WHERE BARRY FELL – CASTLE GARDENS, WYOMING #2:

Castle Gardens, Fremont County, WY.

Photograph Peter Faris, Sept. 1992.

On September 14, 2013, I posted a column entitled Where Barry Fell – Castle Gardens, Wyoming, that discussed Fell’s discovery and documentation of the First Iberian Bank of Moneta, Wyoming, based upon petroglyphs that he deciphered. For Fell the presence of ancient Celts was confirmed by the presence of the petroglyphs illustrated below. The first illustration is found at Castle Gardens and the second comes from near Writing-On-Stone, Alberta, Canada.

"Lug, the Celtic God of Light", Fig. 7-1, 

Barry Fell, Bronze Age America, p. 155.

“Chief of the Celtic gods was Lug, god of the sky and of light, and creator of the universe. His emblems are his spear and his sling-shot. With the latter he once destroyed a one-eyed monster named Balar, who, with his sorcerer attendants the Fir-bolg, had gained the mastery of Ireland. Balar is depicted in an unlettered inscription on the Milk River, near Writing-on-stone, Alberta. He is shown as having one leg and one arm, held aloft over his gigantic eye, which could kill hundreds merely by its glance. In this pictograph, Figure 7-2, Lug has just loosed the thong of his slingshot and the monster is about to bite the dust. Another and evidently much later depiction of Lug is that in Figure 7-1, where his name is given in Norse runes, one of many examples we now have of Norse influence on the western Celts in North America. Presumably the Norsemen came down from Hudson Bay to enter the prairie lands. In this petroglyph Lug is shown holding his magic spear, by means of which he defeats the forces of darkness each year, to usher in the returning spring. The last mentioned petroglyph occurs on cliffs at Castle Gardens in Wyoming, and at the same site another Celtic god is identified by his name written in Norse runes. This is Mabona (or Mabo), the Celtic Apollo, god of music and of sports and the presiding divinity in charge of male fertility. In this context his symbol is the phallus, shown in the petroglyph on the rock above him.” (Fell 1982:154)

“Figure 7-1. Lug, the Celtic god of light, is here identified in Norse runes of the period A.C. 750-1050. The name is in the possessive case: Lug’s (site or his image). This remarkable petroglyph occurs at Castle Gardens near Moneta, in Wyoming, and the drawing is traced from a photograph taken by Ted C. Sowers of the Wyoming Archaeological Survey (1941). Although this is the work of an artist of relatively modern times, the theme harks back to the Bronze Age, as does the formalistic style, like that of the earliest Bronze Age.” (Fell 1982:155)

Close-up, Castle Gardens, Fremont County, WY.

Photograph Peter Faris, Sept. 1992.

As can be clearly seen below the figure in the photograph there are a large number of linear markings of various ages (including a historic addition in English) superimposed, and it would not seem to be much trouble to find any rune or letter you wished by careful selection of the right lines. Indeed, in his figure 7-1, Fell’s last two letters can be seen in the close-up to consist of the disassembled neck and torso of a “V-Necked Anthropomorph” figure from a prehistoric petroglyph. The proper question here is not what was found by careful selection (and a lot of imagination) on the rock, but instead what was overlooked because it did not fit with preconceptions intent on finding that message.

"Lug, God of Light", Fig. 7-2, Barry Fell, 

Bronze Age America, 1982, p.158.

“Figure 7-2. Lug, god of light (right), prepares to fire his slingshot at the giant (closed) eye of the one-legged monster, Balar, who is attended by one of the Fir-bolg. Alberta Provincial Park.” (Fell 1982:158)

I don't even know how to address the nonsense of Fell's figure 7-2. He sees a Celtic god armed with a sling where I see a Native American warrior armed with a bow and arrow. Then he sees on the left the giant closed eye of a one-legged monster named "Balar, who is attended by one of the Fir-Bolg." (Fell 1982:158) Here I see another Native American warrior who is holding a shield to defend himself from the arrows of the first warrior.

If we rationalize hard enough we can imagine almost anything - but that does not make it true. As I have said before, falsification and prevarication are never acceptable.

REFERENCE:

Fell, Barry

1982    Bronze Age America, Little, Brown and Company, Boston.

WHERE BARRY FELL – PURGATORY CANYON, COLORADO:

Purgatory Canyon, south of the bear, Bent County,

CO., Photograph: Peter Faris, June 1991.

