what is now Afghanistan, Tibet, Pakistan, and northwestern India who eventually expanded their influence throughout the world. The Naga capital was called Oudh and was located near present-day Herat, Afghanistan. The citizens of Oudh were called Oudh-am, which means “people” in Sanskrit. Thus, according to Matlock, it is no coincidence that the name of the Tohono O’odham tribe

from southern Arizona and northern Mexico had the same root, since in ancient Kashmiri/Sanskrit the word ton, or tahun, means “brotherhood.”11 Moreover, the Native American O’odham word for snake, vah-mat, resembles its counterpart, the Kashmiri (a variation of Sanskrit) word veh-mar. While little remains of the O’odham language, Matlock notes similarities in his study between words from India and the languages of many Native Americans, including the Zuni, Hopi, Navajo, Mogollon, and Hohokam tribes.12 Matlock also refers back to the word Patala, noting that part of the O’odham tribe’s territory is called Pataya. In Kashmiri, the compound word Pata-Yah means “the Place of Shiva (Yah).”13 He also made a direct connection between what the Pima tribe called Seeh-ha, Siwa, or Su-u (Elder Brother) and Shiva. The Tohono O’odhams worship him as I’toi or I’Itsoi, which linguistically is nearly identical to Isa, another Indian word for Shiva cited by Matlock.14 Consistent with what Taddei proposed, Matlock noted that the Nagas needed to enlist aboriginal laborers to sustain their mining operations across the Pacific. Thus, these Nagas provided instructions on building structures, raising vegetables, preparing food, and calendar keeping to the natives, but withheld their advanced metal processing and weapon technologies.

ENCOUNTERS WITH A ROCK ART INVESTIGATOR A name well known among Great Basin rock art enthusiasts is Carl Bjork, a former forest ranger.15 He became interested in studying petroglyphs after reading Barry Fell and other authors, including LaVan Martineau, who wrote the 1976 book The Rocks Begin to Speak: Understanding Indian Rock Writing.16 As a ranger, he had access to sites often not recorded or previously known, and in his forty years of investigations approached all rock art sites with great reverence, referring to them as “someone else’s church.”

It is interesting that Bjork’s law enforcement background with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection helped him develop a method for profiling criminal serial arsonists. Applying it to rock art sites, he came up with a novel “who done it and why here?” approach to investigating ancient petroglyphs. As he discovered patterns, he was then often able to predict where additional rock art sites would be located.

In conversations with Bjork at Grimes Point and Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park (near Pine Grove, California), he suggested that the original rock art symbols were a nonverbal pictorial system, a type of universal communication. They had one universal language to communicate universal concepts, but over time the original meanings were lost. “Hermetic drift” is the term coined by Taddei to describe the phenomenon: over generations the original esoteric meanings and intricate counting cycles were lost, then later generations replicated the symbols without understanding the original intention or meaning.

Fig. 12.10. Rock art investigator Carl Bjork on a 2011 field trip to Grimes Point, Nevada.

Bjork suggests that the cravings and paintings were a communication system used throughout the Americas and the world by peoples who spoke many different languages and dialects but needed a non-oral communication method to share knowledge. As Martin Brennan found in his studies in Mexico, the petroglyphs, carvings, paintings, and handsign systems of communication would have worked well as a pictorial method of communication for all to understand.

However, according to Bjork, one cannot simply “read” the rock art panels since reading involves phonics and an alphabet using the indigenous language that is spoken by a specific cultural group. Instead, he says it is how the symbols are arranged, their relationships to each other, and the placement of each symbol on the rock that are significant. Because of the depth of Bjork’s understanding and the reverence he brings to his study of rock art, he has gained the respect of government archaeologists and many of the Native Americans. For example, after years of study, he agrees with Taddei and Matlock, among others, that these peoples were driven out of India by hostile events and inhospitable environmental conditions. After this, he thinks that the original Hopi people came by boat to California and headed east to Arizona just as a Hopi elder once told him: “We came from another land to the coast of California and made it to the mesas in which we live today.”

Investigating other Hopi legends, Bjork deduced that the first Hopis would have landed near Oxnard, California, and traveled east, following the rivers and the bases of the mountains to the Colorado River after crossing it near Needles. By following the eastern and southern side of the river they would have crossed the deep canyon of the Little Colorado River, which required a steep climb out to the Tuba City, Arizona, area. Later, they were forced by the warlike Navajo (the Diné) to go southeast to the top of the mesas.

After this, the overland path of the first Hopis became a major trade route from the California coast to the Four Corners area and beyond.

Bjork also postulates that earlier migrants from the Pacific arrived in Panama and then traveled north to Mexico to become the Toltecs and Aztecs. With more migrations, they continued north to the Gulf of California and then traveled from the mouth of the

Colorado River to the Las Vegas area. From there they migrated throughout the region.

In a wider context, Bjork suggests that waves of migrations came into the Americas from the Indus Valley, China, and Southeast Asia. He added that other major landing points from abroad would have been the bays of present-day San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. From the San Francisco entrance, the ancient miners could have then traveled south through the San Joaquin Valley, east over the Walker Pass, west to the Carrizo Plains, and then into Nevada and the sites of the Eastern Sierra petroglyph locations, including some near Bishop, California. As for Portland, from that northern outpost, the ancient travelers would have followed the Columbia River and then gone east to the Snake River until it became impassable due to rapids near Celebration Park and Boise, Idaho.

(See figures 12.11 and 12.12 below.)

In regard to petroglyph hunting, Bjork says it is important to understand that in the greater California region of the United States, trade and travel routes followed the ridge tops of the mountains and not the steep, rocky river bottoms. For example, one of the major trade routes from the Sacramento, California, area used the ridgetops that now are just north of Interstate 80, which was the same route the forty-niners used in the Gold Rush era.

Fig. 12.11. The Columbia River Gorge is home to some of North America’s oldest megalithic petroglyphs.

Fig. 12.12. The Snake River petroglyphs near Celebration Park, with complicated designs and counts.

PETROGLYPH SITES NEAR BISHOP, CALIFORNIA There are four significant Great Basin petroglyph sites accessible via a dirt road just north of Bishop at the edge of the Long Valley caldera: Chidago, Chalfant, Fish Slough, and Red Canyon.17 At these sites, many petroglyphs demonstrate striking similarities to aspects of cultures of the Far East, including the Indus Valley and Arabian sources.

In 2007, I was fortunate to be at the Red Canyon site for the spring equinox. There, I stood gazing at one of the largest petroglyphic images of a man I had ever seen. He was four feet tall with outstretched arms, as in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous image of the Divine Man. At noontime with a rush of jubilation I observed a triangle of light resting on his outstretched arms, with the apex of the light encasing his head. Six spread-out fingers on his left hand count the days to the equinox.

However, it was only after later reviewing my photographs that I noticed the light was also making a sun dagger pointing to a second, vulva-shaped petroglyph above the shaman, which I had overlooked while filming the triangle of light. This upper petroglyph involves a sun dagger penetrating the figure-eight-shaped vulva symbol. Like the Pathfinder site in Colorado (chapter 6), the Red Canyon petroglyph portrayed the male and female principles in a noontime equinox heliolithic alignment.

Fig. 12.13. A photo with enhancements of a shaman holding a “triangle of light” on the equinox (see also color insert).

Fig. 12.14. Equinox noontime alignment detail, Red Canyon. The darkened mouth appears to be a natural divot in the stone.

Fig. 12.15. Equinox noontime alignment, upper glyph details, Red Canyon. The drawing in upper right by author provides details of the distorted glyph resulting from the angle of the petroglyph as seen from below. The image may represent a vagina below and a womb

above.

I also visited the Chalfant site, where more than four hundred petroglyphs cover a sixhundred-foot-long cliff face. Many patterns associated with vulva-like petroglyphs adorn the wall. Bjork suggests that these and the associated lined circular glyphs are similar to the petroglyphs found in Tamil, India.

Fig. 12.16. Petroglyph from Tamil, India. (Enhanced by author)

Fig. 12.17. Petroglyphs near Bishop, California (see also color insert).

In 2013 Chalfant received significant media attention after vandals used saws to remove several of the rock art panels. It’s unfortunate that mainstream attention comes only when the sites are desecrated. It is precisely because of this that we must accelerate protection efforts while continuing to record the information preserved at these sites while they still survive.

A STORY OF THE KIVA Gene Matlock also wrote that there are many other cultural, linguistic, and religious connections between India and Native American tribes. One of these is the kiva, the ceremonial chamber of many Pueblo people, including the Hopis and Anasazis. While most kivas are round, the largest and one of the earliest in North America is rectangular and found at Casa Malpaís, an ancient Pueblo archaeological site located near the town of Springerville, Arizona. This kiva resembles the shape of a Shiva linga altar, and it may show direct links to people who migrated from India before they became a thriving preChaco Canyon culture.

Further evidence of these migrations is found in the Hopi origin myth and the Hopi language. Matlock reported that the name of Khiva, an ancient city-state in what is now Uzbekistan, was the root word for kiva in the Hopi tradition. Khiva has been inhabited for about ten thousand years and is so named because of the sun-baked pit-houses where ladders were used to enter from the roof. This is precisely what kivas look like in the Hopi world.

Fig. 12.18. The kiva at Casa Malpaís in Arizona has the same rectangular shape as a Shiva linga altar.

THE STORY OF KOKOPELLI Kokopelli is one of the most popular motifs in modern America and is being used in advertising and reproduced on pottery, countless T-shirts, and artwork. Most of the original Kokopelli images were carved or painted in the Southwest within the last 1,200 years, although some images are known to go back even further. But what makes Kokopelli so compelling, and where did he come from?

The basic Kokopelli motif is a hunched-over or hunchbacked flute player, often wearing a headdress and sometimes sporting a large penis. There are many stories relating him to fertility, one being that he would travel between tribes playing his flute and carrying his songs and seeds on his back to usher in the spring from winter. After getting everyone in

the village dancing and singing, in the morning he would be gone, but the corn fields would be four feet tall, and all the women would be pregnant.18 Thus he became the god of harvest and plenty for the Navajo, bringing fertility and seeds to the People.

Fig. 12.19. A Kokopelli from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. This Kokopelli image depicts a grasshopper-like creature blowing something resembling an Australian didgeridoo.

On the other hand, Matlock argued that Kokopelli was a transplanted ancient Hindu God.19 The pre-Vedic Hindu god of good fortune was named Kubera or Kuha, and Matlock pointed out that both Kokopelli and Kubera are hunchbacked, dwarfish, and often depicted wearing a kilt and headdress.

There are many other equally viable ideas of where Kokopelli comes from. While traditionalists may describe him as an original American myth, John J. White III, who has authored more than a hundred papers on linguistics (many in association with the Midwestern Epigraphic Journal), suggests that Kokopelli was most likely an adjunct of an ancient sun god who arrived in the Americas from the Old World more three thousand years ago.

In his article, “Interpretation of Rock Art Figure ‘Kokopelli’: A Connection with the Ancient EMSL Sun God,” White proposes that Kokopelli originally represented a sun priest playing the flute to attract the attention of the sun god.20 He further suggests that the Earth Mother cultures of Bronze Age and Neolithic societies had a sacred language that they used to communicate sacred teachings. The sun god often contained an L-sound in its name (as in Lugh, Sol, El, Ba’al, Bel, and Apollo), and ceremonies involving him included equinox and cross-quarter day celebrations. But citing the work of his mentor, Clyde E. Keeler, a geneticist and student of the Cuna Indians of Panama, White also suggests that Kokopelli performed in other rituals, including the tribe’s “coming out” puberty ceremony.21 But Carl Bjork has still another suggestion. As told by many American tribal groups,

the so-called Kokopelli were a group of traders unlike any of the indigenous people. They came from the southeast, arriving in great boats, and then traveled north up the waterways of the Mississippi River system. From there, groups also traveled over the Rocky Mountains and traded with the Four Corners and Great Basin people. Despite the fact that some say that the term Kokopelli was used only in the Southwest until the iconic figure became popular in the early 1960s, White notes that Kokopelli-like petroglyphs are also found from North Carolina into Alberta, Canada, and down into Mexico.

What is interesting is that many American Indian tribal groups have legends or oral histories that are very similar to the European legends regarding a Pied Piper who came to isolated villages, enraptured the older people with magic and piping, and then led away the children to unknown fates.

CUPULES AND GRINDING HOLES In addition to the rock art in the Great Basin areas, there are groupings of other rock workings left by ancient Americans that also indicate there are possible links to the practices of overseas cultures. These are referred to as cupules, grinding holes, cup and rings, and, in special cases, PCNs (pecked curvilinear nucleated). Because they are small, only up to three or four inches in diameter, and many of them are not horizontal, they are not like Native American horizontal metates that were used for grinding corn, nuts, and seeds. They abound in California, Nevada, and other North American sites and are similar to European examples, including early Celtic cup-marked stone from Scotland22 and those found on the Indian subcontinent, including grinding holes from Chandesh, India.

Anthropological research suggests they may have had ritual functions involved with tribal lore. However, because of their minute size and mysterious arrangements on large stones, their specific use remains largely unknown.

Because of the vast international abundance of vertical grinding holes, Taddei favors a theory that the small depressions were the aftereffects of grinding to produce powdered rock for ingesting. The term geophagy today refers to “eating rocks,” sometimes in the context of a psychological or physiological condition of craving, and it remains a little explored aspect of ancient cultures. In ancient times, medicines and elixirs processed from rocks were widely used, providing medicinal as well as nutritional value. Even today in parts of Africa, rural areas of the United States, and villages in India, pregnant women eat clay to supply calcium and other minerals that are essential for fetal development.23 Bjork was told by many Native American grandmothers from different tribes that grinding in the cupules produced powdered rock to help women become pregnant.

Fig. 12.20. Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park, California.

Fig. 12.21. Deliberately ingesting rock is suggested by this rock art from Nevada, not far from Reno.

Fig. 12.22. Red stain from the top of the boulder follows the worked vertical lines, leading into what appears to be a pecked cup held by an anthropomorphic figure.

There were also other forms of evidence of prehistoric grinding for minerals. Cupules are small and smoothly ground-out intrusions made into vertical and horizontal surfaces.

They are considered among the world’s oldest petroglyphs and ubiquitous form of prehistoric art. They appear on cave walls or large stones in, for example, cupules at the Auditorium Cave in Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh, India, that dates to circa 700,000– 290,000 B.C.24 However, PCNs are different from ordinary cupules, even though they may also have been associated with ingesting and rituals. This is because the center is left intact, which creates a vulva shape that is somewhat distinguishable from the cup and ring marks that have depressions surrounded by circles or concentric circles.25 Donna Gillette of the University of California, Berkeley, was kind enough to show Taddei and me a rock covered with these PCN petroglyphs on a boulder atop the town of Tiburon near San Francisco Bay.26

Fig. 12.23. PCNs, a form of cupules, from Tiburon, California.27

Fig. 12.24. Cupules on the vertical face of a rock from the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon.

Fig. 12.25. Detail of a Columbia River cupule. Found throughout the Great Basin and the world, cupules have mistakenly been associated with grinding food or making tools instead of for use in rituals and for producing powdered rock to ingest.

Additionally, Taddei believes that the grinding and harvesting of cupules and PCNs often involved the aid of acids when they were dug on dolomitic limestone: Cupules, thumb size holes on rocks, mark locations where they harvested minerals used for sacraments and for processing into elixirs used for extending life and for spiritual growth. They knew how to prepare them, using acids made from the sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) of the horns of deer, sheep, and other animals to produce digestible medicines. That’s the connection to the big horned sheep at many of these sites in the Great Basin. The petroglyphs tell the story, but they are only intelligible if we understand the alchemy and astronomical symbols we are looking at.28

DIFFUSION OF VEDIC CULTURES VIA THE PACIFIC INTO THE GREAT BASIN? There are many questions surrounding the presence of Indus Valley–looking symbols throughout the western United States. One example is the swastika symbol that first arose out of the Indus Valley in ancient times and was then spread elsewhere, including, it is easy to theorize, the American Southwest. My own feeling is that they provide evidence for migrations of earlier peoples via the Pacific into Oregon, Washington, and Idaho along areas near the confluence of the Columbia, Clearwater, and Snake Rivers, and generally throughout the Great Basin. Of course, the archaeopriests whose work is professionally tied to the accomplishments, legacies, and goings-on of Native Americans resist this interpretation.

Now that the groundwork has been laid for a connection between the Indus Valley and North America, one can look to the sky for several more complicated and involved clues to the “Hermetic Drift” of symbols as told in the rock art. One striking Indus Valley–style

example is a motif similar to the Mojave North lunar conjunction index marker. If so, this symbol evolved to have significance for later peoples, including the Tohono O’odam tribe of Arizona.

Still another possible connection between the Old and New Worlds is revealed in the accounts of Indian time cycles that are tied to the solar and lunar calendars. Complicated counts are often integrated into petroglyph motifs and are represented by circles, dots, and rays of a petroglyphic sun. Among many other astronomical and astrological purposes, the cycles recorded in rock art were used to predict eclipses. These counts could have included the mysterious and far-reaching nakshatra, metonic, and saros cycles from India.*22

Fig. 12.26. Tohono O’odham sculpture. The connection between the lunar conjunction index marker from Mojave North (chapter 11, fig. 11.18 and fig. 11.20) and this tribal symbol may point to a tradition passed down from earlier peoples. (Graphic by Dorian Taddei, from Matlock, India Once Ruled the Americas!)

The metonic cycle was used to determine how intercalary months could be inserted into a lunar calendar, so that the calendar year and the tropical (seasonal) year were kept in step. Evidence of the use of both metonic and nakshatra cycles has been identified by Taddei throughout the Great Basin, as well as along river systems leading into the interior.

On the Idaho side of the Snake River, at a site known locally as Buffalo Eddy, he identified a marker that appears to represent the nakshatra cycle, saros cycle, and lunar twenty-eight-day counts.

All in all, if one takes the time to do the counting on petroglyph panels, it becomes clear that there is rarely anything randomly carved, especially in the older petroglyphs found throughout the Great Basin. Despite the Hermetic drift at work, many of the original Old World symbols, counts, and stories have been accurately preserved in the rock art of the

later Native Americans.

Fig. 12.27. Snake River petroglyph rock in Idaho identified by Dorian Taddei as a lunar marker stone. According to Taddei the ancients tracked the metonic cycles to predict eclipses and to calibrate their lunar and solar calendars. (Photo by Dorian Taddei)

Fig. 12.28. Graphic showing the Snake River lunar marker stone portraying the nakshatra and saros cycles used in India. (Photo and rendition by Dorian Taddei)

EAST MEETS WEST IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

As I became more familiar with the possible Indus Valley aspects of Mojave North on the edge of the Great Basin, I began to see some similarities between it and the Anubis Caves in Oklahoma, especially in their identifiable symbols and inscriptions. For example, the equinox heliolithic animations at the two sites suggest a common cultural interest. Even though they are separated by over one thousand miles and the Rocky Mountains, they were likely created by people crossing different oceans, with Anubis Cave visitors crossing the Atlantic from Europe heading westward and Mojave North creators arriving from the Indus Valley area via the Pacific Ocean heading east. Among other things, these Old World traditions shared sophisticated light-and-shadow animation stories embedded with religious and cosmological symbols.

Site Comparison

Cave 2, Anubis Caves, Oklahoma (Chapter 8)

Mojave North, California (Chapter 10, 11)

Central figure

Grian/Bel/Mithra/Perseus/Apollo

Shiva/Mitra/I’Itoi/Belos/Hercules

Primary animation on equinox (sunset)

Shadow engulfs sun god as Anubis remains in light. Also a nose pointer.

Nose alignment at sunset. Singular profile separates and a hidden face emerges.

Phallus

Sun god holding phallus in hand

“Lugh” figure with large phallus

Complex multiglyphs

Mithraic symbols interposed

SEA Rock, multiface petroglyph

Esoteric shape/symbols

Mithra stands on a cube

Shiva/Mitra/Hanuman at apex of triangle

Other markers at site

Twelve-line and many other equinox markers. One summer solstice marker.

Markers on all solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarters, including a six-line equinox marker

Epigraphy

Ogham in Celtic

Several, none conclusively determined: Kufic (Fell), Ogham (Schmidt), Samaritan (Taddei)

Other deities

Sheila na Gig, Epona, Anubis

Tanith and a winged anthropomorphic figure

Origin (estimate)

Celtic Iberia via Atlantic, 200 B.C.– A.D. 200

Indus Valley via Pacific (date unknown; estimated by author to be at least 1000 B.C.)

Animal petroglyphs

Ram, bull, horse, Anubis (canine)

Sheep, ibis (bird), Anubis (canine)

Constellations glyphs

Yes, constellation in Cave 1

Yes, many star petroglyphs, lunar glyphs

Fig. 12.29. Table comparing Mojave North in California with the Anubis Caves in Oklahoma suggests Old World similarities in archaeoastronomy, esoteric traditions, and cosmologies.

These two American sites can provide invaluable clues as to how religion and cosmologies might have spread throughout the world in ancient times. Early Indus Valley migrations would have been driven by wars of conquest, cataclysmic disasters, and weather changes. Thus, the central gods, goddesses, and religious traditions would have been carried to distant lands, often accompanied by changes in names and characteristics to make them more acceptable to other cultures and religions over many millennia. Thus, the earlier esoteric foundation of the triangle found at Mojave North in time could have evolved into the sacred cube as the cosmological “foundation of nature” at the Anubis Caves, and the earlier Phrygian cap of Mitra could have been replaced with the halo of solar rays seen in the Anubis Caves.

Anubis Caves and Mojave North demonstrate that the central characters, heliolithic artistry, and equinox cosmological themes remained conceptually congruent. Celtic groups would have arrived in America via the Atlantic a millennium later. Their traditions originated in Europe but came earlier than that from India, as Mitra became Mithra, who, under Roman rule, evolved into Mithras. The Celtic Mithras would have arrived in America from Atlantic crossings and to Oklahoma via the Arkansas River.

But it wasn’t just visitors from the Indus Valley and the Celts who were likely visitors to

the shores of the Americas. As mentioned before and will be further investigated, among others, the Chinese, Hebrews, Romans, and Phoenicians would have been interested in the lands that they thought might have existed beyond their horizons. With the growing interest in a New History will the blinders come off as we begin to understand that many peoples who migrated across the Pacific and the Atlantic, in addition to arriving from the from the north, to populate and influence the native cultures of the Southwest and Mexico?

13 Midwest Relics, Mounds, and Controversies The challenge we face is unraveling all the false information and opening up all the relics and information that have been hidden for too long.

WAYNE MAY

Beginning in 2005 after my explorations of Pathfinder, Crack Cave, and the Anubis Caves, I thought that I might have something to offer by way of a series of informative articles addressing these sites. Not having any credentials and finding myself aligned with Bill McGlone, among other diffusionists, the media outlets for presenting my investigations were limited. Nevertheless, I believed it was important to offer firsthand documentation of Old World travelers in the Americas to a wider audience, so I pursued several publications, of which Ancient American: Archaeology of the Americas before Columbus proved to be the most receptive. In preparing six articles in the following five years addressing the Colorado Pathfinder and the Celtic sites reported in previous chapters, I was in communication with the editor and publisher, Wayne May. He had spent many decades looking into diffusionism, with a focus on the Midwest.

Except for viewing the Davenport Stone (chapter 2), I had little firsthand experience with the many hundreds of artifacts purported to be from Old World cultures originating in the Midwest. In my pursuit of a New History, I decided to investigate these many claims and subsequently traveled to Wisconsin to meet Wayne.

May had cofounded his open-forum magazine in 1993 to address the small pockets of people devoted to the ancient archaeology of the Americas.1 Each issue included articles of interest to those devotees, many on controversial topics ranging from known artifacts such as the Crespi Collection from Ecuador (chapter 2) to the existence of giants.

Although it is not peer reviewed or considered credible by mainstream archaeology, there was often much to glean from a variety of writers, previously published or not, including John J. White III, Gunnar Thompson, Scott Wolter, and many others.

THE DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION OF MOUNDS IN NORTH AMERICA May’s interest in the New History began in 1957 as a boy when he observed excavations of millennia-old mounds in Wisconsin, many attributed to the Hopewell culture that flourished along rivers in the Northeast and Midwest from 200 B.C. to A.D. 500. Today, archaeologists consider the Hopewell people to have had widely distributed population centers connected by a common network of trade routes.2 As he grew up, May focused on Hopewell archaeology and history, reading all he could and exploring the culture’s mounds throughout the Midwest. By the mid-1980s, he was exploring early sites with James Whittall, an early researcher and diffusionist, while also

actively reading NEARA publications and participating in the Ancient Earthworks Society of Madison, Wisconsin.3 As we talked in his office, he noted that in twenty years of publishing Ancient American, he had produced ninety-seven issues of five to ten articles each. In addition to Fell’s ESOP, Ancient American has become an important source of information on the unfolding of the New History of America.

Fig. 13.1. Wayne May, publisher of Ancient American.

According to May, perhaps the greatest tragedy of North American archaeology was the destruction and misrepresentation of some of the Mound Builder artifacts and a 130-yearold cover-up by the Smithsonian Institution and professional archaeologists over their legitimacy.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, white American settlers encountered tens of thousands of large earthen mounds extending from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and mostly concentrated around the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. In fact, the largest structures that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other colonists observed in America were man-made earth mounds. Unlike Mesoamericans, who constructed their pyramids out of available stone, the builders in the United States’ Midwest constructed their mounds with dirt, the sheer quantity of which boggles the mind. For example, Monks Mound at Cahokia, located near modern-day St. Louis, rose to more than a hundred feet, with a base of nearly fourteen acres. Though it was not as high, this was a larger volume of material than that in Egypt’s Great Pyramid!4 The debate over the origins of the Mound Builders began in the early colonial era, and nineteenth-century settlers discovered that the local Native Americans had no knowledge of who had built them or why. The Spanish conquistador and explorer Hernando de Soto (1496–1542) first reported the mounds in his expeditions throughout the southeastern United States. However, it was Jefferson’s excavation of a mound in Virginia, described in his 1783 book, Notes on the State of Virginia, that ignited a wider interest. In this study of the Mound Builders, he concluded that the mound he excavated was of Native American

origin.

Then, in 1816, James McColloh’s Researches in America championed the similarities between the skulls of the Mound Builders and the native Woodland Indians. However, with the proliferation of artifacts on display throughout the Midwest during the nineteenth century, many came to believe that it had to be an ancient civilized race who built the mounds. The chief candidates were the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Toltecs, Vikings, Celts, and Romans, while in the early 1800s John Clifford’s Indian Antiquities, with additions by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, suggested that it was Hindus from India, as did Caleb Atwater in his “Description of the Antiquities Discovered in the State of Ohio and Other Western States.”

However, it was Cyrus Thomas, a minister turned entomologist and archaeologist from the newly created Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology, who ended the debate in 1889 by declaring that forebears of the North American Indians had constructed all the mounds.

Thomas had been hired by the well-known explorer John Wesley Powell, then acting as the first director of the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology, which had been created by Congress in 1879. Powell strongly advocated that the Native Americans had created the mounds and even wrote in one of his annual reports for the bureau, “[There] is no reason for us to search for an extralimital origin through lost tribes for the arts discovered in the mounds of North America.”5 This reinforced his opinion stated earlier in the 1881 Annual Report to the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, “Hence it will be seen that it is illegitimate to use any pictographic matter of a date anterior to the discovery of the continent by Columbus for historic purposes.”6 And in a biography of Powell, he stated his conclusion “Whether we desire it or not, the ancient inhabitants of this country must be lost, and we may comfort ourselves in the reflection that they are not destroyed, but are gradually absorbed, and become a part of a more civilized community.”7 Previously, in 1881, Powell had hired Thomas to study the Mound Builders with funding from the U.S. Congress. For the following seven years, focusing on the Mississippi Valley, he and a large team of researchers investigated over two thousand mounds and produced a monumental 730-page study published in 1894 as part of the annual, “Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology.” The report asserted, “The links directly connecting the Indians and the mound-builders are so numerous and well-established, that archaeologists are justified in accepting the theory that they are one and the same people.”8 Among intellectuals and other interested parties, Thomas’s declaration ended the debate on the origins of the Mound Builders, despite nagging contradictions and evidence to the contrary. Of these contradictions the most troubling were purported European artifacts found deep in the mounds.

In a rare and brief admission of the problem, in an 1889 publication, The Problem of the Ohio Mounds, Thomas candidly wrote, “Much more evidence of like tenor might be presented here, as, for example, the numerous instances in which articles of European

manufacture have been found in mounds where their presence could not be attributed to intrusive burials, but the limits of the paper will not admit of this. I turn, therefore, to the problem before us, viz, ‘Who were the authors of the typical works of Ohio?’”9 In my interview, May said that, “Powell, Thomas, and the Smithsonian’s refusal to discuss the evidence of European origins of the mounds, including bones, plates with inscriptions, and artifacts found at the earliest archaeological levels of the mounds, may go down in history as the biggest hoax of American archaeology. After Thomas, the Smithsonian’s mantra became ‘no contact before Columbus,’ and all evidence to the contrary, whether it involved the mounds or other North American archaeology sites and artifacts, was carefully ignored, hidden, or destroyed. This policy became the law of archaeology and the ideological orthodoxy of the archaeopriests, and those who disagreed were ignored and discredited.”

Worse, according to May, because of government propaganda, thinking they were fakes, the owners of the lands where the artifacts were found caused large collections of relics to be destroyed and discarded. The U.S. government, in order to get rid of evidence of Old World peoples, reportedly leveled earthworks in Ohio that were in the shape of a menorah.

Also, alleged finds in the Grand Canyon that pointed toward Old World explorers have been repressed for more than a hundred years. To this day the cave above the area where they were discovered has been off-limits to researchers. In a front-page story on April 5, 1909, the Arizona Gazette reported the discovery of Egyptian artifacts from the Marble Canyon region of the Grand Canyon by two Smithsonianfunded archaeologists.

COPPER MINING IN MICHIGAN Many diffusionists believe that early migrations to the Americas involved copper mining in the Great Lakes region, principally in upper Michigan, with waves of different peoples engaged in mining operations of the largest and purest copper deposits of the ancient world.

On Brockway Mountain near Copper Harbor, Michigan, is a historical marker that is titled “The Copper Country,” and it boldly declares, AN ANCIENT VANISHED RACE MINED NATIVE COPPER HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO IN COUNTLESS PITS AND TRENCHES SCATTERED AMONG THE HILLS FROM COPPER HARBOR TO ONTONAGON AND ON ISLE ROYALE.

For thousands of years, it seems that foreigners might have sailed to the shores of Lake Superior. These are the world’s richest copper deposits, especially around Lake Superior’s Isle Royale and Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, where it is up to 99 percent pure.10 In addition to those high-purity deposits near the surface, millions of tons of copper were easily accessible to Neolithic miners because glacial action had separated it from the native rock, making it easy to mine. Moreover, the uniqueness of the Neolithic copper mining in Michigan would have been enhanced since the site was open by water east to the Atlantic, south to the Gulf of Mexico, northwest to the Pacific, and north to Hudson’s Bay.11

WAYNE MAY’S IDEAS AND THE MOUND BUILDERS’ CULTURE May thinks there is little dispute over the existence of large-scale copper mining by Neolithic peoples. However, the archaeological community believes, as Wikipedia notes, “Native Americans were the first to mine and work the copper of Lake Superior and the Keweenaw Peninsula of northern Michigan between 5000 B.C. and 1200 B.C. The natives used this copper to produce tools. Archaeological expeditions in the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale revealed the existence of copper producing pits and hammering stones that were used to work the copper.”12

Fig. 13.2. These copper tools, acquired from different sources, are now a part of Wayne May’s collection. (See figure 13.9 for the cuneiform details shown on the three-pronged spear or trident.)

Fig. 13.3. These effigies and other artifacts, which were recovered from Michigan mounds, are now in Wayne May’s collection.

However, contrary to this archaeopriest version, May and others insist that the area was mined extensively by the Egyptians, the Megalithic peoples of the west coast of Europe, and the Minoans, along with other cultural groups, and he suggests the evidence is buried in the mounds along the watery transportation routes. He explained to me that the Mississippi River had provided an easy way to transport copper and other goods from the upper Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. As for stopping-off places, he estimated that there were ten thousand mounds that are evidence of many settlements in the Ohio River Valley and along most of the major waterways in Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. Some of these could have contained more than just Indian relics, according to May. Based on his archaeological research it is clear to May that the North American mounds were built by different types of societies over long spans of time. The earliest mounds found at Watson Brake near Monroe, Louisiana, date from the late fourth millennium B.C., and although some are small and hardly noticeable, others served a wide variety of functions, including burial mounds, individual or collective funerary monuments, and temple platforms for religious structures.

The Mound Builder earthworks include elaborate designs that when viewed from above form serpents, panthers, and birds as well as elaborate geometrical designs and other symbolic shapes.13 Others are small and hardly noticeable, dotting the landscape as mere bumps on the surface.

At Poverty Point, a site in Louisiana that flourished between 1800 B.C. and 500 B.C., there are parts of what were six concentric ridges surrounded by two large mounds, one being sixty-five feet high.14 Poverty Point is situated on a bluff that overlooks the Mississippi floodplain near the confluence of six rivers. The giant earthworks include concentric mounds similar in shape to an ancient Roman amphitheater. However, the rings

were constructed with a diameter of three-quarters of a mile, five times the diameter of the Coliseum in Rome. They are five to ten feet high and 150 feet wide and were built with over 530,000 cubic yards of earth, which is thirty-five times the amount of material used in the Great Pyramid of Giza. One of these earth mounds is shaped like a bird and is seventy feet high with a base of seven hundred by eight hundred feet.

As a major population locus, Poverty Point became an important center for the copper trade. But many people, including Taddei, think that more than a trade terminal, Poverty Point would have been a “welcome center” for voyagers entering North America from the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River. These excursions to America would have crossed the Atlantic, following the ocean currents to Panama and up the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts to arrive there.

Fig. 13.4. Poverty Point in Louisiana includes examples of early Mound Builder construction from about 2500 B.C. (From Wakefield and de Jonge, Rocks and Rows)15

Fig. 13.5. Monks Mound at Cahokia. A large circle of cedar posts on the platform at the top was determined to be aligned to the solstices and equinoxes, based on the placement

of the post holes. (Photo by Skubasteve834) Cahokia, across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis, was another significant Mound Builder cultural and commercial center, built and occupied between A.D. 800 and A.D. 1400. At least 120 mounds have been documented there, and at its height as many as thirty thousand people lived around it. During its golden age, Cahokia was one of the greatest cities of the world and was larger than London in A.D. 1250.

The great mound of Cahokia, what is now called Monks Mound, was the largest preColumbian earthwork north of Mexico, standing at 103 feet tall. It is estimated that it took two thousand people nearly two hundred days to complete the flat-topped platform, on which was put a circle of cedar posts aligned to the solstices and equinoxes.16 Charles C. Mann noted in his book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, the Cahokian mound builders used fire to change the forested landscape in order to grow more maize. Unfortunately, an unintended consequence of burning thousands of acres of mostly river valleys was large-scale floods and, along with climate events between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1300, resulted in the depopulation of Cahokia. Also, there were other factors, including a major earthquake in the beginning of the thirteenth century that led Mann to suggest that social unrest following the earthquake may have been a contributing factor to the demise of Cahokia, which was abandoned by 1350.17

THE SERPENT MOUND OF OHIO Strengthening the view that Indians were not the only occupiers associated with the mounds is North America’s largest and most famous earthwork, an effigy of a serpent. The Serpent Mound in southern Ohio is in the shape of a serpent with an open mouth preparing to consume an oval-shaped mound; it averages 3 feet tall and 20 feet wide and is more than 1,330 feet long. However, making a direct connection between the Old World and the builders of the Serpent Mound remains illusive.

As with the Light Serpent I documented at the Mojave North site in chapter 10, special attention had been given to the positioning of the equinox animation, and I found that the orientation of the head and the disc were oriented toward the summer solstice sunrise.18 In addition, as noted in chapter 9, the Kansas Serpent Intaglio earthwork had the same imagery of a serpent and a disc as the Ohio Serpent Mound. Among many other examples are the serpent effigies built by Native Americans in Medicine Butte, Wisconsin; Morgan and Lawrence Counties in Kentucky; Dicks Ridge in northern Georgia; and near Lake Okeechobee in Florida.19 These earthworks appear to have shared similar themes with Old World earthworks, as exemplified by the Avebury Serpent, the largest ancient henge in England. It measures 1,250 feet in diameter and was constructed with standing stones.20 The original ground plan of Avebury was a representation of the body of a serpent passing through a circle and thus forming a traditional alchemical symbol. Unfortunately, during the fourteenth century A.D. it suffered from abuse at the hands of the church, which was trying to quash paganism.

Fig. 13.6. Drawing of an aerial view of the Ohio Serpent Mound.

