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The Bat Creek Stone Revisited: A Fraud Exposed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert C. Mainfort Jr.  and
Mary L. Kwas
Robert C. Mainfort Jr.
Affiliation:
Arkansas Archeological Survey, University of Arkansas
Mary L. Kwas
Affiliation:
Arkansas Archeological Survey, University of Arkansas
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Abstract

An inscribed stone reportedly excavated by an employee of the Smithsonian Institution from a burial mound in eastern Tennessee, and published by Cyrus Thomas in his 1894 landmark report, has been promoted by transatlantic contact enthusiasts as incontrovertible proof of Precolumbian Old World contacts. The inscription is fraudulent, having been copied from a Masonic treatise. We present the source of the inscription and discuss other circumstances concerning the stone and its purported discovery.

Resumen

Resumen

Una piedra con inscripciones que fue reportada como excavada por un empleado del Smithsonian Institution en un túmulo funerario en la zona este del estado de Tennessee, y publicada por Cyrus Thomas en su reconocido reporte de 1894, se ha promovido por los entusiastas de los contactos transatlánticos como prueba irrefutable de contactos pre-colombinos con el Viejo Mundo. La inscripción es fraudulenta, ya que fue copiada de un tratado masónico. Nosotros presentamos la fuente de la inscripción y comentamos otras circunstancias relacionadas a la piedra y a su supuesto descubrimiento.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 69 , Issue 4 , October 2004 , pp. 761 - 769
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2004

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