Grave Creek Stone

Smithsonian photo of Grave Creek Stone from McCulloch’s site

The Grave Creek Stone was found in the Grave Creek Mound close to the Ohio River in West Virginia. Translations have been done, one in jest, but none seem satisfying. An excellent place to review the controversy surrounding the stone is at J. Huston McCulloch’s site linked here. The original Smithsonian photo of the stone and Schoolcraft’s art are from his site and his efforts are greatly appreciated.

Seth Eastman drawing of stone from Schoolcraft’s 1850 book.

There are several ideas that have been consistently overlooked in translating the stone. The lines on the stone are always assumed to be guides for writing such as ruled school paper. Since most persons attempting to translate this stone read and write English which is presented horizontally it has never occurred to anyone they are not guide lines and represent something else. Perhaps they represent lines of longitude and the stone should be rotated to be read in a vertical manner.

Grave Creek Mound, Moundsville, W. Virginia

The Grave Creek Mound is shown here and a similar mound below Dayton is also shown. It is found in Miamisburg.

Miamisburg Mound, Miamisburg, Ohio

Comparison with other art from Ireland and Georgia

The decipherment of the stone resolves itself quickly as seen here when it is compared to Kerbstone 86 from the ancient ruins in Knowth, Ireland (3000 BC) and when compared to the Metcalf stone from Georgia. The Metcalf Stone began this series. The kerbstone was studied in a prior posting as well. The comparison shows the symbols from the kerbstone are located in the middle line if the stone is rotated and read in a vertical manner. The top is confirmed by comparison to the Metcalf stone as shown in the image. The two symbols at the bottom of the columns are out of alignment intentionally. One indicates 3 and the other 2 for 32 or the square of 5.65 is where the misalignment lies.

Although it is believed these glyphs are letters, it is more likely they are simple small pictures that tell the same story as the Metcalf and as depicted on the Mystery Stone from New Hampshire. It is the same story depicted on the other Adena Tablets. Several of the glyphs appear to be forerunners to Phoenician letters including the symbols interpreted here as numbers at the bottom of the middle row.