THE CASE FOR OLD WORLD RELICS FROM THE MIDWEST There is a significant inventory of claims for pre-Columbian tablets and artifacts with Old World origins from the Midwest. Two of the most famous archaeological findings that could indicate such a presence deep in the heart of America are the Kensington Runestone, found in 1898 in Minnesota, and the Grave Creek Stone in West Virginia, which was found in 1838. (See chapter 15 for Barry Fell’s translation of the Grave Creek Stone from Phoenician Punic.) However, there are also many thousands of stone, copper, and slate tablets from Michigan mounds that local historians and farmers began finding in the 1890s. These are referred to as the Michigan Relics.

Of the several thousand of these artifacts taken from mounds, many have inscriptions.

The largest collection was amassed by Milton R. Hunter, who willed it to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, where it was warehoused until December 2002. At that point, it was turned over to the Michigan Historical Museum in Lansing.

Fig. 13.7. Michigan copper plate, 4.75 inches by 7 inches, with cuneiformlike characters.

The cuneiform symbol at the top is a distinguishing characteristic of the so-called Michigan Relics (see figure 13.9). (From Wayne May’s collection, photographed by author)

Fig. 13.8. Depiction of Christ’s crucifixion on a Michigan Relic. (Mertz, The Mystic Symbol) Many of the tablets are carved with great detail, often showing men with amulets and sophisticated clothing, with aprons, robes, and sandals. Some of the tablets show temples and architectural structures, and many depict daily and ritual life. Moreover, a significant number seem to be devoted to themes in the Old and New Testaments, including portrayals of the Creation, the Garden of Eden, Noah and the Flood, and Moses. In addition to Old Testament scenes, the life of Jesus is also found among the tablets, including an etching showing his crucifixion and, on the reverse side, four scenes from his life.

The unifying symbol on the Michigan Relics is a special mark used by the Michigan Mound Builders. Henriette Mertz (1896–1985) called this mark the “mystic symbol,” and she used that term as the title of her book, posthumously published as The Mystic Symbol: Mark of the Michigan Mound Builders.21 (See figure 13.9 below.)

Henriette Mertz was a remarkable woman who was a patent lawyer, a courtroom handwriting analyst, and a military crypto-analyst in World War II, and she also worked on the Manhattan Project. She is known as one of the people who discerned that the Bat Creek Stone was incorrectly published upside down by the Smithsonian, resulting in the belief that it was Cherokee writing instead of being interpreted as Paleo-Hebrew writing (as will be outlined in chapter 14).

Fig. 13.9. The “mystic symbol” is the distinguishing mark of the Michigan Relics. Detail from the copper trident shown in figs. 13.2, 13.7, and 13.8.

Mertz continued her work with an analysis of some of the Michigan Relics beginning in the 1980s and concluded that forgery was out of the question. In The Mystic Symbol, she wrote, “When writing on these tablets was subjected to examination as customary in litigated cases involving forgery, this author, professionally qualified to examining questions of forgery; forgery was not found to exist. Analysis indicated that each individual tablet containing writing originated with a different hand. No two specimens examined produced identical characteristics—a humanly impossible feat if one person alone would have been guilty of forming the entire group of 3000 inscribed specimens.”22 The conclusion of her investigations in The Mystic Symbol was that the tablets were created by early Christians who had fled from the Mediterranean around A.D. 400. She wrote, “In conclusion, we believe the persons who inscribed this material were Christian refugees fleeing from the Decian … persecutions [of A.D. 250] and sailing out from the harbors of Rome, Naples, Alexandria, Carthage, and other Eastern Mediterranean ports.”23 Mertz was not alone. In noting the single unifying feature of the Michigan Relics to be the mystic symbol, scholar and author David Allen Deal interpreted the mark to mean “God” or “YWEH.”24 Before his passing in 2008, Deal was one of the most knowledgeable investigators of Hebrew language and epigraphy in the Americas and identified many of their inscriptions, including the Hebrew inscription at Hidden Mountain, New Mexico, that will be profiled in chapter 14. He became fascinated with the tablets from Mertz’s collection and went on to describe the mystic symbol as being written in “Michigan cuneiform.” Cuneiform was the written language from the Fertile Crescent, and he thought that the style from North America originated from Assyrian cuneiform.

After spending years trying to decipher the script, he noted, “These artifacts are real, ancient American documents, created by escaping refugees from the Mediterranean.”25

Fig. 13.10. This slate tablet shows an Egyptian-style sacrifice of a goose, with accompanying hieroglyphics.26

FAKES? Unfortunately, claims regarding the Michigan Relics by Mertz, Deal, and others lack credibility in light of significant evidence that they are fakes. The first such report was published by James E. Talmage in 1911, “The Michigan Relics: A Story of Forgery and Deception.”27 Talmage was the director of the Deseret Museum in Salt Lake City who traveled from Utah to Michigan in 1909 to observe excavations of the earth mounds that were yielding relics. Among the many problems raised by Talmage was his identification of modern tool marks on specimens, including the tooth marks of a saw. Perhaps most damning was his analysis of the copper, which determined it was not native copper but ordinary smelted copper made from a modern process.28 The author James E. Homans examined the inscriptions and wrote to Talmage in 1916 that the many errors in the hieroglyphic inscriptions indicated that the author of the Michigan Relic he examined “had no knowledge of Egyptian.”29 A 2001 article by Richard B. Stamps, a professor of anthropology at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, titled “Tools Leave Marks: Material Analysis of the ScotfordSoper-Savage Michigan Relics,” confirmed Talmage’s claim of finding tool marks.

Stamps personally examined more than one thousand pieces from four collections and concluded without any doubt or reservation that the Michigan Relics were of modern creation.30 Stamps also analyzed many of the clay, copper, and slate pieces. Regarding the copper, he confirmed that it was not indigenous and was smelted in modern times. He noted that the clay objects dissolved in water and would not have survived centuries in the Michigan rainy springs and snowy winters. He also found milling marks on samples of slate pieces, consistent with the suggestion that they came from a large mill and were factory rejects, while noting that the use of feet and inch measurements in the Michigan Relics was consistent with late nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Michigan and not early Egypt.

He concluded that James O. Scotford was the main perpetrator of the fraud and was motivated by money and fame, since all of the excavated relics were found in his or his associates’ presence, and moreover, after his death, no additional relics were found.

In summing up his views, Stamps wrote, “In quantity of pieces and the length of its thirty-year span this fraud was probably the largest perpetrated on the American people in history. Interest in the collection lingers on. However it is now time to recognize the collection for what it is and display it in the proper ‘fakes and frauds’ sections of our museums.”31 Besides the Michigan Relics there is the curious case of Burrows Cave in southern Illinois, which is also considered to be a giant hoax. In 1982, a treasure hunter named Russell E. Burrows claimed to have stumbled on a hidden cave with a cache of ancient gold sarcophagi and statues, gold medallions, and weapons. He said he removed seven thousand artifacts from the cave before sealing it, but he refused to reveal its location, while claiming that many of these artifacts were in “private collections.” While compelling photographs and articles are available in Ancient American and on the Internet regarding the so-called Egyptian tomb cave artifacts, the uncorroborated story continues to be more of an impediment than a contribution to the credibility of the New History.32 In this regard, most of the so-called relics from the Midwest must be discounted, with some notable exceptions that will be discussed in the following chapter.

IN THE END, CONTROVERSIES AND SKEPTICISM Deciphering a New History of America has to circumvent the frauds that proliferated between 1850 and 1920, often referred to as a “golden age” of archaeological hoaxes.

Most if not all of the Michigan Relics seem to fall into this category. Regarding the Davenport tablet that Barry Fell translated as a Rosetta Stone with three Old World languages (chapter 2), there is enough doubt raised by detractors and questionable circumstances to also discount this as “evidence” of Old World contact as well. As my mentor Bill McGlone emphasized in Ancient American Inscriptions, the scientific method must be used in evaluating the authenticity and intentionality of Old World artifacts, and the vast body of Midwestern relics does not pass the authenticity test. As a result, the many hoaxes have continued to serve as a disincentive for professional archaeologists to seriously consider other examples of Old World cultures in the Americas that are less

vulnerable to trickery, such as the Old World petroglyphs carved in Colorado, Oklahoma, and other areas (chapters 7, 8, and 9) that would be nearly impossible to fake. However, I remain unconvinced of the Smithsonian’s insistence that a nonindigenous presence cannot be found among artifacts from the Midwest.

14 Hebrews, Romans, and Early Christians Over the last two hundred years, evidence has come to light in support of the idea that from the time of Solomon (who ruled from 970 B.C. to 931 B.C.) some Hebrews, Romans, and early Christians made it to America. As is customary with the prevailing archaeopriest challenges to the New History, the authenticity of each artifact has been so fiercely challenged that ongoing claims are often met with disbelief.

Corroboration of the sailing capabilities of the early Hebrews comes from the Bible stories concerned with King Jehoshaphat (ca. 908–849 B.C.), in which it is written, “Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel … to make ships to go to Tarshish; and they made the ships in Ezion-Gaber,”1 and that “Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold.”2 The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (first century A.D.) wrote, “For the king [Solomon] had many ships stationed in the Sea of Tarsus [Tarshish], as it was called, which he ordered to carry all sorts of merchandise to the inland nations, and from the sale of these there were brought to the king silver and gold and much ivory and Ethiopians and apes. The sea voyage, going and returning, took three years.”3 The historian does not indicate why such a journey would take three years, and he doesn’t explicitly state that they went across the western ocean. But there are more than biblical sources to suggest the idea that Hebrews traveled to the Americas over different periods prior to the Spanish arrival.

REPORTS OF HEBREW CONTACTS IN THE NEW WORLD North American artifacts and inscriptions preserving distinct Hebrew and other Semitic scripts have been known for decades. However, there have been persistent claims of hoaxes, and therefore the evidence must be investigated one piece at a time as this chapter attempts to do. To be fair, notable cases of trickery and fakes have indeed been identified, but other artifacts and sites that I have examined demonstrate a Hebrew presence and influence over many millennia.

As for artifacts, there are Judean shekels dating from the period of the Second Rebellion against Rome (A.D. 132–135) that were found in Kentucky in 1932 and also in east Arkansas.4 In her book In Plain Sight, Gloria Farley provides details of several ancient Hebrew coins found in the United States (although she mistakenly identified a replica coin found near Clay City, Kentucky, as an authentic Bar Kokhba coin), as do other researchers.5

THE BAT CREEK STONE

As mentioned in the last chapter and in chapter 2, the famous Bat Creek Stone was unearthed in Bat Creek, Tennessee, by the Smithsonian Institution in 1889. In his 1971 book Before Columbus: Links between the Old World and Ancient America, Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001), head of the Department of Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis University and an expert in ancient Semitic languages, as well as the author of some thirteen books, determined that the stone contained a Paleo-Hebrew script similar to what was written on Judean coins of the second century A.D.

Fig. 14.1. The Bat Creek Stone. (Photo by Scott Wolter) Gordon suggested that it would have been inscribed in A.D. 132 as “A Comet for Judea” or “A Star for the Jews.”6 Additionally, two bracelets were discovered at the site that were made of a zinc-copper alloy commonly used in the Roman Empire between 45 B.C. and A.D. 200.

Of course, there has been quite a bit of controversy over Gordon’s translation. For starters, the actual find itself has been disputed. Cyrus Thomas, the head of the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology who was mentioned in the previous chapter, appointed a colleague to supervise excavation of a mound. Many have argued that the colleague could have carved the stone to impress Thomas with something that had writing.

However, Thomas concluded that the mound was at least one hundred years old and it had not been disturbed in sixty years, but he misidentified the inscription as Cherokee because, as also mentioned, Joseph Corey Ayoob and Henriette Mertz discovered it was depicted upside down. In any case, he called it “a puzzle difficult to solve.”7 If it was planted, why would the perpetuator allow Thomas to mistakenly believe it was Cherokee writing?

Other modern critics of the authenticity of the Bat Creek Stone include archaeologists Robert C. Mainfort and Mary L. Kwas, who deduced that the inscription was forged, most likely by the assistant.8 A 2004 article in American Antiquity reported the discovery of an 1870 drawing in a Masonic reference book with lettering that had a close resemblance to the Bat Creek inscription.9

THE NEWARK HOLY STONES In the case of Ohio’s two Newark Holy Stones, which can be viewed at the Johnson-

Humrick House Museum, they supposedly came from a Hopewell-era mound (chapter 13) that was investigated by surveyor David Wyrick (1804– 1864). The first was excavated in June 1860 and is known as the Keystone because of its shape. Wyrick claimed it contained one phrase in Hebrew. The second alleged discovery came in November when Wyrick said he found a sandstone box containing a black limestone rock with text written in postExilic square Hebrew letters on all sides, which, when translated, resembled the Ten Commandments in a condensed form so that it is now referred to as the Ohio Decalogue or Ten Commandments Stone. The term decalogue refers to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21.

Wyrick believed that members of one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel built the mounds of Ohio. He said that the first stone, found in 1860, was inscribed in Modern Hebrew.

However, Abraham Geiger of the New York Times wrote that it was “the bungling work of an unskilled stone mason and the strangeness of some letters as well as the many mistakes and transpositions was his fault. The letters are not antique. This is not a relic of hoary antiquity.”10 Within six months after finding the first stone, the second stone was found. In addition to the Ten Commandments–like text, the black limestone rock relic had a central engraving of a bearded man, identified as Moses by the inscribed Hebrew letters “MSH,” meaning “for Mashu” (or Moses). This artifact was considerably more elaborate than the first stone presented by Wyrick as it was written in archaic Hebrew. But critics identified many errors involving the 256 characters that were etched in a style of post–400 B.C. Hebrew letters.

A curious inconsistency is that “Moses” seemed to be wearing a beret instead of a

turban.11 Additionally, potentially damning in regard to this so-called Hebrew relic is the contention that the stonecutter who cut Wyrick’s headstone used the same material of the same width as the Decalogue Stone. Although often cited as “proof ” of Hebrews in America, there are enough inconsistencies with David Wyrick’s story to question its legitimacy.

SEMITIC SCRIPTS In addition to the unsubstantiated Hebrew inscriptions and artifacts previously named, there are other examples of possible Semitic inscriptions. During the 1990s Bill McGlone and others noted the pecked symbols found in canyons near La Junta, Colorado, and suspected an Old World origin. The glyphs, usually considered to be archaic geometrical signs, were said by McGlone and Leonard to resemble a North Arabian script that was used a few centuries before Christ and was eventually surpassed by the Arabic scripts of today.

McGlone and his colleagues received some positive confirmation of their theories from several Semitic scholars, including researcher Gary Vey.12 Vey pursued an extensive investigation and proposed that the Colorado petroglyphs were a variation of a protoCanaanite script known as Old Negev, a precursor to Hebrew. He suggested that a pecked inscription at the site near La Junta can be dated to before 800 B.C. because of alphabet letters that are similar to those found in the Negev Desert of Israel, which have been dated to ca. 1500 B.C.13 In addition, Vey noted that during the twentieth century, archaeologists in North America discovered many petroglyphs with symbols that appeared to be writing from all the other continents except Antarctica. For example, James Harris, an archaeology professor from Brigham Young University, identified the symbols from Colorado as letters from the proto-Canaanite language and translated them using Hebrew phonetic sounds.

Harris determined that, based on the age of the patina at the Colorado site, these inscriptions corresponded to the same time frame as other symbols found in Harkarkom, Israel, offering additional credibility to the Colorado find.14 Vey went on to identify other similarities between the North American symbols and ancient Semitic writing and artwork, including a large collection of rock art and symbols inscribed in bronze artifacts from the Republic of Yemen. He proposed that these symbols were an ancient writing system, which he called First Tongue because it predated the Canaanite language. Working with historian and linguist John McGovern, Vey also studied other examples from around the world and proposed these symbols represented esoteric and religious themes.15

Fig. 14.3. Possible Semitic or Arabian writing found in southeastern Colorado. (Drawing based on image in McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 272)

Fig. 14.4. Gary Vey’s proposed Old Negev alphabet. Vey believes he has identified a protoHebrew writing system in the Americas that is similar to the early Canaanite alphabet.

(From www.viewzone.com)

HIDDEN MOUNTAIN—A HEBREW FORTRESS IN NEW MEXICO? Various researchers have documented the Hebrew writing carved in a large boulder at Hidden Mountain in Los Lunas, New Mexico, thirty miles south of Albuquerque, although most academics and archaeologists who are aware of its existence believe it also to be a hoax. The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone, also known as the Los Lunas Mystery Stone, is an approximately eighty-ton boulder at the base of the mountain with nine rows of 216 protoHebrew characters. Proto-Hebrew came into use around the tenth century B.C. and was not used after A.D. 70, when Jerusalem fell to the Romans. In 1948, the letters were translated by Robert Pfeiffer, Ph.D., of the Harvard University Semitic Language Department as being a complete and concise rendering of the Ten Commandments.

As for a different kind of researcher, even though I found some of David Allen Deal’s epigraphy work on the Michigan Relics problematic (chapter 13), his 1984 book Discovery of Ancient America proved to be an excellent resource for my investigations of Hidden Mountain.16 The book also included a broader view of the Hebrew impact on the Americas, including a detailed comparison of the Hebrew language with Toltec and Mayan.

Before heading out on my first trip to Hidden Mountain, I secured the required Recreational Access Permit from the New Mexico State Land Office. The sixteen-mile drive from Los Lunas, New Mexico, across the high-plain desert made it seem like it was in the remote desert. However, its location, less than a quarter-mile from Carrizo Wash and the Rio Puerco, offered access via natural waterways flowing near the site. Since the Rio Puerco flows into the Rio Grande, which then flows into the Gulf of Mexico, it would have provided a direct possible route from Europe and the Mediterranean across the Atlantic.

A twenty-minute walk from the gate to the inscription stone provides a natural access path up to the Hidden Mountain gully. The hike is not strenuous, and as one follows the gully, the large boulder with proto-Hebrew–like writing is encountered. Shamefully, the first row of inscriptions have been scratched out beyond recognition by vandals. However, the eight lines of writing below this have remained intact and are a complete rendering of the Ten Commandments in Hebrew, minus the first line.17

Fig. 14.5. The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone and its Ten Commandments inscription, Hidden Mountain, New Mexico (see also color insert).

Also, on a much smaller boulder at the top of Hidden Mountain is a short Hebrew inscription that reads YHWH ELHYNW, which Deal interprets as “Yahweh is our Mighty One.”18

Fig. 14.6. Above: Boulder at the summit of Hidden Mountain with inscription. Below: Detail of boulder at the summit of Hidden Mountain, showing inscription that has been translated as reading “Yahweh is our Mighty One” in Hebrew.

Deal suggested that the lettering style of the New Mexico inscriptions was not protoHebrew from the Middle East but a more modern form from Iberia (now called Spain).

Beginning in 538 B.C. Jews lived there sometime after the Judahites returned to Judaea from Babylonia, a movement that continued into the first century B.C., after which their style of writing changed to square, blocklike shapes. Moreover, after A.D. 70 the conquering Romans prohibited the use of the name of God, but the inscription could, of course, have been made after that by an unorthodox sect, although Deal disagreed.19

While there is certainty as to the inscription being Hebrew, there remains a question as to its antiquity. Advocates for its authenticity cite the unique shape of one letter representing the letter Q that appears in the fifth line of the inscription, a shape that was not known to modern scholars before 1884. This was thirteen years after Franz Huning’s claim to have been shown the site in 1871 by a man who had seen it as a boy. This unique etching of the letter Q is used to prove the authenticity of the Hidden Mountain inscription and its lettering style, said to have originated among the Spanish Jews.20 However, this is problematic, because the first recorded mention of the site occurred in 1933, when archaeologist and professor Frank Hibben (1910–2002) reported it. This leaves questions about the earlier date of 1871, and so it is insufficient to prove Deal’s claims.

Mainstream archaeologists are quick to write off the authenticity of the Los Lunas stone. Archaeologist Kenneth L. Feder considers the stone to be a fake because of the very crisp inscriptions, apparently not recognizing that Old World travelers in America would have naturally used metal tools. But Feder’s main concern is the lack of any archaeological context. He argues that the diffusionist claims in general would have required whoever inscribed it to stop along the way.

[There they would have] encamped, eaten food, broken things, disposed of trash, performed rituals, and so on. And those actions should have left a trail of physical archaeological evidence across the greater American Southwest, discovery of which would undeniably prove the existence of foreigners in New Mexico in antiquity with a demonstrably ancient Hebrew material culture… . There are no pre-Columbian ancient Hebrew settlements, no sites containing the everyday detritus of a band of ancient Hebrews, nothing that even a cursory knowledge of how the archaeological record forms would demand there would be. From an archaeological standpoint, that’s plainly impossible.21

Fig. 14.7. Military-style defensible rock shelters at Hidden Mountain, New Mexico.

However, Feder’s objections are at least partially overcome by two locations on Hidden Mountain. These are ruins of rock shelters whose tentlike dwellings were dug out and had stacked stone walls. In addition to these structures, there are ruins indicating an encampment complex, including a potential animal enclosure. Moreover, when viewed from the air, the Hidden Mountain site is a defensible mountain location with some resemblances to another defensible Hebrew fortress, Masada, that heroically held out before falling to the Romans in the first century A.D. In summation, I found the Hidden Mountain inscriptions to be compelling. However, since I cannot authenticate the age of the Hebrew inscriptions, it is not possible with certainty to declare them to be either thousands of years old or of recent manufacture.

HIDDEN MOUNTAIN CONSTELLATIONS However, there are other things to consider about the age of Hidden Mountain. David Deal also reported that the site contains a rock art rendering of constellations, which he was able to tie to an historical event. Referred to as the “zodiac map,” it is a flat horizontal rock with petroglyphs that seem to record the constellations in the sky when a solar eclipse occurred in 107 B.C. Initially discovered by Phillip Leonard, this zodiac map was first reported by McGlone and Leonard in a 1984 article. 22

Fig. 14.8. The Hidden Mountain “zodiac map” petroglyphs.

According to Deal, each of the pecked rock art images represent constellations specific to Semitic cultures, which would rule out their being made by native peoples. On this particular date, according to Deal, there was also a major three-planet conjunction that was seen worldwide, which would have been an amazing event to witness.23 He also

interpreted the petroglyphs as quite clearly recording a solar eclipse in the position of what we call the constellation Virgo.24 In short, by overlaying a modern computer-generated sky chart as seen in New Mexico on September 15, 107 B.C., onto the Hidden Mountain star chart petroglyphs, Deal demonstrated a connection that fits with the dating of the epigraphy on the inscription and supports the idea that the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is an approximately two-thousandyear-old Hebrew inscription.

OTHER HIDDEN MOUNTAIN CONNECTIONS Most visitors to Hidden Mountain confine themselves to walking the one-half-mile hike to the Decalogue Stone and then leave without seeing many other important petroglyphs found above the inscription and around the Hidden Mountain location. Besides the short Hebrew inscription at the top, there are remains of the encampments and several major petroglyph fields. For example, about one hundred yards above the Decalogue Stone on the western side of the ravine that leads to the top, there is a panel containing a grouping of finely etched petroglyphs. The inscriptions are small but striking in that they portray similar themes as depicted in a famous Mayan stela from Izapa, Mexico, located near the Guatemalan border. Izapa Stela 5 has been dated to roughly 300 B.C., and both the Los Lunas panel and the Mayan stela inscription have pyramid shapes, a central tree, and snakelike images perpendicular to the tree, along with men who have pointy hats.

Fig. 14.9. Izapa Stela 5. (Drawing by madman2001)

Fig. 14.10. The Izapa-looking motif from the panel at Hidden Mountain, New Mexico. A natural triangle created by cracks frames the tree and serpent.

Fig. 14.11. The Izapa-looking motif from Hidden Mountain with enhancements by author.

The Hidden Mountain etching or “scratching” technique differs from the method used for the Decalogue Stone and the pecking of the zodiac map, and this challenges the authenticity of these particular Los Lunas glyphs. However, it is possible that Hebrews could have landed on the eastern coast of Mexico and traveled inland through Izapa, Mexico, and on up to the New Mexico region. Or this could have been inscribed by a later group of travelers familiar with the basic story portrayed in Izapa. This is but one more

enigma of the Hidden Mountain site.

At one point in my investigations, it occurred to me that the Decalogue Stone, placed as it was in the gully leading up to the Hidden Mountain camp above, could have served a purpose as a symbolic and welcoming mezuzah. (Mezuzahs are affixed to doorways of Jewish homes and contain biblical verses.) This is consistent with Gordon’s proposal that the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is a Samaritan mezuzah and that the location would have been an ideal place for pilgrims to stop after their long journey and to offer prayers before entering the Hidden Mountain camp.25 Moreover, two of many mysterious glyphs found near the Decalogue Stone at Hidden Mountain depict long-tailed, mystical-looking creatures who could have been guards of the entrance to the settlement site that was above.

Fig. 14.12. One of the creatures who could have been a Hidden Mountain guardian.

Fig. 14.13. The other long-tailed creature guarding the Hidden Mountain site.

While I remain convinced of their authenticity after visiting the site, all in all, the Hebrew inscriptions at Hidden Mountain remain controversial. But to many, including me, they seem to be an incredible piece of evidence that wandering Hebrews once made religious pilgrimages to what is now New Mexico. After all, why would anyone go to the considerable trouble of inscribing fake ancient Hebrew characters on the stone, and why would no one in the community have made a note of this?

ARTIFACTS FROM CALALUS, “AN UNKNOWN LAND” IN THE ARIZONA DESERT While archaeologists continue to believe that “legitimate artifacts” are missing from the area’s historical record, in Arizona, southwest of Hidden Mountain, the archaeological evidence is more solid.

Near Tucson, about five hundred miles south from Hidden Mountain, thirty-one artifacts possibly more than a thousand years old and apparently from a Roman Jewish colony were discovered during the 1920s. If genuine, they indicate the existence of a colony or at least a group of travelers in what they called “Calalus,” which was referred to as “an unknown land.” Records on large lead crosses written mostly in Latin but accompanied by Hebrew lettering were found with dates from A.D. 765 to A.D. 900.

These artifacts are now stored in the Arizona History Museum in Tucson, which is run by the Arizona Historical Society.

Unlike many ancient inscriptions in America with controversial or uncorroborated interpretations, these inscriptions are easily read in Latin, despite their poor, almost childlike grammar. Wake Forest University history professor emeritus and prolific writer Cyclone Covey painstakingly studied the relics and their history and in 1975 published Calalus: A Roman Jewish Colony in America from the Time of Charlemagne through Alfred the Great.26 Covey stated that significant drivers for migrations of ancient peoples to the New World would have been weather and geological disruptions, along with war and repression. In the case of colonists or travelers ca. A.D. 765, the earliest date mentioned on the crosses, Covey concluded that they were fleeing the repressions of the Romans, suggesting that this coincided with a gradual resumption of Jewish marine mercantilism in Alexandria, Egypt. The “doorway ports” for Jews wishing for a new start in life would have been the ports of Cyrene in Libya, the Greek cities of Ionia, and Alexandria in Egypt. At that time, Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great, was home to the largest urban Jewish population in the world.27

Fig. 14.14. Lead cross from Calalus bearing Latin writing. The face sides of the crosses were riveted together and each cross stood 1.5 feet tall and weighed more than sixty pounds. (Photo from Ancient American, vol. 10, no. 66, 12)

Fig. 14.15. Detail of another lead cross from Calalus bearing Latin writing. (Photo from Ancient American, vol. 10, no. 66, 13) The background story to Covey’s work involves Charles E. Manier, a disabled World War I veteran who lived in Tucson. In 1924, he was inspecting an old limekiln along a roadway when he discovered a piece of metal protruding three inches out of an eroded bank. He was unaware that two swords had been discovered forty years earlier in the same area but had since disappeared. The object was firmly set in caliche, a hardened rock deposit of calcium carbonate that naturally cements together gravel, sand, and clay in the hot and dry Southwest. Using a pickaxe, Manier extracted a 62.5-pound earth-molded lead cross, 1.5 feet high and composed of two symmetrical crosses riveted together, with writing covered with wax on the inside surfaces, apparently to preserve it.

Once the wax was removed, a Latin inscription became visible. “We are carried forward on the sea … Calalus … to an unknown land.” Athough there were many grammatical errors in the rendering, the intention of the writer was to record that, “We were carried (or sailed) by sea from Rome to Calalus [an unknown land]. We came in the Year of Our Lord 775 and Theodorus ruled over the people.”

Later in 1924, Manier formed a partnership with Thomas W. Bent, an employee of the Public Health Service whom he had met earlier at a veteran organization activity and they planned some explorations together. On November 25 they discovered another cross that weighed twelve pounds, with Latin on both sides. Five days later they found a five-pound, single-half cross, and over the next several years, a total of thirty-one artifacts were extracted from the solid caliche.

Concerning the Calalus artifacts, Covey wrote that they “had been strewn at random as if lying where they dropped during a final battle. Except perhaps for three ceremonial objects, these relics must have been molded in the vicinity where they were found, because a discarded trial engraving on a chunk of caliche and a trial mold of the same

memorial in lead, which would not have been worth carrying any distance, turned up amid the finished products.”28 When considered as a whole, most of the Calalus inscriptions are Latin, with Hebrew phrases or letters etched on the ceremonial objects, while the author of the narrative refers to himself by the seemingly nonaffiliated name of “OL.” Thus, the diluted form of the script is not surprising; since OL was writing over a hundred years after the colony would have been founded. Despite his faulty command of Latin, if the artifacts are genuine, OL provided a sustained sequential account that memorialized the circumstances and dates of the Calalus colony.

The pieced-together Latin narrative begins in A.D. 765, but no details of the voyage are provided. After arriving, the colonists or explorers led by Theodorus founded a city they named Rhoda and encountered a chief named Toltezus, or perhaps natives called the Toltezus, who fought them and took away “seven hundred captives.” The colonists rallied behind their next king, Jacob, who renewed Rhoda while counterattacking the Toltezus.

Jacob died in 785 and was followed by Israel I, who defeated the Toltezus in 790 and subjugated them to colonial rule. For more than a hundred years their fortunes ebbed and flowed until, finally, the tide turned against them in 883 when they had to take refuge inside the city walls. Around 888, OL recalled the heyday of Calalus during the reign of Israel I but was apparently under duress as he composed the chronicle of the last year or two of the war, which probably ended around A.D. 900. He regretted that he did not adequately memorialize Calalus in its glory and wrote, “It is uncertain how long life will continue. There are many things, which can be said while the war rages. Three thousand were killed. The leader with his principal men are captured.”29 The site of the mentioned city of Rhoda, or any other colonist occupation in Arizona, has not been discovered. I was, however, fortunate to be able to view the relics at the Arizona History Museum in Tucson where the Calalus artifacts are stored (but not displayed). The museum was most cooperative, and an employee handled each one of the artifacts, permitting me to closely examine and photograph them. While the large crosses appeared crude and clunky, many of the other artifacts reflected skill and devotion to how they were crafted.

According to Covey: Notwithstanding the crudity of the Latin and the portraiture of the crosses, anyone who directly observes and handles the artifacts cannot but be impressed by the painstaking, loving care which wrought them. Then his minutest examination can detect nothing anachronistic in the early-medieval style of their paleography or symbolism. Besides the names of the kings, much else on the gun-barrel blue to lightlead gray artifacts confirms the colony to have been Jewish: a menorah with seven burning candles, a pair of Hebrew goblet-chalices (habdalah), incense spoons, burning incense, numerals I–X in double column surely signifying the Ten Commandments, and words in carefully-drawn square qadash, and gaddash (“holy” or “He [or it] is holy,” elohim (“God”), goi gadol (“a great nation”) etc. The colonists evidently represented a heretical Jewish sect.30

The suggestion that the citizens of Calalus were heretics and semi-Christianized is reinforced by the presence of the two nehushtans as central symbols. Nehushtans are religious objects that involve the placement of snakes on a staff to convey an image similar to the caduceus or staff of Mercury. In the Jewish faith, they had ceased to be orthodox after the time of King Hezekiah around 700 B.C. (2 Kings 18:4).

Another animal image is a mysterious “dinosaur” on a short sword that, understandably, has caused much comment. Its use may have been inspired by the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament that reads, “In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”31 The two nehushtans from Calalus each have a rattlesnake that coils up and around the cross, but rattlesnakes are only found in the Americas. The reverse of one of them reads “Nahash” (Serpent), and the reverse of the second one has an engraving of a striking snake together with two crawling snakes.

Another image on the artifacts is a geometrical design, possibly the colonial kingdom’s coat of arms, which is found in several places, including the memorial crosses, the nehushtans, and on a military standard called a labarum.*23 This unusual symbol is composed of a geometrical design with a central square and is repeated six times on the engraved artifacts.

However, a coat of arms is not the only suggestion of what the designs could mean.

Covey suggested that it could represent the floor plan of a temple or the ground plan of the territory, noting that the Hebrew words shemona peoth, which refer to “eight segments” or “eight divisions,” are found near the symbol on one object.32 This assessment is consistent with the phrase stating that one of the kings “commanded a council of allied colonial cities.”

Another common motif is a rounded building or temple, and this, along with the crosses and angels, suggests an early intermingling of Christian and Jewish symbols during the eighth century. Covey ends his investigation of Calalus with the following observation: “If the Calalus colonists ever saw the Los Lunas Stone [from New Mexico], supposing they rowed and/or walked the Puercos [River] route from the Rio Grande to the San Jose on their way to the Santa Cruz [river], they must have marveled at this inscription, which they probably could not read.”33 Since Covey’s seminal work on Calalus, little scholarly work has been completed, but several articles have appeared, and there are now scores of Internet sites with commentary of one kind or another.34 For example, one blogger suggested that Theodorus, the first king of Calalus, was not a Jewish leader in Rome, as suggested by Covey, but was the Jewish king of Septimania, a Roman Jewish state in southern France.

Of course, many skeptics continued to insist that the Calalus relics were a hoax.

Professor Frank H. Fowler, who originally translated the Latin inscriptions, was quoted as stating that the Calalus inscriptions closely resembled quotes from classical writers, including Cicero and Vigil, found in Latin grammar books as early as 1881. Other

doubters of their authenticity claimed to have identified Timoteo Odohui, a young local sculptor who was interested in lead casting and languages, as capable of carrying out the ruse.35 But why would Odohui go to such length to perpetuate a hoax? It seems far-fetched that such a young man would have invented the story, spent presumably many months or years constructing and inscribing the relics, and then buried thirty-one relics six feet underground within a mass of heat-hardened caliche. It took many Mexican laborers to dig through the caliche during the excavations, and the unearthing of some of the artifacts was witnessed by University of Arizona professors.

Entering into the other side of the controversy that began to surround the artifacts are a different number of professors who argued that they were genuine, including Andrew E. Douglass, the father of dendrochronology, which is the study of the annual growth rings of trees or old timber to discover climate changes. There was also Arizona State Museum archaeologist Karl Ruppert, Neil Judd of the Smithsonian Institution, entomologist Charles T. Vorhies, and C. J. Sarle, one of the eminent geologists of the Southwest.

For lack of space, all the other arguments for and against the authenticity of the Calalus relics cannot be presented.36 However, a most compelling testament to the authenticity of the Calalus relics comes from Todd Bostwick, who as the city archaeologist for Phoenix from 1990 to 2010, was responsible for the management of archaeological sites located within the city limits. Despite the fact that caliche is a calcium carbonate material that, with addition of water, is used throughout the world for building materials and hardens from a slush to extreme hardness in a matter of hours, Bostwick wrote, regarding a report by the geologist C. J. Sarle: [Sarle] provided a detailed description of the geological characteristics of the deposits in which the lead artifacts were found. He observed three distinct geological deposits in the exposed profiles at the site. The upper section was a dark stratum of soil about fifteen inches in thickness. Underneath that stratum was “a thick zone solidly cemented by [the] deposition of lime,” called caliche. Under that second zone of caliche was the third level, a gravel stratum, where the artifacts were found. In Sarle’s opinion, the geological characteristics of the deposits represented “a seal, which nature has placed on these artifacts, not to be counterfeited.”37 Sarle may have had a small monetary interest in writing the report, but his description of the layers is telling and he was also present, along with as mentioned, other colleagues from the University of Arizona when some of the artifacts were unearthed.

My own experience upon seeing the Calalus relics was that they are credible evidence of a Roman colony in the Americas with both Christian and Jewish influences. The thirtyone objects from Arizona defy the archaeopriests’ claim that there is no solid archaeological evidence proving that Old World settlers visited the Americas long before Columbus.

