Tom Luxsox Coins

Biblical Judean

Bat Creek inscription

Geographic and historical context

Bat Creek

The Little Tennessee River enters Tennessee from the Appalachian Mountains to the south and flows northward for just over 50 miles (80 km) before emptying into the Tennessee River near Lenoir City. The completion of Tellico Dam at the mouth of the Little Tennessee in 1979 created a reservoir that spans the lower 33 miles (53 km) of the river. Bat Creek empties into the southwest bank of the Little Tennessee 12 miles (19 km) upstream from the mouth of the river. While much of the original confluence of Bat Creek and the Little Tennessee was submerged by the lake, the mound in which the Bat Creek Stone was found was located above the reservoir's operating levels.

The lower Little Tennessee Valley is one of the richest archaeological regions in the southeastern United States. In the 1880s, the Smithsonian Institution team led by Emmert conducted several excavations in the valley, uncovering artifacts and burials related to valley's 18th-century Overhill Cherokee inhabitants and prehistoric inhabitants. The Tellico Archaeological Project, conducted by the University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology in the late 1960s and 1970s in anticipation of the reservoir's construction, investigated over two dozen sites and uncovered evidence of substantial habitation in the valley during the Archaic (8000-1000 B.C.), Woodland (1000 B.C. - 1000 A.D.), Mississippian (900-1600 A.D.), and Cherokee (c. 1600-1838) periods. The expedition of Hernando De Soto likely visited a village on Bussell Island at the mouth of the river in 1540 and the expedition of Juan Pardo probably visited two villages further upstream (near modern Chilhowee Dam) in 1567.

The Bat Creek site, designated 40LD24, is a multiphase site with evidence of occupation as early as the Archaic period. According to Emmert, the site consisted of one large mound (Mound 1) on the east bank of the creek and two smaller mounds (Mound 2 and Mound 3) on the west bank. Mound 1 which had a diameter of 108 feet (33 m) and a height of 8 feet (2.4 m) was located on the first terrace above the river, and is thus now submerged by the reservoir. Mound 2, which had a diameter of 44 feet (13 m) and height of 10 feet (3.0 m), and Mound 3, which had a diameter of 28 feet (8.5 m) and height of 5 feet (1.5 m), were both located higher up, on the second terrace. According to Emmert's notes, the Bat Creek Stone was found in Mound 3. The stone consists of "ferruginous siltstone", and measures 11.4 centimetres (4.5 in) long and 5.1 centimetres (2.0 in) wide. The inscription consists of at least eight characters, seven of which are in a single row, and one located above or below (depending on which way the stone is turned) the main inscription.

Archaeological excavations

John Emmert located the mounds in the 1880s, and excavated all three. He concluded that Mound 1 was little more than a shell deposit. Emmert recorded eight burials in Mound 2ne of which included metal "buckles" and a metal button. Excavations of Mound 3 revealed nine skeletons, seven of which were laid out in a row with their heads facing north, and two more skeletons laid out nearby, one with its head facing north and the other with its head facing south. The Bat Creek Stone was found under the skull of the south-facing skeleton. Along with the stone were two "copper" bracelets (later determined to be brass) and "polished wood" (possibly earspools). Radiocarbon dating of the wood spools returned a date of 32-769 A.D. (i.e., the middle to late Woodland period).

In 1967, the Tennessee Valley Authority announced plans to build Tellico Dam, and asked the University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology to conduct salvage excavations in the Little Tennessee Valley. Litigation and environmental concerns stalled the dam's completion until 1979, allowing extensive excavations at multiple sites throughout the valley. Emmert's "Mound 1" of the Bat Creek Site was excavated in 1975. Investigators concluded that the mound was a "platform" mound typical of the Mississippian period. Pre-Mississippian artifacts dating to the Archaic and Woodland periods were also found. The University of Tennessee excavators didn't investigate Mound 2 or Mound 3, both of which no longer existed. Neither the University of Tennessee's excavation of the Bat Creek Site nor any other excavations in the Little Tennessee Valley uncovered any evidence that would indicate Pre-Columbian contact with Old World civilizations.

Analysis and debate

Cyrus Thomas of the Smithsonian Institution initially cataloged the Bat Creek Stone inscription as a Cherokee inscription. Since the Cherokee scholar Sequoyah did not invent the Cherokee alphabet until around 1820, a Cherokee inscription could not have been made before this period. The report showed the stone turned so that the detached 8th character was below the main inscription.

