Message #236812

[Alpha Male]

The initial survey work soon proved that the Litcham Cryptogram was by no means he only inscription to be found in the church. Within a matter of days the survey had identified over fifty individual images and inscriptions etched into the soft stone pillars of the church. “Almost every pillar was covered with inscriptions”, continued Matthew, “and it was clear that there had once been many more. However, our attention kept coming back to the Litcham Cryptogram”.

The inscription was etched far deeper into the pillar than much of the surrounding graffiti and it is supposed that this is what had drawn people’s attention to it. Indeed, at some point in the past the inscription had actually been placed behind protective Perspex to deter more modern graffiti artists from adding to the original. The inscription itself was written in a very fine medieval ‘black-letter’ style and was comprised of two lines of text, one above the other.

The traditional translation, which even appeared in the church guidebook, stated that the longer lower line of text was a name, ‘Wyke Bamburgh’, and that the letters in the upper tier represented the phrase ‘Save (my soul) Jesus, Mary and Joseph’. However, upon closer examination, the traditional story soon began to unravel.
Recording a mystery

The NMGS have been pioneering new techniques for quickly recording graffiti inscriptions in the field. In particular the survey utilises digital photography combined with measured raking light images. The results, which are all superimposed to create a complete and scaled image map of the surface, can often show up details that would be invisible using traditional photography or rubbing techniques.

The first images of the cryptogram were very revealing and they were soon convinced that it was not even a cryptogram at all. The images clearly showed that the upper tier of letters were in an entirely different style of text than the lower and were most probably added at a much later date. The cryptogram was, in fact, just one inscription that someone had added to later and, as a result, causing a lot of confusion”.

However, the solving of one mystery actually led to the creation of a far deeper mystery, and one that the NMGS has so far been unable to unravel.  Having identified the lower inscription as being late medieval, and having examined a vast number of digital images of the text, the survey team soon realised that the traditional translation, of the name ‘Wyke Bamburgh’, simply didn’t fit with what they saw before them.

“It was far more complex than everyone first thought”, said Champion,” and whilst all the letters that made up the words ‘wyke bamburgh’ were present, in one form or another, it just didn’t make sense. Our images were showing that all the letters were bunched up against each other, with each new letter being created out of the last down stroke of the previous letter. In effect, we have a lot more letters than we first believed, many of them were open to numerous interpretations – and none of them made sense”.   At a loss to decipher the inscription the NMGS called in the experts.