THE CHEROKEES, DNA, AND OTHER CONNECTIONS

TO THE HEBREWS Cultural connections between the Hebrews and the southeastern Native American Cherokees were noted by several early authors including John Howard Payne, who lived during the early 1800s and Scotsman James Adair, whose 1775 book History of the American Indians mentions twenty-three customs and practices similar to those of Hebrew priests. Adair noted that the Cherokee pronunciation of the divine name was “Ye-HoWah,” the same utterance and consonants as the Hebrew letters Y-H-W to form the name Yahweh.38 In fact, so compelling is the connection between the Hebrews and the Cherokees that the Central Band of Cherokee created the Abraham/Moses Project. Chief Joe Sitting Owl White wrote of the project and his personal beliefs, stating there was an “emerging secret history of the Cherokee People that they begin with, and incorporated ancient Jewish People over their many centuries of existence, right down to the present.”39 His tribe’s research includes the Cherokee Historical Record, the Cherokee Archeological Record, and a DNA collaboration, all of which provide evidence that he states is “consistent with the Cherokee being descendants of the Jewish Peoples.”40 Another tribe called the Yuchis also seems to have had a cultural connection to Hebrews. Unique among Native Americans because their language is unrelated to any other Indian language, the Yuchis make an eight-day pilgrimage every year on the fifteenth day of their sacred harvest month in the fall. During this time they live in “booths” covered with branches but partially open to the sky and celebrate by dancing and calling on the name of God. This ceremony is nearly identical to the Hebrew holiday of Sukkot, known as the Festival of Booths, which is an eight-day celebration dating back to the time of Moses when outdoor structures were constructed. It is still celebrated today on the fifteenth day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, from late September to late October.41 Another Hebrew-like custom encountered by the early English settlers and practiced by some of the native tribes was the wearing of two small leather boxes called “tefillin” or “phylacteries” on the head and arms during prayers. In 1820 one was found in an Indian burial mound in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Because the object contained Hebrew letters, scholars from Harvard were consulted and an investigation was launched. However, with no other reasonable explanation, it was concluded to have been the possession of one of the deceased Indians in the mounds. This item has since been lost.42 In addition to cultural evidence connecting the Hebrews and some Native Americans there are also DNA studies. In one study conducted based on finding similar genetic haplogroups by Donald N. Yates, Ph.D., of DNA Consultants of Phoenix, Arizona, found that fifty-two Native American women of Cherokee descent showed a high degree of interrelatedness with populations from Egypt, Israel, and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean.43 From the genetic perspective Yates additionally notes, “The haplogroup X survives at elevated frequencies in two separate places, Canaan or Judea/Palestine and Native North America. Its presence is particularly noteworthy in the tribes situated around the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway like the Ojibwa and Micmac.”44

In addition, DNA evidence linking American Indians in Colorado to European Ashkenazi Jews has shown that they have an identical mutation that dates back more than six hundred years. Professor Jeffrey Weitzel, a cancer genetics expert at the City of Hope hospital in California, conducted the research, which offers proof that converso Jews expelled from Spain long ago reached America and intermarried with Native Americans.45 Thus, we can surmise that there could have been entranceways for Hebrews into North America from the Atlantic Ocean. This might have included sailing into the Gulf of Mexico, where the Mississippi River “welcome center” would have been Poverty Point, Louisiana, a possible jumping-off point for journeys northeast into Cherokee country, perhaps similar to Hernando de Soto’s mid-sixteenth-century expedition. Alternatively, once in the Gulf of Mexico, they could have found the mouth of the Rio Grande River and gained access to the Western United States, leading to the colony of Calalus and presumably Hidden Mountain.

The evidence that I discovered of ancient Hebrew travelers in America is scant, but it suggests that Hebrews did have a presence in North America long before Columbus.

Artifact

When and Where Discovered

Dating

Details

Bat Creek Stone

1889, Bat Creek, Tennessee

Paleo-Hebrew, 2nd century A.D.

The inscribed stone has been interpreted to read, “A star for the Jews.”

Jewish coins

1932, Louisville, Kentucky, and 1967, Hopkinsville, Kentucky

A.D. 132–135

Several Bar Kokhba coins found from the time of the second Jewish revolt against Rome

Hidden Mountain

Near Los Lunas, New Mexico

500–100 B.C.

Ten Commandments etched in proto-Hebrew into stone

Calalus

1920s, near Tucson, Arizona

A.D. 765–900

31 artifacts, including Latin inscriptions and religious relics

Native customs

Noted by James Adair and early settlers

1775 book, 19th century records

Cultural links to Hebrew include tefillin artifact, Yuchis festivals

Cherokee

Cherokee records

Recent

DNA links

Fig. 14.16. The most important evidence of Hebrew contact with the Americas.

15 More to Learn about Ancient America I have seen firsthand evidence that convinces me that early Celts built America’s Stonehenge in New Hampshire and the Calendar One site in Vermont and that they inscribed the inscriptions in Crack Cave, the Sun Temple in Colorado, and the Anubis Caves in Oklahoma. I have marveled at the Indus Valley–style petroglyphs of Mojave North in California and throughout the Great Basin, and in the previous chapter, I traveled to Arizona and New Mexico to examine evidence for Roman Hebrew relics and inscriptions at Calalus and Hidden Mountain. Along the way, I documented many petroglyphs in archaeoastronomical animations not made by Native Americans. Amid these compelling pieces of evidence for Old World travelers in ancient America, my short list of the best “Smoking Gun” examples are cited in figure 15.1.

As my knowledge of rock art sites, Old World artifacts, and New History investigators grew, it became clear that there had been many hundreds of detailed investigations and thousands of reports of incidents of Old World peoples in the Americas that complemented my own and offered an even greater context for the New History of the Americas. This chapter documents research by others and provides more evidence that Columbus was not first but was the last to arrive in the Americas. Some of these many studies are addressed in this chapter accompanied by a summary chart at the end; see figure 15.19, “Other New History Evidence.”

While my own encounters serve as proof, collectively the hundreds of incidents found in historical records and the evidence presented by many researchers, writers, and archaeologists provide an impressive body of evidence that the Old History is a gross misrepresentation of the facts, even an intentional lie. The evidence is not limited to what I’ve already presented, as additional overwhelming evidence for the New History has been documented by others. But instead of leading us into a new frontier of historical and archaeological research, diffusionist thinkers have been blackballed and marginalized by the archaeopriesthood protecting the Old History.

Site

Location

Proof

Access

Chapter

America’s Stonehenge

New England

Celtic astronomy; Ogham writing; AS

Yes

4

Crack Cave

Colorado

Ogham writing in Celtic; AS

On equinox

7

Anubis Caves

Oklahoma

Ogham writing in Celtic; AS

Private land

8

Sun Temple

Colorado

Ogham writing in Celtic; AS

Private land

9

Mojave North

California

AS; petroglyphs; inscriptions

Bureau of Land Management land

Hidden Mountain

New Mexico

Hebrew writing in stone

Yes, with permit

14

Calalus

Arizona

Seventh-century Latin writing on lead crosses

Limited access

14

DNA studies

Within Cherokee tribes’ genetic material

High degree of relationship to similar haplogroups in the eastern Mediterranean area

Donald N. Yates, of DNA Consultants

14

Fig. 15.1. My New History Evidence List. AS = archaeoastronomy.

10, 11

The fate of Gunnar Thompson is a lesson, since he was blackballed for investigating Egyptian and Chinese connections in his Ph.D. thesis. His analysis of why alternative theories to the “Columbus first” doctrines have been disregarded is also cogent. He stated that the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s arrival, celebrated with the 1892 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, left an imprint that resulted in the acceptance of the Columbus mythology by academic institutions and that all deviations from the ideology of conquest became treasonous and academic suicide and remain so even to this day.

Fig. 15.2. Historian and archaeologist Gunnar Thompson, Ph.D., is the author of American Discovery: Our Multicultural Heritage. (Photo by Sandra Stowell)

INDUS VALLEY CONNECTIONS If Columbus is to be considered the last to discover America, the Indus Valley cultures would have been perhaps the first. As recounted in chapters 10 and 11, my colleagues and I uncovered at Mojave North what appear to be Indus Valley connections to America in a notable Shiva linga, Shiva-like petroglyphs employed in cross-quarter day alignments, and the small SEA (Sunset Equinox Animation) Rock petroglyph with Indus Valley motifs.

Even before my exploration of Mojave North, Gene Matlock had researched and written India Once Ruled the Americas! He, in turn, followed a long list of distinguished scholars and historians who concluded the same thing—that some of the Native American peoples originated from or were influenced by Hindus from India. One prominent believer was Baron Alexander von Humboldt, the famous late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century European scholar, explorer, and anthropologist. Many other authors followed him, notably the American diplomat Ephraim George Squier (1821–1888), who was the U.S. chargé d’affaires to Central America in 1849 and who brought to attention many possible connections between India and the Americas. He compared the temples of India, Java, and Mexico, writing in his book The Serpent Symbol, “A proper examination of these monuments would disclose the fact that, in their interior structure, as well as their exterior form, and obvious purposes, these buildings [the temples in Palenque, Mexico] correspond with great exactness to those of Hindustan and the Indian Archipeligo.”1 In more modern times, many others have pointed out the many architectural elements of Mayan temples that resemble Indian, Javanese, and Indo-Chinese pyramids. These people

include the famous traditional temple builder from southern India, V. Ganapati Sthapati, whose theories were outlined in chapter 5; J. Leslie Mitchell in his 1935 book The Conquest of the Maya; and Gunnar Thompson in American Discovery. The similarities include the use of receding stages and stairways leading to a platform on top of the temples, vaulted galleries, and corbelled arches, along with common embellishments such as serpent columns.

Calendrical links between the Mayan and Indians were also mentioned in chapter 5, including the similar dates for the beginnings of the Hindu Kali Yuga calendar (February 18, 3102 B.C.) and the Mayan calendar (August 11, 3114 B.C.). Researcher B. G. Sidharth has also presented astronomical similarities in his paper “The Astronomical Link between India and the Mayans,” in which he states that both cultures meticulously tracked the planet Venus.2 Thompson has also noted that Hindu symbols, artifacts, diseases, crop plants, and animals reached the Americas.3 For example, elephants from India (distinguished by the highest point on their heads and lack of tusks) show up in Native American art, including a petroglyph at Grimes Point, Nevada (chapter 12), estimated to be at least five thousand years old, and the later long-nosed deities of the Maya. Elephant motifs are also found in other locations, including the Southeast’s woodlands and the Hopewell Mounds in Ohio, where effigy pipes have been recovered.

Fig. 15.3. Stela B at Copan, Honduras, clearly depicts a turbaned rider sitting on an elephant’s head (Drawing by Gunnar Thompson, American Discovery) Perhaps the most contentious evidence for contact between the Old and New Worlds concerns corn. While there appears to be conclusive evidence that corn (first domesticated in Mesoamerica and called maize) made it to Asia long before Columbus arrived in the New World, this position is still considered heresy by modern historians, who continue to believe that corn was shipped to Europe only after 1492. For example, in 2013, a writer in Wikipedia asserted that corn spread through the Americas beginning around 2500 B.C.

and reached India only “after European contact with the Americas in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, [when] explorers and traders carried maize back to Europe and introduced it to other countries.”4 This mainstream position is diametrically opposed to the published reports presented by many scholars (including Thompson, Johannessen, and Jeffreys, all cited below) who document the diffusion of many plants and animals between the Old World and the New World, including peanuts, tobacco, sugar, chili peppers, amaranth, sweet potatoes, and maize. The compelling nature of this evidence is found in the details.

Hundreds of Hindu sculptures in central India depict Hindu deities holding ears of maize, as noted by Carl L. Johannessen.5 Spanish archaeologist Miguel Oliva found remains of maize in third-century grain silos in the ancient city of Ullastret on the Mediterranean coast.6 According to Thompson, Buddhist divinities with garlands of maize ears are shown in a Chinese statue from the sixth-century A.D. Maize can be seen in a mural from the Shanxi Province of China, dated to about A.D. 900 by Sidney Chang at California State University (however, this date is disputed by other authorities).7 Maize is shown on pre-Colonial ceramics from South Africa that had already been distributed throughout West Africa when the Europeans arrived.8 The fourteenth-century Welsh imported maize to the British Isles, as can be seen from paintings made before Columbus that include “flint corn,” or maize, from New England.9 Thompson also notes an image of an American turkey on a German cathedral mural from A.D. 1280, along with many other examples of diffusion of plants and animals spread by the Welsh.10 In analyzing the reports of maize in the Old World after A.D. 1500, M. D. W. Jeffreys makes pertinent comments in his article, “Pre-Columbian Maize in Asia.”11 He notes that European commenters agreed that maize reached Europe from Asia before 1570, after which an American origin was suggested in Fernández de Oviedo’s Historia general y natural de las Indias (General and Natural History of the Indies).12 The article by Jeffreys also offers linguistic evidence for the antiquity of the presence of maize in Europe and Asia. Other written connections include the Hindu Katha Upanishad, where it is written, “Like corn man decays, and like corn he is born again,”13 which is reminiscent of symbolism in the Mayan Popol Vuh creation myth.*24 While detailed images of maize on Hindu temples (see color insert) and Egyptian and Chinese murals (all made before Columbus) would seem to be incontrovertible evidence for many rational investigators, the conclusion by most diffusionists that corn made it to the Old World long ago still remains today outside the mainstream of academic credibility.

Another example of trans-Pacific diffusion is the Southeast Asian jungle chicken.

Geographer George Carter identified Japan and India as the two most likely pathways to

the Americas. In Japan these “chickens” are called totori birds, very similar to its name totoli used in Mexico. Bird bones from Pueblo archaeological sites in the American Southwest suggest that chickens arrived there before A.D. 900.14 Furthermore, there is a close resemblance between the board game called pachisi in India and the pre-Colonial Aztec game patolli.15 Both games include moving counters along cross-shaped boards or mats, with the progress being determined by the throw of lots—six cowrie shells in the Hindu version and five black beans with white dots in Mexico. (See figure 15.4 below.)

There are other notable Indus Valley connections to the New World, including symbols like the swastika and the eye-in-hand motifs found in Mayan and Native American art.

Also, the lotus motif with seated human figures is common at Mayan sites such as Chichén Itzá, as well as the Amaravati Buddhist monastery in southern India (see figure 15.5 below). This suggests that the practices of yoga and meditation were taught in both places.

Fig. 15.4. Similarities between the games of pachisi in India (left) and patolli in Mexico (right).

(Drawing by Gunnar Thompson, American Discovery)

Fig. 15.5. The lotus scepter motif from tenth-century Java (left) and from Palenque, Mexico.

(Drawings by Gunnar Thompson, Nu Sun)

CHINESE CONNECTIONS Thompson identified a shift in the symbols and artistic styles in Mesoamerica from about 500 B.C. to 100 B.C. that was parallel to a shift in Asian art at the time, and he has identified many dozens of Chinese and other Asian examples. These include the “endless knot,” flaming pearls, and the yin/yang symbol, along with the central importance of the serpent motif in both cultures. Not only do the symbols show noteworthy similarities, but their placements on monuments, buildings, and ceramic vases share commonalities as well.

Also, there is an emphasis placed on the way jade was used for jewelry. According to Thompson, the similarities include the motifs themselves as well as the metal tools and lapidary techniques that he thinks arrived in the Americas from China.

Fig. 15.6. Similarities between Chinese and Mesoamerican art. Chinese symbols found in the Americas include variations of the yin/yang symbol, the “endless knot,” serpents and turtles, and trumpet shells. (Gunnar Thompson, American Discovery) There have been a number of attempts to account for these evidences of interactions.

Two interesting but unconvincing efforts both begin with the Chinese Shanhaijing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas), which describes medicines, animals, and geological features of “Mountains,” “Regions beyond Seas,” “Regions within Seas,” and “Wilderness.” First mentioned in the fourth century B.C., its authorship has traditionally been assigned to the mythological Yu the Great and/or his two traveling companions on his many journeys, Boyi and Yi. When Yu was historicized as the founder of the Xia dynasty (which may or may not have existed), he was given the dates 2145–2046 B.C. This has led several authors to claim that America had been visited and written about at that time, despite the fact that the book was originally about shamanism and not geography, something that can be traced back to beyond the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600– 1046 B.C.). From that point in history, the basic story undoubtedly was adopted by many authors over the centuries, and apocryphal accretions formed around it.16 Nevertheless, Henriette Mertz mapped out the voyages while describing the geography from the Shanhaijing. She proposed in her 1972 book Pale Ink that it all matched a description of an expedition to and from America.17 A more recent proposal was made by Christian missionaries who worked in Asia, Hendon M. Harris and his daughter, Charlotte Harris Rees. They claim that 72 percent of the place names on a map he purchased from a Korean antique store are from the

Shanhaijing and that the book describes a section of America that runs down the eastern side of the Rockies, including the Grand Canyon. The discovery of this map inspired Harris to collect twenty-two more documents that purportedly showed America across the sea from China, as he argues in a nearly eight-hundred-page book, The Asiatic Fathers of America: Chinese Discovery and Colonization of Ancient America.18 However, there are no dates on the maps, which Harris thought were copies of the ones that were used in the original Shanhaijing. Lost for some years among his papers, the maps were rediscovered by his daughter, who went on to write four books on the subject, pointing out that “blue spots” can appear on the lower backs of both Chinese and Native American babies and that there are five genetic markers that are similar.

Gunnar Thompson also published Nu Sun: Asian-American Voyages, 500 B.C. in 1989, in which he suggested that Asian merchants stimulated the formulation of Mayan religion, astronomy, metal casting, architecture, writing, and commerce.19While some of the dates he presented in Nu Sun are problematic, a compelling artifact supporting his theory is a statuette found in Mexico by archaeologists that is covered with symbols reminiscent of the Chinese Zhou dynasty. This Tuxla statuette has been dated between 200 B.C. and A.D. 300.

Fig. 15.7. This Jade Tuxla statuette found by Mexican archaeologists has many symbols similar to those of China’s Zhou dynasty. (Drawing by Gunnar Thompson) Also, as previously reported in chapter 5, Thompson presents compelling evidence of diffusion from China in his survey of artistic motifs between 1500 B.C. and 500 B.C. At first he found little similarity between East Asia and Mexico. However, around 500–200 B.C. the situation changed dramatically, and preponderance of similarities and, in some

cases, identical symbols appeared in both China and Mesoamerica. Two of these motifs are the scroll and double scroll symbols attached to flying serpents and other characters, as used in Mexican scrolls after 500 B.C. Thompson believes that after A.D. 200, Mesoamericans also absorbed influences from other transoceanic cultures, including Hebrews and Egyptians. These more divergent styles and religious iconographies were the result of foreign merchants visiting the Maya at various locations, including Izapa in southern Mexico.20 Another modern author who speculated about a Chinese-American connection is Gavin Menzies, who, in 2002, published the bestseller 1421: The Year China Discovered America.21 He wrote that the largest fleet the world had then ever seen consisted of three hundred massive four-hundred-foot-long junks under the command of Admiral Zheng He. With these, Menzies claims that the Chinese sailed around Africa, up the Cape of Good Hope, across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, landed in America seventy years before Columbus, and settled Australia and New Zealand three hundred years before Captain Cook, all while mapping the entire globe long before the historic European voyages of discovery. However, he suggests that records, documents, and maps of the voyages of 1421–1423 were deliberately hidden or expunged by officials of the Chinese court during an abrupt change in foreign policy. Thus, after the passing in 1424 of the Yongle Emperor Zhudi (who had sponsored the voyages), China began a long, self-imposed period of isolation from the world. Menzies writes that the great ships “rotted at their moorings” and that the records of their journeys were destroyed.

There are problems with Menzies’s arguments that undermine the credibility of the premise that Zheng made it to the Americas. Critics believe that the Zheng voyages between 1405 and 1433 only surveyed portions of the Indian Ocean, and as one critic wrote, “The evidence Menzies presented has been contested by experts in cartography and naval architecture.” The behemoth junks are considered a technical absurdity, the story relies on ocean currents that don’t exist, and Menzies’s most important map is considered a twenty-firstcentury forgery.22 However, one famous Chinese explorer who might have made it to America is Hsu Fu, or Xufu. Born in 255 B.C., he was ordered by Emperor Qinshihuang (259–210 B.C.) to sail east in search of an elixir of life and to locate the mysterious Isle of Immortals. His second journey in 219 B.C. departed with three thousand men and women, but they never returned. However, it was written in the first-century-B.C. book Shiji that “Hsu Fu found some calm and fertile plain with a broad forest and rich marshes where he made himself a king.”23 Perhaps the most reliable Chinese records documenting a journey to America are the official court records of A.D. 499 that describe the voyages of Huishen, or Hwei Shan (not to be confused with Hsu Fu), one of five Buddhist monks who, in A.D 458, sailed from southern China to “Fusang,” a Chinese name for a legendary land across the Eastern Sea. After forty years, he returned with a detailed tale of a six-thousand-mile odyssey to a land across the sea, which was described a hundred years later in The Book of Liang by Yao Silian. Surprisingly, the distance and directions given by him indicate a coastal island-

hopping route across the North Pacific, past the Aleutian Islands to Alaska, and then down the entire west coast of America to at least as far as Mexico.

The place was rich in copper and traces of gold and silver but no iron. The native tribes in Fusang were civilized, living in well-organized communities. They produced paper from the bark of the Fusang plants for writing and produced cloth from the fibers of the bark, which they used for robes or wadding. Their houses or cabins were constructed with red mulberry wood. The fruits and young shoots of the plants were one of their food sources. They raised deer for meat and milk, just as the Chinese raised cattle at home, and produced cheese with deer milk. They traveled on horseback and transported their goods with carts or sledges pulled by horses, buffalo, or deer.24 There are inconsistencies and perhaps some problems with Huishen’s accounts. One is that horses did not exist then on the American continent, nor did the habit of taming and milking deer, although South American llamas and alpacas do fit this description.

However, noted Hispanic scholar Charles E. Chapman (1880–1941) wrote of the many relevant aspects of Huishen’s account, pointing out that the descriptions of the people and places the man visited resemble places in America.25 For example, his description of people living in the “Land of Marked Bodies” matches that of villagers observed at Point Barrow, Alaska, in the nineteenth century, who had tattoos and face paintings. Also Huishen’s detailed description of “Fusang trees” as a source of food and fiber for making clothing exactly matches that of the maguey, or century plant, of Mexico, which is often called a tree because it can reach a height of thirty feet.

Huishen also said the inhabitants of Fusang did not wage war. They had no military weapons or soldiers and no fortresses or walled cities, unlike the other great civilizations of antiquity. (This was before the warlike Nahua tribes such as the Aztecs arrived in central Mexico in the thirteenth century.) His reports of the use of copper but not iron and the minor value of gold and silver were also consistent with Mexico. Chapman also pointed out that the likenesses of early Buddhism to early Mexican religion are striking; for example, corpses were cremated among the Aztecs, and there are many shared elements between the priesthoods. After ten highly detailed pages about the subject, including descriptions of Chinese artifacts and coins found particularly around Puget Sound in Washington state, Chapman concludes, “Either Huishen was in America, presumably in Mexico, or else the story was a lie. The evidence that it was true is almost overwhelming.”26

JAPANESE CONNECTIONS Cyrus H. Gordon proposed in his book Before Columbus that Japanese sailors reached South American shores five thousand years ago. Gordon believed that transoceanic mariners came to the Americas from China, Southeast Asia, and India via the Pacific over many periods.27 Other researchers have also come to the same conclusions; for instance, there is

archaeological evidence from Valdivia in Ecuador that includes pottery with unique, highly decorated rim designs. These are rare outside of Japan, where the Jomon culture has decorated their pots in this way for at least ten thousand years. Moreover, carbon-14 dating analysis of the charcoal found at the same excavation level gives a date of circa 3600 B.C.28 In 1828 in Veracruz, Mexico, workers uncovered several marble vases, each having three legs and a bulging base, similar to Japanese vases. These vases were later identified by archaeologists as originating from Japan around the first millennium A.D.29 There have also been a few other Japanese artifacts reported in the Americas, and many Asian tools have been found along the Pacific Coast, including mortars, pestles, jade knives, and axes that are indicative of the spread of Asian cultures to the Americas.

However, perhaps some of the best examples of evidence for Japanese migrations to the Americas are the many similarities between the cultures of Japan and the Zuni tribe of New Mexico and Arizona. In her book Zuni Enigma, anthropologist Nancy Yaw Davis makes the case that the Zuni are a mixture of Japanese immigrants and Native Americans.

She suggested that a group of Japanese Buddhists arrived on the southern coast of California after a major earthquake around A.D. 1350 and eventually migrated to what is now Zuni territory.30 She supports her thesis by using forensic evidence, including analyses of DNA, dental morphology, and skeletal remains. She also points to the Zunis’ exceptionally high incidence of a specific kidney disease called mesangiopathic glomerulonephritis, which is also unusually common in Japan, and the two peoples’ similar frequency of type-B blood, which is nearly absent in other Native Americans.31 Davis also notes similarities between the Zuni and Japanese languages, along with the Zuni “sacred rosette” that often adorns pottery and clothing, which resembles the Japanese Buddhist chrysanthemum symbol (which is also Japan’s imperial crest).32

Fig. 15.8. Zuni sacred rosette (left) and Japan’s national chrysanthemum symbol (right).

(Image based on graphic from Science Frontiers Online) I had an occasion to relate Davis’s thesis to a Zuni on a visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico, not so many years ago. I was walking near the central square and approached a Native American man who was magnificently dressed as a dancer in traditional clothing. About thirty years old, he wore an abundance of feathers and a decorative headband, and the rest of his traditional clothing was beaded and bell adorned. He seemed quite receptive to a conversation, so after introductions I queried him about Davis’ Zuni Enigma. To say the least, he became quite enraged and agitated as he lambasted her breach of trust and

“untrue and white” conclusions about the origins of the Zuni people.

It is understandable why some Native Americans feel that Davis, Matlock, and other diffusionists are “whitewashing” their traditions and history by suggesting a transoceanic origin of some native peoples. However, some of the origin myths of specific tribes inform that their ancestors came from the “underworld.” And as noted in chapter 12, a Hopi elder told Carl Bjork, “We came from another land to the coast of California and made it to the mesas in which we live today.”

MINOAN, PHOENICIAN, AND GREEK CONNECTIONS According to Thompson, there is evidence of Minoan contact with the Americas between 3400 B.C. and 1400 B.C. that is based on inscriptions found along the Amazon River in Brazil.33 Also, the maze-like symbol used by the Pima Indians of Arizona is identical to the “Minoan maze” symbol from the Cretan story of the minotaur and the maze.34 After cataclysmic tidal waves and volcanic ash destroyed Crete and Minoan society around 1400 B.C., the Phoenicians came to power in what is now Lebanon. As documented in chapter 2, the Phoenicians were the greatest sailors and merchants of the ancient world. By 1000 B.C. their reach expanded to North Africa, into what is now Tunisia and Libya, and by the eighth century B.C. they had established settlements in what is now Spain on the Iberian Peninsula. Driven by the lucrative trade in copper, Phoenician traders formed sailing alliances with Hebrews, Egyptians, and people from other Mediterranean cultures. It appears they came to Lake Superior’s Isle Royal and Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula to mine and transport copper to Europe and the Mediterranean. Other evidence they might have left behind would include the Bourne Stone in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and the contents of the Crespi Collection in Ecuador (chapter 2).

In addition to the Bourne Stone, another engraved stone mentioned in chapter 13 is the Grave Creek stone. It was excavated from a mound in Moundsville, West Virginia, in 1838. In America B.C., Fell wrote that the language of the Grave Creek artifact is Phoenician Punic and proposed a translation, which he revised in a later and more detailed analysis to read, “Tumulus in honor of Tadach. This engraved tile [his] queen caused to be inscribed.” The controversial stone is near universally considered a hoax by the archaeopriest community. However, McGlone and Leonard consider it one of the better “epigraphic indications of Old World contact, because it seems impossible that it could have been faked in a script that was unreadable at the time, and because two similar ‘body tabs’ [tablets] have been found in West Virginia,” meaning the Braxton (or Wilson) Tablet found in 1931 in a streambed and the Ohio County Tablet found in 1956. The original Grave Creek Stone has been lost, and only the plaster cast and wax impressions remain.35

Fig. 15.9. The Grave Creek Stone. The small sandstone disk found in 1838 was inscribed with twenty-five characters that were interpreted by Fell to be Phoenician Punic.

(Smithsonian Institution photo of a plaster cast from www.econ.ohiostate.edu/jhm/arch/grvcrk.html; accessed July 8, 2014).

As for the Greeks, around 150 B.C., the scholar and geographer Crates of Mallos created the earliest known globe to explain the journeys of Ulysses in Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey. It was lost to history, but Roman geographer Strabo (ca. 64/63 B.C.–A.D. 24) re-created it, meaning it was well known during the Roman era.

Crates credited Homer with discovering the spherical shape of the world because his Ulysses made it to Peroikoi, which Homer called “the land of those who live on the opposite side on the same meridian.” If this was North America, it meant that South America was the lands at the bottom of Crates’s map that were called Antipodea (the “Opposite Foot”). The term was used by Aristotle, Strabo, Plutarch, and Diogenes Laertius and was adopted into Latin as the antipodes.

In Saga America, Fell made a case that contemporaries of the Greeks from the Mediterranean made it to the Americas, including the Tartessians from Tarshish (Tartessos in Greek), a city on the southern coast of Spain that was destroyed by the Carthaginians in 553 B.C. Their script, similar to Phoenician, became known as Tartessian. The Carthaginian conquerors would have taken over the transatlantic trade of the Tartessians and forged an alliance with the Iberian Celts.

Fell claimed that several Tartessian inscriptions have been found in America. One was off the coast of Maine, and another was discovered in 1780 at Bristol, Rhode Island, on a cliff above Mount Hope Bay. This severely vandalized inscription, which included an etching of a ship without sails, was identified by him as Tartessian Punic, and he translated it to read, “Voyagers from Tarshish this stone proclaims.”36 Fell also stated that another Tartessian inscription was found in Ohio, and he concluded

that trade was carried out between North America and the Mediterranean for copper and furs at least six hundred years before Christ and nearly two thousand years before Columbus.37, 38 He also wrote in Saga America that the Greek historian Plutarch (A.D. 46–120) named Epeiros as “the continent that rims the western Ocean” and was describing North America.39 Additionally, a manuscript attributed to Plutarch that was discovered in 1558 by a French churchman in an Italian monastery mentions voyages across the Atlantic.

According to Plutarch, Carthaginian ships traveled from Spain and Carthage to Iceland and down the eastern coast of North America. His descriptions of the islands fit the Orkneys, Shetlands, Faroes, and Iceland (Ogygia), and he reported that after passing by a frozen sea one comes to a land where Greeks settled and intermarried with the natives.40 The “Greeks in America” hypothesis was given more credibility in 2012 when Minas Tsikritsis, a researcher of Aegean scripts, used a computer to analyze information provided

by Plutarch and concluded that the early Greeks knew that “west of the three islands and northwest of Britain” lay a great continent. As reported by Plutarch, Tsikritsis’s findings suggest that the first contact was made by Minoan merchants and that later the Mycenaeans sailed westward and returned home after years of faltering in the Americas.

He surmised that “the information that is mentioned in the text confirms the description of a journey in A.D. 86 from Canada to Carthage.”41 Fell also observed more than fifty words with Greek roots found in the native Indian dialects of Nova Scotia and Maine, suggesting that Greek traders were the source of the words. He also noted in Saga America that a large number of Greek word roots make up part of the vocabulary of Algonquin, the language of the Micmacs, who live among the Great Lakes.42 Still, there is even more evidence that the Greeks arrived in North America and intermarried with natives. An engraved nineteen-inch by fifteen-inch limestone tablet was uncovered in 1870 in a mound excavation in Sumner County, Tennessee. As reported by DNA researcher Donald Yates, the depicted Cherokee chief wears a crested helmet and carries a spear and shield, all of which resemble Greek attire, while a Cherokee woman wears a large Star of David.43 These Greek connections are also consistent with the Walam Olum (Red Record), a historical narrative of the Lenni-Lenape (or Lenape) Native American tribe from Delaware. Botanist and antiquarian Constantine Samuel Rafinesque said he translated it from birch bark and cedar tablets in the 1830s.

Despite criticism of its authenticity, many think that at least some of it was likely based on stories of the Algonquin or Lenni-Lenape tribes. Yates says that the text teaches that there was a foreign tribe called the Stonys along the south bank of the Missouri River who had metal armor and weapons, and his DNA studies confirm there is a mixture of “anomalous” eastern Mediterranean mitochondrial lineages in that area.44 All this supports evidence that one of the controversial Red Bird River petroglyphs in

Manchester, Kentucky, has a Greek inscription from early in the Christian era and that it was not a simple etching by Cherokees from the 1800s (as maintained by the Archeological Institute of America).45 This was engraved along with inscriptions in eight ancient European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern languages on a fifty-ton stone that fell from a cliff above the Red Bird River in 1994.46 The huge stone was moved and now resides near the Manchester courthouse, in the Rawlings and Stinson Park, across the street from the main picnic area.

A sign installed at the Red Bird River petroglyph site reads: This is the famous Red Bird Petroglyph known since pioneer days and enrolled on the National Register of Historic Sites. On December 7, 1994, this historic stone fell from a sandstone cliff and rolled onto Highway 66 on Lower Red Bird. On December 9, 1994, it was transported here and set up in its home. At least 8 Old World alphabets are engraved on it. These alphabets were extinct when Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492. The alphabets are first century Greek and Hebrew, Old Libyan, Old Arabic, and Iberian-Punic, which probably dates from the ninth-century B.C. Ogam, Germanic Runes, and Tiffinag-Numidian, are also on this stone. Of all the hundreds of important, translatable, and published inscriptions in the United States, this is the first one to have been given official protection. Clay County and the City of Manchester have granted protection to this Stone. In doing so, they have obtained a good name and public esteem worldwide.47

Fig. 15.10. The Red Bird River petroglyph from Manchester, Kentucky. A first-century Christian monogram has been interpreted to mean “Jesus Christ Son of the Father.”

(Characters based on images found at s8int.com/phile/page43.html; accessed July 8, 2014).

Fell also noted in Saga America a Greek inscription that had been chiseled into the smooth face of a fifty-five-pound stone found near Cripple Creek, Colorado. The inscribed boulder, which is now lost, recorded in a “slightly illiterate North African Greek of the Byzantine period” the burial of a Greek-speaking traveler. Noting the particular use of an omega letter found in Coptic Greek, Fell interpreted it to read, “Here lies the servant of God, Palladeis.”48 It was later determined that the style of Greek letters had striking

similarities to Jewish catacomb inscriptions dating from the sixth through the eighth centuries A.D.

ROMAN CONNECTIONS Other writers have provided evidence that Roman ships traveled to India, China, and Southeast Asia. Unknown to many, however, is the abundant evidence proving they also made it to North and South American shores. As mentioned, Roman-era maps show Antipodes as South America along with the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, and Brazil. Also, the 1414 map of Albertin de Virga shows the Peruvian coast and calls it Ca-paru, which is the same as the Land of Per on the 1436 Andrea Bianco map, demonstrating that Peru was named earlier than Pizarro’s arrival in 1521.

Also, Mexican archaeologist Joe Garcia Payon discovered a curious ceramic head inside a pyramid at Mexico’s Calixtlahuaca ruins in 1933. Excavated from beneath a floor dating to the eleventh century A.D., it was identified in 1961 by Austrian anthropologist Robert von Heine-Geldern as unquestionably being from the Hellenistic-Roman school of art.49 Scores of other Roman artifacts have been discovered throughout the Americas, including inscriptions, coins, and many ceramic amphorae (vaselike storage jars) that were recovered off the coasts of North and South America. David Pratt, who authored “The Ancient Americas: Migrations, Contacts, and Atlantis,” reported that amphorae from the first century A.D. were discovered off the coast of Maine in 1971 and 1972.50 Pratt also noted that in 1972, scuba divers off the coast of Honduras found the hull of a ship with a cargo of Roman amphorae. More amphorae were discovered in South America, off the coast of Venezuela and fifteen miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1976. Again, off the coast of Brazil, divers discovered a sunken ship from the first century B.C. containing hundreds of Roman urns. However, the Brazilian government banned any investigation to protect the reputation of the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who is credited with “discovering Brazil.” Roman amphorae were also discovered off Venezuela two years later.51 These Roman vases were used to store and transport liquids, and their prevalence suggests trading routes were well established.

