Monograph 1: The Blind Men and the Elephants

Monograph 2: The Newport Tower

Monograph 3: Beothuk Origins

The Blind Men and the Elephants:

The Davenport Relics Reconsidered

By James L Guthrie

The first in a series of NEARA Monographs commemorating NEARA's fortieth anniversary.

"Davenport might have been forgotten by now except for two combative men with diametrically opposite views about the likelihood that voyagers from the Old World set foot in America before the Norse. Almost simultaneously, Marshall McKusick and Barry Fell came across material from the Davenport case that reinforced their beliefs and fit their agendas."

So begins the unfolding of a pattern of conflict familiar to NEARA readers. First the anomalous discoveries from 1873 through 1888 of five strangely engraved tablets and more peculiar Hopewell pipes resembling elephants Davenport, Indiana. Then the announcement was picked up by the popular press and authenticity of the artifacts supported by the Davenport Academy of Natural Science an amateur society of mound explorers. By 1882, the authorities of academia expressed doubt, and then disbelief followed in 1883 with the Smithsonian Institution’s cry of fraud or hoax. The controversy simmered and flared up again and again when a new debunker appeared on the scene and the facts became tangled in a web of myths, lies, character assassinations and undisciplined ranting; Marshall McKusick’s publications from 1970 to 1991 being the most egregious.

The Blind Men and the Elephant tells the story of these five inscribed  relics, not only of the Reverend Jacob Gass’ amateur mound excavations in Davenport Iowa and his discoveries, but he covers accounts of the full panoply of players on both sides of a bitter quest for the “truth.”

Guthrie presents his case for authenticity clearly and concisely, presenting the history, buttressing his arguments with careful documentation of his sources, discussing the symbolism, context and possible meaning of each of the five inscribed stones, then giving his linguistic analysis of the symbols. The most convincing evidence however, is in the appendices reproducing the most important primary source documents. Although Marshall McKusick is the prime target of Guthrie’s inquisition, he finds unsustainable scholarship in most of the opinions proffered by the opposition. While chastising Barry Fell for many of the same faults, he credits him with important insights and commends his resoluteness in defending the authenticity of the relics.

As a first rate case study, this NEARA monograph belongs on every NEARA member’s shelf.

The Blind Men and the Elephants:
The Davenport Relics Reconsidered

James L. Guthrie

NEARA Monograph, 2005

Soft cover, 8-1/2x 11 format, 72 pages

NEARA publications, Edgecomb, ME available from NEARA: Order Form

The Newport Tower

Various Authors

Introduction by John Dranchak: The Newport Tower - also known as Old Stone Mill - is located in Touro Park, at Newport, Rhode Island on Aquidneck Island. Measuring 28 feet in height and roughly 24 feet in diameter, it is constructed of stone and supported by eight cylindrical columns, which form arches. The interior measures approximately 18 feet in diameter, and is surrounded by walls which are roughly three feet thick. A window, fireplace, and curious nooks add interest to the Tower. Separated from the downtown area with its sailing center and throngs of summer tourists, it is often overlooked as an item of historical interest, and is even ignored by many locals who are unaware of its history. During the heyday of the Newport Rock Festivals in the 1960s and 70s, Aquidneck Island was overrun by hundreds of thousands of young people, and Touro Park was trampled along with much of the rest of the city. Those youths had no idea that the Park and its tenant, the Tower, had been, and would continue to be the source of great mystery and controversy as to its origins.

For years, historians espoused the generally accepted belief that the Tower was a mill built during the seventeenth century by Rhode Island’s colonial governor, Benedict Arnold. However, as early as the mid-1800s, alternative theories of the Tower's origin were proposed and have become the subject of controversy—occasionally acrimoni­ous—among scholars, scientists, and researchers. One such theory speculates that the Tower was built by the Scot Henry Sinclair, believed to have visited the area in the late fourteenth century with a fleet under the command of Antonio Zeno.

NEARA has been a leader in sponsoring a good deal of the research, presenting at various conferences and publishing a number of articles written by NEARA Journal contributors. These activities have examined relevant aspects of comparative architecture, archaeoastronomy, radiocarbon dating, cartography, Templar influences, cryptography, and land surveys, among other factors. Some authors leave us with answered questions, while others offer their conclusions about possible pre-Columbian origins of the Tower.

