The Bourne Stone is an archaeological curiosity located in the town of Bourne, Massachusetts.
The stone itself is a 300-pound chunk of granite, upon which two lines of carvings were made. According to the Archaeological Institute of America, the stone probably started as a doorstep of a Native American meetinghouse around 1680, then passed through several owners, landing at the Aptucxet Trading Post in Bourne about 1930. The stone has been displayed at the historical center since 2003.
Barry Fell claimed in his 1977 book America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World that the markings are in an Iberian script and language which he translates to "A proclamation of annexation. By this Hanno takes possession".
In 2004, Larry J. Zimmerman explained his own theory about the Bourne Stone in Collaboration In Archaeological Practice: Engaging Descendant Communities. He invited Norse runic expert Michael Barnes to examine the stone. Barnes stated that the markings were definitely not runic. Zimmerman and Patricia Emerson, Minnesota archaeologist, suggested that the markings looked like Native American petroglyphs.
Theories
The Bourne Stone is one of many artifacts that support historical theories of our ancient ancestors have been traveling the globe long before any detectable history. According to authors, John J White, III, Beverley H. Moseley, Jr., and Charles F. Herberger, the lettering inscribing the stone is an Ibero-Punic script which originates from Ancient Carthage, a civilization which was located in areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea from the 7th to the 3rd centuries BC.
Barry Fell, a former professor at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology who taught himself New World Epigraphy, concluded that the second line of the inscription of the Bourne Stone translates into “of annexation. Do not deface. By this Hanno takes possession.” Fell noted that the name Hanno was a common Carthaginian name. It should be noted that Fell’s conclusions on epigraphy were highly controversial and were met with major criticism due to his lack of formal training in the subject matter.
The first known study of the inscriptions on the Bourne Stone was made by a Brown University Professor of Psychology named Edmund B. Delabarre in 1936. In a former periodical named Old Time New England, Delabarre presented his theory on the Bourne Stone markings, claiming that they had been made by the Native Americans of the Herring Pond area. According to Delabarre’s interpretations of the inscriptions, the markings show “Native “wigwams” (lower left corner), a white man and Indian shaking hands (the M shape 1/3 along of bottom row), a crescent moon, a cross” and “a peace pipe”. Translated, he theorized that the symbols told the following story: “A white man journeyed seven days on a trail to make compact with the Indians beneath the light of a new moon".
In 1948, Professor Olaf Stranwold, a graduate of the University of North Dakota, contributed his own theory on the origins of the Bourne Stone. Stranwold’s theorized that the inscription are Norse Runes, an ancient alphabet used by the Vikings. His translation of the inscription on the stone was “Jesus amply provides for us here and in heaven". Although the Nordic origin of the Bourne Stone is a widely accepted theory amongst scholars, Craig Chartier of the Plymouth Archaeological Rediscovery Project disagrees. He states that:
Perhaps if we were in Norway or somewhere where we know for certain that Vikings lived, where we have extensive archaeological evidence in the form of burials and the refuse from their day to day lives, we could state with greater certainty that they are, in fact, runes. But we don't...I have not seen anything on the stone that leads me to believe that it is a fake or that it was created by anyone other than the Native people of the Manomet/ Herring Pond community.
Chartier claims that none of the theories made by Stanwold, Delabarre, or Fell, have any evidence to back them up and he is just as likely to believe that the stone was inscribed by ancient aliens, then he is to believe their theories.
Other researchers theorize that the stone was engraved by Native Americans. In 1998, after studying the stone, Suzanne Carlson suspected that the markings were Native American glyphs. In 2007, Larry Zimmerman, a professor of anthropology at the University of Indiana, arrived at the same conclusion as did German forensic scientist Peter Pieper.