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[Bronze Age Text]
(CLICK to Enlarge) Main features of the Grave Creek tumulus, near
Moundsville, West Virginia. The lower chamber, with a long
axis directed north and south, length 12 feet, height 7 feet, contained
remains of two skeletons. The upper chamber, of the same proportions, but
directed east and west, contained a single burial, accompanied by grave goods
that included the tablet of stone shown earlier. Rafn of Copenhagen University recognized the script as being
Iberic, and Henry R. Schoolcraft, who visited the site and made a mold of the
stone tablet, from which he later published the illustration, checked the
exact form of the letters. Despite
these early evidences of Iberian penetration into North America,
archaeologists still have difficulty in accepting the reality of the Iberian
and other Old World inscriptions being found today with other grave goods on
ancient cemetery sites, in various parts of North America (Fell 1982). |