Message #43594

[Bianca]

                                            AMERICA'S ANCIENT WRITERS




by
Donald Cyr

Explorers, traders, even settlers, left their words inscribed on canyon walls, on artifacts, and on trade goods found in the Americas many centuries before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. For many strange reasons, the very idea of alphabets carved on such objects and in America is generally considered to be without scientific value. Most examples are considered to be forgeries or fakes and are conveniently discounted by those who guide our thinking.

Despite these hazards, researchers in ancient epigraphy have been able to read such examples, at least to their own satisfaction. Some of the examples are so compelling that one wonders why the resistance should be so strong.

One of the foremost decipherers of ancient writing was the late Dr. Barry Fell, who has found evidence of writing in Peru related to Easter Island, in Canada (near Toronto) related to a heretofore little known early Scandinavian alphabet (Tifinag), and in New England, in West Virginia, and in southeastern Colorado (related to Ogam, known in ancient Iberia and Ireland). What do these messages say?

The Peruvian message is charming and appropriate for the high Andes environment. One tapestry with lots of pretty patterns, examples still being sold to tourists, can be translated into a message saying, roughly, Make hay while the sun shines. The patterns and words are clearly related to Polynesian examples.

The Canadian example (Peterborough petroglyhs site in Ontario) was dated about 1700 B.C., by Fell's interpretation of the orientation of a Zodiac carving. The Ojibwa midewiwin, who care for the site, say that it was inscribed by Algonquin shamans and the carvings of mythological figures tell their creation story. Fell compares these figural carvings to Scandinavian gods. The Vastokases (archaeologists) think the petroglyphs were carved over a lengthy time period. If this is so, several interpretations may be correct. Dr. David Kelley stated that the writing is proto-Tifinag and iconographically Scandinavian.