Grave Creek Stone
A polished sandstone pebble was found in a West Virginia burial mound that was 2,000 years old in 1838. Scholarly analysis of the 25 characters carved into the pebble suggested that four of the markings appeared to be from Ancient Greek, four from Etruscan, five from runic, six from ancient Gallic, seven from old Erse, ten from Phoenician, fourteen from old British, and sixteen from Celtiberic, and some from Hebrew as well. Additionally, three completely different translations of the text on the stone were proposed by the physician RJ Farquharson in the 1870s.
“Thy orders are laws, thou shines in thy impetuous clan, and rapid as the chamois.”
“The chief of emigration who reached these places (or island), has fixed these decrees forever.”
“The grave of one who was murdered here; to revenge him may God strike his murderer, suddenly taking away his existence.”
Nevertheless, at the same time, MC Reed, an antiquarian, hired a law student, a chemist, and a professor to each create 20 or more characters that had nothing to do with any alphabet or symbols they could quickly recollect. Each person's given characters resembled Old World alphabets as a result, and Reed deduced from this research that the Grave Creek Stone could only be a counterfeit.