I had actually thought that I was probably through with Barry Fell but I ran into another couple of examples of Barry Fell’s inaccurate methods. This one can be found detailed in the interesting 1996 private publication by Phillip M. Leonard and William R. McGlone titled A Study of Script-Like Petroglyphs in Southeast Colorado, Mithras Inc., Kamas, Utah. This 70 page booklet outlined their multi-year studies comparing abstract figures or symbols found in southeast Colorado with old-world scripts, especially scripts from the Arabian Peninsula. In this posting I will present the case of one single row of figures found south of the famous bear panel in the Purgatory river canyon.

Leonard and McGlone, Fig. 8, p. 14.

The row of symbols in question is found high above the present ground level due to erosion of the valley bottom (described below). This portion of the cliff face is currently unreachable without a ladder or some other artificial aid. The arrangement of markings on this very interesting cliff can be likened to the stratification of a traditional archaeological excavation because the older markings are high up and were later unreachable. More recent petroglyphs are found lower down on the cliff with some examples of Plains Biographic Style images down just a few feet above the ground. Apparently some early devotee of epigraphic interpretation did go to the trouble to carry a long ladder in because the particular symbols in question have actually been painted in with aluminum paint to make them legible from the ground (personal observation).

Detail, dated trident symbol on right.

Leonard and McGlone, Fig. 8-A, p. 14.

One symbol from this line of characters was dated by Ronald Dorn using cation-ratio dating (this must have been done before the aluminum paint was added but I am not aware of the actual dates of either the testing or the painting). The trident-like character on the right side of subgroup-A dated to 1,975 years plus or minus 200 years BP (before present). (Dorn, McGlone, and Leonard 1990:23-36). It should be noted that Dorn subsequently withdrew the results of all of his dating work citing possible contamination of specimens. I maintained to him that this particular date, given the fact of the stratification on this cliff of rock art by age and height, presented additional evidence that this age may well be accurate.

Detail, dated trident symbol on right.

Photograph: Peter Faris, June 1991.

Leonard and McGlone described it as follows: 

“In the fall of 1981, we visited a well-known petroglyph site in southeast Colorado where there were hundreds of glyphs in an assortment of styles on the base of sandstone cliff faces 80 feet high. Some of the panels are 20 feet or more above the present ground level owing to progressive erosion of the valley floor as evidenced by mineral deposits on the cliff wall. Many of the glyphs are in the Pecked Abstract Style and are so old and heavily patinated they are difficult to see clearly even when the light is favorable. Others, in the Plains Biographic Style, appear to be much more recent, judging from their lack of patination and weathering.

One set of signs in a row (Figure 8A) was published as a “What is it?” in the December 1983 issue of Western Epigraphy with the hope that someone could explain its script-like appearance. Greg de la Castro of Conifer, Colorado, responded, saying he thought they were letters of the Sabaean alphabet. When Barry Fell was informed of this a few months later, he agreed. Although the sequence was short, both correspondents saw the presence of two different pitch-fork-shaped characters as pointing toward Sabaean.” (Leonard and McGlone 1996:13-15)

“On a later trip to the site, we saw that only a portion of the line of characters had been included in the original transcription. A search for Native American styles with similar long sequences of signs was unproductive. Study of the complete set (Figure 8B) and comparison to many alphabets world-wide convinced us that the glyphs corresponded more closely to North Arabian than South Arabian (Sabaean) letters - . When we advised Fell of this  and sent him a better photograph, he sent back a translation using the Safaitic (North Arabian) alphabet. The reading was published in McGlone and Leonard (1986) in order to establish priority of discovery and to stimulate comment." (McGlone and Leonard 1996:15)

This translation was accepted by McGlone and Leonard and published in 1986. It read: "Stayed here to trade, then departed after negotiating an augmented trade agreement - Fasih" (p.202) With the word "Fasih" supposedly representing the signature of either the trader, or the inscriber of the passage. McGlone and Leonard later returned to the site and the story is picked up again in their book from 1996.

