The First Americans

At a conference of the Institute for the Study of American Cultures (ISAC) concerning pre-Columbian subjects, held, interestingly enough, at Columbus, Georgia, it was my privilege to meet Nobuhiro Yoshida. He is president of the Japanese Petrograph Society. Learning that Yoshida and his colleagues were finding Ogam in Japan, arrangements were made to publish his article in The Eclectic Epigrapher. Indeed at the time, Yoshida had already met Barry Fell, who was able to translate short words of Ogam found in Japan. The occurrence of Ogam in Japan boggles the mind. But Japanese Ogam does exist, as explained by Yoshida in an updated article in The Celtic Connection.

When Dr. Leo Dubal of Switzerland was in Japan, he sought out Yoshida because of their mutual interest in rock inscriptions. Dubal also seeks examples throughoutf the Mediterranean region, with a special interest in the inscriptions of the Val Camonica Valley of the Italian Alps. The contacts among serious epigraphers literally reach around the world, from Georgia to Japan to Switzerland and back to California. Thus, the community of epigraphic scholars continues the work started by Barry Fell, who everyone agrees was the Father of epigraphy in America.

His heirs, in addition to those already mentioned in this article, included the late Joseph Mahan who founded ISAC (Institute for the Study of American Cultures), now run by his successors. As a historian, Dr. Mahan brought together those interested in epigraphy and in pre-Columbian voyages to America. His academic credentials were impeccable, and he had the precise father-image personality needed to keep his associates going ahead in the right direction.