As for North America, judge and historian John Haywood (1762–1826) described Roman coins and buttons the size of half-dollars and made between A.D. 138 and A.D. 259 that were dug up by settlers in Tennessee and Kentucky between 1819 and 1821.52 More recently, in 1954 or 1955, near the Red River at Terral, Oklahoma, a concave-shaped coin made into a decorative adornment was found in a previously plowed field. On one side could be seen an inscribed bull over a dolphin with a Latin inscription above that spelling the name of a city, Thurium (an Athenian colony in Italy around 200 B.C.). On the other side was a portrait of Athena.53 In her book In Plain Sight, Gloria Farley describes a coin found in Black Gum, in eastern Oklahoma. It has nearly identical engravings as the Thurium medallion. She also noted that another coin with Nero on the front was found in Heavener, Oklahoma, and she

listed more than a dozen other finds throughout the Americas, including a possible sighting by Christopher Columbus of part of a gold coin with letters on a necklace worn by a Caribbean Indian.54 Another fascinating artifact is a Roman chalice found in southern Virginia in 1946 at a pre-Colonial depth of more than a foot and a half. It was among a trove of ancient worked bog-iron pieces unearthed by engineer James V. Howe from sixteen sites in a sixty-mile stretch of the Roanoke River Valley. The pieces had been fashioned into swords, knives, chisels, nails, and a type of threaded nut used in Germany in the second-century A.D.55 Moreover, the Calalus relics from latter-day Romans who may have found their way to southeastern Arizona were addressed in chapter 14.

MORE IRISH AND WELSH CONNECTIONS As documented in chapter 4, hundreds of stone chambers, dolmans, and habitation or ritual sites, including America’s Stonehenge in New Hampshire and the Calendar One site in Vermont, support a Celtic presence in America, such that the area could be called “New Ireland” instead of New England. In chapters 7, 8, and 9, I explored at great length the Celtic presence in Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas, noting the many Celtic Ogham inscriptions that have been discovered and that were often accompanied by archaeoastronomical features. In addition, later Old Irish Ogham inscriptions have been found in West Virginia.

The Celtic voyages appear to cease after 55 B.C., when Julius Caesar was able to outmaneuver and capture the main Celtic fleet of 220 ships in the most pivotal naval battle of the Roman conquest of the Celts. Noting that the history of “the rise and fall of Celtic sea power has been so strangely neglected,” Fell provided details of how the Celtic ships were superior in size and height and were dressed with iron chains to protect them from being rammed by the Romans. Despite having a relatively mediocre navy, the Romans defeated the entire Celtic fleet with a combination of the newly devised Roman falx (a sharp hooklike weapon) and a prevailing lack of winds that would have aided a quick Celtic retreat.56 The Celts’ sea power never recovered, and latter-day Welsh sailing vessels during the medieval period were little more than enlarged coracles made with frameworks of wood.

Over these, hides were stretched, but they were only large enough to carry six or eight men. Nevertheless, some of the Welsh still got around. Welsh visitors to the Americas could have included Madoc, the son of Madocab Owain Gwynedd, king of Wales (though many dispute this).57 His A.D. 1170 voyage was documented in Historia Cambria (History of Wales) by Cardoc of Llancarfan, which was edited in 1584 by British historian David Powel. Three Madoc voyages from Wales are mentioned: the first was an exploratory journey to the western Atlantic, the second included explorations in the American wilderness, and the third was an attempt at colonization involving ten ships.

While no evidences of these trips are known, survivors of Hernando de Soto’s 1540 illfated expedition saw abandoned fortifications on their march from Florida to the Mississippi and attributed them to Welsh settlers.58 According to different oral traditions,

Madoc and his countrymen first landed and settled in Mobile Bay, Alabama.59 It was also reported by Thomas Jefferson and others that during the colonial period some Native Americans spoke a language similar to Welsh. Jefferson is said to have believed the Prince Madoc story, and in 1804 he instructed Meriwether Lewis to search for the descendants of the Madoc Welsh Indians “said to be up the Missouri.”60 Another report suggests that the site of the first Madoc fort, which would have been built in A.D. 1171, was Desoto Falls, near Fort Payne, Alabama. In this rendition of the story, as a result of hostilities with the natives, Madoc moved and built a second fort in what is now Fort Mountain State Park in northwest Georgia. It was situated on top of a three-thousand-foot mountain with a massive wall around it that is still visible today.61 Another pre-Columbian fort, sited outside present-day Manchester, Tennessee, has been identified as having similar features. Numerous archaeologists have testified over the years that these forts are pre-Columbian, are distinct from structures built by Native Americans, and are constructed in a way similar to Madoc’s family castle in Wales.62 The descendants of Madoc’s group would have become assimilated into Indian tribes, including the distinctly different Mandan tribe of American Native Indians. The Mandans were described as “having long beards, speaking with a strange dialect, having grey hair in old age, and having women who possessed a soft, magnificent, and distinctly different beauty.”63 Also, the “bull” boats used by the Mandan Indians were nearly identical with Welsh coracles.64 However, the Mandan Indians are sadly no more. Intertribal warfare and a smallpox epidemic in 1836 devastated them, leaving only the reports of others to fill in the previous centuries.

To deepen the mystery of the Madoc expedition, consider this: Governor John Seiver of Tennessee wrote a letter in 1810 noting an “extensive” conversation he had in 1782 with the great Cherokee Chief Oconosoto, who told him about the people who built the unusual stone forts. Chief Oconosoto had learned from his forefathers that “they were people who called themselves Welsh, and they crossed the Great Water, and they landed near the mouth of the Alabama River at Mobile.” A plaque at Fort Mountain State Park repeats the Tennessee governor’s statement that the Cherokees believed “a people called Welsh” had built a fort on the mountain long ago to repel Indian attacks.65 In 1953, another plaque commemorating Madoc was erected at Fort Morgan on the shores of Mobile Bay, Alabama, by the Daughters of the American Revolution. It read, “In memory of Prince Madoc a Welsh explorer who landed on the shores of Mobile Bay in 1170 and left behind with the Indians the Welsh language.” However, the Park Service removed the controversial plaque in 2008.66 Known artifacts from other Welsh travelers include fragments of daggers (North Salem, New York, and Merrimacport, Massachusetts), an iron blade fragment (North Carolina), and burial tablets.67 During the 1800s antiquarians reported finding armor breastplates near Louisville, Kentucky, that bore a mermaid-and-harp insignia. Nearby they located a tombstone inscribed with the date A.D. 1186. 68

Farther north, at Peterborough, in Alberta, Canada, Ogham inscriptions are prominently etched into rock faces, but they are uniquely accompanied by Bronze Age Tifinag letters ten to twenty inches high (twenty-five to fifty-one centimeters). Fell translated the inscriptions as being created by a person named Woden-lithi, who identifies his kingdom in Norway as Ringerike, his ship as Gungnir, and the reason for his voyage being to acquire copper ingots. Woden-lithi’s panel also included an image of a ship and was dedicated to Tziw, a central sun god, and had instructions on calendar regulations, astronomy, Nordic mythology, and festivals. Fell placed Woden-lithi’s visit around 1700 B.C. David H. Kelley confirmed some of Fell’s translations, assigning a date for the petroglyphs between 1200 B.C and 200 B.C. If these dates are correct, this Bronze Age petroglyph panel includes one of the earliest zodiac representations in North America.

ARAB CONNECTIONS As I mentioned in chapter 1, Columbus had access to Arab maps documenting the Americas. While Europeans were struggling to emerge from the Dark Ages, Arabian merchants made maps showing the American continents. For example, Al-Masudi’s (Abu Al-Hasan Ali ibn Al-Husayn ibn Ali Al-Mas’udi) Historical Annals of 942 described a voyage from Cordova, Spain, under the command of a Captain Khashkhash that “returned from the West” filled with treasures after a long voyage.69 Another account, this one by the twelfth-century Arabic geographer Muhammad AlIdrisi, described a trip to America by the Al-Mugrurim brothers in 1154 that took the same amount of time it took Columbus—about a month. Al-Idrisi also described rich fishing in the North Atlantic and the whalebone huts of Labrador’s Inuit natives, while others described the return of boats from transatlantic voyages loaded with American tobacco.70 Also, Persian cartographer Hamad Allah Mustawfi’s map of 1350, thought to be the earliest Arabic map showing the Americas, clearly shows a large continent across the Atlantic that he called “Waq-Waq.”

Fig. 15.11. The Muhammad Al-Idrisi map of 1154. Inscribed on a silver plate, the Al-Idrisi map confirms Arab knowledge that the earth is round. (Gunnar Thompson, American Discovery) One of the earliest maps available to Medieval European mariners from 1414 and presumably compiled from earlier Arab maps was drawn by the Venetian cosmographer Albertin de Virga. Gunnar Thompson’s The Friar’s Map of Ancient America—1360 AD also provides many other examples of European maps before Columbus, including the Yale Vinland map (dated 1440) and the Frau Mauro map (dated 1459).

An Arabian geographer, Jezirate al Tennyn, identified a land he called “the Dragon’s Isle” as North America in 1424.71 Then there was the “mythical” island of “Brasil” west of Ireland, which first appeared in a chart drawn by Angelino Dulcert in 1325, while a Catalan (from Catalonia in northern Spain) chart of around 1480 labels two islands “Illa de Brasil,” one of which was southwest of Ireland.72 Moreover, shortly after the return of John Cabot’s 1497 expedition, Pedro de Ayala, a Spanish ambassador to England, reported that the land found by Cabot had been “discovered in the past by the men from Bristol who found ‘Brasil.’”73

Fig. 15.12. Persian cartographer Hamad Allah Mustawfi’s world map of 1350 portrays Waq-Waq, which represents South America, as a ring of land around Africa and Eurasia (AO = Atlantic, WQ = Waq-Waq). (Gunnar Thompson, American Discovery, 292)

Fig. 15.13. The Albertin de Virga map of 1414 is a pre-Columbian European map of the world. (Gunnar Thompson, The Friar’s Map of Ancient America—1360 A.D.)

In addition to pre-Columbian maps, there is much more evidence of Arabic travels to the Americas. A road crew dug up a hoard of Arabian coins near Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1787. Arabian coins have been found in Venezuela, while carved tokens with inscriptions have been discovered in Tennessee, Indiana, and New York, along with items containing Kufic Muslim inscriptions in Nevada, California, and Tennessee.74 As noted in chapter 14, McGlone and Leonard discovered what they considered to be “Arabian-like glyphs” in the southeastern corner of Colorado. They hypothesize that a form of Thamudic Arabian script made its way to Colorado. In 1987 the two researchers sent a detailed report of the glyphs to professional scholars. Nine of the ten semanticists who responded saw a close correspondence between the Colorado symbols and South Semitic letter-forms, using terms such as “remarkable resemblance” and “striking similarity.” However, while there definitely seemed to be similarities, they were not able to read the script, and Leonard continues to investigate the connections.75

CONNECTIONS TO MESOPOTAMIA AND EGYPT Perhaps one of the earliest American artifacts from the Middle East is the welldocumented ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet that Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph wore as a pendant. He gifted the one-inch square object to General Nelson Appleton Miles in 1877 upon his surrender to the U.S. calvary. The tablet was translated by a professor of Assyriology, Robert Biggs (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago) to be a sales receipt for a lamb dating back about 4,000 years. It is reported Chief Joseph said that long ago white men had visited his ancestors, teaching his people many things. Cuneiform was hardly known in the 1870s, especially in the American West, and it is unlikely the chief would have received it from a forger, missionary, or trader. The mysterious ancient object is housed in the museum at West Point, Virginia.

As for Egypt, the evidence for a presence in the Americas includes inscriptions, artifacts, and even words found in some Native American languages. Compelling evidence of Egyptian contact with the Americas includes the discovery of nicotine and coca in Egyptian mummies. In 1992 German scientist Svetla Balabanova and her colleagues reported finding cocaine, hashish, and nicotine in Egyptian mummies.76 Despite initial criticisms the original findings have been supported by substantial evidence.77 Some diffusionists look to ancient Egyptian queen Hatshepsut’s recorded expedition to the land of Punt in 1493 B.C. as being a trip to North America. A mural at her temple at Deir el Bahri shows an ear of maize and a pineapple, which are New World plants.

Thompson has written that Punt was located on the American mainland.

Also, Paul Gallez (1920–2007), an Argentinean cartographer and historian, has argued that Punt was the Puno region of Peru at Lake Titicaca. He noted that there are both old gold and antimony mines nearby, consistent with the Egyptian records, and that the reed boats used by Lake Titicaca’s natives are similar to those used in ancient Egypt.78 While scholars debate the exact location of the land of Punt and most believe it was on the shores of the Red Sea, others suggest it could be South Africa, India, or America.

In southern Chile is a rock inscription discovered in 1885 that Fell interpreted to be a testimonial to a Libyan-Egyptian expedition. According to his translation, an Egyptian commander named Raga arrived in South America in 231 B.C., claiming the land for Egypt.

Other possible Egyptian artifacts from the Americas include hieroglyphs from southern Chile, a stone carving of a griffin-sphinx near Cuzco, Peru, and in Central America, two statuettes were unearthed at an archaeological site in El Salvador in 1914.79 The discovery was reported in 1940 in Enrique Florescano’s book Historia de las historias de la nacion Mexicana. In another report, historian Mariano Cuevas describes the excavations of archaeologist and professor Miguel Angel Gonzalez in the Pacific port city of Acajutla.80 One of the objects was a miniature sarcophagus with an Egyptian cartouche. There have also been examples of Egyptian cartouches found in North America, including an alabaster egg found in Idaho in 190081 and an Egyptian scarab beetle with hieroglyphs found in southwestern Colorado (see figures 15.14 and 15.15).

A controversial and mostly dismissed find from the early twentieth century is a ritual grave object found in a burial mound in Libertyville, Illinois, similar in appearance to statues from the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty in Egypt, which began around 685 B.C.82 Images with distinctly Egyptian characteristics are also found in North American rock art. The image of Anubis (the Egyptian jackal god) in Oklahoma’s Anubis Caves plays a significant role in the equinox Silent Opera animation described in chapter 8. The distinctive canine figure has a flail on its back, as do Egyptian representations, and it is estimated to be about two thousand years old. Other Egyptian symbols found in rock art in North America include the ankh “life force” symbol.

Fig. 15.14. Egyptian scarab beetle stone engraving found about thirty miles from

Durango, Colorado. (Courtesy of Terry Carter, American Historical Research Foundation)

Fig. 15.15. Obverse of Egyptian scarab beetle stone from Colorado.

Perhaps the most famous report of Egyptian artifacts, thus far not proven, is a newspaper story from 1909 of a cave uncovered in the Grand Canyon. The front-page story from the April 5, 1909, Arizona Gazette recounted the discovery by Smithsonianfunded archaeologists of a series of caves and many artifacts in the Grand Canyon’s Marble Canyon area. The Smithsonian denies that any artifacts or caves were found. The area has been secured since then, preventing any investigations of the reported finds.

VIKING CONNECTIONS There is no disputing that Eric the Red, father of Leif Ericson, founded a short-lived Norse colony at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, in A.D. 987, but there is also evidence of other Norse excursions in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Maine, and New England.

Examples include large stones with runic inscriptions similar to more than a thousand found in Scandinavia with dates as early as A.D. 300–400 and continuing into the twelfth century. Most memorialized a death or an event, and many include images of Christian crosses or Thor’s hammer.

One such stone is the controversial 202-pound Kensington Runestone, which was discovered in 1898 in Minnesota by a Swedish immigrant farmer (see figure 15.16 below).

As usual, the skeptical archaeopriests ridiculed its authenticity because they were perhaps too quick to ignore epigraphic evidence that might establish its legitimacy. For example, forensic scientist and geologist Scott Wolter has authored several papers and books on the Minnesota artifact, including his 2009 book The Hooked X: Key to the Secret History of North America, which he says offers concrete validation of its authenticity.83 By using

forensic geology and epigraphy, Wolter concluded that the inscription was Norse and was consistent with the date cited on the stone: A.D. 1362. He translated it as follows: Eight Götalanders and 22 Northmen on (this?) acquisition journey from Vinland far to the west. We had a camp by two (shelters?) one day’s journey north from this stone. We were fishing one day. After we came home, found 10 men red from blood and death. Ave Maria save from evil. There are 10 men by the inland sea to look after our ships fourteen days journey from this peninsula (or island). Year 1362.84

Fig. 15.16. The Kensington Runestone. Discovered in 1898 in Minnesota, the rune inscription includes the date of A.D. 1362.

Fig. 15.17. The Kensington Runestone, hooked X detail. Scott Wolter identified the X with a hook, which was not known to scholars until 1935. (Drawing based on Scott Wolter, hooked X book cover) In addition to the hooked X character, Wolter discovered a so-called dotted R glyph on

the Kensington Runestone. This was a glyph that was not known to exist by the scientific community until 1935, thirty-seven years after the rune stone’s discovery.

Wolter’s personal quest for a New History of America has included production of the 2012 History Channel series America Unearthed, which featured his work, many other mysteries, and Old World connections to the Americas. However, there has been a general rejection of much of his work, which was the same fate as for Thor Heyerdahl’s efforts to establish evidence of a greater Norse presence in North America than the brief colonization of L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.

A NORWEGIAN VILLAGE IN AMERICA AND THE SUPPRESSION OF THOR HEYERDAHL No other diffusionist has matched the popular status of Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl, who died in 2002. He is best known for his 1947 expedition from Peru to Polynesia, a five-thousand-mile journey on his self-built raft, the Kon-Tiki, to prove that ancient South American Indians could have colonized the Pacific. Later he sailed from Morocco to Barbados in a boat made of reeds to demonstrate that ancient mariners from the Mediterranean would have been able to reach Central America easily.

While Heyerdahl received great popular acclaim for his expeditions, his diffusionist views have been widely discounted by the archaeopriests as pseudohistory and lacking credibility. These included the theories he presented in his book Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, in which he postulated that the founders of Easter Island were “whiteskinned” people who came sailing “from a mountainous land in the east that was scorched by the sun.”85 This book was published in English but Ingen grenser, his most controversial book, was never translated, and its contents are almost unknown outside of Scandinavia. In this 1999 book, the title of which translates into English as No Border, Heyerdahl and Swedish map expert Per Lilliestrom claimed that Norse colonists fished, cut timber, and raised animals as far south as today’s New York City as early as A.D. 1000. 86 This would have been the great land of Vinland that was so vividly discussed in the Viking Sagas and that was thoroughly examined in Frederick N. Brown’s 2009 book, Rediscovering Vinland: Evidence of Ancient Viking Presence in America.87 However, while the archaeopriests begrudgingly accepted Eric the Red’s brief presence, Heyerdahl challenged their “failed colonization” theory and proposed a greater Vinland, as he described in a New York Times article: “I would draw the boundaries of Vinland to include the area from Hudson Strait in the north down through the Gulf of St. Lawrence and all the way down to Long Island. Why would they stop?”88 Heyerdahl and Lilliestrom reviewed medieval documents from the Vatican Library to document the extent of westward expansion into the Americas. There, they discovered the earliest references to Vinland, a land beyond Greenland, in Adam of Bremen’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, published in A.D. 1075. Referring to his conversation with King Svend Estridsen of Denmark, Adam of Bremen wrote, “He also

spoke of another island, which many have found in this great ocean, and which is named Vinland because grapes grow wild there, and yield the best wine. There is also an abundance of self-sown grain, as we know not from hearsay only, but from the sure report of the Danes.”89 Heyerdahl suggested that the Vinlanders migrated into the Great Lakes and New England regions to escape tax collectors and the tithe-demanding church, and that the pope assigned sixteen bishops to oversee Greenland and associated lands from A.D. 1112 to about A.D. 1500, when the Greenland colony ceased to exist. Heyerdahl also noted that the Norwegian-Swedish king Magnus Eriksson sent out an expedition to inspect the Norse colonies that were founded in 1355, and it returned home in 1364.

Moreover, in 2012, signs of Norse outposts in Nanook at Tanfield Valley on Baffin Island, as well as Nunguvik on Willows Island and in the Avayalik Islands were identified

by Canadian researchers.90 There are also artifacts that include an eleventh-century silver coin from Norway that was discovered in Maine91 and many rune stones with inscriptions, including two found in Spirit Pond, Maine (A.D. 1400, 1401), and the Kensington Runestone (1362) that was detailed above. Still, these items may not seem like much to have been left by established colonists from Norway. However, it is consistent with the scenario outlined by Heyerdahl that the visiting Vikings lived more like early Native Americans than Europeans, intermarrying with Indian women and leaving little evidence of their European origins, not unlike the situation with French trappers centuries later.

In addition to Heyerdahl, Eben Norton Horsford wrote The Discovery of the Ancient City of Norumbega, which was published in 1890. It was about a legendary New England Viking city from the eleventh century.92 Horsford identified the Norumbega town site as being where Bangor, Maine, is located now on the Penobscot River and claimed it was specifically sought after by explorer Samuel de Champlain when he explored the area in 1605. In the preface to the book Judge Dale, the president of the Council of the American Geographical Society, wrote that Horsford confirmed “what is now generally admitted— that America was discovered by the Northmen five centuries before the arrival of Columbus, and that for a considerable period thereafter they maintained a settlement upon our northeastern coast, and kept up during that time an intercourse with the mother country.”93 Perhaps with even newer findings of the Norse presence, Heyerdahl’s book No Borders will see the light of day in English and other languages, hopefully along with many other neglected chapters from the New History of America.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR CONNECTION There is some evidence that members of the Knights Templar landed in America after their order was destroyed in 1307. The background to this incredible piece of history is shrouded in secrets, codes, and lost documents, which began to come to light with the publication of the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail in 1982 by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. The three authors pieced together a secret history revolving

around the origins of the Templars as a Christian order of warrior knights and their rise to become the wealthiest and most powerful organization in Europe. However, Baigent and Leigh later lost a fortune suing Dan Brown for plagiarizing them and their original research in his mega-bestseller The Da Vinci Code.94 The Templar order was formed in 1119, but the knights had already spent a decade excavating Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, which is where they got their name. It is believed they were exposed to ancient knowledge and wealth that had been lost during the Dark Ages of Europe. Granted status as a protected order in 1139 by Pope Innocent II, they provided the most efficient military arm for Christian campaigns in the Holy Land.

Soon their wealth rivaled that of the church itself, with merchant fleets, ports, and a bank that charged interest for loans.

However, they posed a threat to the monarchies and wealthy elites because of their wealth and power. Collaboration between the French monarchy and the church destroyed the Templars, beginning in 1307, just as it had a century earlier destroyed the Cathars of southern France. Catharism, a “heretical” form of Christianity, emphasized the importance of gnosis (direct knowledge of spiritual truth) instead of following a canonized gospel.

The Cathars, like the Templars, also challenged the church’s teaching regarding Mary Magdalene and instead emphasized her importance as a companion wife of Jesus.95 The growing Cathar influence even challenged the church’s power to tax. As a result, the church organized prosecutions and established the Inquisition in 1234 to control the heretics. Some years later a war was launched against the Cathars that, in the end, resulted in their extermination by the early fourteenth century.

As for the Templars, their end came when Philip IV of France, who owed them vast sums for his war against the British, connived with Pope Clement to suddenly arrest them and begin confiscating their property. This occurred on Friday, October 13, 1307. Tortured into confessing that they held heretical thoughts and performed vile actions, the Templars were condemned and burned to death while their properties were confiscated.

It is thought by Steven Sora, as presented in The Lost Colony of the Templars, that some surviving Templars, whose origins could be traced back to the Norwegian Vikings, aligned themselves four decades later with Henry I Sinclair (ca. 1345–ca. 1400). He was a Scottish-Norwegian nobleman who, in 1398, aided or led them on a mission to start Arcadia, a colony that would serve as a refuge from the corrupt church.96 Sora suggests that one of their stops was Oak Island on the southern shore of Nova Scotia, where an extensive complex of tunnels, drains, and booby traps that was discovered in 1795 became the basis of the Templar treasure stories. In 1992, also in Nova Scotia, a rectangular stone structure was discovered in Waverley by researcher and treasure hunter Jack McNab that Sora said could be linked back to the Templars.97 Also according to Sora, Sinclair and his band made their way down the coast to what is now Newport Harbor in Rhode Island. On the west side of Newport Harbor, there is a stone structure that was built before the arrival of Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524, with the exact measurements of a Templar baptistery. It was obviously not built by Native

Americans, since on eight rough stone columns that are separated by arched entrances there sits a round tower about twenty-five feet in diameter and about twenty-five feet high.

There is no other similar structure in America, although round and octagonal buildings like it are found throughout Europe and may be based on the design of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, a domed circular rotunda that was built over the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem.

Importantly, the top of the Newport Tower contains two distinct ten-inch-square windows, and below are three larger windows, each designed with specific viewing angles in mind. Various researchers have documented archaeoastronomical aspects of these windows. William Penhallow, an astronomer at the University of Rhode Island, documented both solar and lunar alignments.98 In a NEARA publication, he showed that the different windows and niches were designed for archaeoastronomical purposes, including a winter solstice rising sun that illuminates a prominent egg-shaped keystone in the west-northwest archway. More recently, Scott Wolter has also observed that there are both morning star and evening star Venus alignments.99 Another researcher has shown that a person of about five feet five inches tall, standing in front of a point marked in the sill of the south window, could see Polaris, the North Star, through the small north window.100

Fig. 15.18. Newport Tower, Rhode Island, ca. 1894. First reported by the explorer Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524, this American landmark could have been built by the Knights Templar around 1400.

While the archaeopriests and skeptics continue to debunk the pre-Columbian roots of the Newport Tower, amazingly it appears on the map of explorer Giovanni da Verrazano (1485–1528), who visited the Americas in 1524 in the service of King Francis I of France.101 According to Sora, Verrazano’s “secret” mission to the East Coast of America was to locate the “lost colony” of the Templars, and that he had the knowledge and maps

to know their whereabouts in Newport Harbor. When he reached it in search of Arcadia and the refuge of the Templars, he saw the Newport Tower, but with no colony nearby, he understood that the Sinclair expedition had made it to America, but the colony had moved on or not survived.

But where did the Templars go? As with all ancient travelers and colonists, migrations to the Americas were not without significant hardships, especially for refugees fleeing invading armies, political tyrants, forced expulsions, and climate disasters. Eventually death or, if you were lucky, integration into native tribes was the probable outcome.

The apparent fate of the Sinclair expedition was most likely met by other groups that had traveled to the Americas. Author Gene Matlock makes the case that such a fate befell many of the early Indus Valley travelers, miners, and refugees as well as later travelers who became integrated into native groups, leaving little trace of their Old World origins.

In a somber passage from the introduction to his book India Once Ruled the Americas! he wrote, “Until the coming of the Spaniards, English and French, both Americas were the killing fields of the world. Tribes were constantly … killing and eating the people they found … absorbing them through intermarriage, or chasing them southward.”102

DO WE NEED MORE PROOF? In the near future, I think it will seem bizarre that Americans believed Columbus discovered America, that they celebrated Columbus Day, and that the “Age of Exploration” began in the late 1400s. The case for pre-Columbian voyages by Asians, Indians, Arabs, Africans, people of Mediterranean cultures, and European Celts, among many others, is so overwhelming that any rational and objective thinker has only to examine the multitude of direct and indirect evidences to be convinced.

As a complement to figure 15.1, “My New History Evidence List,” presented at the beginning of this chapter, the chart that follows below, “Other New History Evidence,” summarizes additional New History clues, including some presented in this chapter.

For those who are not so convinced, there are still more than enough indications that further investigations should go on. To briefly review, these include Old World epigraphy throughout the Americas, written in many languages, including Celtic, Welsh, Hebrew, Phoenician, Latin, Libyan, Norse, and Arabic, among many others. Some of this epigraphy is specific to archaeoastronomical events, including the Celtic Ogham inscriptions in Colorado and Oklahoma that describe equinox light show stories that can still be viewed today. Moreover, the abundance of Old World–style artifacts includes coins, swords, and religious artifacts. On a greater scale, there are similarities in architectural styles and symbols that support the diffusion of the arts and sciences. And perhaps most convincing to a scientific mind is the DNA evidence from some Native American peoples that seems to prove genetic relationships to Old World groups and, therefore, foreign visits and integrations.

Culture Chinese Maps

Evidence Pre-Columbus maps showing the Americas

Location/Details China: Hendon M. Harris and other Chinese maps

Time/Age 1418

Chapter 15 1, 15

Arab Maps European Maps

Arab: Al-Idrisi map, Mustawfi map Venice: de Virga map European: Vinland map

1154, 1350 1414 1440

15 15 15

Phoenicians

Crespi Collection

Ecuador

Ca. 148 B.C.

2

Phoenicians

Inscriptions

Bourne Stone, Maine Grave Creek Stone, W.V.

600–800 B.C. 1st millennium B.C.

2 15

Celts

Chambers, AS, architecture

America’s Stonehenge, N.H., Vermont sites

Carbon dating 2000–173 B.C.

4

Celts

Inscriptions, AS

Crack Cave, Anubis Caves, Sun Temple, many others

ca. 200 B.C.– A.D. 100

Indus Valley

AS, petroglyphs

Bishop, Calif.; Grimes Point, Nev., many other Great Basin examples

2000 B.C.– A.D. 1500

12

Hebrews

Hidden Mountain Bat Creek Stone

New Mexico Tennessee

Ca. 100 B.C.– A.D. 100

14 14

Assyrians

Clay tablet (pendant) with cuneiform inscription

In 1878 in Montana Chief Joseph gifted artifact Ca. 1000 B.C. to U.S.

15

Chinese

Imperial Records The Book of Liang

Hsu Fu or Xufu Huishen to “Fusang”

Ca. 219 B.C. A.D 458– 499

15

Chinese

Similarity of symbols, motifs

Jade jewelry, flying serpents

500 B.C. A.D. 200

Mediterraneans

Tartessian (Punic) inscriptions

Bristol, R.I., and Ohio

Sixth century B.C.

15

Japanese

Jomon pottery style Pottery and vases Symbols, language

Pottery found in Ecuador Veracruz Mexico Zuni Native Americans, N.M.

Ca. 3600 B.C. 1000 B.C. A.D. 1350

15

Greeks

Greek words in Micmac language

Eastern Canada, NE U.S.

300–100 B.C.

15

Greeks

Petroglyphic symbols

Red Bird River, Manchester, Ky.

1362?

15

Egyptians

Rock inscriptions Egyptian statuettes Petroglyph of Anubis Coca and nicotine

Southern Chile El Salvador (Acajutla) Anubis Caves (OK, USA) Egyptian mummies

231 B.C. ~2000 yrs ago ~3000 yrs ago Ca. 1000 B.C.

15 15 8 15

Knights Templar

Newport Tower

Newport Bay, R.I.

Before 1524

15

Asians

Calendar start dates

Similar dates for Maya, Egypt and Hindu calendars

3100–3114 B.C.

15

Asians

Architectural resemblances

Indian, Japanese, IndoChinese temples resemble Mesoamerican temples

Begin around 400 B.C.

15

Asians

Elephants petroglyph Elephant in mural Elephant effigy pipe

Grimes Point, Nev. Copan site, Honduras (Maya) Hopewell, Iowa

+5000 yrs.

A.D. 731 100 B.C. – A.D. 500

12 15 2, 15

Corn to Old World

Depicted in sculptures, murals

China Egypt, and India

A.D. 700 A.D. 1300

5, 15

Other plants to Old World

Peanuts, tobacco, sugar apples, chilies, amaranth

Asia and Europe

Before 1492

15

Vikings

Runic inscriptions

Kensington Runestone, MN .

Spirit Pond, Maine Heavener Runestone, Okla.

A.D. 1362 A.D. 1401 A.D. 750

15

7, 8, 9

5, 15

Fig. 15.19. Other New History Evidence. AS = archaeoastronomy.

In other words, the greatest remaining questions are not “Who discovered America and when,” but “Why does the lie about our history continue, and what is being covered up?”

16 The Legacy of the Conquest Why has our society chosen to ignore the facts of history and instead perpetuate a false view of historical events?

Based on my investigations there indeed has been a cover-up, beginning as early as 1879 when John Wesley Powell of the Smithsonian Institution wrote his On Limitations to the Use of Some Anthropologic Data. This was followed by Cyrus Thomas’s 1894 “Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology,” which “proved beyond all doubt that the mound builders were ancestral Native Americans” (chapter 13). But can such a state of perpetual ignorance be linked simply to misguided archaeopriest ideology?

Before we can understand the why of the cover-up, it’s necessary to explore what is being covered up. I offer the following observations to help establish a context for the subjugation of the Americas following the arrival of the Spanish in 1492.

AMERICA BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE SPANISH Before the arrival of Columbus the northern and southern hemispheres were populated top to bottom by people who had been here over a period of at least fifteen thousand years, arriving in waves from different directions, bringing and evolving different ideas and technologies. The Americas were well settled, with domesticated landscapes, great empires, and hundreds of nomadic bands and tribes with an overall population somewhere between six and twenty million. Moreover, they had evolved many different agricultural and hunting practices that were far more advanced than those of Europe. The Iroquois confederacy had a government, rules, traditions, norms, and trade and kinships structures that were in many respects superior to those of cultures in Europe. Tenochtitlan of the Aztecs (modern-day Mexico City) was one of the grandest cities in the world. The Americas were not the raw, uninhabited wilderness that the Europeans perceived them to be.

For example, it was previously believed that the Amazon Basin was basically uninhabited due to poor soil, an erroneous theory that was reinforced by arguments that the acidic soils would not sustain agriculture. Contrary to this, recent studies show that some thirty thousand square miles of forested islands in a grassy floodplain were cultivated to support extensive human-constructed landscapes that included fisheries and raised fields for agriculture.1 Widespread human settlement in the interior of the Amazon area has now been demonstrated with recent discoveries of an ancient astronomical observatory in Brazil, along with a network of villages and towns connected by roads as wide as 150 feet (forty-five meters).2 While southwestern and southeastern tribes in the United States relied on agriculture, often accompanied by irrigation, in the Great Plains and Midwest natives used fire to clear

landscapes for better hunting. Charles C. Mann’s 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus provides details of how Native Americans transformed forests into prairies by practicing a distinct type of animal husbandry.3 Rather than raising domesticated animals for meat, Indians retooled ecosystems to encourage elk, deer and bear. Constant burning of undergrowth increased the numbers of herbivores, the predators that fed on them and the people who ate them both. Indian fire had its greatest impact in the middle of the continent, which Native Americans transformed into a prodigious game farm… . Native Americas burned the Great Plains and Midwest prairies so much and so often that they increased its extent; in all probability, a substantial portion of the giant grassland celebrated by cowboys was established and maintained by the people who arrived there first.4 Fire might have been beneficial to Native tribes of the Great Plains and Midwest, but as mentioned in chapter 13, the use of fire in the Ohio Valley caused floods which ended agricultural enterprises and caused the abandonment of Monks Mound.

While there was a high degree of internal and external conflict in some regions, including Mesoamerica and the American Southwest, other native tribes established cooperative governments, including the Iroquois League, also known as the Five Nations.

It was centered in present-day New York and was composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca Nations of New York, northern New England, and southeastern Canada. In the Iroquois language it was called the League of Peace and Power, and it was headed by the Grand Council of fifty hereditary chiefs.

In addition to ecological management and animal husbandry by the use of fire, other Native American skill sets and knowledge systems exceeded those of the Europeans of the fifteenth century. Besides agriculture, there was aquaculture, such as the floating gardens of Xochimilco, which is all that is left from what was an extensive lake and canal system that connected most of the settlements of the Valley of Mexico. As for building and archaeoastronomy, the Aztec Pyramid of the Sun in Tenochtitlan and Monks Mound at Cahokia surpassed the largest structures of Europe. The Maya and other latter-day Mesoamericans continued the millennia-old traditions of stargazing, calendar keeping, and integrating cosmological alignments into their buildings. Some of the most celebrated archaeoastronomical achievements in North America are the Fajada Butte calendar alignment petroglyphs in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, documented by Anna Sofaer in 1999. On a single panel Anasazi-era Native Americans recorded the equinoxes, solstices, and the 18.6-year lunar standstill cycle.5 Other Anasazi-era sites corroborate Sofaer’s assessment of the state of Native American archaeoastronomy, including research by archaeoastronomer J. McKim Malville at Chimney Rock, Colorado, who confirms Sofaer’s conclusion that the Anasazi also tracked lunar cycles.6 (See also figure 16.1 below.)

But the continuity of this tradition of pre-Columbian archaeoastronomy and cosmology, so alive in the Americas for thousands of years, was about to come to an end. By 1492, the American Southwest was experiencing the impact of a significant period of drought

during the North Atlantic’s Medieval Warm Period, which lasted from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries A.D. It reached a climax between 1276 and 1299, a period known as the Great Drought. Increasingly, food availability was impacted, which caused conflicts, for example, between the Navaho and Apache groups and the Mogollon, Hohokam, and Patayan Pueblos. All this coincided with a mass Anasazi exodus from Chaco Canyon and settlements in what is now the Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico, Mesa Verde in Colorado, and many other places throughout the Four Corners area. Leaving their ancestral homelands, they migrated into the Little Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers drainage areas of Arizona and New Mexico. Today, some of the Pueblo peoples of the region claim the Anasazi as their ancestors. This vast area has not regained the population or the cultural and architectural prominence of the previous centuries before the Spanish arrived in Mexico and the American Southwest in the sixteenth century.

