While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Dighton Rock. A mass of silicious conglomerate lying in
the margin of Taunton r. , Bristol co. , Mass., on which is an ancient, probably
prehistoric, inscription. The length of the face measured at the base is 11½
ft. and the height a little more than 5 ft. The whole face, to within a few
inches of the ground, is covered with the inscription, which consists of
irregular lines and outline figures, a few having a slight resemblance to runes;
others tri angular and circular, among which can be distinguished 3 outline
faces. The earliest copy was that of Danforth in 1680. Cotton Mather copied a
part as early as 1690 and sent a rude woodcut of the entire inscription to the
Royal Society of Great Britain in 1712. Copies were also made by Isaac Greenwood
in 1730; by Stephen Sewell, of Cambridge, in 1768; by Prof. Winthrop in 1788; by
Joseph Gooding in 1790; by Edward A. Kendall in 1807; by Job Gardner in 1812,
and one for the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1830. Soon after this the
suggestion was made that it was a runic inscription of the Norsemen, and the
interest excited by this caused it to be frequently copied and published. The
subject, with accompanying figures, was thoroughly discussed by Danish
antiquaries, especially by Rafn, in Antiquities Americans (1837). The
earlier drawings mentioned above are re produced by Mallery (10th Rep. B. A.
E., pi. xi, 1893). The annexed illustration from a photograph is perhaps the
most nearly correct of any published. The opinions advanced in regard to the
origin and signification of the inscription vary widely. The members of the
French Academy, to whom a copy was sent, judged it to be Punic; Lort, in a paper
in Archaeologia (London, 1786), expressed the opinion that it was the
work of a people from Siberia; Gen. Washington, who saw Winthrop's drawings at
Cambridge in 1789, pronounced the inscription similar to those made by the
Indians; Davis and Kendall also ascribed it to the Indians, the former thinking
it represented an Indian deer hunt, The Danish antiquaries decided that it was
the work of the Northmen; Prof. Finn Magnusen interpreted the central portion,
assuming it to consist of runes, as meaning that Thorfinn with 151 men took
possession of the country; and even Dr De Costa was persuaded that the central
part is runic. Buckingham Smith, according to Haven (Proc. Am. Antiq. Soc.,
Apr. 29, 1863), was inclined to believe it to consist of ciphers used by the
Roman Catholic Church. Schoolcraft, although charged with wavering in his
opinion, decided without reservation in 1853 that it was entirely Indian. The
latter author submitted several drawings of the inscription to an Algonquian
chief, who, rejecting a few of the figures near the center, interpreted the
remainder as the memorial of a battle between two native tribes. Although this
Indian's explanation is considered doubtful, the general conclusion of students
in later years, especially after Mallery's discussion, is that the inscription
is the work of Indians and belongs to a type found in Pennsylvania and at points
in the W.
Following are the more important writings on the subject of Dighton Rock:
Antiquities Americans, 1837; Archaeologia, viii, 1786; T. Ewbank,
N. Am. Rock-writing, 1866; Gravier in Compte-rendu Cong. Internat. des Américanistes,
i, 1875; Haven in Proc. Am. Antiq. Soc., Apr. 29, 1863, Oct. 21,
1864, Oct., 1867; Kendall, Trav., 11, 1809; Mallery in 10th Rep.
B. A. E., 1893; Mem. Am. Acad. Arts and Sci., n, pt. 2, 1804, in, pt. 1,
1809; Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond., xxviu, 1714; Rau (1) in Am.
Antiq., i, 1878; (2) in Mag. Am. Hist., Feb., 1878, Apr., 1879;
Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, i, 1851, iv, 1854; Trans. Soc. Antiquaries,
Lond., 1732; Winsor, Hist. Am., i, 1884. (C. T.)
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includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
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Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