The Bat Creek Stone received scant attention (even in Thomas' later publications) until the 1960s when ethnologist Joseph Mahan, puzzled by Thomas' conclusion that the inscription was Cherokee, sent a photograph of the inscription to Cyrus H. Gordon a professor of Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis University and a well-known proponent of Pre-Columbian transatlantic contact theories. Gordon published a series of articles in the early 1970s arguing that the first five characters and the last character in the inscription when turned so that the detached 8th character is above the main inscription (Chicago lawyer and author Henriette Mertz had previously suggested the stone as it appeared in Thomas' report was upside down) are actually a version of Paleo-Hebrew text used in the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D. Gordon suggested that the characters spelled out "for the Jews" or "for Judaea." His findings were published in Newsweek and in newspapers across the nation, sparking a renewed interest in the inscription.

In 1979, University of Iowa archaeologist Marshall McKusick published an article rejecting Gordon's interpretation of the inscription as Paleo-Hebrew. McKusick argued that the inscription actually bore similarities to an early version of Sequoyah's alphabet that was occasionally used before the standard, or "Worcester" version of the alphabet was published in 1827. Like Thomas, however, McKusick made no attempt to interpret the inscription.

Revival of the Bat Creek Stone debate

In 1988, J. Huston McCulloch, an economics professor at Ohio State University, wrote in the Tennessee Anthropologist an article supporting Gordon's interpretation of the Bat Creek inscription as Paleo-Hebrew. McCulloch compared each character in the Bat Creek inscription with certain known Paleo-Hebrew letters. Using a scale of "Good," "Fair," "Conceivable," and "Impossible" to describe the quality of the matches, McCulloch determined the matches between the Bat Creek Stone characters and various letters of Paleo-Hebrew to be (from left to right, with the stone turned so that the detached eighth character is on the bottom) "Fair," "Fair," "Good," "Good," "Good," "Fair," "Conceivable," and "Fair." Using the early ("Foster") version of the Cherokee alphabet mentioned by McKusick, McCulloch determined matches of "Fair," "Fair," "Fair," "Impossible," "Fair," "Conceivable," "Good," and "Impossible." A similar analysis using the Worcester version of Cherokee fared no better. The best version of Cherokee fared no better in McCulloch's analysis than English, an alphabet that all parties agreed was not used in the inscription.

McCulloch pointed out that the brass bracelets found along with the stone had the same ratio of lead to zinc as bracelets manufactured throughout the Roman Empire in the 1st century A.D. McCulloch also points to historical evidence that Judaea had a capable navy before A.B. 68, and notes the widely accepted research of Charles Hudson that shows that the first two major post-Columbian expeditions to the southeastern United Stateshose of De Soto (1540) and Pardo (1567)nded up in the Little Tennessee Valley at some point. McCulloch stated that the radiocarbon date of the wooden objects "rules out" a post-Columbian date of the associated artifacts, including the Bat Creek Stone.

Criticism of McCulloch

In 1991, archaeologists Robert Mainfort and Mary Kwas published a response to McCulloch in the Tennessee Anthropologist. They denied assertions that the Bat Creek Stone was of pre-Columbian Old World origin, stating that such assertions were the work of "cult archaeologists." Mainfort and Kwas pointed out that fraudulent stone inscriptions purporting to show evidence of such contactuch as the Kensington Stone and the Davenport Tabletsere not uncommon, especially in the late 19th century. They took particular issue with Cyrus Gordon, whom they went so far as to call a "rogue professor" desperate for evidence to support his theories of pre-Columbian transatlantic contact.

Mainfort and Kwas consulted Paleo-Hebrew expert Frank Moore Cross of Harvard University, who contradicted Gordon's assertion that the inscription was Paleo-Hebrew. Cross stated that only two letters of the entire inscription could conceivably be considered Paleo-Hebrew of the period in question (1st century B.C. to 1st century A.D.). Cross also said Gordon's reading of the inscription ("for the Jews") was based on the Aramaic alphabet rather than Paleo-Hebrew.

Mainfort and Kwas agreed that the zinc composition of the brass bracelets was similar to that used in the 1st-century Mediterranean region, but showed that this particular zinc composition was used in the manufacture of brass bracelets in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. They also argued that the radiocarbon date of the associated wooden objects was not conclusive, and pointed out the possibility of contamination by groundwater. Mainfort and Kwas suggested that Emmert planted the stone (with his own attempt at an inscription) to amplify his own credibility, because he recently had been fired and rehired by the Smithsonian. Cyrus Thomas had been working on a pet theory that stated that the builders of prehistoric mounds in America were ancestors of the Cherokee, and Mainfort and Kwas suggest Emmert planted the stone with this in mind (i.e., a Cherokee-esque inscription in a pre-Cherokee tomb). They also presented evidence showing Thomas may have doubted the stone's authenticity.