Fig. 16.1. This Solstice Snake on the summer solstice pierces an arrowhead of light at the Behind the Rocks area near Moab, Utah. (Photograph by Randy Langstraat) Climatic upheavals also resulted in the collapse of other indigenous cultures in the Americas, including the Tiwanaku civilization that flourished from A.D. 300 to A.D. 1000 in the Lake Titicaca area of Bolivia. The Mississippian culture was also impacted, with the greatest decline in the population of Cahokia occurring between 1350 and 1400. By the time of the arrival of Europeans most of its population had dispersed or was experiencing severe social stress and a subsequent reduction in maize agriculture, along with possible deforestation.7 The aftermath of this extended period of drought and famine was a mass emptying of the region.

Another noteworthy development that facilitated the conquering of the Americas was the deep political division within the Aztec empire of central Mexico. With the Triple Alliance of 1428 composed of three Nahuatl-speaking tribes that had come down from the north, the early Aztec “empire” resembled a collection of rival city-states more than a

centralized government. However, by the time Cortés arrived in 1519, Tenochtitlan had risen to power over Texcoco and Tlacopan (Tacuba), the other two members of the triad.

This power shift caused great dissatisfaction, particularly because, in addition to the tribute demanded by the Aztecs, the ritual “Flower Wars” were waged to acquire captives for their human sacrifice rituals. In another explanation, according to some historical accounts, the Flower Wars were an attempt to appease the gods in response to drought conditions that impacted central Mexico in the 1450s.8 It is clear from the archaeological evidence and historical documentation that massive sacrificial ceremonies dominated the culture, although the scale continues to be debated.

For example, one researcher has estimated that as many as 250,000 captives were sacrificed per year in central Mexico in the fifteenth century, but this is considered exaggerated by others.9 The Aztecs themselves reported that over a four-day period when the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan was being reconsecrated in 1487, roughly 80,400 prisoners were sacrificed. However, according to Ross Hassig, author of Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control, it was fewer.10

THE CHURCH AND THE SPANISH MONARCHY Even before Pope Alexander VI divided the newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal in 1493, in the Dum Diversas of 1452, Pope Nicholas V had authorized King Alfonso V of Portugal to institute the enslavement of Muslims, pagans, and “other unbelievers.” These included the peoples south of Cape Bojador in Africa, which ushered in the West African slave trade. The Romanus Pontifex followed in 1454, written by Pope Nicholas V to King Afonso V of Portugal, which also sanctioned the seizure of nonChristian lands, specifically to “invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens [Muslims] and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ.”11 The same year Columbus sailed to Hispaniola, Alexander Borgia became Pope Alexander VI, and after Columbus’s return in 1493 from Santo Domingo, the pope issued a series of edicts giving Spain possession of the new lands (including the Inter Caetera of 1493). These new edicts augmented the earlier papal edicts of 1452 (Dum Diversas) and 1454 (Romanus Pontifex) that granted rights to Portugal. The Inter Caetera asserted Spain’s dominion over “all lands to the west and south of a pole-to-pole line 100 leagues west and south of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde islands,” which amounted to nearly half of North and South America. Alexander then brokered the Treaty of Tordesilas between Spain and Portugal in 1494, which gave the greatest share of the newly “discovered” lands to these two leading maritime nations.12 At the time of the papal bulls of 1452, 1454, and 1493 and the Treaty of Tordesilas of 1494, neither Spain nor Portugal had traveled to the territories they claimed dominion over, although Columbus had reached the Caribbean in 1492. However, in 1500 Portugal’s claims to parts of South America were established when Portuguese Captain Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in Brazil. This explains why Portuguese is today the language of Brazil, while Spanish is spoken throughout the rest of South America, Central America, and Mexico.

While some in religious and academic quarters debate whether the church actually intended to grant Spain and Portugal the right to enslave others, the fact that the Inter Caetera granted dominion over cities, camps, places, and villages, and all corresponding “rights, jurisdictions, and appurtenances” leaves little doubt.

Looking further into the collaboration between the papacy and the two slave-keeping cultures, Europe was slowly emerging from the Dark Ages, and one sees how the church had grown in power through treachery, shifting political alliances, and the wholesale slaughter of its opponents. Because of the Inquisition, books and heretics had been burned and most science that contradicted church dogma had been destroyed. After a thousand years of barbarity, including crusades against Muslims, the extermination of dissenting Christians, and the destruction of the Knights Templar, the church and the invading Europeans were well prepared for dealing with the natives they encountered in the Americas.

However, after Columbus’s arrival, as described in chapter 1, the conquest of Hispaniola did not result in the large amount of gold that he was seeking. The limited amount of gold jewelry worn by the natives and presented to Columbus was the result of years of accumulation, not of the large gold deposits or significant mining operations that the Spanish had hoped for. To remedy this, Columbus tried to bring slaves back to Europe, but that failed. His gruesome policies of punishing natives also failed because it eliminated most of their existence.

Fig. 16.2. Spanish atrocities in Hispaniola. The punishment for not providing Spanish conquistadors with the minimum gold tribute was the loss of hands, or worse. (Rendering

by Flemish artist Theodor de Bry)

By 1542, from a population of at least one hundred thousand, there remained only two hundred Arawaks in Hispaniola, while the rest of the dead had been replaced by an abundant supply of black slaves from Africa.

MAJOR FACTORS IMPACTING THE CONQUEST What are we to make of the ability of the Spanish and Portuguese, followed by the English, to conquer and decimate the peoples of the Americas within fifty years of 1492?

It is evident that the American conquest can be attributed to major factors that already existed or came to exist in both the New and Old Worlds, which were fueled by the ruthless Christian zeal to plunder the Americas for gold and treasure. Let’s take a closer look at these factors.

1. Technology The Europeans had transoceanic ships, domesticated horses, steel weapons, armor, and guns. Since they had spent centuries perfecting the means of forging iron and brass for use in battle, steel swords, armor, advanced crossbows, and guns, this gave the conquistadors the winning advantage. For example, Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro was able to defeat King Atahuallpa’s Incan army of about eighty thousand men with only 106 foot soldiers and sixty-two men mounted on horses. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, a remarkable scientific investigation of the “fates of human societies,” geography professor Jared Diamond notes, “Atahuallpa’s troops, without animals on which to ride into battle, could oppose [the conquistadors] with only stone, bronze, or wooden clubs, maces, and hand axes, plus slingshots and quilted armor. Such imbalances of equipment were decisive in innumerable other confrontations of Europeans with Native Americans and other peoples … the sole Native Americans able to resist European conquest of many centuries were those tribes that reduced the military disparity by acquiring and mastering both horses and guns.”13 2. Political Conditions in the New and Old Worlds In the sixteenth century, Spain was a small, poor, and financially dependent nation, but the expansionist policies that followed Columbus’s voyages were fueled with Aztec and Incan gold. There was an economic necessity that shaped the conquest, as noted by author David E. Stannard in his damning 1992 exposé, American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World.

Just as social thought does not bloom in a political vacuum … neither do institutions come into being and sustain themselves without the inspiration of economic or political necessity. In sixteenth-century Spain, as we have seen that necessity was created by an impoverished and financially dependent small nation that made itself into an empire, an empire that engaged in ambitious wars of expansion (and vicious Inquisitorial repression of suspected non-believers within), but an empire with a huge and gaping hole in its treasury: no sooner were gold or silver deposited than they drained away to creditors. The only remedy for this, since control of expenditures did not fit with imperial visions, was to accelerate the appropriation of wealth. And this

demanded the theft and mining of more and more New World gold and silver… .

As with Hispaniola, Tenochtitlan, Cuzco, and elsewhere, the Spaniards’ mammoth destruction of whole societies generally was a by-product of conquest and native enslavement, a genocidal means to an economic end, not an end in itself. And therein lies the central difference between the genocide committed by the Spanish and that of the Anglo-Americans: in British America extermination was the primary goal, and it was so precisely because it made economic sense.14 Moreover, as outlined above, the church had become the centralized de facto government of Europe and was capable of bringing the monarchies together while providing a religious rational for conquest. Represented by the invading army of Christians, churchmen worked with the conquistadors to demand converts and their share of the loot.

On the other hand, the two largest and most centralized governments in the Americas— the Aztecs and the Incas—were, as mentioned, politically weak when the Spanish arrived.

In Mexico, Cortés was able to secure cooperation and political support from the enemies of the Aztecs, who joined Cortés in his assaults on the Aztec capital. The Inca realm was also divided following the smallpox death of King Huayna Capac. Atahuallpa, the new king, was vulnerable following his victories over his half brother in a civil war, so Pizarro was able to exploit the situation just as Cortés had done with the Aztecs.15 The centralized political and social structures of the Incas and Aztecs also worked against them in their encounters with the Spanish. In both regions, the king was thought to have godlike qualities, and after the executions of Montezuma and Atahuallpa their subjects grew incredibly fearful so that many tribes could not overcome a sense that it was futile to resist the Spanish.

Underlying all these tragedies, there was a permissive philosophy of war and conquest imbued in the Europeans that empowered them to guiltlessly take advantage of naïve indigenous peoples. Montezuma greeted Cortés and then allowed himself to be kidnapped in his own court. Pizarro in Peru copied his predecessor’s tactic and captured Atahuallpa in a surprise attack, with the result that within a year, the greatest civilization in South America was reduced to a Spanish mining operation, with gold and silver heading back to Europe to finance the wars of the Spanish king.

3. The Wholesale Burning of Books and Records The Spanish conquistadors’ efforts to destroy the indigenous cultures were supplemented by massive burnings of the libraries of the Aztecs, Incas, and Maya that were conducted by the churchmen sent to the Americas with the mercenary armies. The first bishop of Mexico, Juan de Zumarraga, along with fellow religious fanatics, burned all the records found in Tlateloco in the main square, along with twenty thousand “idols” and numerous works of art. They also went on to destroy the five hundred temples that had housed these items.

The most infamous Spanish bishop, Fray Diego de Landa, followed Zumarraga’s lead and completely destroyed the Mayan libraries of the Yucatan in 1562. So thorough was the

destruction that only three codices survived. Then, in 1566, Landa was to write his Relación de las cosas de Yucatán (among different translations, “On the Things of Yucatan”). “We found a large number of their books of these letters, and because they did not have anything in which there was not superstition and falsehoods of the devil, we burned them all, which they felt very sorry for and which caused them grief.”16 Later, in Peru, the fanatical head of the Jesuit College, Pablo Jose de Arriaga (A.D. 1564–1622) was just as thorough as Landa in systematically destroying historical records, including the Incan imperial archives containing their history, philosophy, science, religion, and astronomy.

Thus, as a result of the church’s destructive religious zeal, some of the world’s great depositories of ancient writing were destroyed and lost forever. This simple approach became the church’s strategy for many decades, as the military and political arms of the church were encouraged to find and destroy manuscripts wherever and whenever they could find them.

4. Disease It is often argued that the genocide was not intended but was actually an unintended consequence of the spread of disease. A similar argument is promoted by the church regarding the institution of slavery (i.e., that it was an unintended effect “of the times”).

Another “unintended” consequence was the introduction and consequent mass deaths from the diseases the Spanish imported.

In the face of the whitewashed and Christianized version of the conquest, David Stannard insightfully writes, From almost the instant of first human contact between Europe and the Americas firestorms of microbial pestilence and purposeful genocide began laying waste the American natives. Although at times operating independently, for most of the long centuries of devastation that followed 1492, disease and genocide were interdependent forces acting dynamically—whipsawing their victims between plague and violence, each one feeding upon the other, and together driving countless numbers of entire ancient societies to the brink—and often over the brink—of total extermination.17 Jared Diamond amplified these thoughts with a comment in Guns, Germs, and Steel.

“The grimmest examples of germs’ role in history come from the European conquest of the Americas that began with Columbus’s voyage of 1492. Numerous as were the Native American victims of the murderous Spanish conquistadores, they were far outnumbered by the victims of murderous Spanish microbes.”18 Diamond also identified microbes from livestock and animals as another origin of the diseases that Europeans brought. Others researchers added insights, including Charles C. Mann, author of 1491: Unlike Europeans, Indians did not live in constant contact with many animals. They domesticated only the dog; the turkey (in Mesoamerica); and the llama, the alpaca,

the Muscovy duck, and the guinea pig (in the Andes). In some ways this is not surprising: the New World had fewer animal candidates for taming than the Old. Moreover, few Indians carry the gene that permits adults to digest lactose, a form of sugar abundant in domesticated milk-giving animals. But this is guesswork. The fact is that what scientists call zoonotic disease was little known in the Americas. By contrast, swine, mainstays of European agriculture, transmit anthrax, brucellosis, leptospirosis, trichinosis, and tuberculosis. Pigs breed exuberantly and can pass diseases to deer and turkeys, which then can infect people. Only a few of De Soto’s pigs would have had to wander off to contaminate the forest.19 Diamond discusses the results in the Mississippi Valley. It was not so much the “little ice age,” a cooling of the north Atlantic region that began in the thirteenth century, that affected the peoples of that region, but the fact that “throughout the Americas, diseases introduced with Europeans spread from tribe to tribe far in advance of the Europeans themselves, killing an estimated 95 percent of the pre-Columbian Native American population. The most populous and highly organized native societies of North America, the Mississippian chiefdoms, disappeared in that way between 1492 and the late 1600s, even before Europeans themselves made their first settlement on the Mississippi River.”20 5. Ruthlessness, Guile, and Greed If there was a tradition among the conquistadors, it was the unscrupulous will and commitment to the mass murder of tens of thousands of human beings. This policy of genocide was born out of the events mentioned earlier: the centuries of wars against the Muslims, the extermination of the Cathars and the Knights Templar, and of course the many results of the Inquisition. Thus, it is no surprise that the primary triad of Spanish conquistadors, Columbus, Cortés, and Pizarro, all exhibited an insatiable drive for conquest that was emboldened by a “divine” destiny that each considered his own. Their resilience, resourcefulness, and daring were driven by their ruthlessness and greed for gold and power.

The untold atrocities committed by the Spanish, Portuguese, and later the English struck fear into the native populations and served notice that cooperation and conversion to Christianity was a better course than opposing them. But as the native populace soon found out, being baptized Christian was no protection at all. In his essay “Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?” Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and reformist, made this point when he remarked, “The [Catholic] Spaniards in Mexico and Peru used to baptize Indian infants and then immediately dash their brains out; by this means they secured that these infants went to heaven.”21 While the massacres and barbaric behavior of the conquerors and the scope of personal as well as cultural tragedies associated with the complete decimation of native populations were described in detail by Spanish chronicles in letters, diaries, and official reports, they are not generally known and are often ignored by the nations that now worship Columbus as a hero.

6. The Catholic Whitewash of History In my travels I discovered how Catholic influence and the legacy of the Spanish conquest remains strong, particularly in New Mexico. Spanish-style churches, names of locations, and family traditions are commonplace. The people of Spanish ancestry often exhibit a sense of humility, respect, and friendliness not common to other areas of the country, so one might think that all of these unfortunate events that occurred in unenlightened, previous times are justified or unintended, as the Catholic Church has maintained regarding genocide, slavery, and disease. Such apologetics promote a simplified and falsified history that conceals and protects the guilty.

Perhaps hoping that salvation can follow a confession as it does for his flock, in a 2007 speech to the Brazilian people, Pope Benedict exposed the non–mea culpa rationale of the church’s rulers regarding the people it had conquered and enslaved in the Americas.

Christ is the Saviour for whom they were silently longing. It also meant that they received, in the waters of Baptism, the divine life that made them children of God by adoption; moreover, they received the Holy Spirit who came to make their cultures fruitful, purifying them and developing the numerous seeds that the incarnate Word had planted in them, thereby guiding them along the paths of the Gospel. In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbian cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture… .

The wisdom of the indigenous peoples fortunately led them to form a synthesis between their cultures and the Christian faith, which the missionaries were offering them. Hence the rich and profound popular religiosity, in which we see the soul of the Latin American peoples… . All this forms the great mosaic of popular piety, which is the precious treasure of the Catholic Church in Latin America, and must be protected, promoted, and, when necessary, purified.22

AFTERMATH: THE IMPOSITION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE COLUMBUS MYTH I began this chapter by asking, “What is being covered up?” The answer is not simply the unconscionable genocide of indigenous peoples. The real cover-up is the continuity of the forces, ideologies, and institutions that were operationally behind the conquest of the Americas, with the same agendas enacted today by corporations and governments that are driven by the same goals and purposes that dominated the Old History.

Through ideological reinforcement, a racist Christian ideology has been promoted among leading academic institutions to maintain the Columbus myth and the “manifest destiny” ideology. Gunnar Thompson has written that the Columbus myth is “the principle bastion of white racism in American academia.” He emphasized that ethnocentric bias in anthropology and history has produced the worst kind of institutionalized racism: religious doctrine and bigotry have been cloaked in the presumed respectability of science… . This dogma has been advanced by major encyclopedias, history books, and movies. Museum curators and educators follow the

Smithsonian lead in proclaiming Columbus responsible for introducing the Old World and the New World in a cathartic cultural event called “the Great Colombian Exchange.” Consequently, a brutal period of native genocide is concealed behind euphemistic slogans of manifest destiny.23 However, the legacy of the Old History is not just an ethnocentric bias, as Thompson alludes, but also a sexist doctrine that maintains the Old History, as written by men and glorifying the roles and activities of men. Historian and scientist Piero Scaruffi, in his essay “For a New History of Prehistory,” notes: The male bias in the disciplines of archeology and ancient history is even more pervasive and may account for several mysteries that archeologists never cracked.

For example, archeologists routinely assume that the first tools were stone tools that require strong men to make and strong men to use, and mostly used for hunting and killing in general… . The first tool was probably invented by women to carry babies with them wherever they had to go. A baby can never be left alone, especially in the conditions of two million years ago… . If archeology focused on the lives of women, it might better understand ancient civilizations that were not as male-dominated as they have been in the last 3000 years.24 Beginning even before the broken promise to the Incan king Atahuallpa, that he would be released once the gold ransom was paid, and moving through centuries of the United States government’s broken treaties with North American native tribes, to more recent invasions of indigenous lands in Central and South American countries by oil, fruit, and other companies operating with impunity, the conquest lives on, all around us, and the Christian/ conquistador ideology remains in place long after Columbus, Cortés, and Pizarro are gone. It is seen in the modern colonization of Third World nations for resources and cheap labor, the continued domination and destruction of the last vestiges of native cultures in remote regions of the globe, and the relentless destruction of the environment to acquire (or should we stay, steal) the wealth of the planet for the benefit of the few.

In short, the conquest is still living among us.

17 Awakening a New History He discovered traces of a culture older than recorded time.

DR. ZAIUS, HEAD OF THE APE ACADEMY IN THE MOVIE, PLANET OF THE APES

My journeys and the records from scores of historians, epigraphers, archaeoastronomers, and researchers have confirmed a growing realization that here in America, the Old History was perpetuated to promote a white, male-dominated, Christian, Eurocentric outlook. I have come to realize we humans live in a lie, our true history shrouded by myth and amnesia.

I think that for each of us there is a greater story to discover, a greater connection to the past to realize, and a greater vision of humanity to embrace. In attempting to present a New History, I have sought to peel away the layers of lost connections to a disenfranchised and misunderstood past in a quest for understanding the shared present.

How then to wake up from this amnesia, this long dark dream?

A RETURN TO PLANET OF THE APES? The manufactured reality we live within exists, largely, because of the failure of the mind to remember its past and, equally, the mind’s failure to comprehend our purpose in coming to this place. Such a predicament, which requires the mind to awaken in order to comprehend the magnitude of the illusion, is best communicated through metaphors. The original Planet of the Apes movie illustrated a “scientific” community conspiring to suppress artifacts that would contradict an old order and its self-serving ideology. The ruling ape, Zaius, was successfully hiding this secret, which was finally unmasked by the “New History” of Cornelius, an archaeologist chimpanzee, who informed Zaius that he has “discovered traces of a culture older than recorded time.” Cornelius’s evidence pointed to a more advanced civilization predating the current ape society. Toward the end of this epic science fiction movie, Zaius destroys and erases from memory the archaeological site proving early humans were the source of ape science.

A most curious and inexplicable question raised by Zaius, was, “How can scientific proof be heresy?” One does not have to revert to science fiction movies to learn the depth of the deceptions of the archaeopriesthood, which has been a dominant and reoccurring theme throughout history. In the introduction I examined the church’s suppression of Galileo’s empirical proof of a heliocentric solar system. On a smaller scale, we again witnessed scientific proof swept under the rug when John Wesley Powell declared that “[It] … is illegitimate to use any pictographic matter of a date anterior to the discovery of the continent by Columbus for historic purposes.”1 Or as Cyrus Thomas asserted about the mounds he excavated in Ohio, “I … will not admit or address the numerous instances in

which European artifacts were found.”2 It is challenging to comprehend how open-minded scientists can totally ignore the interesting and significant bodies of diffusionist research that this book has attempted to review, let alone the details of the “hard” evidence of biological pre-Columbian worldwide diffusions of corn, sweet potatoes, and other flora that could not be included for lack of space.

The relevancy of a recasting of the telling of our history should not be underestimated.

The conquest ideology, reinforced by the Columbus mythology, is carried forward in American daily life and a foreign policy that is based on exploitation, extraction, and domination. This warrior religion revolves around Christian evangelism and American “exceptionalism” as a justification for conquest. At the root of the archaeopriest’s presentation of history are two modern institutions, the church and the academic/anthropological/ scientific “priesthood.” To these pillars we must also add the vested economic interests that benefit from a brainwashed populace refusing to understand the mechanics of an ideological orthodoxy that cannot be contravened by the facts. This nonscientific mindset is more akin to that of the zealous priests of the Inquisition, where nonrational ideology and orthodoxy resulted in evidence being destroyed, suppressed, and dismissed, along with the elimination of everyone who came forward with “new” ideas.

A WORLD IN AMNESIA The loss of our history is like losing our memory. How can one possibly comprehend our inner nature and purpose, much less our true history, without memory? But how do we restore memories that have been lost?

The ideas and suggestions of four major theoreticians of Western psychology— Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Ivan Pavlov, and Immanuel Velikovsky—reveal different approaches to this question.

Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung both examined dreams and ancient mythology to unravel the mysteries that cloud the human mind. Jung is credited with renewing interest in the journey of individual awakening through his explorations of alchemy, Eastern philosophy, and the “collective unconscious.” Like Freud, he believed that myths expressed themselves from the inner workings of the mind outward, and he focused on interpreting symbols from mythology and religion in order to uncover their meaning. However, neither Freud nor Jung’s work seems completely relevant to our quest, as they both dealt with internal phenomena.

In sharp contrast to Freud’s and Jung’s emphasis on individual repressed memories, Immanuel Velikovsky and Ivan Pavlov dealt with outer forces that may have have caused our present state of amnesia.

A name unfamiliar to many in the current century, Immanuel Velikovsky (1895–1979) deviated from both Freudian and Jungian explanations for the present historical paradigm and its dilemma. In his most famous book, Worlds in Collisions, he presented a thesis that numerous cataclysmic events throughout human history have been turned into myth, and

this created a real subconscious trauma that we are still afflicted with. This repressed trauma, reinforced by society, holds humankind in a state of deep sleep, or “amnesia,” as he called it in a later book Mankind in Amnesia.” Velikovsky wrote, “As a psychoanalyst I returned many times to the problem of awakening the human conscious mind to the forgotten heritage of ages. The traumatic experiences that humans keep buried in oblivion possess enormous power over the destiny of nations. If the human race is not made able to face its past, the traumatic experience that caused cultural amnesia will demand repetition.”3 Despite becoming a bestseller, Worlds in Collision was banned from several academic institutions, and Velikovsky’s theories on amnesia and many other more cosmological thoughts were rejected by mainstream academia. Thus, in his follow-up 1955 book, Earth in Upheaval, he relied on natural sciences and “stones and bones,” as he called them, to present geological evidence of terrestrial catastrophes that had a profound impact on the mythologies, writings, and beliefs of early mankind.

Unfortunately, in a fate similar to that of Barry Fell, Velikovsky made mistakes that gave his critics reasons to deny his central proposal that the catastrophes of human prehistory, in particular the worldwide “Great Floods” of many cultures, were due to meteor bombardments and the actions of planets and that these events were then turned into myths that still affect us in terms of the religions and dogmas that continue to entrap us. His thoughts on how to cure this dilemma will discussed in a moment, but in the meantime, it is important to remember that, despite initial protests, most of science now recognizes that a collision with an asteroid caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.4 A differing perspective on amnesia came from Ivan Pavlov, who pioneered behaviorism as a means of regulating behavior and who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904. While Freud is often credited today as the father of modern psychology, Pavlov would prove to have a greater influence on the field. He did this by organizing and directing experimental research in the 1890s that demonstrated the body’s natural response of shutting down when exposed to overwhelming stress or pain that he could cause by administering electric shocks. His investigations of how people responded to this in terms of temperament, conditioning, and involuntary reflex actions became the foundations of modern behaviorism, which emphasized the outward behavioral aspects of thought and dismissed the inward aspects of consciousness as items of legitimate psychological concern.

By extending the Pavlovian model, subsequent behavoralist researchers, including B. F. Skinner (1904–1980), the American psychologist and social philosopher, spawned the development of mental conditioning, memory implantation, and modern advertising.

These have been further refined into brainwashing techniques, which are most relevant to addressing the spell cast over us by the archaeopriests. Pavlov’s behavior-control model also applies to the educational status quo by rewarding aspiring archaeopriests with tenure and influence, thus reinforcing the Old History, while discouraging those who challenge it by inflicting difficulties, such as blocking accreditation, publications, speaking engagements, and employment opportunities.

However, running contrary to the Pavlovian model of obeisance to the ruling paradigm are Velikovsky’s techniques to establish a New History by actively confronting the traumatic experiences of our ancestors. He advocated teaching the “facts of life” about early-age, deep-seated repressions by addressing the liberating value of a “historical reconstruction” in schools that would then smooth the “secondary shock” that results once the old paradigm is confronted and corrected.5 Identifying these repressed traumas and liberating the mind from them is no easy matter. A modern psychologist, Arthur Janov, Ph.D., suggested the primal scream technique, a gut-release of the disturbing and forgotten memories that physiologically and emotionally stifle individual growth, which offers individuals a pathway to recovery.6 However, as Velikovsky suggested, we must look beyond individual therapeutic approaches in addressing the repressed trauma faced collectively by humanity. These environmental stressors include economic insecurities and the threat of nuclear war, as well as socialization pressures through consumer propaganda and the advanced, mediainduced Pavlovian behavior modification techniques whose delivery has dramatically increased as we rely more and more on the electronics of mass media and television.

Another source of mass anxiety and delusion lies in our wars. Although the human race has been impacted by war throughout history, the twentieth century marked a turning point with regard to the number of people harmed and the degree of destruction. Wars that predate 1900, including conquests by the Romans, Genghis Khan, and the church and the “holy wars” between Christians and Muslims often lasted for decades. Even the cruelty and “purposeful genocide” of the conquest in the Americas was not unlike other terror campaigns in history. However, as brutal as these events were, a relatively small number of people were impacted because smaller population bases were using relatively primitive methods to destroy each other.

With the growth of human populations and the development of more sophisticated munitions, the twentieth century has witnessed wars of unprecedented proportion, beginning with World War I (15 million casualties), followed by the Stalinist purges (20– 60 million), World War II (40–70 million), and the campaigns of Mao Zedong’s (Tse-tung) (tens of millions). The discovery of atomic weapons allowed single bombs to destroy first Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, heralding the end of World War II and the beginning of a new age of possible mass annihilation.

With the dawn of the nuclear age in 1945, human development became shaped less by “natural” influences and more by technological advances and competitive rivalry encapsulated in the idea of the “arms race” and the “race to space.” War, or the threat of war, demands an increasing amount of human and financial resources as more and more countries strived to develop nuclear and biological weapon capabilities to protect their interests on an ever-shifting and unstable playing field that now includes what we conveniently call “terrorists” to mask their birthplaces in poverty and desperation.

Moreover, the defining moments of mass murder that ended World War II have inspired a new way of thinking and a new vocabulary typified by expressions such as the “militaryindustrial complex,” “shock and awe,” “go it alone,” and “friendly fire.” At the same time,

an increasing number of events became muddled and obscured by the veil of protection afforded by categories such as “classified,” “top secret,” and “national security.“ As the whirlwind of controversy surrounding the heroic actions of Edward Snowden have shown, the government’s increasing influence over communication networks and the clever use of TV- and computer-generated propaganda are allowing those in power to rewrite history in a new age of disinformation while, at the same time, allowing the fear of war to be used as a weapon to squelch civil liberties and freedom.

Of course, the most famous analysis of these modern tendencies is George Orwell’s 1949 novel, 1984, which described Winston Smith as a rewriter of history in a future world locked in perpetual war, with an all-powerful government that employed mind control and oppressive rule in the name of a greater good.7 While many of Orwell’s notions have been incorporated into today’s lexicon, including “doublespeak,” “thought crimes,” and the word “Orwellian,” which is used to describe a world run by “Big Brother,” it is not generally acknowledged that humankind has already crossed the threshold to an age where the past has been recast to support a current ideology. While applying the analogy of 1984 to our present state of affairs can be taken only so far in pursuing a connection with the Old and New Histories, the consequences of ignoring the similarities only serve to reinforce our culture’s collective state of amnesia.

The rewriting of history often occurs in plain sight and with the support of the public and the news media. These major modern deceits include false justifications for going to war in Vietnam and Iraq; subversion of evidence in the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks; concealment of advanced energy and transportation technologies; the Kennedy assassination cover-up; and deception regarding the United States’ and other governments’ involvement with so-called UFOs, to mention some, but not all, of the modern manipulations.

Our state of oblivion is as profound now as it ever has been. In short, the situation is just as I observed in the case of the Columbus mythology, where I came across a plethora of examples of altered or fraudulent material that has found its way into our national consciousness. The conquest-based ideology and the continuity of deceptions and treachery remain intact, even today, inexplicably when technology provides more tools to accurately investigate our past and present environments than at any other time in history.

How long will these deceits, along with the Columbus myth, continue?

THE SEARCH FOR THE SACRED Radical thinker Michael Cremo says it well in a research paper, “Divine Nature: Practical Application of Vedic Ethical Principles in Resolving the Environmental Crisis,” that, “Part of the problem lies with our modern scientific cosmology, which is mechanistic and reductionist. There is little place in modern science for the soul and God.”8 In other words, the focus of modern science in exploring only the material world has denied the existence of the sacred, which, it needs to be emphasized, was the primary guide of the ancients. In a world where it is easy to take for granted natural beauty,

unfortunately we also do the same for the sacred elements that surround us. But the sacred is both personal and transpersonal. It is a core belief and harmonious inspiration that can be accessed, appreciated, and shared. It is continuity of consciousness, yet it transcends consciousness. The sacred connects us to something greater, an essence of heavenly spirit that we humans can be aware of and honor or, alternatively, that we can ignore, deny, and degrade.

Unfortunately, because so many of us believe that our Earth is merely a planet, a chunk of rock revolving around a medium-sized star, the sacred has been reduced to an old concept in a cold and heartless universe. Modern science has evolved into a mechanistic and reductionist cosmology that leaves little place for anything else. As a result, our own limited modern thinking blinds us. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Not only in American rock art, but also in many ways throughout the world, the ancients have left a record of their understanding and appreciation of the sacred. But to think of the records from antiquity as simply “archaeology sites,” “Indian petroglyphs,” or “rock art” conceals their true nature and importance. What is at stake is preserving the opportunity for the people in the future to experience our past. What we risk is losing our ability to consciously unfold and “become our future.” But what does this mean?

I believe the sacred teaches that we, this present generation of humans, are the future.

But we’ve forgotten this essential truth. Unlike the dogma presented by many modern religions, the sacred connects us to a divine origin and an evolving spiritual journey over many cycles of time. This crucial message has been recorded, time and again, by countless civilizations, bringing to life a mysterious relationship between heaven and earth that is inscribed for future generations as a foundation to define, orient, and remember, and to which they can return. Without a relationship with the sacred, the destruction of our home planet and the incessant exploitation of our fellow human beings is doomed to continue at an alarming pace.

My journey to discover a New History has led me to rediscover the sacred that was missing from my formal education. I discovered that others share my dismay with the materialism and reductionism of modern science. One influential figure was Alfred Russell Wallace (1823–1913), the cofounder with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution, whose advocacy of spiritualism and belief in a nonmaterial origin for the higher mental faculties of humans caused much strain in his relations with some of his colleagues within the scientific establishment.

Another influence on me was René Adolphe Schwaller de Lubicz (1887– 1961), who was quoted at the beginning of this book and whose “otherworldly” outlook was at odds with most of the scientists of his day. In his fifteen-year journey of investigating the Temple of Luxor in southern Egypt, he unveiled new discoveries regarding the nature and interests of ancient man, but with scientific exactitude. His books, include Esoterism and Symbol, Symbol and the Symbolic, The Egyptian Miracle, and The Temple of Man. They revealed that cosmological and mathematical principles incorporated in the structure of the Temple of Luxor, thought lost or forgotten for thousands of years, exposed a living organism with a central philosophy and organization. Lubicz compared Luxor to “a

colossal compendium of esoteric truth, whose every detail, from its total design down to its very materials, voiced one central revelation: that Conscious Man was the goal of cosmic evolution.”9 Lubicz showed us how the mathematical and cosmological knowledge that was needed to build this monument to the spirit came about. He demonstrated that the Egyptians used the Pythagorean theorem centuries before Pythagoras, that they understood the precession of the equinoxes, the circumference of the globe, and the mysteries of pi. He also documented the incorporation of sacred geometry and astronomy into the temple. For example, he discovered symbols corresponding to the twelve zodiac signs in most of the chambers and buildings in the temple.10 He also presented evidence beginning with the earliest dynasties, that Egyptian artistic and architectural achievements were guided by knowledge of the precessional movement of the vernal equinox through the zodiac.11 Such knowledge indicates an advanced astronomical ability, because the discovery of the precessions has been credited to the Greek astronomer Hipparchus much later in the second century B.C. All in all, Schwaller de Lubicz illustrated the profundity that can pervade the seemingly mundane and ordinary relics of the past because he felt that to comprehend the sacred requires more than a casual glance. At the very least, he tried to encourage those who are incapable of appreciating the extraordinary to preserve history’s treasures for others who could come along and comprehend the cosmology of the ancients.

THE SERPENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS Throughout time, serpentlike features have been carved onto stone edifices and sculpted into works of art across the Americas, Eurasia, and the East. The similar contexts in which the serpent appears, often in association with cosmological phenomenon, demonstrates its universality as a symbol that can lend insight into the psychology and mythology of the ancients. With its mysterious ability to shed its skin, the serpent not only symbolizes an awakening journey but the ourobus symbol of the snake swallowing its own tail exemplifies the never-ending cycle of birth-death-rebirth. Thus, the serpent is often the centerpiece of glyphs that literally come to life at the equinoxes and solstices. From sunrise to sunset, as the seasons progress, the snake icon traverses the stony surfaces of petroglyphs at Mojave North in California, the Colorado Pathfinder site, and the temple steps of Chichén Itzá in Mexico.

The universal death-and-rebirth metaphor is also amply demonstrated by the association of the serpent with astronomical phenomena, mainly involving the equinoxes. However, it would be a mistake to suggest a single meaning or mythology as the serpent is manifested in so many cultures and in so many different specific instances.

In the hills of Durango in southwestern Colorado, the serpent head is one of perhaps a hundred characters in a script known as the “mystery glyphs.”12 Such “mystery glyphs” have been found at approximately twenty-five sites in all of the western states, except Oregon and Washington, in panels above valley floors that are inscribed with a

petroglyphic script that has baffled researchers for decades. These mystery glyphs share the common use of about one hundred petroglyphic characters, all incised, chiseled, or engraved with metal tools to a depth of one-eighth of a foot to three-sixteenths of a foot, generally in hard sandstone, granite, or other hard rock. The characters are quite uniformly two to three inches high. A typical panel will contain twenty to forty characters, with the drawing of the serpent being one. We can surmise they are a mixture of different cultures, perhaps a secret coded language. At least some, showing men on horses, are said to be dated to circa the mid-1800s mining era, while others appear to be quite older.

Fig. 17.1. This serpent head inscribed in the hills near Durango, Colorado, is one of perhaps a hundred characters in a script that is known as the “mystery glyphs” and has been found in about twenty-five locations in the western United States.

Fig. 17.2. Detail drawing of a mystery glyph serpent.

Fig. 17.3. A serpent image from Colorado’s Pathfinder site.

As noted earlier, the image of the snake is a predominant glyph at the pristine Colorado Pathfinder petroglyph site, which is adorned with fertility and creation symbols. One of the central serpents on the panel is associated with the equinox noontime alignment, and this is the key point: that the serpent is both a witness and a participant. In this imagery, the sun dagger, entering a hole in the cave above the panel, impregnates Widapokwi, Changing Woman, who is First Mother, and then it travels below to illuminate the serpent at her feet. Thus we know that the ancestors to the Native Americans who created the Pathfinder petroglyphs associated serpents with the creation mythology and with fertility and the passage of time.