"When we returned to the site and carefully recorded the full inscription, we found that the transcription developed by Fell from our photograph omitted two signs, improperly included some from a line below, employed natural rock inclusions as letters, and generally mis-applied the Arabic language in the translation. We asked him not to publish the faulty reading and proceeded to study the regional script-like signs ourselves. Our approach has been to collect groups of the signs and send them to knowledgeable specialists for evaluation and comment.” (McGlone and Leonard 1996:15) 

I have previously criticized Barry Fell for his unscientific method and basing his interpretations on improper evidence and falsified data. In this instance we have published testimony of his errors by two of his (at that time) collaborators. This conclusion is backed up by subsequent statements made to me by Bill McGlone on more than one occasion, that he could no longer abide by Fell’s work due to such errors (purposeful or otherwise) and that he regretted his previous association with Fell (private communication). I pointed out above that this row of symbols has been highlighted with aluminum paint. Bill McGlone always maintained that he and Phil Leonard had nothing to do with that and I have no reason to doubt his veracity. I do not know who applied the aluminum paint to the symbols but it was assuredly done by one of Fell’s collaborators (nobody else has really been interested in those particular symbols) so we can point that back at Barry Fell as well. 

The main thing here is that many of these characters are indeed like characters in Old World alphabets, I do not deny that. This does not mean, however, that this is anything more than a coincidence. I do not accept it as actual writing in any Old World script. McGlone and Leonard were interested in the apparent correspondence between many symbols in southeast Colorado and characters from Old World scripts, but their methods were scientific, and they seldom made claims that they could not substantiate. Fell on the other hand - - - ?

REFERENCES:

Dorn, Ronald I., William R. McGlone, and Phillip M. Leonard

1990    Age Determination of Petroglyphs in Southeast Colorado, Southwestern Lore, 56(2), 23-36, Colorado Archaeological Society, Denver.

Leonard, Phillip M., and William R. McGlone

1996    A Study of Script-Like Petroglyphs in Southeast Colorado, Mithras Inc., Kamas,               UT.

McGlone, William R., and Phillip M. Leonard
1986    Ancient Celtic America, Panorama West Books, Fresno, CA.

WHERE BARRY FELL - GALISTEO BASIN, NEW MEXICO:

Close-up, Galisteo Dike, Santa Fe County, NM, 

Photograph: Peter Faris, Sept. 1988.

I have been commenting on what I consider to be egregious misinterpretations and outright falsifications by Barry Fell in his interpretation of rock art and rock inscriptions. In Saga America, (1980) Fell included the illustration of a famous rock art panel from Galisteo, New Mexico, also known as Comanche Gap.

Barry Fell, 1980, Saga America, p. 350.

“Petroglyph depicting the carved figurehead of a Viking ship recorded by Professor E. B. Renaud in 1938 from his site N.M.224 on the upper Rio Grande, New Mexico.” (Fell 1980:350)

This represents another example of Fell’s sloppy data. Far from being on the upper Rio Grande River as he states, it is found on the other side of the Sandia Mountains from Albuquerque, some 35 to 40 miles northeast of Albuquerque. It is a beautiful representation of Avanyu/Kolowisi/Palulukon, the horned water serpent of Pueblo mythology. Given that there is a water association in both the Pueblo horned water serpent and a Viking ship, there is no trace of cultural contact between the two peoples – ancestral Pueblo and Viking, and to state otherwise is to overlook fact and deny the truth.

Galisteo Dike, Santa Fe County, NM, 

Photograph: Peter Faris, Sept. 1988.

Fell has again totally ignored the rest of the rock art in a complex panel that includes a number of eagles and at least two snakes. To the Puebloan peoples the eagle symbolizes the spirit of the deity of “above” while the serpent represents the spirit of the deity of “below”. This is, in fact, a complex illustration of the interplay of the powers of above and below leading to balance in the world.

San Cristobal, Galisteo Basin, New Mexico. Polly 
Schaafsma, Rock Art in New Mexico, 1992, p.117.

Polly Schaafsma illustrated another panel nearby at the ruins of San Cristobal that shows the horned serpent in just the same way, even to the design around his throat. The caption for that illustration reads: "Fig. 148. Paired horned serpents and mask, San Cristobal, Galisteo Basin, Southern Tewa District. The checkerboard collar on the left-hand figure is typical and may signify corn. Photo by Karl Kernberger.” (Schaafsma 1992:117)

I am surprised that Fell did not appropriate that panel for his claims too. That way he could point to a whole fleet of Viking ships, and the ruins of San Cristobal could be a Viking city in the New Mexico desert. 

Barry, how could a Viking ship have reached the Galisteo Basin in New Mexico if it won't hold water?

This posting is the final one in my series debunking the epigraphy of Barry Fell. Not that such nonsense won't come up again in the future, but for now we will go back to a more positive focus on rock art. Thank you for following.

