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For Portuguese, click here
Dighton Rock Museum
By Manuel Luciano da Silva, M. D.
Physical description
Dighton Rock weighs 40 tons. It is a bolder. It is upside-down. It migrated from somewhere in North America during the melting of the ice cap, ten thousand years ago, rolling down until it stopped on the left margin of the Taunton River.
When Dighton Rock lay in the riverbed, it was covered by tidal water all but four hours each day. At high tide, the top of the rock was covered by three or four feet of water.
In the winter, when the Taunton River was frozen, the rock remained hidden under an ice cap. These harsh conditions, ironically, protected the inscriptions from vandalism.
Dighton Rock is a gray-brown crystalline sandstone of medium to coarse texture. It has the form of a slanted, six-sided block, 5 feet high, 9. 5 feet wide, and 11 feet long. The surface with the inscriptions has a trapezoidal face and is inclined 70 degrees to the northwest.
State Park and Museum
Dighton Rock, and the surrounding 101 acres, became a State Park in 1954. In 1963, Dighton Rock was removed from the water, raised 11 feet to a cofferdam but retaining its original orientation, and protected by a chain link fence.
To ensue protection for the rock, a glass enclosure and an eight-sided pavilion were built around it in 1973.
In 1974 the Massachusetts Legislature approved an Act (Chapter 501, House Bill No. 5475) to create the Dighton Rock Museum:
"The Department of Natural Resources is hereby authorized and directed to construct a building at the Dighton Rock State Park in the town of Berkley for the purpose of displaying objects associated with Dighton Rock and with the history of Portuguese and other landings, explorations and settlements in the area."
The four theories
Dighton Rock and its inscriptions have been the object of curiosity and controversy for over 300 years. For centuries, the boulder sat in the mud at this point in the Taunton River, its broad westward surface tempting passersby to carve their messages.
Several theories of the origin of these inscriptions have been suggested. Four of the most popular of these are presented in the museum panels. Through drawings, photographs, and direct quotations, theories are presented supporting American Indians, Norse, Phoenicians and Portuguese sources. We invited you to study each theory, then view the rock, and draw your own conclusion.
The museum displays six panels explaining the physical characteristics of the rock and also the four theories in the order in which they were proposed:
In 1977 the Museum was opened to the public displaying also:
(1) the model of Vasco da Gama ship - "Nau São Gabriel" - used on his first trip to India in 1498, around the Cape of Good Hope. (Gift of Portuguese Prime Minister, Pinheiro de Azevedo)
(2) The model of Fernão de Magalhães (Magellan) - "Caravel Victoria"- used on the first circumnavigation of the world -1519-22 - three years, less 11 days. (Gift of Spanish King, Don Juan Carlos).
(3) Marble Portuguese Discovery Monument. (Gift of Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal).
(4) American Indian Lithocollage by Chipi Tegu, from Providence, RI.
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Now the four
theories presented
in the same order they were discovered
17th Century = American Indian
This theory was derived by Reverend John Danforth in 1680. Upon drawing only the visible half (upper half) of the inscriptions, he believed them to depict a story about foreign men who came to fight the Indians.
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The first recorded drawing of the Dighton Rock inscriptions was produced by Reverend John Danforth in 1680. Danforth drew only the upper half of the inscriptions, perhaps because the lower half was covered by tidal water most of the day. Danforth attributed the markings of the Wampanoag Indian Nation known to have lived in Southeastern Massachusetts. He interpreted the drawings as follows:
:... It is reported from the tradition of the old Indians, that there came a wooden house (and men of another country in it) swimming up the river Assonet, that fought the Indians and slew their Sachem (Sachem). Some interpret the figures to be hieroglyphical. The first figure representing a ship, without mast, and meer (mere) wrack cast upon the Shoales. The second representing an head of land, possibly a cape with a peninsula. Hence a golf."
In 1732, the Royal Society of London requested and received Danforth’s copy of Dighton Rock. It was later presented to the British Museum where it is preserved today.
