Dighton Rock – Centuries-Old-Mystery Still Unsolved

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Dighton Rock has been a subject of intense debate, curiosity, and wonder for centuries.

It’s a rock with a mysterious past we are unable to decipher. Its cuneiform-style inscriptions have long intrigued and puzzled observers and researchers.

A 40-ton boulder is a slanted, six-sided block approximately 5 feet (1.5 m) high, 9.5 feet (2.9 m) wide, and 11 feet (3.4 m) long.

First photograph of Dighton Rock, by Capt. Seth Eastman (1853)

It was found partially submerged on the Taunton River at Berkley, Massachusetts (formerly part of the town of Dighton).

Covered with petroglyphs and carved designs of ancient and uncertain origin, the rock is now installed in a memorial building nearby in Berkley.

In his book, “The Wonderful Works of God Commemorated,” published in 1690, the Rev. Cotton Mather gave this description:

"Among the other Curiosities of New-England, one is that of a mighty Rock, on a perpendicular side whereof by a River, which at High Tide covers part of it, there are very deeply Engraved, no man alive knows How or When about half a score Lines, near Ten Foot Long, and a foot and half broad, filled with strange Characters: which would suggest as odd Thoughts about them that were here before us, as there are odd Shapes in that Elaborate Monument.."

Over the last three centuries, people were making a series of accusations about the origins of the rock. More than 20 theories have been proposed about its origins Ezra Stiles (1727 -1795), an American academic, theologian and author, was convinced the rock was carved by ancient Phoenicians.

Some speculated that the Vikings or Native Americans did it; others credited early Portuguese explorers with the Dighton Rock inscription.

In 1784, Count Antoine Court de Gobelin, a French nobleman, suggested that Dighton Rock commemorated a visit to the Massachusetts shore “in very ancient times” by a group of sailors from Carthage on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Left: 1893 Photograph of Dighton Rock; Right: Dighton Rock Symbols

In 1807, Samuel Harris, a Harvard scholar, claimed that he had deciphered three ancient Hebrew words in Phoenician lettering — “king,” “priest” and “idol.”

In 1963, the rock was removed from the river and installed in a museum in the Dighton Rock State Park. In 1980 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Credit: Marcbela - CC0

In 1831, Ira Hill, a schoolteacher from Maryland, claimed he had deduced from the Old Testament that the rock was engraved “in the second month in the tenth year of the reign of King Solomon by an expedition of Tyrians and Jews …”

In his book "1421: The Year China Discovered the World" published in 2002, Gavin Menzies proposes that the Chinese left the inscription for us, when they reached America 70 years before Columbus.

We can only say that despite a few hundred years of speculation, the extensive petroglyphs on the rock have still not been explained conclusively.

The Dighton Rock still puzzles us because its mysterious hieroglyphs have not been deciphered.

Written by – A. Sutherland  - AncientPages.com Senior Staff Writer

Updated on July 3, 2024

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