Continued debate

McCulloch responded to the criticisms of Mainfort and Kwas in an article published in the Tennessee Anthropologist in 1993. McCulloch pointed out errors in Cross's analysis, and cited certain examples in recent research of Paleo-Hebrew letters resembling the characters on the Bat Creek Stone. McCulloch disagreed that the type of brass bracelets (i.e., wrought and C-shaped) found at the Bat Creek site was common at archaeological sites in North America, and faulted Mainfort and Kwas for not providing a specific example.

In its Julyugust 1993 issue, the Biblical Archaeology Review featured the Bat Creek Stone debate with two articlesne by McCulloch, who elaborated on his previous arguments presented in the Tennessee Anthropologist, the other by P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University, who concurred with Cross's assessment stating that the characters on the Bat Creek Stone were not Paleo-Hebrew. McCarter suggested that, while the stone's characters looked similar to Paleo-Hebrew letters especially to the "untrained eye" certain subtle details in the stone's characters "do not correspond to their proposed paleo-Hebrew prototypes closely enough to be considered authentic".

Recent commentary

In 2004, Mainfort and Kwas published an article in American Antiquity showing an inscription in an 1870 Masonic reference book that bore striking similarities to the Bat Creek inscription. The Masonic inscription was an artist's impression of how "Holy to Yahweh" might have appeared in Paleo-Hebrew. Mainfort and Kwas suggested that Emmert probably based the Bat Creek inscription on this earlier Masonic inscription. The following year, McCulloch (in an article published on his website) noted that while there were similarities between the two inscriptions, they weren't exact matches, and that there was evidence that inscriptions similar to the Masonic inscriptions occurred in ancient times.

The Bat Creek Stone remains the property of the Smithsonian Institution, but is currently on loan indefinitely to the University of Tennessee. The stone is currently on display at the Frank H. McClung Museum in Knoxville, Tennessee.

See also

Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact

Runestone

References

^ Jefferson Chapman, Tellico Archaeology: 12,000 Years of Native American History (Norris, Tenn.: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1985).

^ Charles Hudson, The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Explorations of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 1566-1568 (Tuscaloosa, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 2005), 106-107, e.g.

^ Robert Mainfort and Mary Kwas, "The Bat Creek Stone: Judeans in Tennessee?" The Bat Creek Stone (Tennessee Anthropological Association, Miscellaneous Paper No. 15, 1992), 3. Originally published in Tennessee Anthropologist 16, no. 1 (Spring 1991).

^ Cyrus Thomas, 12th Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, 391-393. Cited in Charles Faulkner (ed.), The Bat Creek Stone (Tennessee Anthropological Society, Miscellaneous Paper No. 15, 1992).

^ a b Mainfort and Kwas, 3.

^ a b Thomas, 391-393.

^ J. Huston McCulloch, "The Bat Creek Inscription: Cherokee or Hebrew?" The Bat Creek Stone (Tennessee Anthropological Association, Miscellaneous Paper No. 15, 1992), 103-108. Originally published in Tennessee Anthropologist 13, no. 2 (Fall 1988).

^ Chapman, 97-103.

^ McCulloch, 81-82.

^ Mainfort and Kwas, 5-6.

^ McCulloch, 82-83.

^ McCulloch, 83-99.

^ McCulloch, 99-101.

^ McCulloch, 108.

^ Mainfort and Kwas, 1-3.

^ Mainfort and Kwas, 5-7.

^ Mainfort and Kwas, 7-14.

^ Robert Mainfort and Mary Kwas, "The Bat Creek Stone: A Final Statement." Tennessee Anthropologist 18, no. 2 (Fall of 1993).

^ J. Huston McCulloch, "The Bat Creek Stone: A Reply to Mainfort and Kwas". Tennessee Anthropologist 18, no. 1.

^ Robert Mainfort and Mary Kwas, "The Bat Creek Stone: A Final Statement". Retrieved: 5 June 2008.