Danforth’s interpretation of his drawing were:
(1) "Ship without mast" (2) "a cape and a peninsula"
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18th Century = Phoenician
Antone Court Gebelin proposed the Phoenician theory in 1781. He interpreted the inscriptions to be a record of the past, present and future history of the ancient Phoenician
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In 1781, Antone Court de Gebelin, a French scholar, who never visited Dighton Rock, proposed a Phoenician origin for the inscriptions. His interpretation was based on Steven Sewall’s drawing of 1768, for he never personally visited Dighton Rock. De Gebelin’s interpretation drew upon figures from Phoenician mythology. Here is his description:
"This monument is divided into three unmistakable scenes, one representing a past, another a present and a third a future event".
The Future:
"This relatively empty scene represents the solitude of the future. The largest figure is a colossal bust, the Oracle, who has just been consulted; the line above him is his veil. On the right arm of the Oracle is a butterfly, symbol of return or resurrection. To his right is a small stature or priest."
The Present:
"This represents the present and for this reason is placed in the middle of the picture. Its essential objects are two animals that face one another. One represents the foreign nation, the other the American. The former is a horse, at rest in a kneeling position; the other a beaver recognizable by its long tail".
The Past:
"At the right are four figures. They clearly relate to a past event. The figure at the extreme right is Priapus, god of fecundity, father of fruits. He cannot be mistaken. The next figure to the left is an owl, symbol of Minerva, goddess of wisdom and of the arts. The next figure, a little to the left and lower down, is the head of a sparrow -hawk, with a kind of a mantle over its shoulders. The fourth figure, farthest left in the group, is unmistakable the little Telesphore, divinity of a happy outcome".
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19th Century = Norse or Viking
This theory was developed in 1837 by Carl Christian Rafn. According to Rafn these inscriptions document the travels of Thorfinn Karlsefni, a Viking leader in search of a new land called Vinland.
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In 1837, Carl Christian Rafn, a Danish scholar, who never visited Dighton Rock, proposed a Norse or Viking origin to the carvings based on a drawing of the inscriptions provided by the Rhode Island Historical Society (1835).
Rafn, together with his Icelandic assistant, Finn Magnusen, read into the markings a message related to the characters mentioned in the "Vinland Sagas". One of these characters, Thorfinn Karlsefni, was a Viking leader who tried to settle a new land, called Vinland by the earliest Norse explorers.
But in Denmark Rafn changed the drawing he had received. He added in the center of the drawing the letters FINS to fit his Thorfinn theory!
In his book. "Antiquities Americanae", published in Copenhagen (1837), Rafn described his version of the Viking theory. Here are his words:
I. "The numeral characters CXXXI exactly correspond to the number of Thorfinn’s men."
II. "Following the numerals CXXXI is a Latino-gothic character resembling an M. This is a monogrammatic combination standing for NAM (in Icelandic) which signifies: ‘territory occupied by us’ ".
III. "Underneath it is a diamond shaped O followed by an R which are parts of ORFINS for the name Thorfinn."
Before giving his conclusion Rafn explained that: "... the C stands for the Icelandic ‘great hundred’ which is 12 (Icelandic) dozen instead of ten tens. Hence the whole signifies not 131 but 151, (to coincide) with the true number of Thorfinn’s men".
After this explanation Rafn presents his Viking this way:
CXXXI, NAM, ORFINS
Which reads as:
"Thorfinn and his 151 companions took possession of this land."
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20th Century = Portuguese
In 1918, Edmund Delaware detected the name of a Portuguese captain and the date 1511 inscribed on the rock.
Other evidence to support this theory was discovered by Joseph D. Fragoso in 1951.
A detailed interpretation was presented to the First International Congress of the History of Discoveries in Lisbon, Portugal, by Manuel L. da Silva in 1960.
Delabarre, Fragoso and Da Silva each dedicated more than 30 years of their lives to developing the Portuguese theory.
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This photo was obtained, on November 2nd 1959, by the two medical doctors: Dr. Manuel Luciano da Silva and Dr. Luis Charles Dupont.