REFERENCES:

Fell, Barry

1980    Saga America, Times Books, New York.

Schaafsma, Polly

1992    Rock Art in New Mexico, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe. 

WHERE BARRY FELL – CASTLE GARDEN, WYOMING:

Castle Gardens, Wyoming.

Continuing to kick poor old Barry Fell around, we now come to what I feel may be the most egregious example of falsification and fabrication in his whole repertoire. In central Wyoming a concentration of petroglyphs is found at Castle Gardens near the small town of Moneta. The Plains Indian petroglyphs here show a major concentration of shield images.

Castle Gardens, Wyoming.

Fell however, cannot let these marvelous images of Native American heraldry just be what they are. He has to warp them into a fantastic story of Celtic/Roman/Iberian travelers and traders who voyaged to Wyoming to open a branch of the First Iberian Bank of Moneta. I will be presenting this story mostly in his own words with comments thrown in as seems appropriate. Notice that the petroglyph panel showing the grouping of shields has a lot of plaster stuck on it from attempts to make molds of the images. I would not personally be surprised to find out that this was the result of Fell’s operations since we have already seen in so many examples that he works mostly from reproductions made from molds cast from the original rock art.

“Petroglyphs representing ancient coins extend the range to the ancient equivalent of the Oregon Trail, extending across the prairies to Moneta in Wyoming. The latter town appears to mark the site of the annual fur market in Roman times, lying near the North Pass in the Great Divide, and thus as convenient for ancient trappers as the nineteenth-century Wyoming markets were for trappers and buyers of the Astor company. The route also gave access to Nevada and California silver.“ (Fell 1980:35)

“There is one more site: the great pictograph and petroglyph location called Castle Gardens, near the town of Moneta, in central Wyoming. Dr. Don Rickey, chief historian of the Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, was one of my first visitors a few days after America B.C. was published at the end of 1976. He had been struck by many features of the book that appeared to throw possible light on problems of American epigraphy and early history.  -  He began by referring to me various reports in the files of the Bureau of Land Management dealing with unexplained petroglyphs. One of the reports dealt with the Wyoming site mentioned above – the finest petroglyph location in Wyoming, remarkable for the almost universal circular form of all the designs depicted on a series of rock faces that dominate the site.

            Some of the designs I recognized at sight as well-known Celtic patterns, used on disc-shaped bronze harness trappings of Celtic kings in Europe, and also occurring in the Spiro Mound in Oklahoma, together with other evidences of Celtic designs. But the great majority of circular patterns cut into the cliffs at Castle Gardens were not familiar to me when I first saw them. They seemed so dissimilar to Indian shield patterns that it was hard to relate them to these either.” (Fell 1980:134-5) 

“The final solution to the Castle Gardens mystery came like this:

            After the match between the Byzantine bronze-coin series and the supposed “Indian shield” series of Colorado petroglyphs was discovered, I remembered the mysterious suite of circular “shield” patterns from the Wyoming site, and once more got out Dr. Rickey’s report -. This time I did indeed begin to recognize, one by one, designs that resembled ancient coins I had once seen.”(Fell 1980:140)

"Italian chariot wheel coin design and supposed imitation

at Castle Gardens. Barry Fell, Saga America, p.152.

“Bewilderment was the Wyoming artist’s reaction to certain themes featured on the Romano-Iberian coinage. In B, the crab of the Roman model A, unknown in mid-continent is rendered as an obese person executing a handstand. In D, a half-chariot becomes a mysterious sun god; for where no horses exist, there can be no wheeled vehicles. In F, the Old World cock of an Italian bronze piece becomes a turkey, experiencing great difficulty in fitting its ample proportions into the confines of a circular flan. In H an Italian chariot wheel becomes a cross-pattee. All designs on the right side are petroglyphs from the Moneta site of the Wyoming Iberian bank. Those on the left side are drawn from Roman Republican and Campanian coins; Iberian examples are commonly bisected to yield lesser denominations, or “bits,” as shown at C.” (Fell 1980:152)

I believe that the image of the supposed imitation "Italian chariot wheel coin" corresponds to the shield figure found in the illustrations below. According to James Keyser this image is not even from Castle Gardens, Wyoming. He identified it as being found near Sheriden, Wyoming. Although a little hard to make out in the actual photo you can identify the form of the shield easily in the drawing that I made from an illustration in James Keyser and Keyser and Michael A. Klassen's 2001 book, Plains Indian Rock Art.