^ Mainfort & Kwas "The Bat Creek Stone Revisited: A Fraud Exposed" American Antiquity 69.4 (Oct 2004): p761

^ J. Huston McCulloch, "The Bat Creek Stone." December of 2005. Retrieved: 5 June 2008.

Sources

Faulker, Charles H. The Bat Creek Stone. Tennessee Anthropological Association, Miscellaneous Paper No. 15, 1992.

Gordon, Cyrus H. Before Columbus: Links Between the Old World and Ancient America. New York: Crown Publishers, 1971.

Griffin, James B., D.J. Meltzer, B.D. Smith, and W.C. Sturtevant. American Antiquity, 1988. "A Mammoth Fraud in Science."

Mainfort, Robert C., Jr. and Mary L. Kwas. Tennessee Anthropologist, 1991. "The Bat Creek Stone: Judeans in Tennessee?"

Mainfort, Robert C., Jr. and Mary L. Kwas. Tennessee Anthropologist, 1993. "The Bat Creek Fraud: A Final Statement"

McCarter, P. Kyle, Jr. Biblical Archaeology Review, 1993. "Let's be Serious About the Bat Creek Stone."

McCulloch, J. Huston. Biblical Archaeology Review, July-August, 1993. "Did Judean Refugees Escape to Tennessee?"

McCulloch, J. Huston. Tennessee Anthropologist, 1988. "The Bat Creek Inscription: Cherokee or Hebrew?"

McCulloch, J. Huston. Tennessee Anthropologist, 1993. "The Bat Creek Stone: A Reply to Mainfort and Kwas."

McKusick, Marshall. Biblical Archaeologist, 1979. "Canaanites in America: A New Scripture in Stone?"

McNeil, William F. Visitors to Ancient America: The Evidence for European and Asian Presence in America Prior to Columbus. McFarland, 2005. ISBN 0786419172

Schroedl, Gerald F. Archaeological Investigations at the Harrison Branch and Bat Creek Sites. University of Tennessee, Department of Anthropology, Report of Investigations No. 10, 1975.

Thomas, Cyrus H. Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-91, 1894. "Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology." Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

External links

Midwestern Epigraphic Society

The Bat Creek Stone article by historian Lowell Kirk suggesting that a local engraver planted the Bat Creek Stone in hopes of getting Emmert fired

Categories: Archaeological artefacts | Archaeological forgeries | Archaeological sites in Tennessee | Cherokee language | Inscriptions of disputed origin | Loudon County, Tennessee | Out-of-place artifacts | Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact | Pseudoarchaeology | Hoaxes in the United StatesHidden categories: Tennessee articles missing geocoordinate data | All articles needing coordinates
About the Author

I am China Product writer, reports some information about matchbox twenty lyrics , mtv music generator.

Judean Mountains $71.7 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles The Judean Mountains, (Arabic: Transliteration: Jibal alKhalil, Hebrew: Transliteration: Harei Yehuda) also referred to as the Judean Hills or Hebron Hills and Jibal alKhalil, is the name for the mountain range in Israel and the West Bank where Jerusalem and several other biblical cities are located. Author: Miller, Frederic P./ Vandome, Agnes F./ McBrewster, John Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 76 Publication Date: 2010/12/04 Language: English Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.02 x 0.18 inches

Judean Desert, Israel $19.99 Jon Arnold Judean Desert, Israel - Photographic Print

History and Prophecy: The Development of Late Judean Literary Traditions $55 "The controversial premise of History and Prophecy is that the Bible was created from the very outset as a work of literature; and not simply handed down in the form of oral stories from one generation to another. In this explosive survey of the whole Hebrew Bible, author Brian Peckham cuts against the grain of scholarly opinion by taking seriously; the fact that the Bible is a work of literature - modeled on such ancient authors as Homer and Hesiod - and was undoubtedly the product of a literate society: the creation of people who knew how to read and write for an audience that read, listened, and understood. Peckham provides the evidence that the biblical text at first was written; that from the beginning it was read and provoked written response; that it was quoted and alluded to in later writings; that what seemed right or evident to one writer was disputed, corrected, and reinterpreted by another, that nothing of significance in the process was erased or omitted but was preserved and inscribed with the rest for all time. In this provocative book, the biblical text is read as literature - from start to finish, as continuous, meaningful, and complete, with distinctive literary forms and genres. It was written to be read and performed. Its authors were poets, singers, orators, lawyers, priests, and scholars whose audiences were those gathered in the squares and gates of Jerusalem, or who met at wells and springs scattered throughout Israel. It comprised occasional drama, tragedy and comedy, ballads and speeches, debates and disputations traditional stories: in short, the stuff of books and libraries and literary appreciation. Finally, History and Prophecy reconstructs the history ofancient Israel as it was understood and interpreted by the writers of the Bible. It traces the development of images and ideas about Israel's origin, makeup, and role in world affairs from their earliest literary expression through the most exciting and difficult centuries in the nation's history."

