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The Dighton Rock is a 40-ton
boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...
, originally located in the riverbed of the
Taunton River The Taunton River (historically also called the "Taunton Great River"), is a river in southeastern Massachusetts in the United States. It arises from the confluence of the Town River and Matfield River, in the town of Bridgewater. From th ...
at
Berkley, Massachusetts Berkley is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston and east of Providence, Rhode Island. The population was 6,764 according to the 2020 census, making it the least populated town in the county. History ...
(formerly part of the town of Dighton). The
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
is noted for its
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 ...
("primarily lines, geometric shapes, and schematic drawings of people, along with writing, both verified and not."),
Kenneth L. Feder Kenneth L. "Kenny" Feder (born August 1, 1952) is a professor of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University and the author of several books on archaeology and criticism of pseudoarchaeology such as '' Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Scien ...
, ''Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis To The Walam Olum'', page 80 (Greenwood, 2010).
carved designs of ancient and uncertain origin, and the controversy about their creators. In 1963, during construction of a
coffer dam A cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out. This pumping creates a dry working environment so that the work can be carried out safely. Cofferdams are commonly used for construction or re ...
, state officials removed the rock from the river for preservation. It was installed in a museum in a nearby park, Dighton Rock State Park. In 1971, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).


Appearance

The boulder has the form of 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. It is gray-brown
crystalline A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macrosc ...
sandstone of medium to coarse texture. The surface with the inscriptions has a trapezoidal face and is inclined 70 degrees to the northwest. It was found facing the water of the bay.


History and mythology

In 1680, the English
colonist A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settl ...
Rev. John Danforth made a drawing of the petroglyphs, which has been preserved in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...
. His drawing conflicts with the reports of others and the current markings on the rock. In 1690 Rev.
Cotton Mather Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a New England Puritan clergyman and a prolific writer. Educated at Harvard College, in 1685 he joined his father Increase as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting H ...
described the rock in his book ''The Wonderful Works of God Commemorated'':
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.
During the 19th century, many popular publications and public figures mentioned the rock. The poet and critic
James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that r ...
suggested that
presidential candidates President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
' letters to newspapers should be written in its undeciphered script: " letters must be written, profitable use might be made of the Dighton rock hieroglyphic or the
cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic writing system, script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East, Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is nam ...
script, every fresh decipherer of which is enabled to educe a different meaning." Lowell made other references to the rock in his widely circulated satirical writing, and may thus have helped to popularize it. Hypotheses about the creation of the markings include: ;
Indigenous peoples of North America The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...
: …who were known to have inscribed petroglyphs in rocks (a schematic face on the Dighton Rock is similar to an Indian petroglyph in Eastern Vermont) ; Ancient Phoenicians : …proposed in 1783 by Ezra Stiles in his "Election Sermon" as the "descendants of the sons of Japheth" ; Norse : …proposed in 1837 by
Carl Christian Rafn Carl Christian Rafn (January 16, 1795 – October 20, 1864) was a Danish historian, translator and antiquarian. His scholarship to a large extent focused on translation of Old Norse literature and related Northern European ancient history. He wa ...
. Rejected by archaeologists such as
T. D. Kendrick Sir Thomas Downing Kendrick (1 April 1895 – 2 November 1979) was a British archaeologist and art historian. Life Early life Kendrick was born on 1 April 1895 in Handsworth, a suburb of Birmingham, England to Fanny Susan (nee Downing, bor ...
and
Kenneth Feder Kenneth L. "Kenny" Feder (born August 1, 1952) is a professor of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University and the author of several books on archaeology and criticism of pseudoarchaeology such as '' Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Scien ...
. ;
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
: …proposed in 1912 by Edmund B. Delabarre, who (after seeing Portuguese writing) believed that they then used the rock for their own inscriptions Delabarre wrote that markings on the Dighton Rock suggest that Miguel Corte-Real reached New England. Delabarre stated that the markings were abbreviated Latin, and the message, translated into English, reads as follows: "I, Miguel Cortereal, 1511. In this place, by the will of God, I became a chief of the Indians." Hunter (2017) provides copious evidence and analysis debunking the Corte-Real origin myth. ;
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...
: …proposed by
Gavin Menzies Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies (14 August 1937 – 12 April 2020) was a British submarine lieutenant-commander who authored books claiming that the Chinese sailed to America before Columbus. Historians have rejected Menzies' theories and assertions ...
in his 2002 book '' 1421: The Year China Discovered America''


State park

In November 1952, the Miguel Corte-Real Memorial Society of New York City acquired 49½ acres (200,000 m²) of land adjacent to the rock to create a park. However, in 1951 the Massachusetts Legislature expropriated the same land for a State Park. More land was purchased. Dighton Rock State Park now has an area of 100 acres (400,000 m²). The vicinity of Dighton Rock has been beautified and furnished with parking and picnic facilities.


Depths of inscriptions

Although Mather described these as deeply cut, a statement which has been repeated to the present day, early reports suggested that this was not exactly the case. DelaBarre wrote:
One thing is certain, that former descriptions of the depth of the incisions cannot be used as evidence for any change. The first who describes them calls them "deeply engraved" in 1690; but Cotton Mather had never seen the rock, so far as we know, and this statement of his is doubtless on a par with his other statement that the characters are on "a mighty Rock." Greenwood gives the first reliable description, in 1730. He definitely says that the "indentures are not very considerable," and his drawing and his other statements prove that he had as much difficulty in making out the real characters as has ever been experienced since then. Even on the lowest part of the face, which alone does show evident signs of much wear, Mather's draughtsman, and Greenwood, and their next followers, were even less successful in making out apparent characters than have been some later observers. Sewall in 1768 and Kendall in 1807 made definite statements to the effect that the greater part of the lines were so much effaced as to make their decipherment impossible, or wholly subject to the fancy.


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Bristol County, Massachusetts List of Registered Historic Places in Bristol County, Massachusetts: __NOTOC__ Cities and towns listed separately Due to their large number of listings, some community listings are in separate articles, listed in this table. Other cities ...
*
Newport Tower (Rhode Island) The Newport Tower, also known as the Old Stone Mill, is a round stone tower located in Touro Park in Newport, Rhode Island, the remains of a windmill built in the mid-17th century. It has received attention due to speculation that it is actually ...


Footnotes


Further reading

* Douglas Hunter, ''The Place of Stone: Dighton Rock and the Erasure of America's Indigenous Past.'' Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2017.


External links


Dighton Rock State Park
Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
Edward Brecher, "The Enigma of Dighton Rock"
''American Heritage'', June 1958, Volume 9, Issue 4 {{Authority control Landforms of Bristol County, Massachusetts Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact National Register of Historic Places in Bristol County, Massachusetts Rock formations of Massachusetts Petroglyphs in Massachusetts