Shield figures, Wyoming. The shield of
the figure on the right corresponds to Fell's "H" above.

Comparing Fell’s coin with a cross-pattee to the original rock art photo exposes just how egregious the falsehood and deception is. The original is a shield figure (on the right of the grouping above) and Fell omitted the legs, head, spear, and many details of the shield itself including the fringe of feathers around it (not to mention the whole of the rest of the group of figures), to make it fit his strange idea of it representing a coin from the First Iberian Bank of Moneta, Wyoming.

Shield figure panel, drawn by 

Peter Faris after Keyser and Klassen, p. 197.

But Fell goes further, he not only has identified all the circular shields at Castle Gardens (and throughout the rest of western North America) as coins, he has also discovered the sign of the bank that handled those coins, a supposed inscription in Iberian-Greek. 

Castle Gardens translation, Barry Fell,

Saga America, 1980, p. 149.

“The business sign or tile engraved at the Wyoming site near Moneta. On the left the Iberic letters spell the old Gaelic word for moneychanger, or, in modern parlance bank. On the right, the word intended apparently is Old Gaelic for no interest – or perhaps, rather, no usury (i.e., not more than 12-1/2%). In the center Greek letters phi, alpha, theta, and eta form a rebus in which a moneybag discharges coins onto a dish. The word spelled means “[it was] the first to come here,” resembling the modern use of the word “First” in bank names.” (Fell 1980:149) In other words Fell is stating that this is the sign that identifies the First Iberian Bank of Moneta (the underline is mine).

Maybe Barry Fell for this, but we don’t have to.

REFERENCES:

Fell, Barry

1980    Saga America, Times Books, New York.

Keyser, James D. and Michael A. Klassen

2001    Plains Indian Rock Art, University of Washington Press, Seattle.

WHERE BARRY FELL – PICTURE CANYON #2:

On August 3, 2013, I began a series of postings questioning the conclusions of Barry Fell and his fellow epigraphers back in the 1970s and 1980s. My first example was located in Picture Canyon, in Baca County, Colorado. I showed then that the casting of the petroglyph that Fell had done his translation from had been altered from the original. This example is also located in Picture Canyon, Baca County, Colorado.

Picture Canyon, Baca County, Colorado. 

Photograph: Peter Faris.

Fell’s description of his version of this image is:

“A finely executed cliff petroglyph of a horse, discovered by Gloria Farley in the Cimarron region, is unusual in having a Libyan brandmark shown H-N, “Fleet-of-foot.” In ancient Libya states were erected to successful racehorses, and perhaps this commemorates one such, though not an American cup winner. Replica, after photo by Gloria Farley.” (Fell 1980:286)   

From Barry Fell's Saga America, p.286.

Once again, by comparing the Fell’s illustration with a photograph of the actual image you can see a number of differences. One major difference is the depth of the groove. On the original there is a fine scratch as if made with the edge of a flake of hard stone or the tip of a knife blade. Indeed, without the added pigment the horse image would be difficult to trace. This really is more pictograph than petroglyph, and while on that subject notice that Fell's version omits what appear to be the faded remains of an image of a rider with the horse. Then we have the changes to the image itself. The head of the horse is very different from the actual pictograph, and the line of the left  hip of the horse is also changed. Fell has omitted the tail of the horse as well. Even the inscription which is the whole point to Fell has been changed. On the original this so-called Libyan brandmark is roughly circular or oval in outline and in Fell’s altered version it is squared off, presumably to make the interpretation more convincing.

Falsified data does not convince me. 

REFERENCE:

Fell, Barry

1980    Saga America, Times Books, New York

WHERE BARRY FELL – MCCONKIE RANCH:

3-Kings panel detail, McConkey Ranch, Uinta

County, UT. Photo Peter Faris, Sept. 1994.

I now return to the subject of the epigraphy of Barry Fell, and my inability to place any credence in his conclusions when they are based upon obviously falsified material. Actually my first great problem with Mr. Fell was based upon his claims for the identity of the large figure from the so-called “3-Kings” panel at McConkie Ranch outside of Vernal, Utah.

