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EUROPEAN BRONZE AGE VISITORS IN AMERICA1/ E. F. Legner
NOTE: “Old
Norse” and “Old Gaelic” as used by Fell may
be equivalent to a northern dialect of the Saharan
language as discussed by Nyland. ----Please CLICK on desired
underlined categories [ to search for Subject Matter, depress Ctrl/F ]: Introduction
As of March 2005 there have been few
implements found in the Americas that date from the Bronze Age (Please see Discussion). Nevertheless,
there is considerable evidence of a voyage or voyages of a Bronze Age Scandinavian king, Woden-lithi, to North America around
1700 B.C. from texts found inscribed in the rocks at Peterborough, Ontario, Canada (Figs. 18 & 19 & MAP), and other North American sites. (Figs. 18 & 19 & MAP), and other sites.
These texts, written in Teutonic and Norse tongues, used alphabets
that have survived to the present in remote parts of the world. However, in Europe Roman script became the
predominant alphabet around the time of Christ as part of the general
occupation. They support the belief
that Europeans during the Bronze Age were literate, educated people. Harvard Professor Barry
Fell (1982) has attempted to translate the inscriptions to
about October 2000. Expected
widespread criticism of such new ideas flooded the archeological world (see Comments). Yet by the year 2005 there has emerged a
revolution in American prehistory that may finally remove antiquated biases
and enable concerted efforts at learning and dispelling myths about
colonization in America (please refer to Nyland’s
accounts). The evidence points to the
certainty that European colonists and traders have been visiting or settling
in the Americas for thousands of years, have introduced their scripts,
artifacts, and skills, and have exported abroad American products such as
copper and furs. The voyages occurred
just as the Iron Age was beginning, so that the explorers might have brought
with them implements of iron instead of bronze (see Picture), and most could
have eventually rusted away. Edo Nyland has examined the
Peterborough petroglyphs and especially what Barry Fell considered Ogam, but
he failed to see Ogam writing in it. Nyland noted that Fell took some
isolated characters that look like Ogam, then assigned English letters to it,
but none are connected into a sentence. If one looks at the Ogam inscriptions
that Nyland works with, you see that they form a series of connected
characters, a lineup of them, but that's not what Fell found.. Furthermore, Fell was using Gaelic to translate but
Gaelic did not exist until about 700 AD. The early Gnostics used Basque
exclusively. Nyland wishes that he could be more positive about Fell's work.
As far as he can see his true strength is in transliteration, not
translation. According to Fell, Woden-lithi's main
purpose for visiting America was apparently to barter textiles with the Algonquian Indians in return for metallic copper ingots (Fell 1982). He left a detailed record of his visit at Peterborough where he
established a permanent-trading colony.
To critics who argued that there was no writing among the
Scandinavians until about the time of Christ, Fell (1982) pointed to two
alphabets as shown in Fig.
1. One alphabet,
"ogam
consaine" was employed by the ancient peoples of Ireland and
Scotland (often erroneously referred to as Celts—see Celts) and recorded and
explained in detail by Irish monks during the Middle Ages. A detailed description of this writing was
given in Barry Fell's books America BC
and Saga America. The other alphabet, called "Tifinag", is the special way of
writing of the Tuaregs, a race of Berbers
living in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. Both ogam consain and Tifinag use only consonants in nearly all
words, leaving the vowels to be inferred, as do writers of Hebrew, Arabic and
other ancient scripts. Sometimes,
where doubt may exist as to the word intended, a vowel sign is added, or a
pictograph, to help recognize the word (Fell 1982). [ Ogam Script
details] It is apparent from evidence provided
in the following text that Bronze Age Irish and Norsemen colonists in
America showed strong feelings about their pagan gods
and the power that they had over daily events. Therefore, the numerous inscriptions found in America on rocks,
implements and bone regularly connected these gods with whatever the people
were trying to show, whether it be gathering wool from wild sheep or
recounting their travels. With his
wide knowledge about Bronze Age mythology and religions in Europe, Professor
Fell noted close similarities in the American inscriptions. He interpreted these as cultural
extensions from Europe, following colonization by explorers crossing the
Atlantic in ancient times. (Pleases
refer to Figs. 20, 21, 22, 23 & 24 for more illustrations to this
section). As of 2005 we have come to
recognize this ancient language as Saharan from
which all other Indo-European languages were derived. The following text reconsiders the
detailed account by Professor Barry Fell in Bronze Age America, 1982,.with
new knowledge accumulated since its publication. Particularly, his erroneous references to Celts have been
changed to coincide with knowledge acquired by 2004. Although Fell’s reference to Celts often
includes peoples of both Ireland and Scotland, I have generally used the word
Ancient Irish for both (Please see Celts). [ Continue with <bronze2.htm> ] |