Because of the broad variety of work accomplished on this subject and the time span over which articles have been published, NEARA’s editors feel the time is right to compile the efforts of our many contributors in a single volume. That is the purpose of this monograph, The Newport Tower "^{Arnold to Zeno}". We hope that readers who have followed the twists and turns of Tower research will revisit the information contained herein, and that those who are new to the subject will find the subject matter intriguing and a catalyst for more reading and study. We have, in some cases, edited the authors' original articles in order to avoid redundancy.

The hope is that someday new evidence will emerge that will conclusively provide the answer to the true origin of the Newport Tower. Meanwhile, we are left with a really good mystery!

As a first rate case study, this NEARA monograph belongs on every NEARA member’s shelf.

The Newport Tower

Various Authors

NEARA Monograph, 2006

Soft cover, 8-1/2x 11 format, 100 pages

NEARA publications, Edgecomb, ME available from NEARA: Order Form

Item of Interest:

The Chronognostic Research Foundation:

An Excavation at the Newport Tower

 

What is the Newport Tower? Norse? British Colonial? Scottish? Chinese? Portuguese? Basque? Join us as we begin the first archaeological excavation in 60 years in Touro Park, Newport, Rhode Island, to solve this mystery.

 

With the gracious permission of the Newport City Council, from October 15 to November 15 we’ll conduct an archaeological excavation of sites we found in the park during our geophysical studies of the past three years: possible building foundations and a rocky area near the Tower. The Tower itself, though completely visible and beautiful, is mute; we can only hope that its neighbors underground will be more talkative and tell us their tales from the past, and the tale of the Tower.

On these pages [www.chronognostic.org] we’ll provide you with the paper trails we’ve followed through libraries and historical societies: archaeological reports and scientific conference papers, old Danish poems and even older Icelandic sagas, 17th-century wills and marginal notes. You’ll see maps and charts. You can browse through photos of towers, houses, churches, industrial sites, windmills, and lighthouses, and we’ll give you some choices of wallpaper for your computer screen. There will be references aplenty, and web links to the many good people out there in cyberspace who furnished us with information.

Beothuk Origins

By John H. Cooper

Introduction by James Guthrie: We know that the original Redskins were the Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland, who painted themselves gaudily with red ochre, but their story of their unique culture and sad demise has remained obscure.  Dr. John Cooper has taken a big step towards filling this gap in our knowledge by summarizing the results of his lifelong studies of these enigmatic people.

First contacted in 1497, these maritime people hung on until June 6, 1829, when the last of the Beothuks, the beautiful and accomplished Shanawdithit, succumbed to disease at the age of 29.  Their numbers had dwindled steadily as they were shot, taken captive, and starved by blockades that cut off vital access to their salmon, seal, and other resources of the sea.  Parts of Cooper's account are painful to read as the quotes early 19th century documentation of the unspeakable atrocities suffered by Beothuks at the hands of the insensitive newcomers.

Beothuks, while apparently descended from the Algonquians of Labrador, were considerably different physically, culturally, and linguistically from mainland Indians.  Was this the result of isolation and an island, or had the Beothuks blended with European mariners who had been active for centuries in Atlantic waters?  Cooper, a pathologist, explores this question, concluding from physical considerations. language, ethnography, and documents such as the Norse sagas that the Beothuks absorbed both Norse and Celtic immigrants in significant numbers.  In the final 25 pages, he examines some 450 Beothuk words, showing that some have cognates in Nordic and Gaelic languages while others are closest to Algonquin, especially Micmac and Montagnais/Naskapi.

There is some impressive scholarship here, and we are grateful that John Cooper has been able to pack so much intriguing and reliable information into sixty pages.  The NEARA volume is superbly produced and edited and will further enhance the growing stature of that organization. 

Beothuk Origins

John H. Cooper

NEARA Monograph, 2007

Soft cover, 8-1/2x 11 format, 60 pages

NEARA publications, Edgecomb, ME available from NEARA: Order Form

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