The Bat Creek Stone
In 1889, a Smithsonian dig in a burial mound in Tennessee turned up a small stone with an inscription. Decades later, some claimed it was written in ancient Hebrew.
What was reported
In 1889, during a Smithsonian Institution survey of burial mounds in Tennessee, a worker named John Emmert reported finding a small engraved stone under a skeleton in a mound near Bat Creek. The Smithsonian first described the inscription as Cherokee.
In the 1970s, a scholar turned it upside down and argued that it was an ancient Hebrew inscription, which would suggest contact between the Old World and America long before Columbus.
Explanations offered
Later researchers found that the inscription closely matches an illustration of ancient Hebrew writing in a book published in 1870, with the same mistakes, which suggests it was a forgery, perhaps made by Emmert himself. Most archaeologists consider it a hoax.
- When
- Found in 1889
- Where
- Bat Creek, Loudon County, Tennessee, USA
- Witnesses
- A Smithsonian excavation
- Status
- Probably a hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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