In Mesoamerica, the serpent is a recurring image in religious beliefs, mythology, and rituals, such as those practiced in the cult of Quetzalcoatl, the “Feathered Serpent,” in what is now Mexico.

Fig.17.4. Quetzalcoatl. (Photo from a 2014 Mayan art exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science)

Fig. 17.5. The Vision Serpent, Stone Lintel 15 at the classic Mayan site of Yaxchilan.

(Drawing by Martin Brennan from the hidden maya, 204) The Maya in southern Mexico and Guatemala provided another manifestation of a serpent in their many depictions of what they called the Vision Serpent.

The Vision Serpent at Yaxchilan was conjured by Lady Six-Stone in A.D. 755 through an act of blood sacrifice. According to Martin Brennan’s commentary, to the Maya this was the price of admission to open the door to the world of the ancestors.

In a space-time sequence and perhaps in a more practical embodiment, the Vision Serpent appears as a day-sign in the 260-day Mayan calendar, where he appears as Chicchan, who emerges in the east and is followed by Cimi, a transformational deity and the god of death who resides in the north.13 The divine Vision Serpent also has a greater meaning to the Maya since it occupies and helps configure the great spaces of the World Tree and the Milky Way.14

Fig. 17.6. The Mayan day-sign known as Chicchan, the serpent, is one of the twenty daysigns in the 260-day Mayan calendar. Many variations of the glyph are known. (Drawing

by Martin Brennan) On the ground, the largest of the giant earthworks of North America is the Serpent Mound in Ohio, with its open mouth preparing to consume an oval-shaped mound (chapter 13). The Serpent Mound is about the length of four and a half football fields and averages twenty feet in width. The same imagery of a serpent and a disc appears in the Kansas Serpent Intaglio earthwork in chapter 9, while simple mound serpent effigies are found in Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, and other locations.15 At the Mojave North site in California the equinox Light Serpent moves across a panel for only thirty minutes before the serpent conjuncts with and “consumes” the petroglyphic central disc or egg that is surrounded by a spiral. Miraculously, the spiral-and-egg motif is the same target for a lunar alignment, described in chapter 11.

Fig. 17.7. Mojave North equinox Light Serpent.

The serpent images are not limited to large sculptures, monumental earthworks, and petroglyphic representations but are also found on smaller artifacts, as can be seen from some of the Calalus artifacts housed in the Arizona History Museum in Tucson described in chapter 14. In addition to the Latin inscriptions left on the crosses, there were nehushtans (poles or staffs) with ascending snakes that coil around the cross, which convey an image similar to the caducei or staffs of Mercury in the Western Hermetic tradition. These climbing serpents express another aspect of, for lack of a better word, the serpent consciousness coiled around the Tree of Life, which returns us to one of

humankind’s oldest stories, the one that took place in the sacred Garden of Eden.

In Arizona, an Anasazi-era serpent that was not mentioned in this book becomes one with a spiral, moving inward toward the center. This petroglyph is split by the summer solstice morning sunrise. A nearby petroglyph at the same Arizona site depicts the opposite movement of the serpent as it emerges from the coiled center.

These stunning petroglyphs demonstrate how the Anasazi viewed the process of transformation, perhaps indicating how consciousness manifests in the world. See figure 17.8 and figures 17.9 and 17.10 below.

Fig. 17.8. An Anasazi-era serpent in eastern Arizona.

Fig. 17.9. The Anasazi-era serpent in detail, showing inward movement.

Fig. 17.10. Another Anasazi-era spiral petroglyph, showing the serpent emerging from the spiral.

A RETURN OF THE MAGI? From the evidence I’ve presented and what I’ve documented from others, the history of America should now include the numerous examples of Indo-European, Asian, Celtic, and other travelers to the New World before Columbus. To me, the record is clear: they arrived

as navigators, shipbuilders, architects, astronomers, geologists, and cosmologists, and some of their monuments have stood the test of time. Now, in this modern era, how can this information be useful? Can understanding this or any other possible “missing” pieces of history alter our perceptions or improve our lives? I have discovered and would argue that, yes, a restoration of wisdom from the ancients would benefit us all by helping us to appreciate our collective past and our shared future.

The ancients demonstrated a direct connection to nature through conjunction alignments that literally show the moments of illumination (or “enlightenment”), conception, birth, and/or death of solar and earth deities. Returning to the Colorado Pathfinder petroglyphs, the equinox noon alignment captures the moment of the impregnation of Widapokwi, the First Mother, a story analogous to Greek and Hindu myths of how the earth goddess was fertilized from above.

Fig. 17.11. Pathfinder petroglyph identified by author as Changing Woman, the First Mother.

It also seems from the rock art and archaeoastronomy left in stone that ancient travelers from Europe and around the world worshipped the sun god and transported their prayers and imagery to the Americas. At an equinox sunset in the Anubis Caves, I witnessed the god’s death in a dramatic heliolithic animation as the petroglyph image went into shadow and the Anubis figure above stood out above it as the Lord of Night (chapter 8).

With the Mojave North SEA Rock petroglyph, I identified another image of a sun god, one that is akin to a triple-face animation at the equinox sunset. It communicates how, in perhaps an echo of the Indus Valley, the moment of death ignites enlightenment as a new image emerges and the god is reborn.

The death and rebirth of the sun god is found in many ancient stories, including those of Osiris and Mithras, and is the underlying theme of Christ’s being reborn and returning.

Now we can appreciate how that god’s story may have arrived in America, both from the East and the West, and been made available to all. In other words, is it possible to shatter the old belief structures that are fueled by conquest, exploitation, and materialism and to pursue a new twenty-first-century paradigm of inclusiveness, balance with nature, and personal and worldwide harmony?

Fig. 17.12. Mojave North at the moment of enlightenment at equinox sunset.

A MIND ADJUSTMENT IS REQUIRED As amply illustrated in this book, cultivating a new way of seeing has always been an arduous task, oftentimes taking a lifetime to accomplish. Following a life of servitude and suffering, at the time of death Judeo-Christian religions offer the reward of sight, or awakening into the kingdom of heaven, lending the notion that enlightenment is associated with physical death. However, from the Hindu perspective, awakening might require many lifetimes to fulfill and is accomplished by disciplining the mental and physical bodies through the practices of renunciation, meditation, and yoga.

Yet the story of a protagonist—a god, saint, or ruler—achieving enlightenment during his or her lifetime is shared by many religions and cultures, lending the idea that man is capable of awakening during his worldly journey. The notion that awakening can transpire in an instant is borne out by primitive cultures during rituals and practices designed to facilitate the awakening journey.

Much of modern civilization remains divorced from the inspiration and meaning that was available to its predecessors. Without this knowledge, how are we to right the wrongs

of the past, to awaken from the amnesia that enslaves humankind in a mundane world?

How do we restore balance and purposeful direction to a world so inflicted with genocide and destruction?

A mind adjustment is required in order for new insights to emerge that might alter the disconcerting trajectory that modern man has charted. Countless civilizations have demonstrated that the opportunity for consciousness to awaken is not only a birthright, but also a responsibility owed to oneself and one’s community. Human development and our very survival depend on man’s ability to awaken into consciousness.

Rite-of-passage ceremonies commonly employed entheogens, psychoactive substances that aided in the transfer of ancient knowledge. The word entheogen is derived from the Greek root entheos, which means “the god within,” and the word refers to mind-altering substances that make available the hidden world of the spirits. Entheogens are chemical agents found in plants and mushroom species and in the venoms and secretions of certain animals. Traditionally, these “medicines” are gathered and prepared by shamans and are used in a reverent manner, often during coming-of-age ceremonies in the company of elder community members who witness the transformation and provide counsel to the initiate.

In North America, alcohol, morning glory seeds, peyote, and other “magic” mushrooms were used for this purpose, while South Americans employed strange and wonderful plants that grew wild in their jungles. Also, vision quests were and still are practiced by different native tribes as coming-of-age rituals. The purposes of these rituals, according to Thompson, “are to seek out a spirit guide that can help the individual learn about his purpose in life. Fasting, dancing, singing, drums, and the elders’ council provide an existential matrix for a catharsis of the soul.”16 These traditional rituals were an important part of establishing a bond between the individual and the greater tribe and culture while psychoactive agents are also administered to the physically ill to provide insights into both the affliction and the cure. Similarly, vision quest ceremonies used entheogens to inspire the psychologically sluggish or amnesiacs who were simply in need of direction and purpose.

Fig. 17.13. The Pathfinder howling Eight-Dog petroglyph, which might represent a shaman.

Ritualistic practices from throughout time offer a roadmap to reposition backward, so that we may proceed forward on a new path.

Mesoamericans held great reverence for mushrooms and other psychoactive plants (see figure 17.15 below). Many stone mushroom figures found throughout the Western Hemisphere convincingly show psychoactive Psilocybe species, while others in Guatemala often resemble Amanita muscaria.17 It would be a mistake to assume that psychedelics or psychedelic-induced states of mind are required for healing and to achieve greater knowledge. Other methods for transcending the limited ego consciousness that don’t involve sacred plants are well known, including meditation, yoga, and even just “right living.”

Fig. 17.14. A different “outside” perspective, from behind the veil of phenomenal existence, is shown in this nineteenth-century painting of an alchemist. (From Camille Flammarion, L’Atmosphere: Météorologie Populaire, 1888, 163)

Fig. 17.15. Anasazi-era petroglyphs with mushroom, from along the Potash Highway in Utah.

MUCH TO BE DONE By confronting our past demons, there is an opportunity for redemption; the evolutionary boost humanity is looking for is to move from previous ages of terror into a new paradigm of a world without war and conquest. Outlined below are key areas that need to be addressed if we are to move forward with a New History.

End the age of the archaeopriests. The New History documents that the priesthood of experts has been wrong and continues to teach a false story while their history books lie and school curriculums deny important aspects of the historical record. Ethnocentrism has been identified by Gunnar Thompson as a cultural disease at the heart of the Old History.

He writes, “When ethnic loyalty denies the rights and achievements of others, it becomes a cultural disease called ‘ethnocentrism.’ This perception of excessive greatness and superiority of one’s own ethnic group is dysfunctional in a world of cultural diversity where survival depends upon the harmonious interaction between peoples having diverse ethnic backgrounds.”18 Echoing these thoughts, Thompson goes on to note that the Eurocentric Old History ignores the “primacy of native peoples in the cavalcade of American discovery, and … serves as a convenient rationale for ignoring the contributions of other ethnic groups.”19 As an alternative to the age of ethnocentric bias, religious indoctrination, and the selective presentation of historical events, Thompson also emphasizes the need for celebrating cultural diversity.

Reexamine and rewrite American history without the ideological biases against diffusionism. There are growing initiatives within the fields of archaeology, anthropology, and history to pursue scientific research and curricula, but these efforts pale in the face of the ivory tower protectionism maintained by the status quo, the archaeopriesthood. In other words, a new generation of scholars is required who are willing to challenge the Old History paradigms and biases in favor of applying modern archaeological science to the question of cultural diffusion. We should use innovations such as underwater archaeology, satellite imaging, and high-resolution photography, as well as an integration with other disciplines, including archaeoastronomy, epigraphy, and cultural anthropology, to form an accurate, evidence-based historical reconstruction. With modern archaeology now in free fall with the collapse of “Clovis First” mythology, which maintains the earliest Americans arrived around 13,000 years ago via the Beringia land bridge from Siberia to Alaska, this is an exciting time for students, archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians.

In fact, as a sign that the times may be “a-changing” and that the attempts of investigators like Bill McGlone, Phillip Leonard, and Gunnar Thompson have not been in vain, a September 2014 article in Smithsonian Magazine has proved that Kennewick Man was indeed related to earlier visitors, perhaps related to the Ainu of Japan. The article describes in detail the efforts of many archaeopriest, Native American, and U.S. governmental organizations to obfuscate the investigation of this evidence and bury him in

the “fog of “history.” This and other recent articles from this magazine seem to evidence a welcome change in attitudes about these matters!

Open up records and artifacts to the public. In practical terms this means accepting diffusionism as a legitimate point of view in all levels of education from grade schools to universities, and in archaeological field research, museum collections and displays, and public outreach. It also means scholarly and public access to historical records, including access to Smithsonian artifacts.

End the lies about Columbus. Transform the holiday that celebrates conquest into a celebration of indigenous people and the cultures and wisdom the Americas have lost.

Many localities in the United States are already celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day, including Seattle, and South Dakota celebrates Native American Day, while other locations have canceled Columbus Day celebrations altogether. However, the federal government continues to recognize Columbus Day as a federal holiday, as proselytized for in the 1930s by Italian immigrants.

Archaeological and sacred site protection. There is a balance to be achieved between protecting and preserving archaeological sites and public access. Many sites described in this book are on public lands, and while the U.S. government has a successful record of preservation and education at some sites, other areas, including sites with diffusionist links, are often ignored or officially ascribed to Native American origins. Thus, protection, preservation, research, and education efforts should be supported. This can be done by coalitions of local Native American, historical, rock art, nature, and tourist groups, along with government agencies, higher education programs, and the archaeological establishment. Only then will the remaining records of the ancients be spared from misinterpretation or, worse, disappearing altogether.20 A serious epigraphic effort is required to examine the petroglyphs and other written evidence of ancient visitors in the Americas. Among scholars there is a need to overcome the fear of being ostracized for pursing progressive research. There remain an abundance of different scripts in the Americas that have not been deciphered and many notable and controversial artifacts that require reexamination, including decipherments originally provided by Barry Fell. There is an important place in the New History of America for students of ancient languages and writing systems, because it seems evident that some of the ancient travelers left records in America that, in some cases, don’t exist anywhere else; for example, the Mithraic iconography and archaeoastronomy left at the Anubis Caves.

DNA and linguistic studies. Especially among Native Americans, such studies will continue to help document the cultural roots and migration patterns of different tribes and their ancestors.

Restore ancient sites and celebrate our heritage. The nexus between sacred sites throughout the Americas and the rest of the world is astounding. They are where the ancients practiced their rituals and observances, tracked time and astronomy, and celebrated life as an interdependent part of a greater natural order. As we learn to approach these sacred sites with reverence—as being more than mere “ruins,” “archaeological

sites,” or “parks”—we can begin to experience what the ancients experienced and knew.

Every year we learn of new and amazing discoveries about our common heritage. In the process of preserving and protecting these ancient sites there is an opportunity to invite the public to participate in uncovering the New History. If sites are carefully reconstructed with site protection and preservation in mind, group gatherings on equinoxes, solstices, and cross-quarter days could encourage a growing awareness of our connection to nature and humanity by remembering the ancient wisdom.

In the areas of research, historical reconstruction, and public education, collaboration and cooperation among diverse groups that often have different opinions can begin to overcome the elitism, ethnocentrism, and exclusiveness of the Old Historians. America today is the result of the diversity and blending of many cultures. As Gunnar Thompson concludes in his fundamental primer on the New History, American Discovery: The Real story of American discovery recognizes that many races and creeds contributed to the foundation of American society. By coming to America, the world’s peoples began the difficult process of forging a new identity. From the hardship of ethnic conflict emerged tolerance for racial and religious diversity; from the struggle to survive in the same land emerged the realization that we are all dependent upon each other’s contributions, each other’s wisdom, each other’s daring, and each other’s love. Our ancestors set out from around the world as many nations; by coming to America, they became E Pluribus Unum—One People of Diversity.21 This is an exciting time for those willing to embrace the New History: for students in all areas of the arts and sciences, for historians, for archaeologists, and for young and old explorers of the many facets of our world and beyond.

A FINAL PERSPECTIVE A lesson to be learned from the Old History of America is that we have been lied to. The record was expunged, and an ethnic and religious agenda was promoted. But is it solely the historians and archaeologists who have deviated from the truth? Do other foundations of modern thought require reexamination, reconstruction, and rebirthing? Are we moderns willing to challenge the old thinking, including the many distortions of the Old History?

There will be resistance to a new way of seeing. Over the centuries the archaeopriests’ mind-set has become well entrenched in government, university, and industry circles. The solution, readily in our grasp, is to encourage tolerance for all perspectives and allow for diverse opinions.

By personalizing the New History, I have sought to peel away the layers of our lost connections with a shared past in a quest to understand the shared present. And while so many precious teachings that address the advancement of consciousness have been lost over the millennia, in the most unlikely and unsuspected places we can still find the story of awakening etched in stone and left for our children by the ancients.

In the perennial struggle for the emergence of consciousness, the voice of the sacred is there. Listen. My soul to your soul. We are here to wake up. Transform yourself. Now is

the time to awaken.

Footnotes *1. René Adolphe Schwaller de Lubicz was a French student of sacred geometry famous for his pioneering studies of Egyptian art and architecture at the Temple of Luxor.

Schwaller de Lubicz spent fifteen years investigating the sacred design and geometry of the temple. The result was his book The Temple in Man: Sacred Architecture and the Perfect Man, published in 1981 by Inner Traditions International. The above quote is from page 77 of his Esoterism and Symbol, published in 1985 by Inner Traditions International. *2. The “man-eating tribe” of Nicobar still exists in small numbers, although it seems they have given up that activity (if it ever existed). *3. Mertz (1898–1985) was a U.S. patent attorney and ancient history researcher. In her book The Wine Dark Sea, she postulated that Odysseus sailed into the North Atlantic (see chapter 14 for more information). *4. Author Erich von Däniken gained worldwide attention when he published Chariots of the Gods? In his follow-up, Gold of the Gods, von Däniken published photos showing objects from the Crespi Collection, which drew criticism from Crespi, who subsequently lost credibility because of von Däniken’s exaggerations and misinformation. *5. Skeletons were also found in the mound, according to Fell. *6. ESOP was The Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications from 1974 to 1989 and The Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers from 1990 to 1993. *7. The term Cartesian is derived from the Latin form of Descartes, and it refers to the philosophy of the seventeenth-century philosopher Rene Descartes (1596–1650). *8. The NEARA Special Collections room is located in the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord. Many of its presentations are later written up in the NEARA Journal, and the association’s website can be found at: www.neara.org. *9. Some of the best-known researchers include Barry Fell, John Williams, Byron E. Dix, and James W. Mavor Jr. *10. Hunahpú can mean “hunter,” with a linguistically deeper unused meaning of “blowgun hunter.” *11. This was the seed-juice of the calabash, a symbol of insemination. *12. The Venus alignments at the Caracol include the alignment of the structure to the northerly extreme positions of Venus setting on the horizon and a pair of turret windows aligned to point to Venus’s western horizon standstills around A.D. 1000. *13. One of the first proponents of the African origins of the Olmec was José Melgar, who in 1862 discovered the first Olmec colossal head at Tres Zapotes. *14. Many dispute Sthapati’s contention that Tamil is the oldest form of writing. One source claims Tamil began in the second century B.C., and that the earliest attested

Sanskrit texts are Brahmanical texts of the Rig Veda that date to the mid- to late second millennium A.D. *15. According to the Bhagvata Purana, Krishna was born without a sexual union. *16. Kean Scott Monahan incorporated TransVision (TransVision.com) in 1996 as a web development and hosting company with an eventual emphasis on video delivered over the Internet. He created a hobby site (www.archaeoastronomy.com) in 1997 to explain the eight-division ancient Celtic calendar, featuring the solstices, equinoxes, and crossquarters. The site provides an abundance of information on archaeoastronomy and the Celts in America and links to other information. He wrote, produced, and narrated the documentaries Old News and History on the Rocks, which, along with other videos, are available at onter.net/videos.html. More recently he has been documenting the Pathfinder site referenced in chapter 6. *17. Intaglios are figures carved into the earth’s surface. The Kansas Serpent Intaglio portrays the serpent holding a disc in its mouth. *18. Mojave North is located in Inyo County, California. *19. Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) was the director of the Sadhana Institute of Pastoral Counseling near Poona, India, and author of five books. He was renowned for his workshops and prayer courses aimed at teaching people how to wake themselves up and live. More information on de Mello and his lectures, especially Wake Up to Life, his eight-CD collection of lectures, are at www.demellospirituality.com. *20. Dorian Taddei is an independent interdisciplinary researcher and student of the great arcanum, the sacred science of the ancients. Along with two degrees in graphic design and illustration he has an ongoing interest in esoteric religion, cosmology, and human consciousness. *21. Carl Bjork’s rock-art website is found at http://home.comcast.net/~carlbjork. *22. In Hindu astrology a nakshatra is one of twenty-seven or twenty-eight sectors along the ecliptic. The nakshatras reflect astronomical, astrological, and mythical aspects of each of the divided sectors or the heavens. In astronomy and calendar studies, the metonic cycle is a period of very close to nineteen years. In the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars, the years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 are the long (thirteen-month) years of the metonic cycle. This cycle can be used to predict eclipses. The saros cycle equals 223 lunar-phase months. Knowing the saros cycle greatly enhanced the accuracy of numerical lunar-eclipse prediction. The saros is a period of eighteen years, eleven and one-third days. *23. Labarum, a Christian imperial standard incorporating the Chi-Rho emblems used by Christians, first adapted by emperor Saint Constantine the Great in A.D. 313. *24. In the Popol Vuh, the sun god Hun Hunahpú (First Father) is killed by the gods of the underworld, who summoned him there. His two sons, the Hero Twins, revive him, and he is resurrected as Yum Caax, the corn god.

Endnotes INTRODUCTION: CHALLENGING LONG-HELD VIEWS 1. Abbott, Flatland, 82.

2. Stengel, “Diffusionists Have Landed.”

CHAPTER 1. TWO STORIES OF COLUMBUS 1. Thompson, American Discovery, xi.

2. Morgan, “Columbus’ Confusion.”

3. Ibid.

4. James Hannam, “Science versus Christianity?” Patheos Evangelical, May 18, 2010. www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Science-Versus-Christianity.html (accessed June 15, 2014).

5. Jeffrey Burton Russell, “The Myth of a Flat Earth” (summary of his 1997 book Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians, presented at the American Scientific Affiliation Annual Meeting, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California, August 4, 1997). www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/history/1997Russell.html (accessed June 15, 2014).

6. Wikipedia, “Myth of the Flat Earth,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth (accessed June 16, 2014). The illustration is the spherical Earth from a fourteenthcentury copy of L’Image du monde, by Gautier de Metz (ca. 1246).

7. Weatherford, “Examining the Reputation of Columbus,” Understanding Prejudice, www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/weather.htm (accessed June 15, 2014).

8. Sora, Lost Colony of the Templars, 143–44; Ruddock, “Columbus and Iceland,” 177– 89.

9. Wikipedia, “Saga of Erik the Red,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_the_Red (accessed June 15, 2014); Wikipedia, “Greenland Saga,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga_of_the_Greenlanders (accessed June 15, 2014). See the graphical descriptions of the different sailing routes to Greenland, Vinland (Newfoundland), Helluland (Baffin Island), and Markland (Labrador) traveled by different characters in the Icelandic Sagas.

10. Chart of ocean currents and Atlantic winds used by early Portuguese explorers; artwork by Walrasiad.

Wikimedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHenrican_navigation_routes.gif.

11. All Columbus diary quotations are from Paul Halsall, ed., “Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal,” Fordham University: The Jesuit University of New York, www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.asp (accessed June 15, 2014). This article is part of the “Internet Medieval Sourcebook” in the History Sourcebooks Project.

12.

Wikipedia, “The Voyages of Christopher Columbus,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_of_Christopher_Columbus (accessed June 15, 2014).

13. Paul Halsall, ed., “Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal,” Fordham University: The Jesuit University of New York, www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.asp (accessed June 15, 2014). This article is part of the “Internet Medieval Sourcebook” in the History Sourcebooks Project.

14. Weatherford, Genghis Khan, 253–54.

15. Wade Frazier, “Columbus, the Original American Hero,” The Home Page of Wade Frazier, www.ahealedplanet.net/columbus.htm (accessed June 13, 2014); Wade Frazier, “An Introduction to This Website,” The Home Page of Wade Frazier, www.ahealedplanet.net/intro.htm#introduction (accessed June 13, 2014). He references Kirkpatrick, Christopher Columbus, 147–54.

16. Wikipedia, “John Mandeville,” Wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mandeville (accessed June 15, 2014).

17. Morgan, “Columbus’ Confusion.”

18. Marco Polo quote from Matt Rosenberg, “Marco Polo,” About.com Geography, geography.about.com/cs/marcopolo/a/marcopolo.htm (accessed June 15, 2014).

19. Paul Halsall, ed., “Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal,” Fordham University: The Jesuit University of New York, www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.asp (accessed June 15, 2014). This article is part of the “Internet Medieval Sourcebook” in the History Sourcebooks Project.

20. Ibid.; McAlister, Spain and Portugal, 81.

21. Cristoforo Colombo, Selected Letters of Christopher Columbus, with Other Original Documents, Relating to His Four Voyages to the New World, translated and edited by R. H. Major, The Hakluyt Society, 1870, 203.

22. Christopher Columbus, “The Letter of Columbus to Luis De Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery (1493),” Historic Documents, www.ushistory.org/documents/columbus.htm (accessed June 15, 2014).

23. Mouat, Adventures and Researches Among the Andaman Islanders, 7; Peter Foster, “Stone Age Tribe Kills Fishermen Who Strayed on to Island,” Telegraph, February 8, 2006, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/1509987/Stone-Age-tribe-killsfishermen-who-strayed-on-to-island.html (accessed June 16, 2014).

24. Thomas, Skull Wars, 9.

25. Michener, Caribbean.

26. Paul Halsall, ed., “Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal,” Fordham University: The Jesuit University of New York, www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.asp (accessed June 15, 2014). This article is part of the “Internet Medieval Sourcebook” in the History Sourcebooks Project.

27. Christopher Columbus, “The Letter of Columbus to Luis De Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery (1493),” Historic Documents, www.ushistory.org/documents/columbus.htm (accessed June 15, 2014).

28. Morgan, “Columbus’ Confusion.”

29. Zinn, People’s History, 3.

30. Morison, Journals and Other Documents, 212. Cited in Wade Frazier, “Columbus, The Original American Hero,” The Home Page of Wade Frazier, www.ahealedplanet.net/columbus.htm (accessed June 13, 2014).

31. Teacher, Christopher Columbus, 433.

32. Morgan, “Columbus’ Confusion.”

33.

Wikipedia, “Christopher Columbus,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Later_life (accessed June 16, 2014). See the “Later Life” section.

34. Wikipedia, “Book of Prophecies,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Prophecies (accessed June 13, 2014).

35. Las Casas, Brevisima relación de la destrucción de las Indias. See chapter 16 illustration captioned “Depiction of Spanish atrocities committed in the conquest of Cuba,” by the Flemish artist Theodor de Bry. 36. Zhenja La Rosa, “Language and Empire: The Vision of Nebrija,” Loyola University, New Orleans, www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1995-6/rosa.htm (accessed June 16, 2014). The quote is from Nebrija, Gramatica Castellana, 11.

37. Morgan, “Columbus’ Confusion.”

CHAPTER 2. AMERICAN HISTORY ABC 1. Books by Joseph Corey Ayoob include Ancient Inscriptions in the New World or Were the Phoenicians the First to Discover America? (1964) and Book in Arabic about the Phoenicians in America?

2. Gordon, Before Columbus.

3. Encyclopedia Phoeniciana. “Phoenician Settlements Outside the Motherland,” phoenicia.org/colonies.html (accessed June 16, 2014). Refer to map.

4. Fell, America B.C., 7.

5. Waddell, Phoenician Origin, 32.

6. Fell, America B.C., 160.

7. Ibid., 57–58.

8. Eric Williams, “Bourne Stone Continues to Baffle Experts,” Cape Cod Times, April 6, 2013, www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

AID=/20101020/NEWS/10200327/-1/rss02 (accessed June 13, 2014).

9. Cook, “Crespi Collection.”

10. Michael Palomino, “Cuenca: Father Crespi, Chronology,” from South America Index site, www.am-sur.com/am-sur/ecuador/Cuenca/padre-Crespi-chronology-ENGL.html (accessed June 15, 2014).

11. Fell, Saga America, 68–69.

12. Cook, “Crespi Collection,” 2. See also David Icke, “Coincidence? Not a Chance,” www.davidicke.com/headlines/71626-coincidence (accessed June 16, 2014). A video on this web page shows Crespi and many of his artifacts that have Old World similarities.

13. Wingate, Lost Outpost of Atlantis, 108.

14. Glen Chapman, “The Crespi Ancient Artifact Collection of Cuenca, Ecuador,” November 1998, The Chapman Research Group, chapmanresearch.org/PDF/Crespi%20Ancient%20Artifact%20Collection%20of%20Cuenca%2 Ecuador.pdf (accessed June 13, 2014).

15. Fell, Saga America, 79.

16. Ibid., 65.

17. Ibid., 5–6.

18. Waddell, Phoenician Origin, chap. 4.

19. Fell, Bronze Age America, 1982.

20. Fell, Saga America, 34–35.

21. McKusick, The Davenport Conspiracy.

22. Ibid., 65–66.

23. McKusick, Davenport Conspiracy.

24. Thomas, “Davenport Tablet, 188–90.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid.

28. Guthrie, Blind Men and the Elephants.

29. Ibid., 1.

30. McGlone et al. Ancient American Inscriptions.

31. Guthrie, Blind Men and the Elephants, 1.

32. Pinsky, “The Davenport Conspiracy: Revisited and Revised,” PseudoArchaeology Research Archive, www.pseudoarchaeology.org/a05/a05-pinsky.htm (accessed June 15, 2014).

33. Personal communications with William McGlone, Phillip Leonard, and Kean

Monahan, among others.

34. Personal communications with William McGlone.

35. Kelley, “Proto-Tifinagh and Proto-Ogham.”

CHAPTER 3. THE STARS AND THE STONES 1. Wikipedia, “Astrology and Astronomy,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology_and_ astronomy (accessed June 13, 2014).

2. Brennan, “31 Percent of Americans ‘Believe’ in Astrology,” The Horoscopic Astrology Blog, horoscopicastrologyblog.com/2008/12/11/31-percent-of-americans-believe-inastrology (accessed June 15, 2014).

3.

William James Bookstore, “Astrology,” www.williamjames.com/Folklore/ASTROLOG.htm (accessed June 16, 2014).

4. Mitchell E. Gibson, MD, Signs of Mental Illness, 1995; Kevin Williams, “Scientific Evidence Suggestive of Astrology,” www.near-death.com/experiences/articles012.html (accessed June 16, 2014).

5. Tiverton and Mid Devon Astronomy Society, “Astro-Archaeology at Stonehenge,” www.tivas.org.uk/stonehenge/stone_ast.html (accessed June 16, 2014).

6. Wikipedia, “Stonehenge,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge (accessed June 15, 2014).

7. Brennan, The Stars and the Stones.

8. Wikipedia, “Imbolc,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc (accessed June 15, 2014).

9. Brennan, The Stones of Time, 40.

10. Russell, “A Dream of Angus Oge,” Read Book www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/50665 (accessed June 15, 2014).

Online,

11. Brennan, The Stones of Time.

12. Ibid., 9.

13. Brennan, Stones of Time. See also Ancient Wisdom Foundation, “Light Boxes,” Ancient Wisdom, www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/lightboxes.htm (accessed June 16, 2014).

14. Alan Betson, “Irishtimes.com: Winter Solstice at Newgrange,” Irish Times, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xriRUDU9kwI (accessed June 15, 2014).

15. Brennan, Boyne Valley Vision.

16. Ibid., 15.

17. Ibid.

18. MacKillop, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, 366.

19. Godlike Productions, “Tuatha de Danann & Tribe of Dan,” forum discussion, March 21, 2009, www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message753925/pg1 (accessed June 15, 2014).

CHAPTER 4. CELTIC NEW ENGLAND 1. Gilmore and McElroy, Across Before Columbus?

2. Mavor and Dix, Manitou.

3. Brennan, Stars and the Stones.

4. Mavor and Dix, Manitou, 106.

5. Goodwin, Ruins of Greater Ireland.

6. America’s Stonehenge Tour Guide Map. America’s Stonehenge, P.O. Box 84, North Salem, NH 03073.

CHAPTER 5. THEY SETTLED IN MESOAMERICA 1. Wikipedia. “Mesoamerican Ballgames.” wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_ballgame (accessed June 15, 2014).

2. Quotes are from Goetz and Griswold, Book of the People.

3. Tedlock, Popol Vuh. 4. Erdoes and Oritz, American Indian Myths and Legends; Bierhorst, Tales of the American Indians; Hall, Cultural Background of Mississippian Symbolism; Galloway, The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex: Artifacts and Analysis, 239–78.

5. The Haab, the Tzolkin, and the Long Count are fully explained in Brennan, Stones of Time, and Jenkins, Maya Cosmogenesis 2012.

6. Jenkins, “Alignment 2012,” The Official Graham Hancock Website, www.grahamhancock.com/forum/JenkinsJM1-p1.htm (accessed June 16, 2014).

7. Tedlock, Popol Vuh. 8. Jenkins, Maya Cosmogenesis 2012. See also the Center for 2012 Studies web-site (www.thecenterfor2012studies.com; accessed June 16, 2014) and Jenkins’s books Galactic Alignment and The 2012 Story.

9. Brennan, Hidden Maya, 11.

10. Phylameana Lila Desy, “Healing Mudras Poster,” Holistic Healing, healing.about.com/od/spirituality/ss/Healing-Mudras-Poster.htm (accessed June 16, 2014).

11. For Christian hand signs, see “What Does This Hand Gesture Mean in Icons?”

Reader’s Guide to Orthodox Icons, iconreader.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/what-doesthis-hand-gesture-mean-in-icons (accessed June 16, 2014).

12. Brennan, Hidden Maya, 16–17, 248–52.

13. Information on Le Plongeon from Lawrence G. Desmond, “Augustus Le Plongeon (1826–1908): Early Mayanist, Archaeologist, and Photographer,” White Bone Dragon, http://maya.csueastbay.edu/archaeoplanet/LgdPage/LepOxf.htm (accessed June 13, 2014).

14.

See also Wikipedia, “Pre-Columbian Trans-Oceanic Contacts,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_contact#Africans (accessed June 15, 2014). See “Africans” section.

15. Van Stertima, They Came Before Columbus, 125.

16. “Studies of Science,” Basictell.com, www.basictell.com/general-knowledge/study-ofscience.php.

17. Wikipedia, “Olmec Alternative Origin Speculations,” wikipedia.org/wiki/ Olmec_alternative_origin_speculations (accessed June 15, 2014).

18. Thompson, Nu Sun. 19. Mackenzie, Myths of Pre-Columbian America; cited by David Pratt, “2012 and the Mayan Calendar: Facts and Fantasies,” Exploring Theosophy: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. www.davidpratt.info/2012.htm (accessed June 15, 2014).

20. Kausalya Santhanam, “The Cultural Connection,” The Hindu, www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/the-culturalconnection/article3606162.ece; Wikipedia, “Sanskrit,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit#Origin_ and_development (accessed June 16, 2014). See the “Origin and Development” section.

21. Sthapati, Sthapati’s Visit to Maayan Land. See also “The Loyal Inheritor of a Royal Tradition: Dr. V. Ganapati Sthapati,” Vaastu Shastra, www.vastu-design.com/ganapatiphp (accessed June 16, 2014).

22. Padmanabhan, “Impact of Dravidian Culture.”

23. http://veden-akademie.de/index.php?article_id=135&clang=1.There are many other Vedic sites throughout the world that are listed at this website.

CHAPTER 6. SACRED SEXUALITY AT THE PATHFINDER SITE 1. McGlone and Leonard, Ancient Celtic America.

2. McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions; McGlone et al., Petroglyphs of Southeast Colorado; McGlone et al., Archaeoastronomy of Southeast Colorado.

3. Keyser and Klassen, Plains Indian Rock Art, 188.

4. Brennan, Stones of Time, 144.

5. For discussion of Changing Woman’s alternative names to the Yavapai-Apache name Widapokwi, see “Changing Woman [Asdzaa nádleehé],” Welcome to Hanksville, www.hanksville.org/voyage/navajo/ChangingWoman.php3 (accessed June 16, 2014), which references Wyman, Blessingway; she is also called Estsanatlehi (Es-tan-aht’-luhee) by the Apache tribes, as described in “Changing Woman/Estsanatlehi,” Hrana Janto: Illustration and Illumination, www.hranajanto.com/goddessgallery/changing.html (accessed June 16, 2014).

6. Gill and Sullivan, Dictionary of Native American Mythology, 290.

7. Chaline, Book of Gods and Goddesses.

8. Steve Eddy and Claire Hamilton, “Native American Myths in Brief,” Living Myths, www.livingmyths.com/Nativesum.htm (accessed June 13, 2014).

