Pentadic-Runic-Numerals-Edward Larsson 1885

The Spirit Pond runestones are three stones with alleged

runic inscription A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of El ...

s, found at Spirit Pond in Phippsburg,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

in 1971 by a Walter J. Elliott, Jr., a carpenter born in Bath, Maine. The stones, currently housed at the

Maine State Museum The Maine State Museum is the official Maine government's museum and is located at 230 State Street, adjacent to the Maine State House, in Augusta. Its collections focus on the state's pre-history, history, and natural science. Permanent exhib ...

, are widely dismissed as a hoax or a fraud.Snow, Dean R. (October/November 1981)
"Martians & Vikings, Maldoc & Runes"
''

American Heritage Magazine ''American Heritage'' is a magazine dedicated to covering the history of the United States for a mainstream readership. Until 2007, the magazine was published by Forbes.

'' 32(6). Archived fro
the original
on September 29, 2007. Haugen, Einar (1974). "The Rune Stones of Spirit Pond, Maine". ''Visible Language'' 8(1).

Reception

Unlike the prehistoric monumental

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...

s raised in

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

, the Maine stones are small handheld objects similar to the authentic

Kingittorsuaq Runestone The Kingittorsuaq Runestone (old spelling: ''Kingigtorssuaq''), listed as GR 1 in the Rundata catalog, is a runestone that was found on Kingittorsuaq Island, an island in the Upernavik Archipelago in northwestern Greenland. Description The Kingi ...

found in

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

in 1824. Of the three stones, one contains a total of 15 lines of 'text' on two sides. The ''map stone'' contains a map with some inscriptions. Paul H. Chapman proposes that the map depicts the landscape visible from the high White Mountain, the highest point in the vicinity of Spirit Pond, or the northern tip of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

. The inscriptions contain several instances of the use of pentadic numerals in European digits placement. The first to study the stones scientifically was

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

professor

Einar Haugen Einar Ingvald Haugen (; April 19, 1906 – June 20, 1994) was an American linguist, writer, and professor at University of Wisconsin–Madison and Harvard University. Biography Haugen was born in Sioux City, Iowa, to Norwegian immigrants from t ...

. In 1974, after transcribing, he found the individual runes used to be inconsistent with 11th century

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

, and that the text contains only "a few Norse words in a sea of gibberish". He also noted peculiarities relating the inscriptions directly to the

Kensington Runestone The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke stone covered in runes that was allegedly discovered in central Minnesota in 1898. Olof Öhman, a Swedish immigrant, reported that he unearthed it from a field in the largely rural township of So ...

inscription. Thus, he concluded that the inscriptions were most likely created after 1932. Amateur researchers have been more sympathetic to a medieval origin of the stones. Suzanne Carlson of NEARA, a group of enthusiasts who believe there was a widespread Viking presence in North America, suggests a mid 14th century date for the inscriptions, although it is unclear how Carlson arrived at this date. Similarly, amateur rune-enthusiast Richard Nielsen claims a precise date of 1401.Nielsen, Richard (1993). "An Old Norse Translation of the Spirit Pond Runic Inscriptions of Maine". ''Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers'' 22(1). pp. 158-218.

References

External links

Transcription of Spirit Pond Number 3 (Figure 109)
- Facsimile of "inscription stone" {{DEFAULTSORT:Spirit Pond Runestones Archaeological sites in Maine Phippsburg, Maine History of Maine North American runestone hoaxes Pseudoarchaeology 1971 archaeological discoveries 20th-century inscriptions 20th-century hoaxes

Reception

See also

References

Further reading

External links