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THE
HORSE CREEK PETROGLYPH OF WEST VIRGINIA (Contact)
Top line: RGHMKUIHMNMKSBDLKSTUIGNMOIDIAAIOSAMFLL The migration passed by like a powerful
mirage, quietly undulating and moving unsuspectingly a short distance,
peacefully. To bring about a
disturbance we advanced rattling branches and shouting. I remember that a whole wave happened to
pass by and we fell back in fear (to avoid) the bad-tempered stampede of the
frightened herd of bison (moving into) the entrance of the narrow
wooden-fenced passage and into the abyss in flight. Come and help! The clan
mother was pleased with our co-operative effort. Middle line:
MGNTLGMIATGEANBT Club
blows in abundant measure (were needed) because many which had fallen into
the ravine resisted with obviously broken legs. Brothers, come and help the
slaughterer to finish them off. Bottom line:
BHGTOIRGLGGBMOITKDIAHFKIOND Having prevented escape by running away, we
made the usual preparations by the edge
of the stream and happily rejoiced in dividing the welcome riches into
three parts by plentiful butchering. At first unaccustomed (to the task) we
undeniably had to pay attention. We
were as busy as possible and so happily exhausted that (we didn't notice) the
noise of the thunder coming in our direction. The eye: TLMDSDIADIONL In spite of (being( some
distance away, the clan mother, just in time, reached the cattle shelter
during a period of silence to sensibly wait out the approaching thunder. Your dear
Friend The Horse Creek Ogam inscription was
first published in the March 1983 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. The transliteration from the Ogam script
to our characters was done by Dr. Barry Fell, professor emeritus from Harvard
University, a difficult job well done. He also made an attempt at
translation, assuming that the writing was in the Gaelic language, which it
was not. The result of this effort was published in the same article but was
severely criticized by a number of academics. The letter sequence as transliterated
by Dr. Fell is as follows (his c's are shown here as k's): Top line: RGHMKUIHMNMKSBDLKSTUIGNMOIDIAAIOSAMFLL Middle line: MGNTLGMIATGEANBT Bottom line:
BHGTOIRGLGGBMOITKDIAHFKIOND The eye: TLMDSDIADIONL This Petroglyph may well be the
longest known Ogam inscription in the world. Ogam writing is always done in a
severely abbreviated manner, in which each consonant of the inscription
represents a full word. If possible, the author of the inscription used words
which began with vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV, occasionally VCCV). The drafting
of an Ogam inscription is an exacting task; first the words are selected and
abbreviated to their first three letters and arranged as:
VCV1-V1CV2-V2CV3-V3CV4-V4 etc. The words are so chosen that the vowels on
either side of the hyphens are identical. I called this the "VCV
interlocking formula" and is used in almost all Ogam inscriptions. It is
this vowel-interlocking feature of the formula that allows the restoration of
the missing vowels. When the design was completed, all but a few of the
vowels and h's were eliminated, creating an apparently unintelligible jumble
of consonants with a few vowels sprinkled here and there. The main body of
the Horse Creek Petroglyph has only two breaks in the interlocking, which
were used by the author to create three lines, top, middle and bottom. Carefully designed Ogam inscriptions
contain a "translation key", a place to begin deciphering, often in
the form of a complete VCV which expresses a key word in the inscription.
This is the case here in the VCV: idi, located in the top line, which means
"ox or bison". It was not until a full year after having translated
the inscription that I noticed the entire Petroglyph was also arranged in the
shape of a bison, complete with the characteristic hump formed by the top
line, with the eyes and mouth outlined by smaller characters, all
artistically arranged. See the issue of Wonderful
West Virginia. In the following translation, the
letters provided in the inscription have been inserted in the VCV vowel
interlocking formula. In most cases the consonants stand alone, but flanked
by dots which represent the missing vowels. As the key word idi suggested,
the language of the inscription is Basque. Working systematically with a good
quality Basque dictionary such as Aulestia's, the words can be restored and
translated with considerable confidence. . All Basque words are shown in
italics. Basque has no "c" and our "sh" is written as
"x". Top Line: RGHMKUIHMNMKSBDLKSTUIGNMOIDIAAIOSAMFLL All the Ogam letters analyzed up to
and including IDI to provide an example of the process used: Fell's reading: RGHMKUIHMNMKSBDLKSTUIGNMOIDIAAIOSAMFLL Nyland's
reading: RGHMKUIHMNMKSBDLKSTUIGNMOIDIAOOSIEAMFLL .r.