9. Frazer, New Golden Bough, 586.

10. Brennan, Boyne Valley Vision, 15.

CHAPTER 7. EQUINOX SUNRISE: CELTIC SUN DEITIES IN COLORADO 1. One such debate occurred in 1985 between John Gooding, a Colorado archaeologist and Phillip Leonard and Bill McGlone. See http://onter.net/video3.html to view segments along with additional material on the “Old News” documentary by Kean Scott Monahan, which can be obtained at http://onter.net/dvd.

2. McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions.

3. Ibid., 330.

4. Ibid., xv.

5. Kelley, “Proto-Tifinagh and Proto-Ogham.”

6. McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 186–87.

7. Ibid., 185.

8. Ibid., 185, 187.

9. Ibid., 232.

10. Ibid., table XII, “Summary of Repeated Markings,” 232.

11. MacKillop, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, 92.

12. See video of the Crack Cave equinox alignment, “Crack Cave,” Kean (Scott) Monahan, Onter.net at http://onter.net/video4.html; and “CBS News Report” from March 23, 1987 broadcast, onter.net/videos.html.

13. The central Colorado Ogham inscription is detailed in McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 215–17; and McGlone and Leonard, Ancient Celtic America, 113–16.

CHAPTER 8. OLD WORLD COSMOLOGIES AT THE ANUBIS CAVES 1. These works coauthored by Leonard include McGlone and Leonard, Ancient Celtic America; McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions; McGlone et al., Petroglyphs of Southeast Colorado; and McGlone et al., Archaeoastronomy of Southeast Colorado.

2. Leonard, A New World Monument to Mithras.

3. One of the earliest and best-written presentations of the Anubis Caves is McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions. The Anubis Caves are presented in the 1985 documentary Old News, produced by Kean (Scott) Monahan and available at http://onter.net/dvd.html, along with an interview of Martin Brennan at Anubis Cave in

2007 at http://onter.net/video5.html.

4. Fell, America B.C., 159.

5. Farley, In Plain Sight, chap. 9, 217–39; see also Farley, “Heavener Runestone.”

6. Farley, “Mythology of the Petroglyphs,” 347.

7. Farley, In Plain Sight.

8. Ibid., 275. The source of translation is Barry Fell.

9.

Cooper, Mithras.

Relevant excerpt www.iranian.com/History/Sept97/Mitra/index.html (accessed June 13, 2014).

at

10. Gordon, “Franz Cumont,” 215–48; Gordon quotes Porphyry on page 66.

11. Leonard, A New World Monument to Mithras, 23–27.

12. Ibid., 28.

13. There are many references to the similarities between Jesus and Mithras, including Kevin Williams, “Jesus as the Reincarnation of Mithra,” Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife, www.near-death.com/experiences/jesus08.html (accessed November 1, 2014).

14. Barry Fell provided translations to some of the inscriptions based on Farley’s photographs; see Fell, “Parietal Inscriptions,” 342.

15. McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 139.

16. Cation ratio dating, also known as indirect carbon-14 dating, for the inscriptions was completed by Professor of Geography Ron Dorn from Arizona State University. Dorn and Whitley, “Chronometric and Relative Age Determination of Petroglyphs in the Western United States,” 1984, and Dorn et al., “Age Determination of Petroglyphs in Southeast Colorado,” 1990. See McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 355–64.

17. McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 160.

18. Leonard, A New World Monument to Mithras, 45.

19. McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, fig. 73, 165.

20. Leonard, A New World Monument to Mithras, 11.

21. Ibid., 11–12.

22. Fell, “Parietal Inscriptions,” 342; cited and referenced in McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 153.

23. Fell, “Ogham Consaine Coinage,” 384; cited and referenced in McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 47, 148.

24. Leonard, A New World Monument to Mithras, 20–21.

25. For a video clip of the Silent Opera, see “Old News” trailer, Kean Scott Monahan, http://onter.net/video1.html and “Beyond Old News,” Kean Scott Monahan,

http://onter.net/video5.html.

26. Stern, “What Happened to the Cult Figurines?”

27. Ulansey, Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, 8; also see Hyeongsu Park, “Mithraism in the Roman Empire,” section 2-b.

Mithra vs.

Perseus, www.zum.de/whkmla/sp/0607/hyeongsu/hyeongsu.html, 2006 (accessed June 16, 2014).

28. Porphyry, De antro nympharum, chap. 6; cited in Leonard, A New World Monument to Mithras, 8. See also Hyeongsu Park, “Mithraism in the Roman Empire,” www.zum.de/whkmla/sp/0607/hyeongsu/hyeongsu.html (accessed June 16, 2014).

29. McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 168.

CHAPTER 9. MORE CELTIC AMERICA 1. Lehrburger and Monahan, “Evidence of Old World Travelers in Colorado.”

2. Schmidt, “Lugh,” Equinox Project, www.equinox-project.com/lughx.htm (accessed June 15, 2014).

3. Nemeton: The Sacred Grove, “Lugas,” www.celtnet.org.uk/gods_l/lugus.html (accessed June 15, 2014).

4. Aedui, “The Nuptials of Lugh: A Brief History of Lughnasadh,” Celtia, November 12, 2007, www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/1007508 (accessed June 13, 2014).

5. Ibid.

6. McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 92.

7. See Lehrburger and Monahan, “Evidence of Old World Travelers in Colorado.”

8. Dorn, McGlone, and Leonard, “Age Determination of Petroglyphs”; see also McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 199–201.

9. For a video clip of Sun Temple see Kean Scott Monahan, “Beyond Old News: Expedition to Colorado’s Sun Temple at Beltanee dawn, 5 May 2007,” http://onter.net/video6.html. Monahan’s video documentaries showing solar phenomena at the Anubis Caves, Sun Temple, and Crack Cave, are available at http://onter.net/videos.html.

10. Gallagher and Dexter, Contact with Ancient America.

11. Jennifer Viegas, “Kansas ‘Mystery Stone’ and Enormous Underground Irish Temple,” Discovery News, from s8int.com website, http://s8int.com/page20.html, Page 20; also “Kansas Mystery Stone,” Lincoln Sentinel-Republican, December 12, 1996, www.forbiddenhistory.info/?q=node/25.

12. Gallagher and Dexter, Contact with Ancient America, 125–27.

13. Ida Jane Gallagher, September 21–23, 2008; personal communication with author.

14. Robert T. Meyer, professor of Celtic Studies, letter, ESOP 15: 44–45, app. A, 1986; Dr. Linus Brunner, letter, ESOP 15: 45–46, app. C, 1986; and Burrell C. Dawson,

“Report of the Gadelic Committee,” ESOP 15 (1986): 42.

15. Leonard, A New World Monument to Mithras, app. A, 7.

CHAPTER 10. WESTWARD TO A DWELLING PLACE OF A GREAT SPIRIT 1. For more information, see www.equinox-project.com.

2. Heizer and Baumhoff, Prehistoric Rock Art. 3. Roderick Schmidt, personal communications with author.

4. Farley, In Plain Sight, 163.

5. Lehrburger, www.NewHistoryOfAmerica.com, see “video link,” Mojave North Serpent animation.

6. Roderick L. Schmidt, “An Analysis of the Inyo Equinox Display, The Equinox Project, 2001.

7. Rod Schmidt and Curtis Buff, formally of the Paiute/Shoshone reservation in Lone Pine, California, personal communication with author.

8. John Bathurst Deane, The Worship of the Serpent, 1833 (see quote by Kircher, 59–60); also Internet Sacred Text Archive, “Chapter II, Serpent-Worship in Africa,” www.sacred-texts.com/etc/wos/wos05.htm#fr_181 (accessed June 15, 2014), 122–23.

9. Fell, “Ancient Zodiac from Inyo, California,” 1–9; paper also available in “Epigraphy,” Equinox Project, www.equinox-project.com/epigraphy.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

10. Clifford P. Baldwin, “Archaeological Exploration and Survey in Southern Inyo County” (unpublished manuscript, Eastern California Museum, Independence, California, 1931).

11. Fell, “Ancient Zodiac from Inyo, California.”

12. Fell, Saga America, 108.

13. Magic Eye®, Magic Eye Inc., producers of the patented Magic Eye 3-D images. www.magiceye.com (accessed June 17, 2014).

14. Lehrburger, www.NewHistoryOfAmerica.com, see “video link,” Mojave North Serpent animation.

CHAPTER 11. MOJAVE NORTH II—DID THEY COME ACROSS THE PACIFIC? 1. Information on Taddei’s research into ancient alchemy and petroglyph decipherment, along with information on products derived from related breakthroughs, is highlighted at www.SpagyricArts.com and www.Tetraskele.com.

2.

Wikipedia, “Indus Valley Civilization,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization (accessed June 17, 2014); Wikipedia, “Lothal,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothal (accessed June 17, 2014).

3. Dorian Taddei, personal communication with author.

4. MacCana, Celtic Mythology, 29.

5. Dorian Taddei, personal communication with author.

6.

Armeniapedia, “Gevork Nazaryan,” www.armeniapedia.org/index.php? title=Gevork_Nazaryan (accessed June 17, 2014).

See also www.ArmenianHighland.com (accessed June 17, 2014).

7. The reference to Barry Fell’s interpretation is from Fell, “Ancient Zodiac from Inyo, California,” ESOP Vol. 8/1, 9.

8. Schmidt, “Epigraphy,” Equinox Project, www.equinox-project.com/epigraphy.htm.

9. Vincent, “Major ‘Lunar Standstill.”

10. Malville, Eddy, and Ambruster, “Lunar Standstills at Chimney Rock”; adsabs .harvard.edu/full/1991JHAS…22…43M (accessed June 15, 2014); Joe Knapp, “Hopewell Lunar Astronomy: The Octagon Earthworks,” www.copperas.com/octagon, at “The Octagon Earthworks: A Neolithic Lunar Observatory” site (accessed June 15, 2014); Sofaer, Sinclair, and Doggett, “Lunar Markings on Fajada Butte.” www.solsticeproject.org/lunarmark.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

CHAPTER 12. THE GREAT BASIN MELTING POT 1. Ettinger, Amateur Archaeologist.

2. Ker Than, “Oldest North American Rock Art May Be 14,800 Years Old,” National Geographic, August 15, 2013, news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130815lake-winnemucca-petroglyphs-ancient-rock-art-nevada (accessed June 15, 2014); see also Dorn and Whitley, “Chronometric and Relative Age Determination.”

3. Dorian Taddei quotes are from personal communications with author.

4. G. Kuppuram, India through the Ages, 527–31, quoted from Sushama Londhe, “Seafaring in Ancient India,” Hindu Wisdom, www.hinduwisdom.info/Seafaring_in_Ancient_India.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

5. Prasad, Foreign Trade and Commerce, 131.

6. G. Kuppuram, India through the Ages: History, Art, Culture and Religion, 527–31, found at Hindu Wisdom, www.hinduwisdom.info/Seafaring_in_Ancient_India.htm.

7. For the city that could have “launched a thousand ships,” see Crystalinks Metaphysics and Science website, “The Ruins of Gulf of Khambhat and Dwarka,” www.crystalinks.com/khambhat_dwarka.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

8. Wikipedia, “Marine Archeology in the Gulf of Khambhat,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_archaeology_in_the_Gulf_of_Cambay (accessed June 17, 2014).

9. Ricardo Palleres, “Who Discovered America?” Archaeology Online, www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/who-discovered-america.html (accessed June 15, 2014).

10. Matlock, India Once Ruled the Americas! The Matlock quote is from the book cover to the Amazon book at www.amazon.com/India-Once-Ruled-AmericasMatlock/dp/0595134688 (accessed June 17, 2014).

11. Matlock, India Once Ruled the Americas! 8.

12. Ibid., 11.

13. Ibid., 10.

14. Ibid., 18.

15. Carl Bjork, “Rock-Art 101: An Introduction into the Study of Rock-Art,” Carl Bjork’s Rock-Art Site, home.comcast.net/~carlbjork/Rockart101.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

16. Martineau, Rocks Begin to Speak.

17. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, “Petroglyph Sites,” www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/bishop/archeology.html (accessed June 15, 2014).

18. Marv Baskin, “Kokopelli: The Ancient Casanova,” Gold Mountain Trading, www.goldmountaintrading.com/kokancas.html (accessed June 13, 2014).

19. Matlock, India Once Ruled the Americas! See also Robert Schmidt, “Kokopelli a Hindu God?” Blue Corn Comics. www.bluecorncomics.com/kokopell.htm (accessed June 15, 2014).

20. White, “Interpretation of Rock Art Figure ‘Kokopelli.’”

21. Keeler, Secrets of the Cuna Earthmother (cited in White, “Interpretation of Rock Art Figure ‘Kokopelli’”).

22. Information on early Celtic grinding holes on vertical surfaces from the Nether Largie, Scotland, cup-marked stones can be found at Martin McCarthy, “Nether Largie Stone Setting,” Ancient Scotland, www.ancient-scotland.co.uk/site.php?a=121 (accessed June 17, 2014).

23. Wikipedia, “Geophagy,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophagy (accessed June 17, 2014).

24. See Bednarik, “Cupules,” 61–100.

25. Examples are found at International Federation of Rock Art Organization (IFRAO), P.O. Box 216, Caulfield South, Vic. 3162, Australia; e-mail: auraweb@ hotmail.com; Neil Collins, ed., “Rock Art: Prehistoric,” Art Encyclopedia, www.visual-artscork.com/prehistoric/rock-art.htm; see “Bhimbetka Petroglyphs,” www.visual-artscork.com/prehistoric/oldest-art.htm#oldest (accessed June 13, 2014); and “Auditorium Cave & Daraki-Chattan Petroglyphs,” www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/bhimbetkapetroglyphs.htm.

26. Gillette and Hylkema, “Pecking Away the Bias”; Carl Bjork, “PCN’s California Coast Range,” Carl Bjork’s Rock-Art Site, “Rock Art 101,” home.comcast.net/~carlbjork/Rockart101.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

27. For PCNs in the San Francisco area, see “Pecked Curvilinear Nucleated (PCN)

Petroglyphs–San Francisco Bay Area—California,” www.youtube.com/watch? v=P3HQjBlA7a0 (accessed June 17, 2014). For an overview of the present state of research on cupules, see San Diego Archaeological Center, “Cupules,” www.sandiegoarchaeology.org/Laylander/Issues/funct.cupule.htm (accessed June 17, 2014); and Donna Gillette and Linda Hylkema, “Pecking Away the Bias: Incorporating California Rock Art into Mainstream Archaeology,” Society for California Archaeology, Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology, Vol. 21, 2009, www.scahome.org/publications/proceedings/Proceedings.21Gillette.pdf.

28. Dorian Taddei, personal communication with author.

CHAPTER 13. MIDWEST RELICS, MOUNDS, AND CONTROVERSIES 1. Ancient American magazine, ISSN 1077-1646, published by Wayne N. May, PO Box 370, Colfax WI 54730; phone: 715-962-3299.

2. Wikipedia, “Hopewell Tradition,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopewell_tradition (accessed June 17, 2014).

3. New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA). Refer to chapter 4 for background on NEARA. See also www.neara.org (accessed June 17, 2014); Ancient Earthworks Society, Madison, WI, www.ancientearthworks.org/home-2 (accessed June 17, 2014).

4. Miller, “Mayan Temple Found in Illinois?”

5. Thomas S. Garlinghouse, “Revisiting the Mound-Builder Controversy,” Roebuck Classes, roebuckclasses.com/201/conquest/moundbuildercontroversy.htm (accessed June 13, 2014).

6. Powell, On Limitations.

7. DeBuys, Seeing Things Whole, 106.

8. Thomas, “Report on the Mound Explorations,” 1894. The Thomas quote is from page XLVII. 9. Thomas, Problem of the Ohio Mounds, 1889.

10. Jay Stuart Wakefield and Reinoud de Jonge, “Michigan Copper in the Mediterranean (Isle Royale and Keweenaw Peninsula, ca. 2400BC–1200BC),” Ancient American, Vol. 18 Issue 84; also published on the Rocks and Row web-site at www.rocksandrows.com/copper-trade-1.php.

11. Rydholm, “Where Did All the Copper Go? The Untold Story,” 2–8, Ancient American, Issue Number 78.

12. Wikipedia, “Copper Copper_mining_in_Michigan.

Mining

in

Michigan,”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

13. For information and a photo, as seen from the air, of the bird effigies of the Capoli Bluff Mound Group north of Effigy Mounds National Monument, see National Park Service, “Effigy Mounds: History and Culture,”

www.nps.gov/efmo/historyculture/index.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

14. Fred Rydholm, “Where did all the Copper Go? see also Wakefield and de Jonge, Rocks and Rows.

15. Wakefield, “Michigan Copper In the Mediterranean (Isle Royale and Keweenaw Peninsula, ca. 2400BC-1200BC), jayswakefield@yaho.com, Ancient American magazine, Issue Number 84; see also Wakefield and de Jonge, Rocks and Rows, figs. 3 and 6.

16. Thomas S. Garlinghouse, “Revisiting the Mound-Builder Controversy,” Roebuck Classes, roebuckclasses.com/201/conquest/moundbuildercontroversy.htm (accessed June 13, 2014).

17. Mann, 1491, 301.

18.

See Reverbnation, “Serpent Mound/Photos,” www.reverbnation.com/page_object/page_object_photos/artist_508108 (accessed June 17, 2014).

19. Mound Builders, “30 Ancient Serpent Mounds in North America,” moundbuilder.blogspot.com/p/30-serpent-mounds-in-north-america.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

20. See the references to the Avebury Serpent at Mound Builders, “The Great Serpent Mound and the Mound Builders of Adams County, Ohio,” moundbuilder.blogspot.com/2012/07/visit-to-adams-county-ohio-mounds-and.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

21. Mertz, Mystic Symbol.

22. Ibid., 147.

23. Ibid., 148.

24. David Allen Deal, Fred Rydholm, Rudolph Etzenhouser, and Wayne May, “The Mystic Symbol Demystified,” The Mystic Symbol, 169–70.

25. Mertz, Mystic Symbol, 172.

26. Ibid., 206.

27. Talmage, “Michigan Relics.”

28. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Michigan Historical Museum, “Digging Up Controversy, The Michigan Relics,” noted in “Archaeological Hoaxes,” http://mel.org/index.php?P=FullRecord&ID=2235.

29. Letter from James Homans to James Talmage, March 28, 1916, Soper and Savage Collection, Church Archives (cited by Stamps, “Tools Leave Marks,” footnote 53).

30. Stamps, “Tools Leave Marks.”

31. Ibid., 234.

32. Burrows Cave references are found in Joseph, Lost Treasure of Juba; see also May and Joseph, “Egyptian Mortuary Statuette”; Fisher, “Egyptian Looking Medallions,” 3; and the Egyptians in America website: sites.google.com/site/ancientegyptiansinamerica/home (accessed June 17, 2014).

CHAPTER 14. HEBREWS, ROMANS, AND EARLY CHRISTIANS 1. 2 Chronicles, 20:35–37.

2. 1 Kings 22:48–49 3. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book 8, section 7, (2) from Perseus Digital Library, Tufts Univesity, edited by William Whiston. www.perseus.tufts.edu.

4. Fell, Saga America, 168; Thompson, American Discovery, 179.

5. Farley, In Plain Sight, chap. 11, “The Coincidence of the Coins”; also found at: www.gloriafarley.com/chap11.htm; Jeremiah F. Epstein, “Pre-Columbian Old World Coins in America: An Examination of the Evidence,” Current Anthropology 21, no. 1.

Feb. 1980; J. Huston McCullough, “The Bat Creek Inscription: Cherokee or Hebrew?”

Tennessee Anthropologist, Fall 1988.

6. Gordon, Before Columbus.

7. Thomas, “Report on the Mound Explorations,” 714.

8. Mainfort and Kwas, “Bat Creek Stone,” 1–19.

9. Ibid.

10. Lepper et al. “Civilizations Lost and Found.”

11. Wikipedia, “Newark Holy Stones,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newark_Holy_Stones (accessed June 17, 2014).

12. McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 271–73.

13. Gary Vey, ed. “New Discovery Supports Belief That Ark of The Covenant Is in Yemen,” Viewzone, www.viewzone.com/proto-canaanite22.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

14. Gary Vey, ed., “First Tongue: An Ancient Global Language,” Viewzone, www.viewzone.com/expo2002.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

15. Ibid.

16. Deal, Discovery of Ancient America.

17. Underwood, “Los Lunas Inscription,” 237.

18. Deal, Discovery of Ancient America, 8.

19. Ibid.

20. Ibid., 12.

21. Feder, Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology, 161–62.

22. McGlone, “Zodiacs in the West.” Published in Western Epigraphy, Vol. 1, no. 2, December 1983.

23. Deal, Discovery of Ancient America, 18, 23.

24. Ibid., Hidden Mountain star chart detail, 19.

25. Gordon, “Diffusion of Near East Culture,” 30–31, 69–81.

26. Covey, Calalus, 17.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., 37.

29. Ibid., 42.

30. Ibid., 43.

31. Isaiah 27:1.

32. Covey, Calalus, 45.

33. Ibid., 185.

34. Grimes, “Calalus, a Roman Era City in Arizona,” 8–13.

35. Fowler was quoted in the Arizona Daily Star, March 17, 1926. For other notable Calalus skepticism, see Williams, Fantastic Archaeology; and Jason Colavito, “1996: Geologist Confirms Tucson Artifacts Fake, Caliche Formed in Just ‘Hours,’ Jason Colavito: Author, Editor, & Skeptical Xenoarchaeologist, www.jasoncolavito.com (accessed June 17, 2014).

36.

Vunil, “Tucson artifacts,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Vunil/Tucson_artifacts.

Wikipedia,

37. Bostwick, Byron Cummings, 134.

38. Yoseif, Maggid ben, “Cherokee Council House is a Walk into the Jewish Kabbala,” Ancient American Magazine, Vol 14, Number 86, 6, 2011.

39. Chief Joe Sitting Owl White, “Abraham/Moses Project.” Ancient American Magazine, Vol 14, no. 86, 2011.

40. Ibid., 2.

41. William F. Dankenbring, “Who Really Discovered America?” Free Republic, www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/1116677/posts (accessed June 17, 2014).

42. Kaplan, Mechoulan, and Popkin, Menasseh ben Israel and His World, 76.

43. Yates, “Mitochondrial DNA of the Cherokee,” 28.

44. Ibid., 31.

45. Harratz, “Israeli Researchers: Group of Colorado Indians Have Genetic Jewish Roots,” July 27, 2013, www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/israeliresearchers-group-of-colorado-indians-have-genetic-jewish-roots.premium-1.433227

(accessed June 17, 2014).

CHAPTER 15. MORE TO LEARN ABOUT ANCIENT AMERICA 1. Squier, Peru; and Squier, Serpent Symbol. See also Londhe, Tribute to Hinduism; and Tribute to Hinduism, “India on Pacific Waves?” Hindu Wisdom, www.hinduwisdom.info/Pacific.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

2. B. G. Sidharth, “The Astronomical Link between India and the Mayans,” Cornell University Library, arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0101076.pdf (accessed June 17, 2014).

3. Thompson, American Discovery, chap, 10, “Hindu Seafarers.”

4. Wikipedia, “Maize,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize (accessed October 2013).

5. Carl Johannessen, “Pre-Columbian Maize in China and India,” University of Oregon, Department of Geography, geog.uoregon.edu/carljohannessen/research.html.

6. Thompson, American Discovery, 184, citing Cyr, Eclectic Epigrapher.

7. Thompson, American Discovery, 134.

8. Ibid., 105.

9. Ibid., 211.

10. Ibid., 281.

11. Jeffreys, “Pre-Columbian Maize in Asia,” 399. For a review of the topic of maize diffusion and Jeffrey’s article, see Yuri Kuchinsky, “Maize in Europe and India: A Twisted Tale,” www.andes.missouri.edu/Personal/DMartinez/Diffusion/msg00140.html.

12. Oviedo, Fernández de, Historia general y natural de las Indias; see also World Digital Library, “About the Natural History of the Indies,” www.wdl.org/en/item/7331 (accessed June 17, 2014).

13.

Vidyavachaspati V. Panoli, trans., Katha www.advaita.it/library/katha.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

Upanishad,

1-I-6,

14. Thompson, American Discovery, 221.

15. Ibid., 227–28.

16. Strassberg, Chinese Bestiary, 3–5.

17. Mertz, Pale Ink. 18. Harris, Asiatic Fathers of America; see also the map at: matadornetwork.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/05/20101113-Map02.jpg (accessed June 17, 2014).

19. Thompson, Nu Sun. 20. Thompson, American Discovery, 131–33.

21. Menzies, 1421.

22. Mesusan, “Chinese in Pre-Columbian Mexico.”

23. Thompson, American Discovery, 117.

24. Chow, Chasing Their Dreams, 40.

25. Chapman, History of California.

26. Ibid., 21–30.

27. Gordon, Before Columbus.

28. Huyghe, Columbus Was Last, 30; See Estrada, Meggers, and Evans, “Possible Transpacific Contact.”

29. Thompson, American Discovery, 32.

30. Davis, Zuni Enigma.

31. Davis, “Zuni Enigma”; William R. Corliss, “The Zuni Enigma,” Science Frontiers Online, www.science-frontiers.com/sf087/sf087a02.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

32. Davis, Zuni Enigma; also Publisher’s Weekly, book review of Davis, Zuni Enigma, www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-393-04788-2 (accessed June 17, 2014).

33. Thompson, American Discovery, 139.

34. Ibid., 140.

35. Translation of Grave Creek Stone by Fell, America B.C., 21; Quote from McGlone et. al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 14. For a summary, translation, and in support of authenticity refer to McGlone et al., 9–15. For a contrasting view that presents the stone as a hoax, see J. Houston McCulloch, “The Grave Creek Stone,” Department of Economics, Ohio State University, www.econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/grvcrk.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

36. Fell, America B.C., 98.

37. Ibid., 157.

38. Thomas Fleming, “Stone Secrets of the First Americans,” Ensign Message, ensignmessage.com/archives/stonesecrets.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

39. Fell, Saga America, 54.

40. Ibid., 6.

41. Avvoula, “Researcher Claims Ancient Greeks Made It to America Before Columbus,” Greek Canada Reporter, April 21, 2012, canada.greekreporter.com/2012/04/21/researcher-claims-ancient-greeks-made-it-toamerica-before-columbus/#sthash.UniHryVb.dpuf (accessed June 17, 2014).

42. Fell, Saga America, 70–72, 365–67.

43. Donald N. Yates, “Cherokees Spoke Greek and Came from East Mediterranean,” DNA Consultants, http://dnaconsultants.com/_blog/DNA_consultants_Blog/post/Cherokees_Spoke_Greek_and_C

44. Ibid.

45. Yates, Old World Roots of the Cherokee.

46. Sign at the Red Bird petroglyph site, as described in Joe Kuz, “The Red Bird Petroglyph of Kentucky; Evidence of Ancient Cultures in the Americas … Page 43,” s8int.com/phile/page43.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

47. Fell, Saga America, 175.

48. Ibid.

49. Marder, Indians in the Americas.

50. David Pratt, “The Ancient Americas: Migrations, Contacts, and Atlantis,” Exploring Theosophy: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, www.davidpratt.info/americas1.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

51. Cited in David Pratt, “The Ancient Americas: Migrations, Contacts, and Atlantis,” Exploring Theosophy: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, www.davidpratt.info/americas1.htm (accessed June 17, 2014); see also Collins, Gateway to Atlantis, 147–50; and Fretz, “The First Europeans to Reach the New World,” Free Republic, www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1038045/posts (accessed June 17, 2014).

52. Covey, Calalus; Haywood, Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee.

53. Farley, In Plain Sight, chap. 11, “A Coincidence of Coins”; also found at: www.gloriafarley.com/chap11.htm.

54. Ibid., 283.

55. Covey, Calalus, 5–6; see also William E. McNeil, Visitors to Ancient America, 236.

56. Fell, America B.C., 112–20, quote from 112.

57. Wikipedia, “Madoc,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc (accessed June 17, 2014).

58. Cited in Thompson, American Discovery, 203.

59. Deacon, Madoc and the Discovery of America.

60. Wikipedia, “Madoc,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc (accessed June 17, 2014).

61. Griffin Logue’s Wild Animal Website, “Fort Mountain’s Mysterious Wall,” planetanimals.com/logue/Ftmount.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

62. Judd Hambrick, “Welsh Explorer Prince Madoc Beat Columbus to New World by 322 Years,” Southern Memories, southernmemoriesandupdates.com/2011/alabama/welshexplorer-prince-madoc-beat-columbus-to-new-world -by-322-years (accessed June 17, 2014) 63. Ibid.

64. Phil Carradice, “Prince Madoc and the Discovery of America,” BBC Wales, www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/posts/prince_madoc_discovery_of_america (accessed June 17, 2014).

65. Logue and Logue, Touring the Backroads.

66. Wikipedia, “Madoc,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc.

67. Thompson, American Discovery, 204.

68. Ibid., 205.

69. Reclus, Earth and Its Inhabitants, cited in Thompson, American Discovery, 361.

70. Fagan, Ancient North America, cited in Thompson, American Discovery, 289.

71. Gordon, Before Columbus, 98.

72. Wikipedia, “Brasil (Mythical Island),” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasil_%28mythical_ island%29 (accessed June 17, 2014).

73. Wikipedia, “Pedro de Ayala,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_de_Ayala.

74. Thompson, American Discovery, 295.

75. McGlone et al., Ancient American Inscriptions, 271–85.

76. Balabanova et al., “First Identification of Drugs,” 358.

77. S. A. Wells, “American Drugs in Egyptian Mummies,” Discoveries in Natural History and Exploration, www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/ethnic/mummy.htm (accessed June 17, 2014.

78. David Pratt, “The Ancient Americas: Migrations, Contacts, and Atlantis,” “Exploring Theosophy: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy,” www.davidpratt.info/americas1.htm (accessed June 17, 2014). Pratt cites the following sources: Thompson, Secret Voyages to the New World, 16–17, 26–27; Sanders, “Where is Punt,” 54–57.

79. David Pratt, “The Ancient Americas: Migrations, Contacts, and Atlantis,” “Exploring Theosophy: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy,” www.davidpratt.info/americas1.htm (accessed June 17, 2014).

80. Cited in Florescano, Historia de las historias de la nacion Mexicana.

81. Thompson, American Discovery, 84.

82. May and Joseph, “Egyptian Mortuary Statuette.”

83. Wolter, Hooked X. 84. Source of quote: “Knights Templars in Duluth,” Duluth Superior Magazine, October 15, 2013.

85. Heyerdahl, Aku-Aku. 86. Heyerdahl and Lilliestrom, Ingen grenser.

87. Brown, Rediscovering Vinland. Brown came to the same conclusions as Heyerdahl.

88. Acadia National Park, “Thor Heyerdahl Believes Vikings Were the First Tourists,” www.nationalparkacadia.com/vikings2.html (accessed June 17, 2014). Originally

printed in the New York Times, December 19, 2000.

89. Quoting from the New York Times article cited in Note 90.

90. Heather Pringle, “Evidence of Viking Outpost Found in Canada,” National Geographic Daily News.

October 19, 2012, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121019-viking-outpost-second-newcanada-science-sutherland (accessed June 17, 2014) 91. Thompson, American Discovery, artifact 21 from table titled “Old World Artifacts in America,” 276.

92. Horsford, Discovery of the Ancient City of Norumbega; Andy Woodruff, “Norumbega, New England’s Lost City of Riches and Vikings,” Andy Woodruff: Web Cartographer, andywoodruff.com/blog/norumbega-new-englands-lost-city-of-riches-and-vikings (accessed June 17, 2014).

93. Horsford, Discovery of the Ancient City of Norumbega, 8.

94. Baigent et al., Holy Blood, Holy Grail; see also Daniel E. Slotnik, “Michael Baigent, Writer Who Sued Over ‘Da Vinci Code,” Dies at 65,” New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/arts/michael-baigent-writer-who-sued-over-da-vincicode-dies-at-65.html for details of the suit (accessed June 17, 2014).

95. Baigent et al., Holy Blood, Holy Grail, 333–38.

96. Sora, Lost Colony of the Templars.

97. Ibid., 151.

98. William S. Penhallow, Astronomical Alignments in the Newport Tower, 32–43; Carlson, Newport Tower.

99. Wolter, “Venus Alignments,” 34–39.

100. Chronognostic Research Foundation, “Discovery over Turbo www.chronognostic.org/over_touro_park.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

Park,”

101. Sora, Lost Colony of the Templars, 95.

102. Matlock, India Once Ruled the Americas!, viii.

CHAPTER 16. THE LEGACY OF THE CONQUEST 1. Mann, “Earthmovers of the Amazon,” Science 287 (February 4, 2000): 786–89, reprint at: www.sas.upenn.edu/~cerickso/baures/Mann2.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

2. Rhett Butler, “Amazon Stonehenge Suggests Advanced Ancient Rainforest Culture,” Mongabay.com, http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0514-amazon.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

3. Mann, 1491.

4. Ibid., 287.

5. Sofaer et al., “Sun Dagger Interactive Computer Model”; see also Sofaer et al., “Lunar

Markings on Fajada Butte”; www.solsticeproject.org/lunarmark.html.

and

the

Solstice

Project:

6. Malville, Guide to Prehistoric Astronomy.

7.

Wikipedia, “Mississippian Culture,” wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture#Chronology (accessed June 17, 2014). See the “Chronology” section.

8. Harner, “Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice.”

9. Sahagun, Historia general de las cosas, chap. XX–XXXVIII. 10. Hassig, “El sacrificio”; see also Hassig, Aztec Warfare.

11. Wikipedia, “Romanus Pontifex,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanus_Pontifex (accessed June 17, 2014).

12. See map for division of the New World between Spain and Portugal: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Iberian_Union_Empires.png/300pxIberian_Union_Empires.png (accessed June 17, 2014).

13. Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 74.

14.

Stannard, American Holocaust, 220; www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/Sex_Race_AH.html.

excerpts

at:

15. Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 77–78 16. Landa, Relación de las cosas de Yucatán.

17. Stannard, American Holocaust, xii; Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 74–75.

18. Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 197.

19. Mann, 1491, 112.

20. Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 78.

21. Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian, 35.

22. Pope Benedict XVI, address at the inaugural session of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, Conference Hall, Shrine of Aparecida, Brazil, May 13, 2007, Brazil, www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2007/may/documents/hf_benxvi_spe_20070513_conference-aparecida_en.html (accessed June 18, 2014).

23. Thompson, American Discovery, xvii.

24. Piero Scaruffi, “For a New History of Prehistory,” Opinions on Science, www.scaruffi.com/news/prehisto.html (accessed June 18, 2014). See “Part 2: A Herstory of Women or the Missing 50%.”

CHAPTER 17. AWAKENING A NEW HISTORY 1. Powell, On Limitations, chap. 13.

2. Thomas, Problem of the Ohio Mounds, chap. 13.

3. Velikovsky, Mankind in Amnesia, 93.

4. Velikovsky, Earth in Upheaval.

5. Velikovsky, Mankind In Amnesia, 40–41.

6. Janov, Primal Scream.

7. Orwell, 1984.

8. Michael Cremo, “Divine Nature: Practical Application of Vedic Ethical Principles in Resolving the Environmental Crisis,” Michael Cremo: Forbidden Archeology, www.mcremo.com/divinenature.html (accessed June 18, 2014).

9. Schwaller de Lubicz, Esoterism and Symbol; Schwaller de Lubicz, Temple In Man. 10. Gary Lachman, “René Schwaller de Lubicz and the Intelligence of the Heart,” United Earth Tipis, www.unitedearth.com.au/lubicz.html (accessed June 18, 2014).

11. West, Serpent in the Sky, 98.

12. See Whyte Eagle, “Mysterious Petroglyphs in the Western US,” Ancient Lost Treasures, www.ancientlosttreasures.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=367&p=1190 (accessed June 18, 2014). See Post Number: #5, September 5, 2009.

13. Brennan, Hidden Maya, 219.

14. Ibid., 92.

15. Mound Builders, “30 Ancient Serpent Mounds in North America,” moundbuilder .blogspot.com/p/30-serpent-mounds-in-north-america.html (accessed June 17, 2014).

16. Thompson, American Discovery, 373.

17. Allegro, Sacred Mushroom and the Cross.

18. Thompson, American Discovery, 367.

19. Ibid., 368.

20. For preservation efforts at Mojave North and other sites contact the Ancient Historical Research Foundation; go to www.ancienthistoricalresearchfoundation.com (accessed June 18, 2014).

21. Thompson, American Discovery, 370.

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Wolter, Scott. The Hooked X: Key to the Secret History of North America. Clearwater, Minn.: North Star Press of St. Cloud, 2009.