Sea people prisoners, from Medinet Habu, Egypt. 

http://www.phoenician.org/sea_peoples.htm 

“According to the great stele of Rameses III, a major invasion of the Nile Delta was attempted around 1200 B.C. by migrant warriors arriving by ship from the northeast, presumably from Anatolia (modern Turkey and neighboring coasts) and Philistia (Lebanon and neighboring parts of Palestine). These seaborne warriors belonged to a half dozen different tribes, distinguished by their helmets and their shields. Among them were the Shardana (or Sherden) who carried round shields, broadswords, and who wore feathered war bonnets.” (Fell 1980:91-2)

“The principal evidence, however, of Libyan settlement in North America rests in the essentially North Africa word content of the spoken language of the Zuni people today. The matching pairs of words from New Mexico on the one hand and from North Africa on the other are so numerous, and the phonetic relationships so evident, that it is possible to set out the rules of phonetic mutation that govern the derivation of the Zuni language from its Libyan parent language. These phonetic rules are of the same kind as another series I demonstrated in 1973, linking the Libyan language with that of Polynesia. The Polynesian people, like the Libyans themselves, are descended from the Anatolian Sea Peoples who invaded the Mediterranean around 1400 B.C. and , after attacking Egypt and suffering a series of defeats as the Egyptians record, eventually settled Libya. (Fell 1976:176) Fell claims that these sea people/Libyans later became the population that manned ships of the Egyptian navy and that when Egyptian fleets reached North America the Libyan language and customs persisted in their colonies here.

In his 1980 book Saga America, Fell identified the large figure in the center of the 3-Kings Panel at McConkie Ranch outside of Vernal Utah as a warrior of the Sea People. I presume this was done on the basis of the distinctive headdress on the figure which does bear a resemblance to those worn by Sherden warriors in the friezes of Ramses III. 

Flicker feather headdress from Mantle Cave,http://cumuseum.colorado.edu.

However, in 1939, a flicker feather headdress was discovered in excavations at Mantle Cave in Dinosaur National Monument quite near McConkie Ranch. 

“One of the Museum's most beautiful objects is a flicker feather headdress, which was recovered during 1939-1940 excavations of Mantle's Cave in the center of Dinosaur National Monument in the far northwest corner of Colorado. This area was inhabited prehistorically by a hunter/gatherer/horticulturalist group that archaeologists call the Fremont, and in historic times by the Ute, a Numic-speaking tribe. 

The headdress is intricately constructed and was found in a buckskin pouch. It is made of flicker feathers, ermine, and buckskin. More than 370 feathers are in the headdress. Six feathers at the center of the crest are from the yellow-shafted flicker and the rest of the feathers are central tail feathers of the red-shafted flicker. Interestingly, the red flicker is native west of the Rockies, while the yellow flicker lives east of the Rockies. The feathers are carefully trimmed and the quills sewn together with sinew. They are placed between strips of ermine and laced into place. Rawhide thongs at either end of the ermine may have been used to hold the headdress in place when it was worn. Long wing feathers adorn the ends.

The original excavators of Mantle's Cave dubbed this object a headdress, although its use remains uncertain. It dates to A.D. 996-1190, which is the transitional time period between the Fremont people and Numic-speaking people in this area, so it could have belonged to either cultural group.” (http://cumuseum.colorado.edu/exhibits/objects/flicker-feather-headdress)

Barry Fell, Saga America, 1980,

Times Books, New York, p. 102.

So where Fell saw a Sherden warrior from the eastern Mediterranean, I see a Fremont warrior wearing a flicker feather headdress. Vernal, Utah, is a long way from any ocean Barry, especially from the eastern Mediterranean. Then we find that Fell based his analysis on another of those photographs taken from a reconstruction of the original rock art (why not just a photo of the rock art I wonder?) and when examining that childish copy of the great rock art panel we can see differences in the details of the portrayal again (as in the case from Picture Canyon). So once again we have Fell carrying out his interpretations on the basis of faulty data. Watch out Barry, it’s a long fall!

REFERENCES:

http://cumuseum.colorado.edu/exhibits/objects/flicker-feather-headdress

http://www.phoenician.org/sea_peoples.htm 

Fell, Barry

1976    America B.C., Demeter Press, New York.

1980    Saga America, Times Books, New York

Wikipedia

WHERE BARRY FELL – PICTURE CANYON:

Picture Canyon, Baca County, Colorado. 

Photograph: Peter Faris, 21 Sept., 1986.

Back in the 1970s there was considerable public interest in the diffusionist theories of Barry Fell. Fell believed that many rock art inscriptions and images had been produced by pre-Columbian travelers from the Old World.