eri errialdaketa migration .g.
iga igaro to pass by .h.
aha ahaldun powerful .m.
ame ameslilura mirage .ku
eku ekuru quietly u.i
uhi uhindu undulating ih. iha iharrosi to move .m.
amu amultsuki unsuspectingly .n.
une unetxo short distance .m.
eme emeki peacefully .k.
eka ekarraraki to bring about .s.
asa asaldu disturbance .b.
aba abantailatu to advance .d.
ada adarrots rattling branches .l.
ala alarao shouting .k.
ako akorduaneuki to remember .s.
oso oso whole .tu
otu otu to happen u.i
uhi uhin wave ig.
iga igaro to pass by .n.
anu anu-egin fall back in fear .mo
umo umoretxar bad tempered o.i
ohi ohildu stampede idi
idi iditalde herd of bison i.a
iha ihabali frightened aho
aho ahoketa entrance to narrow passage oho
oho oholesi wooden fence osi
osi osintsu abyss i.e
ihe ihesean in flight e.a
eha ea come and help! am.
ama ama clan-mother .f.
afa afa pleased .l.
ale alegin effort .l.
el elkarrune co-operative The migration passed by like a powerful
mirage, quietly undulating and moving unsuspectingly a short distance,
peacefully. To bring about a disturbance we advanced rattling branches and
shouting. I remember that a whole wave happened to pass by and we fell back
in fear (to avoid) the bad-tempered stampede of the frightened herd of bison
(moving into) the entrance of the narrow wooden-fenced passage and into the
abyss in flight. Come and help! The clan-mother was pleased with our
co-operative effort.
Middle Line: MGNTLGMIATGEANBT
.m.
ma makila club .g.
aga agakada blows .n.
ane anega measure .t. eta -eta abundant .l. ala alako because .g.
aga -aga many .mi
ami amildu to fall into ravine i.a
iha ihardukitze to resist at.
ata atalkatu broken legs .ge
age ageriz obviously e.a
eha ea come and help an.
ana anaiak brothers .b.
abe aberehiltzaile slaughterer .t.
ete etentze finished off Club blows in abundant measure (were
needed) because many which had fallen into the ravine resisted with obviously
broken legs. Brothers, come and help the slaughterer to finish them off. Bottom Line: (BHGTOIRGLGGBMOITKDIAHFKIOND) .b.
ibi ibilgetu to hold still, to prevent .h.
ihe ihespide escape .g.
ega egan egin to run away .to
ato atonketa preparations o.i
ohi ohituzko usual ir.
iru irunakatu to divide in three parts .g.
uga ugalde edge of the stream .l.
ale alegeratu to rejoice .g.
ego egoki convenient, welcome .g.
oga ogasun riches .b.
abe aberehiltze to butcher .mo
emo emonkor plentiful o.i
ohi ohigabe unaccustomed it.
itu iturri origin, at first .k.
uka ukagaitz undeniably .di
adi adi-egon to pay attention i.a
iha iharduki to be busy with ah.
aha ahalik as ..... as possible .f.
afa afa happy .ki
aki akipen exhausted i.o
iho ihortziri
thunder on.
ona ona in this direction .d.