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About the Author CARL LEHRBURGER has studied archaeological and sacred sites in the Americas, with a focus on ancient Old World peoples in America before Columbus, for more than 25 years. He has published articles in Ancient American magazine. An avid traveler and explorer, he lives in Talent, Oregon.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lehrburger, Carl.

Secrets of ancient America : archaeoastronomy and the legacy of the Phoenicians, Celts, and other forgotten explorers / Carl Lehrburger. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. print ISBN: 978-1-59143-193-0 ebook ISBN: 978-1-59143-775-8 1. America—Discovery and exploration—Pre-Columbian. 2. Archaeoastronomy— America. 3. Sacred space—America. 4. Excavations (Archaeology)—America. 5.

Inscriptions, Ancient—America. 6. America—Antiquities. I. Title.

E103.L46 2015 973.1—dc23 2014022513 All photos and drawings are by the author unless otherwise indicated.

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Index All page number are refer to the print edition of this title.

Abbott, Edwin A., 3 Across before Columbus? 60 Aku-Aku, 334 alchemist, painting of, 375 Alexander VI, Pope, 346–47 Al-Idrisi’s voyage, 326–27 Al-Masudi’s voyage, 326 alphabet family tree, 30 al Tennyn, Jezirate, 327 Amazon Basin inhabitation, 343 America B.C., 5–6, 27–46. See also Fell, Barry American Discovery, 8–9, 307, 379 American Holocaust, 349–50 America’s Stonehenge, 71–74 amnesia about history, 358–60 Anasazi-era sites, 344, 369–70, 376 Ancient American Inscriptions, 44, 99, 124–25, 130, 279 Ancient Celtic America, 99, 123. See also Leonard; McGlone Anubis Caves Bel in, 144, 150–51 Cave 1 constellations, 145, 146 Cave 2 animal figures, 147 Cave 2 Celtic goddesses, 154–56 Cave 2 constellations, 147 Cave 2 engravings, 140, 142, 143, 145–47 Cave 2 Silent Opera animation, 151–53 Cave 3 and 4 inscriptions, 147–51 Cave 3 Balance Alignment, 153–54 dating of inscriptions, 144–45 described, 139–40 equinox sunset at, 137 inscriptions in, 124 Mithra image in, 142–43 Mojave North compared to, 262–63 multidimensional images in, 157–58 Nose Pointer rock, 148, 149, 150 Ogham and Ogham-like inscriptions

in, 144–51, 158 Six Months Inscription, 147–49 Anubis figures, 145, 330 Arab connections, 326–29 archaeoastronomy astronomical terms used in, 49–51 development of, 48 intention and validity of, 103–4 solar alignment types in southeastern Colorado, 104 See also equinox alignment; solstice alignment Archaeoastronomy of Southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle, 99, 113 archaeopriests artifacts demanded by, 232 Calalus relics seen as hoax by, 299–300 consensus on Olmecs, 92 defined, 5 depth of deception by, 357 diffusionism resisted by, 5, 6–7, 259 discoveries challenged by, 243, 280 ending the age of, 376–77 Fell discredited by, 45–46, 124 Hidden Mountain site seen as hoax by, 285, 288, 294 McGlone’s debates with, 123–24 Michigan copper mining and, 269–70 Mound Builder cover-up by, 266, 268 New History suppressed by, 8–9 astrology, 47–48 astronomy, astrology vs., 47. See also archaeoastronomy Atwater, Caleb, 266 Ayoob, Joseph Corey, 282 azimuth, defined, 50 Aztecs, 346 Baigent, Michael, 336 Baldwin, Clifford P., 184, 191 Barker, Alma, 127, 138 Barker, Ted, 101, 126–28, 132, 159 basins, ceremonial, 230–32. See also cupules and grinding holes Bat Creek Stone, 28–30, 281–82, 303

Baumhoff, Martin A., 184 Bay of Cambay, underwater city in, 241, 243 Before Columbus, 281, 316 Behind the Rocks site, 345 Bel (Celtic deity) in Anubis Caves, 144, 150–51 in Crack Cave inscriptions, 131, 132 in stone chamber inscriptions, 62, 64–65 Benedict, Pope, 353–54 Beverly Mystery Stone, 174–75 Bianco, Andrea, map by, 322 Bjork, Carl on Kokopelli, 254 on the peoples of the Great Basin, 235 on petroglyph hunting, 247 photo of, 246 reverence brought by, 245, 246 on rock art symbols as universal language, 245–46 on similarities between Chalfant and Tamil images, 250 theories of, 246–47 website if, 235n boat petroglyph from Painted Cave, 243 book burning, 350–51 Book of Privileges, 25 Book of Prophecies, 24–25 Borobudur Temple friezes, 238, 239, 242 Bostwick, Todd, 300–301 Bourne Stone, 33–35, 318 Boyne Valley Complex, 56 Brannan, Tom, 61 Brennan, Martin author’s meeting with, 66–67 on cross-quarter days, 211 on the Mayan calendar, 79 on Mayan hand signs, 83–86, 246 McGlone’s desire to meet, 100 in Mexico, 75 on Neolithic mounds, 53, 55, 58 New England expeditions with, 67, 68 Newgrange investigated by, 55, 58

photo of, 57 as a SEA Rock skeptic, 205 storytelling talents of, 58–59 unique approach of, 52 Brown, Frederick N., 334 Brú na Bóinne Complex, 53, 56, 57, 58 Bruno, Giordano, 4–5 Burrows, Russell E., 279 Burrows Cave hoax, 279 Cabot, John, 327 Calalus relics, 294–301 arguments about authenticity of, 299–301 dinosaur sword, 298–99 geometrical designs, 299 Latin inscriptions, 295–98 nehushtans, 298, 299 serpent images in, 369 Calendar One and Two sites, 67–68 Caracol observatory, 91 Caribbean, 21 Carshenna, Switzerland, conjunction index marker, 228 Casa Malpais kiva, 252 cataclysms in history, 358–59 Cave Hollow, KS, 171–73 cave near Russell, KS, 176–78 Celebration Park petroglyphs, 248 celestial equator, 50, 142 Celtic Mythology, 210 Celts Anubis Cave 2 goddesses, 154–56 astronomical information in architecture of, 48, 61 celestial events celebrated by, 52 at Crack Cave, 129–31 crossings to America by, 38–39 dedications to Bel, 62, 64–65 end of sea power of, 324 European stoneworks of, 61, 63 Irish and Welsh connections, 324–26 Lughnasa festival, 161–62, 178, 211 Madoc, 324–26 migrations in America, 179–81 New England stoneworks of, 61–66

Welsh influence in America, 324–26 See also Anubis Caves; Ogham script ceremonial basins, Mojave North, 230–32 chac mools, 88 Chaco Canyon Kokopelli, 253 Chalfant site, 250, 252 Changing Woman alignment, 120–22, 371–72 Chapman, Glen W., 38 Cherokees, Hebrews and, 301, 302, 303 Chichén Itzá, 86–88, 90, 91, 96–97 chickens, 309 Chile, Egyptian influence in, 330 Chinese connections, 311–16 Christianity baptism no protection for natives, 23–24, 353 Calalus site, 294–301 Catholic whitewash of history, 353–54 church collaboration with Spain and Portugal, 346–48 Columbus’s offering of, 11, 19, 24–25, 26 Michigan Relics and, 275, 276–77 Mithraism and, 143–44 warrior religion and, 357 Chumash Indians boats, 243 climatic upheavals, conquest of America and, 344–45, 352 coins, Old World in America, 40–41, 138, 323, 329 Colorado map, 98 Columbia, 9–10 Columbia River relics, 248, 258 Columbus, Bartolomeo, 11–12 Columbus, Christopher books written by, 24–25 Christianity and civilization offered by, 11, 19, 24–25, 26 dates of four voyages of, 9 debts owed by, 18 deception of Isabella and Ferdinand by, 16–17, 19 ending the lies about, 378

falsification of distances by, 15 first landing of (painting), 10 imposition and maintenance of the myth of, 354–55 map drawn by, 12 Marco Polo’s book owned by, 16 Morison’s biography lionizing, 21 natives’ hands cut off by, 22–23 New World known about by, 13 in Old History vs. New History, 2 provision needs known by, 15 real story of, 11–19 route to Americas known by, 13–14 slave dealings of, 19–24 supposed meeting with khan by, 15–16 tribes discovered by, 17, 18, 20 usual story of, 9–11 world known to be round by, 12–13 conjunction index markers, 224, 228– 29, 260, 261 Conquest of the Maya, The, 307 constellations Anubis Caves and, 145, 146, 147 Mithra and Perseus, 157–58 in rock art at Hidden Mountain, 289–90 Sun Temple associations with, 167, 168, 169 Contact with Ancient America, 169–70 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 3–4 copper mining in Michigan European and Egyptian miners, 270 Michigan Relics and, 274–79 Neolithic miners of, 268–69 Poverty Point center for, 271 Cortés, Hernán, 89 Covey, Cyclone, 295–96, 297, 298, 299 Crack Cave, 128–34 equinox festival at, 128–29 equinox sunrise at, 131–32 Ogham inscriptions in, 129–31 photo in front of, 170 preservation efforts at, 133–34 Crates of Mallos, 319

Cremo, Michael, 362 Crespi, Carlo, 35, 37 Crespi Collection, 35–38 cross-quarter days defined, 51 importance of, 211 Lughnasa festival, 161–62, 211 lunar alignments and, 224 at Mojave North, 210–16, 230 Mojave North lunar alignments on, 224–27, 229 pre-Christian names for, 211 Sun Temple alignment, 164–66 two sun positions for four days, 211 variance in dates of, 53 Cuneo, Michele de, 23 cupules and grinding holes, 255–59 as aftereffects of rock ingestion, 255–57 cupules vs. PCNs, 257 described, 255 in India, 257 metates vs., 255 Danite migrations, 59 Davenport calendar tablet, 42–45 Davis, Nancy Yaw, 316–17 day-signs, Mayan, 80, 368 Deal, David Allen on Hidden Mountain site, 285–86, 287–88, 289, 290 on Michigan Relics, 277 declination, defined, 50–51 de Mello, Anthony, 205–6 de Soto, Hernando, 266 de Virga, Albertin, map by, 322, 327, 328 Dexter, Warren W., 170 Diamond, Jared, 349, 352 Dictionary of Native American Mythology, 120 diffusionism Ancient American Inscriptions on, 124–25 Ancient Celtic America on, 123 Anubis Caves compared to Mojave North and, 262–63

Celts in America, 38–39, 61–66, 129–31, 154–56, 161–62, 178–81, 211 East Indian influences in America, 238–45, 254, 259–63 Fell’s concepts of, 28 history without biases against, 377 isolationism opposed by, 5 journeys from India to America (Patala), 240–45 Mayan-East Asian connection, 93–94 Mayan-Egyptian connection, 87–88 Mayan-Indian connection, 94–97 McGlone as leading scholar of, 102 Native Americans and, 7 obstacles to acceptance of, 6–7 plant and animal evidence of, 308–9 proponents of, 5–6 transoceanic diffusion, 190, 192 See also New History Discovery of Ancient America, 286 disease, conquest of America and, 351–52 DNA, Cherokee and Hebrew, 302 DNA studies, need for, 379 Dorn, Ron, 167 double-sun petroglyph, 195 dragon petroglyph, 176 Earth in Upheaval, 358 ecliptic, defined, 50–51 economics, conquest of America and, 349–50 Egyptian connections, 87–88, 329–32 Eight-Dog petroglyph, 108, 110, 374 El Castillo (the Castle), 87, 90 elephants, 238–40, 307 entheogens, 373–75, 376 epigraphy defined, 27 Fell’s use of, 27 of Mojave North, 219–22 need for, 378 See also Ogham script Epona (Celtic goddess), 154, 155, 156, 176 equinox alignment

at America’s Stonehenge, 72 at Anubis Caves, 148, 150, 151–54 Balance Alignment, 153–54 Cave Hollow sunrise, 171–73 at cave near Russell, KS, 176–78 of Celtic stone chambers, 62 Changing Woman alignment, 120–22, 371–72 at Crack Cave, 131–32, 150 direct vs. indirect, 105 at Mojave North, 185–86, 187–90, 201–6, 230 Pathfinder noon alignment, 371–72 Pathfinder sunrise shadow, 112 at Red Canyon site, 249–50 SEA Rock sunset animation, 201–6, 372 serpent associated with, 189, 364 Silent Opera animation, 151–53 at Sofa Rock, 106–7 sun dagger animation, Pathfinder, 116–22 types in southeastern Colorado, 104 equinoxes, defined, 50 Eric the Red, 334 ethnocentrism, 354–55, 376–77 fakes. See frauds and hoaxes Farley, Gloria on ancient travelers in America, 137–38 on coins found in Oklahoma, 323 controversies about her research, 183 on Epona image, 154 in History on the Rocks (film), 159 Tannith image found by, 186 Feder, Kenneth L., 288–89 Fell, Barry author’s hopes after reading, 5–6 books written by, 27 on Celtic Bel dedications, 62, 64 on Celts in America, 38–39 Chilean rock script translated by, 330 on coins found in America, 40 the Davenport calendar tablet and,

42, 43–45 diffusionism concepts of, 28 on Greeks in the Americas, 319–20 in History on the Rocks (film), 159 Kelley’s stance toward, 126 Leonard’s translation confirmed by, 136–37 McGlone’s stance toward, 99, 124, 183 mistakes and discrediting of, 45–46, 124 New History telling begun with, 27 on Ogham script origins, 40 on Phoenicians in America, 30–31, 33–34, 35, 38, 318–19 West Virginia Ogham translated by, 179 Ferdinand, King, 10, 16–17, 19 First Mother (Changing Woman) alignment, 120–22, 371–72 Flatland, 3 Foreign Trade and Commerce in Ancient India, 241 1421: The Year China…, 314 1491: New Revelations…, 272, 343, 352 Fowler, Frank H., 299–300 frauds and hoaxes, 278–79, 282–83. See also archaeopriests Frazier, Wade, 16–17 Freud, Sigmund, 358 galactic alignment of 2012, 80–82 galactic equator, 80 Galileo Galilei, 4 Gallagher, Ida Jane, 169, 170, 172, 179, 180 Gallez, Paul, 330 Gardner, Hugh, 205 Gauquelin, Michel, 47 geoglyphs, 175 geophagy (rock ingestion), 255–57 Gibson, Mitchell E., 48 Gill, Sam D., 120 Gillespie, Alan, 186 Gillespie, Rollin W. at Crack Cave, 128

in History on the Rocks (film), 159 photo of, 170 at Sun Temple, 161, 167, 168, 169 Gillette, Donna, 257 Gordon, Cyrus H., 30, 281–82, 316 Grave Creek Stone, 274, 318–19 Great Basin, 235–63 area covered by, 235 Chalfant site, 250, 252 cupules and grinding holes in, 255–59 diffusion of Vedic cultures into, 259–61 Grimes Point, NV, 238–39 habitation dictated by weather in, 237 kivas in, 252–53 Kokopelli motif in, 253–54 Little Petroglyph Canyon, 235, 237 map of modern and historic climates, 236 Mojave North in relation to, 235 Red Canyon site, 249–50 sites near Bishop, CA, 249 greed of conquerors, 349–50, 353 Greek connections, 319–22 Grian (Celtic deity), 130, 131–32, 147, 171 Grimes Point, NV, 238–39 grinding holes. See cupules and grinding holes guile of conquerors, 353 Guthrie, James L., 44–45 hand signs, Mayan, 83–86 Hannam, James, 12–13 Hanuman, 204–5 Harris, Hendon M., 312 Hatshepsut, Egyptian queen, 329–30 Haywood, John, 323 head beads and sculptures, Olmec, 92 Heavener Runestone characters, 137 Hebrews American artifacts of, 281 Bat Creek Stone, 28–30, 281–82, 303 Calalus site, 294–301, 303 Cherokees and, 301, 302, 303 Danite migrations, 59

early sailing capabilities of, 280 evidence of contact with Americas (table), 303 Hidden Mountain site, 285–94, 303 Native American customs and, 301–2, 303 Newark Holy Stones, 282–83 Semitic inscriptions, 284–85 Heizer, Robert Fleming, 184 heliolithic animations defined, 116 Light Serpent, Mojave North, 185–86, 187–90, 368 SEA Rock, Mojave North, 201–6, 372 sun dagger, Pathfinder, 116–22 Hero Twins story, 76–79, 82, 85–86 Heyerdahl, Thor, 334–36 Hibben, Frank, 288 Hidden Maya, The, 83 Hidden Mountain site, 285–94 access permit for, 286 authenticity of inscriptions, 288–89 boulder at summit, 287–88 damage to, 286 guardian petroglyphs, 293–94 hike to, 286 Izapa-looking motif, 291–92 Los Lunas Decalogue Stone, 285, 286, 288, 290, 293 rock art rendering constellations at, 289–90 zodiac map petroglyphs, 289–90 History of the American Indians, 301 History on the Rocks (film), 159 hoaxes and frauds, 278–79, 282–83. See also archaeopriests Holy Blood, Holy Grail, 336 Homans, James E., 278 hoofprint petroglyphs, 114–16, 223–24 Horse Creek petroglyph, 180 Horsford, Eben Norton, 335–36 howling dog petroglyph, 108, 110 Hsu Fu (Xufu), 314 Huishen (Hwei Shan), 314–16

Hunahpú and Xbalanqué (Hero Twins), 78–79 Hun Camé (One Death), 77 Hun Hunahpú (One Hunahpú), 76, 77–78, 82, 85, 86 hunter petroglyph, 113–14 independent inventions theory, 6 India and the Indus Valley ancient journeys to America (Patala) from, 240–45 ancient ships of, 241, 242 connections to the Americas, 306–10 elephants transported to America from, 238–40 Kokopelli’s roots in, 254 Magi from, 208–9 Mayan connection with, 94–97, 307 Mojave North connection with, 216–19, 232–33 Southwest influenced by, 244–45, 254 time cycles, 259–60 V. Ganapati Sthapati, 94–97, 307 Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park, CA, 255 India Once Ruled the Americas! 244, 306 In Plain Sight, 137–38, 323 Inscription Panel at Mojave North, 191, 192, 219–22 intaglios, 175 Isabella, Queen baptized subjects protected by, 23–24 Columbus’s deception of, 16–17, 19, 23–24 expectations of, 10 Izapa-looking motif at Hidden Mountain, 291–92 Izapa Stela 5, 291 Jade Tuxla statuette, 313 Japanese connections, 316–17 Jefferson, Thomas, 266, 325 Jeffries, Dean, 169, 174 Jeffries, Keith, 169, 170, 176 Jenkins, John Major, 80–83 Joseph, Chief, Mesopotamian tablet of, 329 Josephus, Flavius, 280

Jung, Carl, 358 Kansas Serpent Intaglio, 175, 273 Kelley, David H., 46, 125–26, 131, 326 Kensington Runestone, 274, 332–33 Khiva, Uzbekistan, 252–53 kiva in New England, 65–66 kivas, 252–53 Knights Templar connection, 336–39 Kokopelli motif, 253–54 Kubera, Kokopelli and, 254 Kukulcán, 90–91. See also Quetzalcoatl Kwas, Mary L., 282 Leigh, Richard, 336 Leonard, Phillip M. on Anubis Cave inscriptions, 136 at Anubis Caves, 138, 139, 140, 157–58 books written by, 99, 101, 124, 137 Fell’s falling out with, 124 in History on the Rocks (film), 159 on La Junta scripts, 284 McGlone met by, 137 Ogham translation confirmed by Fell, 136–37 on Ogham writing in America, 123 photos of, 138, 170 on Sun Temple dating, 169 Sun Temple named by, 160 team organized by, 113 Le Plongeon, Augustus and Alice, 87–88 light boxes, 56, 58 Light Serpent animation equinox alignment, 185–86, 187–90, 368 lunar alignment, 224, 229, 368 Serpent Mound of Ohio and, 273 Lilliestrom, Per, 334, 335 Lincoln, Henry, 336 linguistic studies, need for, 379 Little Petroglyph Canyon, 235, 237 Londhe, Sushama, 240 Los Lunas Decalogue Stone, 285, 286, 288, 290, 293 Lost Outpost of Atlantis, 37 lotus scepter motif, 309–10

Lugh (Celtic deity), 161, 162, 195–96, 210–11, 212 Lughnasa festival, 161–62, 178, 211 lunar alignments at American sites, 223 of British and Irish monuments, 223 Light Serpent animation, 224, 229, 368 lunar standstill, 223 Metonic cycle, 224 at Mojave North, 223–30, 368 MacCana, Proinsias, 210 Mackenzie, Donald Alexander, 94 Madoc, 324–26 Magi or Magu, 208–9 Mainfort, Robert C., 282 maize (corn), 308–9 Malville, J. McKim, 344 Mandan Indians, 325 Manier, Charles E., 296–97 Mankind in Amnesia, 358 Mann, Charles C., 272, 343, 352 maps Arab, 322, 326–28 Colorado, 98 drawn by Columbus, 12 Great Basin climates, 236 Roman era, 322 Marco Polo, 16, 17, 241 Matlock, Gene D. on Indian influences in America, 244–45, 254, 306 on kivas and Khiva, Uzbekistan, 252 on Kokopelli, 254 May, Wayne about, 265–66 author’s meeting with, 264–65 on the challenge facing researchers, 264 collection of, 269, 270 on Michigan copper mining, 269, 270 on mound origins, 268, 270 photo of, 265 on the Smithsonian cover-up, 266, 268 Mayan calendar

day-signs in, 80, 368 Indian calendar and, 94 represented in Chichén Itzá, 91 solstice-galaxy alignment of 2012 and, 80–82 timekeeping systems of, 79, 80 Mayan civilization ancient Indian connection with, 94–97, 307 art, 84–86 astronomy interwoven in, 61–66 East Asian influences on, 93–94 Egyptian connection with, 87–88 origins of, 92–94 Vision Serpent in, 367–68 Mayan hand signs, 83–86 McAlister, Judy, 35 McColloh, James, 266 McGlone, William Anubis Cave inscription dating by, 144–45 at Anubis Caves, 137, 139, 140, 157–58 archaeopriests debated by, 123–24 author’s connection with, 98, 99–100 author’s introduction to work of, 61, 99 Barker’s aid to, 126, 127 books written by, 99, 113, 124 on Celts’ route in America, 180–81 at Crack Cave, 128–30, 131 Fell’s falling out with, 124, 183 in History on the Rocks (film), 159 on intention and archaeoastronomical validity, 103–4 on La Junta scripts, 284 meeting with Brennan wished by, 100 on Ogham writing in America, 123, 135 Pathfinder expedition with, 105–16 photos of, 102, 170 solar alignment types of, 104 on Sun Temple dating, 169 Sun Temple named by, 160 team organized by, 113 McKusick, Marshal, 43, 44

Megalithic Lunar Observatories, 223 menhirs. See standing stones Menzies, Gavin, 314 Mertz, Henriette, 275–77, 282, 312 Mesopotamian connections, 329 metates, 230, 255 Metonic cycle, 224 metonic cycles, 259n, 260 Meyer, Robert, 180 Michener, James, 21 Michigan copper mining. See copper mining in Michigan Michigan Relics, 274–79 Milky Way alignment of 2012, 80–82 Minoan connections, 317–18 Mithra (deity) astronomical alignment of, 142 bull sacrifice for, 141–42 Christ and, 143–44 esoteric aspects of worship, 143 images of, 141–42 other names for, 140–41 Perseus constellation and, 157–58 symbols associated with, 143 Mojave North alphabets recognized at, 190 animal petroglyphs, 199–200 Anubis Caves compared to, 262–63 Anubis-like petroglyph, 199 Armenia connection with, 219 ceremonial basins at, 230–32 conjunction index markers, 224, 228–29, 260 cross-quarter days at, 210–16 damage to, 185 described, 184–85 discovery by researchers, 185–86 dismissed by archaeologists, 184 double-sun petroglyph, 195 epigraphy of, 219–22 Great Basin in relation to, 235 India connection with, 216–19, 232–33 Inscription Panel, 191, 192, 219–22

Kufic Inscription, 192 Light Serpent animation, 185–86, 187–90, 224, 229, 273, 368 Lugh petroglyph, 195–96, 210, 212 lunar alignments at, 223–30 major archaeoastronomical alignments (table), 230 protection needed for, 233, 234 relatively unknown nature of, 182 resistance to research at, 233–34 rocks suited for archaeoastronomy, 209–10 Samaritan writing at, 220 SEA Rock, 201–6, 372 Shepherd’s Crook petroglyph, 186–87 Shiva linga at, 216–19, 227 starlike petroglyphs, 196, 197 summer solstice sunrise alignment, 192–94 Tanith image, 186 three-sheep panel, 196, 198 Vinca symbols at, 221, 222 winged arch petroglyphs, 196, 197 Monahan, Kean Scott, 122, 159–61, 178 Monks Mound, Cahokia, 272 Morehouse, Judy, 170 Morgan, Edmund S., 10–11, 26 Morison, Samuel Eliot, 21 Mound Builders archaeological tragedy of, 266, 268 Brennan on Neolithic mounds, 53, 55, 58 debate over origins of mounds, 266–68 designs in earthworks, 270–71 enormous size of mounds, 266 Monks Mound, Cahokia, 272 Poverty Point mounds, 271 Serpent Mound of Ohio, 273 mudras, 84 mystery glyphs, 364–65 Mystic Symbol, The, 275, 276 Nagas (People of the Snake), 244–45 nakshatra cycles, 259n, 260 Native Americans

Cherokees, 301, 302, 303 connection with India, 252–54 diffusionism and, 7, 123 fire used in the Great Plains by, 343 Hebrew customs of, 301–2, 303 language similar to Welsh of, 325 Mandans, 325 Phoenician descendents among, 31 before the Spanish arrived, 342–46 rock art, 246, 260 “serpent eating an egg,” 190 Nazaryan, Gevork, 219 Newark Holy Stones, 282–83 New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA), 60–61 Newgrange, 53, 54–56, 57–58, 223–24 New History academic suppression of, 8–9 America before the Spanish arrived, 342–46 Arab connections, 326–29 author’s intention to write, 1–2 Chinese connections, 311–16 church collaboration with Spain and Portugal, 346–48 of Columbus, 2, 11–26 Columbus myth imposition and maintenance, 354–55 current stage of, 7 Egyptian connections, 329–32 evidence lists (tables), 305, 340 factors impacting American conquest, 348–54 Greek connections, 319–22 importance of, 2, 357, 371 Indus Valley connections, 216–19, 232–33, 306–10 Irish and Welsh connections, 324–26 Japanese connections, 316–17 key requirements for, 376–80 Knights Templar connection, 336–39 Mesopotamian connections, 329 mind adjustment required for, 373 Minoan connections, 317–18

Phoenician connections, 318–19 preservation needed for, 135, 378 resistance to, 3–5 Roman connections, 322–23 telling begun by Fell, 27 Thompson’s articulation of, 8, 379 Viking connections, 332–34 Newport Tower, RI, 337–39 Newton Stone, 31–33, 39–40 New World Monument to Mithras, A, 136, 137 Nicholas V, Pope, 346 1984, 361 Noble Twins inscription, 167, 168 No Border, 334, 336 Norse outposts in America, 334–36 Nose Pointer rock, 148, 149, 150 Odohui, Timoteo, 300 Ogham script at America’s Stonehenge, 74 in Anubis Caves, 144–51, 158 in Cave Hollow, KS, 171 in cave near Russell, KS, 176 in Crack Cave, 129–31 Kelley on, 126 Leonard’s translation confirmed by Fell, 136–37 McGlone on, 123 on the Newton Stone, 31–33, 39–40 on rock shelter near Denver, 134–35 at Sun Temple, 162–64, 166–67, 168, 169 Tree Ogham inscription, 162, 164 in West Virginia, 179–81 Woden-lithi’s panel, 326 See also Celts Ohio Decalogue Stone, 282–83 Ohio Serpent Mound, 189, 190, 273, 368 Old History of Columbus, 2, 9–11 evidence of misrepresentation in, 304–5 lesson to learn from, 380 persecution of those challenging, 3–5 Old Irish petroglyph, 179 Old Negev alphabet, 284, 285

Olmecs, 91–92, 93 On Limitations to the Use of Some Anthropological Data, 342 Orwell, George, 361 Oudh-am people of Afghanistan, 244 pachisi and patolli, 309, 310 Painted Cave, 243 Palleres, Ricardo, 243 Pathfinder site author’s first visit to, 105–16 author’s second visit to, 116–19 Changing Woman alignment at, 120–22, 371–72 Eight-Dog petroglyph at, 108, 110, 374 equinox noon alignment at, 371–72 equinox sunrise shadow at, 112 hoofprint glyphs, 114–16 hunter glyph, 113–14 map showing, 98 petroglyph panel at, 108–10, 111, 113–16 Snake glyph, 118–19 Sofa Rock alignment, 106–7 spread-legged figure, 117–18 Suncatcher glyph, 116–17 sun dagger animation at, 116–22 Pavlov, Ivan, 358, 359 Payne, Howard, 301 Payon, Joe Garcia, 322 PCNs (pecked curvilinear nucleated).

See cupules and grinding holes perched boulders, 69–71 Petroglyphs of Southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle, 99, 101 Pfeiffer, Robert, 285 Phoenicians descendents in Amerindian tribes, 31 emergence of, 30–31 evidence of journeys to America, 318–19 relations with Egyptians, 38 Phoenician writing in alphabet family tree, 30

Bourne Stone inscriptions, 33–35 on Crespi artifacts, 35, 37 Newton Stone inscriptions, 31–33 pictoglyphs, 100 Picture Canyon, 128, 133. See also Crack Cave Planet of the Apes (film), 356–57 Plato, 3 pok-a-pok (Mayan game), 76–77 Polansky, Jon, 186 politics of American conquest, 349–50 Popol Vuh Hero Twins story in, 76–79, 82, 85–86 importance of, 75–76 Poverty Point mounds, 271 Powell, John Wesley, 267, 342, 357 Prasad, Prakash Charan, 241 Pratt, David, 323 Prehistoric Rock Art of Nevada and Eastern California, 184 Problem of the Ohio Mounds, The, 267 protecting sites, 133–34, 135, 233, 234, 378 Proto-Hebrew, 285 psychoactive substances, 373–75, 376 public access to records and artifacts, 377–78 Punic writing, 34, 174–75 Purgatoire Canyon, 101 Quetzalcoatl, 88–90, 366. See also Kukulcán Rafinesque, Constantine Samuel, 266 Red Bird River petroglyphs, 321–22 Red Canyon site, 249–50 Rediscovering Vinland, 334 Red Record (Walam Olum), 320–21 Rees, Charlotte Harris, 312 Researches in America, 266 restoring ancient sites, 379 Ring of Stone at Burnt Hill, 68–69 rock ingestion (geophagy), 255–57 Roman connections, 322–23 Russell, Bertrand, 353 Russell, George, 53

Russell, Jeffrey Burton, 13 Russell, KS, cave near, 176–78 ruthlessness of conquerors, 353 sacred, the search for the, 362–64 Saga America, 319, 322 Samaritan writing at Mojave North, 220 Sarle, C. J., 300–301 saros cycles, 259n scarab beetle stone, 330, 331 Scaruffi, Piero, 355 Schmidt, Roderick L. author’s connection with, 183 Light Serpent animation and, 187, 189, 190 resistance at Mojave North encountered by, 233 on Shepherd’s Crook petroglyph, 186 transoceanic diffusion theories of, 190, 192 website of, 182–83 Schmieke, Marcus, 96–97 Schwaller de Lubicz, René Adolphe, 1, 363–64 SEA Rock petroglyph, 201–6, 372 Semitic inscriptions, 284–85 Serpent Mound, OH, 189, 190, 273, 368 serpents, 364–70 Anasazi-era, 369–70 Calalus relics, 369 effigies, New and Old World, 273 equinoxes associated with, 189, 364 intaglio earthwork, KS, 175, 273 Light Serpent animation, Mojave North, 185–86, 187–90, 224, 229, 273, 368 Mayan Vision Serpent, 367–68 mystery glyphs, 364–65 Nagas (People of the Snake), 244–45 at Pathfinder site, 118–19, 366 Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent), 88–90, 366 Serpent Mound, OH, 189, 190, 273, 368 solstices associated with, 364

Solstice Snake, UT, 345 symbolic meanings of, 364 Serpent Symbol, The, 306 Shaivites, 216–17 shaman petroglyphs, 238, 374 Sheila na Gig, 154, 155 Shepherd’s Crook petroglyph, 186–87 Shiva linga, 216–19, 227, 252 Silent Opera animation, 151–53 Six Months Inscription, 147–49 Skinner, B. F., 359 Skull Wars, 21 slavery, 14, 19–24 Snake petroglyph at Pathfinder, 118–19 Snake River relics, 248, 261 Socrates, 3 Sofaer, Anna, 344 Sofa Rock alignment, 106–7 solstice alignment at America’s Stonehenge, 72, 73 of Celtic stone chambers, 62, 68 direct vs. indirect, 105 at Mojave North, 192–94, 230 serpent associated with, 364 solstice-galaxy alignment of 2012, 80–82 types in southeastern Colorado, 104 solstices, defined, 49–50 Sora, Steven, 337, 338–39 spread-legged petroglyph, 117–18 Squier, Ephraim George, 306 Stamps, Richard B., 278–79 standing stones in Massachusetts, 68 perched boulders, 69–71 Ring of Stone at Burnt Hill, 68–69 Stannard, David E., 349–50, 351–52 Stars and the Stones, The, 52 Stengel, Mark K., 6 Steward, Julian, 184 Stewart, Wilbert, 138 Sthapati, V. Ganapati, 94–96 Stonehenge

America, 71–74 England, 48, 49 Sullivan, Irene F., 120 Suncatcher petroglyph, 116–17 sun dagger animation, Pathfinder, 116–22 Sun Temple age of, 167, 169 alphabetic grooves in, 162, 163 author’s invitation to visit, 160 constellations associated with, 167, 168, 169 cosmology of, 166–69 cross-quarter day alignment, 164–66 hoodoos, 163 McGlone and Leonard at, 160 Noble Twins inscription, 167, 168 Ogham inscriptions in, 162, 164, 166–67 sighting technique for, 165–66 Tree Ogham inscription, 162, 164 swastika symbol, 259 Taddei, Dorian about, 207n on bisecting of solar deity, 216 on ceremonial basins, 232 on cross-quarter days, 211 on cupules and grinding holes, 255, 258–59 on East Indians in America (Patala), 240 Great Basin expeditions of, 236–37 on the Lugh petroglyph, 210, 211 on lunar alignments at Mojave North, 224, 227–28 on the Magi, 208–9 on Mojave North epigraphy, 219–21 orientation of, 207–8 photo of, 208 on Poverty Point, 271 on Shepherd’s Crook petroglyph, 186 Talmage, James E., 278 Tamil, India Chalfant images similar to those in, 250–51

Tamil-Mayan connection, 94–97 Tanith (Celtic goddess), 154, 186 technology, 349, 360–61 terrestrial equator, 50 Thom, Alexander, 223 Thomas, Cyrus, 42, 44, 267–68, 282, 342, 357 Thomas, David Hurst, 21 Thompson, Gunnar blackballing of, 305 on ethnocentrism, 354–55, 377 on Mayan-East Asian connection, 93–94, 307, 311, 312–13 on Minoans in America, 317–18 New History articulated by, 8, 379 photo of, 306 on suppression of the New History, 8–9 three-sheep panel, 196, 198 Tohono O’odham tribe, 244–45, 259, 260 treaties broken, 355 Tree Ogham inscription, 162, 164 Tribe of Dan, 59 Trickle, Crystal, 169, 170, 176 Tuatha Dé Danann, 59 Typhoon’s Egg, 190 Vedic cultures. See India and the Indus Valley Velikovsky, Immanuel, 358–60 Vespucci, Amerigo, 9 Vey, Gary, 284–85 Viking connections, 332–34 Vinca symbols at Mojave North, 221, 222 Vision Serpent, 367–68 von Däniken, Erich, 37 von Werlhof, J. C., 184 Vucub Camé (Seven Death), 77 Vucub Hunahpú (Seven Hunahpú), 76, 77 Waddell, Lawrence Austine, 31–32 Walam Olum (Red Record), 320–21 Wallace, Alfred Russell, 363

wars, twentieth century, 360–61 Weatherford, Jack, 13, 15 Welsh influence in America, 324–26 White, John J., 254 Wilson, Earl, 186, 192 Wingate, Richard, 37 Woden-lithi’s panel, 326 Wolter, Scott, 332–34 Worlds in Collision, 358 Wyrick, David, 282–83 Xbalanqué and Hunahpú (Hero Twins), 78–79 Xquic (Blood Moon), 77–78 Xufu (Hsu Fu), 314 Yoder, Anne and Vince, 185–86 yoni, 216 zodiac map petroglyphs, 289–90 Zuni Enigma, 316, 317 Zuni sacred rosette, 317

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