“Barry Fell (born Howard Barraclough Fell)( June 6, 1917 - April 21, 1994) was a professor of invertebrate zoology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. While his primary professional research included starfish and sea urchins, Fell is also known for his controversial work in New World epigraphy, arguing that various inscriptions in the Americas are best explained by extensive pre-Columbian contact with Old World civilizations.” Wikipedia.

In my early years as a rock art researcher I felt I should read all sides of an argument in order to be able to fairly judge it for myself so I undertook the task of reading some of the writings of Barry Fell. As an aside here I should add that I do believe that there was pre-Columbian contact between the Old and New Worlds. We have physical proof of Viking presence at l’anse aux meadows in Newfoundland dating to around AD 1000. Additionally, I have posted about the hundreds of botanical and zoological indications outlined and explained in the book World Trade and Biological Exchanges Before 1492, by Carl L. Johannessen and John L. Sorenson, (2004). I have no trouble accepting limited contact, and even exchange, between peoples of the Old and New Worlds before Columbus. I just cannot accept the claims of diffusionists that so many of the cultural traits of New World peoples came from the dozens or hundreds of expeditions of Celts, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and everyone else they can think of roaming back and forth across North America leaving carved images and inscriptions.

Picture Canyon, Baca County, Colorado. 

Photograph: Peter Faris, 21 Sept., 1986.

As I said above I tried to read enough of Barry Fells’ writings to understand his premise and be able to give a fair evaluation to his claims. I read much of his writing and I have to confess that it would be really exciting to just open up to his conclusions. If I had just gone with it I could have been in on so many of the exciting discoveries that Barry Fell and his disciples claimed. Unfortunately, I found myself constrained by judgment and truth, and just could not adopt his conclusions. Part of the problem was the fact that I could visit some of the sites he translated and see for myself.

Cast by Gloria Farley, in America B.C., 

Barry Fell, Demeter Press, 1976, p.182.

In 1986 I spent some time in Picture Canyon, in Baca County, southeastern Colorado. There I visited the petroglyph that Barry Fell had translated, and explained as follows, based upon a casting from a mold made by Gloria Farley: “Chief Ras left this bilingual autograph to record his exploration of the Cimarron River in Oklahoma, probably around 500 B.C. Gloria Farley obtained this latex impression under a rock overhand on the river cliffs. Above right the Egyptian hieratic letters T-P (Chief). The eye symbol itself is the Egyptian hieratic word R-S (“Watchful”). The two Libyan letters cut into the eye sign, also spell R-S. Bilingual Egypto-Libyan inscriptions in North America probably reflect the lasting influence of the Libyan pharaohs upon the Egyptian navy. In later centuries when the Greek Ptolemies ruled Egypt, their Libyan queens continued to promote the interest of the navy, still manned largely by Libyan mariners. Malcolm D. Pearson” (Fell 1976:182)

First, the image is not on the cliffs of the Cimarron River, this symbol is actually in Picture Canyon, in Baca County, Colorado, and it is found a number of miles from the Cimarron River cliffs in New Mexico. Second, the actual image is somewhat different than the supposed casting which one would expect to be an exact replica of the original. Notice that the right end of the image is flattened, not sharply pointed as in the “casting”, also, please note that the actual shapes of Fells’  “two Libyan letters cut into the eye sign”, which ”also spell R-S” are not the same in the photograph as on the “impression”. There are also a number of other markings on the panel, including a group of pits within the right side of the “eye” that do not appear to be on Gloria’s “impression” at all.

Additionally, the lines of the “eye” and the “Libyan letters” in the casting are much sharper edged than the lines of the original, all of which suggests to me that the so-called “impression” has been worked over with tools to achieve the end they desired. Finally, we can see that the background surface of the “impression” that was supposedly made with latex directly from the surface of the rock does not match the actual background surface of the rock face itself. In any scientific context that I know of that is called falsification of data and is considered to be a fraudulent practice at the very least. So, back in the beginning – this is where Barry Fell. I will continue this exploration in the future.

Note: I wish I could claim to be clever enough to have originated the title “Where Barry Fell” for myself, but I cannot. This title came from a slide program debunking some of Fells' claims that was assembled by Bill McGlone back in the early 1990s, in cooperation with Phil Leonard.

REFERENCES:

Fell, Barry

1976    America B.C., Demeter Press, New York.