Legal Documents from the Judean Desert $252 Legal Documents from the Judean Desert

Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East $24.99 Michael DeFreitas Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East - Photographic Print

Sheep in the Judean Desert Outside Jerusalem, Israel $34.99 Richard Nowitz Sheep in the Judean Desert Outside Jerusalem, Israel - Photographic Print

The Judean Chronicles $10.72 No Synopsis Available

The Judean Strategy $16.58 No Synopsis Available

The Judean Scrolls $20.47 No Synopsis Available

The Judean Conspiracy $11.65 No Synopsis Available

Israel, Judea: Scene of Judean Hills East of Jerusalem $34.99 Brimberg & Coulson Israel, Judea: Scene of Judean Hills East of Jerusalem - Photographic Print

Tractor Plows a Large Field, The Judean Hills Are in Background $34.99 James L. Stanfield Tractor Plows a Large Field, The Judean Hills Are in Background - Photographic Print

Maqam Hasan Al-Rai Near Nabi Musa, Judean Desert $124.99 Hanan Isachar Maqam Hasan Al-Rai Near Nabi Musa, Judean Desert - Wall Mural

Row of Vines in Vineyard at Qumran, Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East $24.99 Simanor Eitan Row of Vines in Vineyard at Qumran, Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East - Photographic Print

Water Stream Running Through Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East $24.99 Simanor Eitan Water Stream Running Through Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East - Photographic Print

Judean War 2 $269 Deals with a period of enormous consequence: from King Herod's death (4 BCE) to the first phase of the war against Rome (66 CE). This work covers: the succession struggle, the governments of Herod's sons, Judea's incorporation as a Roman province, some notable governors, Kings Agrippa I and II, and preparations for war in Judea and Galilee.

Biblical Disasters $13.99 Biblical Disasters

Biblical Sermons $24 Biblical Sermons

Arid Hills at Wadi Qelt and the Valley of the River Jordan in Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East $24.99 Simanor Eitan Arid Hills at Wadi Qelt and the Valley of the River Jordan in Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East - Photographic Print

Sceptre with Ibex Heads, from Cave of the Treasure, Nahal Mishmar, Judean Desert, 4500-3500 BC $49.99 Chalcolithic Sceptre with Ibex Heads, from "Cave of the Treasure", Nahal Mishmar, Judean Desert, 4500-3500 BC - Giclee Print

Rock Cliffs and Sand Dunes in Front of the Fortress of Masada, Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East $24.99 Simanor Eitan Rock Cliffs and Sand Dunes in Front of the Fortress of Masada, Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East - Photographic Print

View in Winter with Typical Hills in Foreground and Alon Settlement Beyond, Judean Desert, Israel $19.99 Eitan Simanor View in Winter with Typical Hills in Foreground and Alon Settlement Beyond, Judean Desert, Israel - Photographic Print

View with Typical Desert Trees and Cliffs, Wadi Zehelim, Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East $19.99 Eitan Simanor View with Typical Desert Trees and Cliffs, Wadi Zehelim, Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East - Photographic Print

Buildings at the Mar Saba Orthodox Monastery Near Bethlehem, Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East $24.99 Simanor Eitan Buildings at the Mar Saba Orthodox Monastery Near Bethlehem, Judean Desert, Israel, Middle East - Photographic Print

Cabin by the Bridge by Etheredge, Judean W. [Paperback] $18.8 Set in the South in the 1920s, in an area of cotton fields and tenant farms, Caroline Hollomon struggled to provide for her children both financially and spiritually. Forced to move from her spacious house in town to a small cabin miles away, she faced one hardship after another. One day a total stranger asked Caroline for a meal. Did his request put the entire family in danger or was it just another test of faith for Caroline? Join Caroline as she works through some of her greatest difficulties to find some of Gods greatest blessings. Author: Etheredge, Judean W. Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 92 Publication Date: 2008/10/01 Language: English Dimensions: 8.10 x 5.10 x 0.26 inches

Biblical Scene $49.99 Biblical Scene - Giclee Print

Biblical Scenes $49.99 Biblical Scenes - Giclee Print