ada -ada noise of the action Having prevented escape by running away,
we made the usual preparations by the edge of the stream and happily rejoiced
in dividing the welcome riches into three parts by plentiful butchering. At
first unaccustomed (to the task) we undeniably had to pay attention. We were
as busy as possible and so happily exhausted that (we didn't notice) the
noise of the thunder coming in our direction. The next line of the inscription (TLMDSDIADIONL), in smaller Ogam
characters, is located just left of the top line and forms the eye and forehead
of the bison. The translation indicates that it belongs after the three lines
of the main inscription. Another small Petroglyph, identified by Dr. Fell as
written in Libyan Ogam, forms the nostrils and mouth, but these have not yet
been transliterated, to my knowledge. TLMDSDIADIONL .t.
eta etapa some distance away .l.
ala alabe in spite of .m.
ama ama clan mother .d. adi adionez just in time .s.
isi isilaldi period of silence .di
idi idikorta cattle shelter i.a
iha ihardun to wait out adi
adi adindun sensibly i.o
iho ihortziri thunder on.
on ondo approaching .l.
l? laguntxo? Your dear friend In spite of (being) some distance
away, the clan mother, just in time, reached the cattle shelter during a
period of silence, to sensibly wait out the approaching thunder. Your dear Friend. This long inscription was signed with
"L" which could be an abbreviation for laguntxo (your dear friend),
lagun (comrade), lagunarte (group of friends) etc. and was used to end a
letter. The word "ama" is mentioned twice in the text, which may
mean: mother, priestess or clan mother. It is suggested that the author of
this inscription was a Gnostic Christian monk, who was trained in Ogam
writing in Irish tradition, and that the ama mentioned referred to the head
of the matrilineally organized clan. The symbol that Dr. Fell interprets as
the Greek letter “omega” is probably a sketch of the ground plan of the
wooden fence, while his "alpha" character may illustrate the
A-frame type of construction used to build the bison fence. Concrete evidence of these people has
been found in ancient graves which contained crucifixes and pendants with
crosses, discussed by archaeologist R.L.Pyle in his book: All That Remains (p53-57). Based on archaeological
information and the type of Ogam used, I estimate the date of the inscription
to be between 600 and 700 A.D. It
appears from the description of St. Brendan's travels in the Navigatio that the
early Irish evangelists, who were Gnostic Christians (centered in
Alexandria), were experienced ocean sailors and had no problems maintaining
contact with their brethern across the Atlantic. This changed when Roman
Catholic Christians (based in Rome), being the landlubber variety, took
control in Ireland and left the colonies in America to fend for themselves.
Judging by the many megalithic stone structures left by these people in New
Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia etc.
(Boland and Fell) it is well possible that this colonization effort started
centuries earlier. Robert Pyle mentions that in the Saga of Eric the Red the
Norsemen saw men dressed in white robes in what appeared to be an Irish
ecclesiastical procession. Several centuries later, early American settlers
were astonished to see many native Indians with fair skin and blue eyes (Pyle
p66). These people were quickly absorbed by the new wave of immigrants and
are even today proudly remembered as ancestors of some of the
"earliest" American families. The name "Brendan" is of
interest. It derives from "brenda-an": barrenda (to spy, to
explore) and anai (religious brother, monk) i.e. exploring monk. It is now
desirable that the other East Coast Ogam inscriptions are deciphered. I have
no doubt that they are all written in the same language. Some will be
difficult because too many vowels were removed from them, which makes
accurate translation a challenge but none are impossible. The Basque language
is very logically, almost mathematically, arranged. These problematical Ogam inscriptions may lend themselves to
computer decoding. A completely new chapter in the history of North America
waits to be written. |
==========================================
For further detail, please
refer to:
Nyland, Edo. 2001. Linguistic Archaeology: AnIntroduction. Trafford Publ., Victoria, B.C., Canada.
ISBN 1-55212-668-4. 541 p. [
see abstract & summary]
Nyland, Edo. 2002.
Odysseus and the Sea Peoples: A
Bronze Age History of Scotland Trafford Publ., Victoria,
B.C., Canada. 307 p.
[see abstract
& summary].
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