Flag #1. Portuguese Coat of Arms, U-shaped
Flag # 2. Portuguese Cross of the Order of Christ
Flag #3. Portuguese Coat of Arms, V-shaped
Captain's name: Miguel Corte Real
Date: 1511 (numeral 5 like a capital S)
The Portuguese theory was conceived in 1918 when Edmund B. Delabarre, a psychologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, detected the date 1511: "I saw it, clearly and undoubtedly, the date 1511. No one had ever seen it before on the rock or photograph; yet once seen, its genuine presence on the rock cannot be doubted." (December 2, 1918).
Knowing the date 1511, Delabarre searched through European history and discovered that there existed in Lisbon, Portugal, royal charts attesting to the fact that Gaspar Corte Real visited North America for a second time in 1501 and never returned to Portugal.
Delabarre further uncovered the fact that Miguel Corte Real left Lisbon on May 10, 1502, in search of his brother, Gaspar. Miguel, however, shared a similar fate, never returning to his homeland.
With this knowledge of Portuguese history, Delabarre reviewed all drawings, paintings and photographs made by different scholars since 1680 and stated that the following is engraved on the rock: (1) the date 1511 (2) the captain's name - Miguel Corte Real (3) The Portuguese V-shaped coat of arms.
In 1951, Joseph D. Fragoso, a language instructor at New York University wrote that there were also engraved on the rock: (A) Three Portuguese Crosses of the Order of Christ (symbol of Portuguese Discoveries) with extremities at 45 degree angles. (B) The U-shaped Portuguese coat of arms.
In 1960, after carefully examining Delabarre's and Fragoso's theory, Manuel Luciano da Silva, a physician from Bristol, Rhode Island, who discovered the fourth Cross, presented a detailed interpretation of the inscriptions to the First International Congress of the History of Discoveries held in Lisbon, Portugal, affirming the Corte Real theory. Da Silva compared Dighton Rock with undisputed Portuguese markers in Africa, America and Asia. On his presentation Dr. da Silva noted:
"The similarity of these land makers so many thousands of miles away from each other, is indeed striking. They have engraved on them the same Portuguese coat of arms, the same Cross of the Order of Christ and the same style of numerals."
"They were made by Portuguese navigators who received the same training and education at the Nautical School of Prince Henry the Navigator, in Sagres, Portugal".
Delabarre, Fragoso and Da Silva each dedicated more than 30 years of their lives developing the Portuguese theory. They examined, in local, the rock many times, at all different phases of the tides.
Conclusion:
Do you want to have fun?
Get hold of a copy of the National Geographic Magazine, January 1975, Vol. 147, No.1, and take a look at page 98. On it you will see a beautiful photograph in color of the face of Dighton Rock taken at night, using tangential lighting or sideways lighting.
Get a magnifying glass to examine this photograph, and compare the inscriptions on the rock with the photograph presented above describing the Portuguese inscriptions!
By using this simple technique you will be able to SEE and FEEL the ARCHE0LOGICAL EVIDENCE of the Portuguese inscriptions!
The Portuguese Theory was first discovered by Professor Edmund Burke Delabarre, Chief of the Psychology Department of Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, on December 2, 1918.
More than 80 years have gone by and the discoveries attained after Delabarre have reinforced and confirmed the Portuguese Theory more and more!
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State
Officials connected with Dighton Rock State Park
and Museum:
Brian
Shanahan, Regional Supervisor of DEM
Dighton Rock State Park
Steven Bates, Supervisor
John Roberts, General Manager
Tel. (508) 822-7537
To visit the Museum off season call (508) 644-5522
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The Friends of Dighton Rock Museum,
Inc.
President- Raul Benevides
Vice-Pres- Manuel Luciano da Silva, M. D.
Secretary- Walter Fraze Jr., Esquire
Treasurer- Richard A. Vasconcellos
345 N. Main Street, Fall River, MA 02720, U. S. A.
Tel. (508) 675-1104
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How to get to
Dighton Rock State Park
Use highways leading to route 24. Ten miles NORTH of Fall River,
exit 10, go WEST two miles following the signs to the Museum.
