The Bourne Stone is an archaeological curiosity located in the town of

Bourne Bourne may refer to: Places UK * Bourne, Lincolnshire, a town ** Bourne Abbey ** Bourne railway station * Bourne (electoral division), West Sussex * Bourne SSSI, Avon, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Burrington, North Somerset * Bourne ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. The stone is a 300-pound chunk of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

, upon which two lines of

carvings Carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material. The technique can be applied to any material that is solid enough to hold a form even when pieces have been removed from it, and ...

were made.

History

According to the

Archaeological Institute of America The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America's oldest society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and AIA has established re ...

, the stone probably started as a doorstep of a Native American meeting house 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. 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 A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

. In 2016, Plymouth Archaeological Rediscovery Project member Craig Chartier upon closer examination and looking at a

stone rubbing Stone rubbing is the practice of creating an image of surface features of a stone on paper. The image records features such as natural textures, inscribed patterns or lettering. By rubbing hard rendering materials over the paper, pigment is deposi ...

as well as the stone itself came to the conclusion that the common image of it was incomplete, and it was examined upside down. And that when it was inverted it showed what appeared to be a depiction of early Native and European contact. https://www.plymoutharch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/The-Bourne-Stone.pdf

References

{{coord, 41, 44, 36.0, N, 70, 35, 48.7, W, region:US, display=title Bourne, Massachusetts Inscriptions in unknown languages North American runestone hoaxes Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact Pseudoarchaeology