The Newport Tower

The Newport Tower
Medieval stone tower ... in Rhode Island. Does it look like any other Colonial structure you've seen? Recent carbon dating of the mortar indicates 1400s construction date (see post below).

The Westford Knight Sword

The Westford Knight Sword
Medieval Battle Sword ... in Westford, Massachusetts. Can anyone deny the pommel, hilt and blade punch-marked into the bedrock?

The Spirit Pond Rune Stone

The Spirit Pond Rune Stone
Medieval Inscription ... in Maine, near Popham Beach. Long passed off as a hoax, but how many people know the Runic language? And how is it that some of the Runic characters match rare runes on inscriptions found in Minnesota and Rhode Island? Carbon-dating of floorboards at nearby long house date to 1405.

The Narragansett Rune Stone

The Narragansett Rune Stone
Medieval Inscription ... in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. This Runic inscription is only visible for twenty minutes a day at low tide--is this also the work of a modern-day, Runic-speaking hoaxster?

The Westford Boat Stone

The Westford Boat Stone
Medieval Ship Carving ... in Westford, MA. Found near the Westford Knight site. Weathering patterns of carving are consistent with that of 600-year-old artifact. And why would a Colonial trail-marker depict a knorr, a 14th-century ship?

The Kensington Rune Stone

The Kensington Rune Stone
Medieval Inscription... in Minnesota. Forensic geology confirms the carvings predate European settlement of Minnesota--so did Runic-speaking Native Americans carve it?

The Hooked X Rune

The Hooked X Rune
Medieval Runic Character ... on inscriptions found in Maine, Minnesota and Rhode Island. But this rare rune was only recently found in Europe. This conclusively disproves any hoax theory while also linking these three artifacts together.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Templar Ruins and the Newport Tower

While in Scotland recently, I visited the ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel in Holyrood Park. This chapel is believed to have been built by the Knights Templar in the 1300s. I was struck by the architectural similarities between the chapel and Rhode Island's Newport Tower, also believed by some (including myself) to have been built by the Templars. Note especially the window shape/design and the arch design.



Saturday, October 25, 2014

Rosslyn Chapel & Westford Knight

One of the pieces of evidence often cited in proving the authenticity of the Prince Henry Sinclair journey to North America in 1398 (and the related Westford Knight carving) is the existence of various North American flora carved on the walls and ceiling of the iconic Rosslyn Chapel.  The Chapel was built in 1456 by Henry Sinclair's grandson, William Sinclair, and the thought is that William possessed drawings of flora from his grandfather's journey.

I have often seen maize and aloe mentioned as two such North American plants.  But on a recent trip to Scotland our Rosslyn Chapel tour guide pointed out a third plant, trillium, pictured here:


Here is an image of trillium from Wikipedia:


To be more particular, this is trillium cernuum.  This plant is native to eastern Canada and New England--in fact, trillium is the official flower of the province of Ontario.  It is not found in Europe.  According our tour guide, a botanist the Chapel retained confirmed that the carving was, indeed, North American trillium.

To state the obvious, someone from Scotland must have been to North America and seen trillium prior to 1456.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Westford Knight--Head?

This post is, admittedly, less than scientific. But for years I have been visiting the Westford Knight carving and have never really clearly seen the "head" of the Knight. The sword is clear, but for the head and body and shield I sort of have to squint my eyes and use my imagination. Then last week I received a bunch of photos and, voila, there he was, staring up from the rock. Here is the image, plus a drawing (very rough, sorry) showing what it is I see:




Comparing this to the rubbing and some of the older drawings and photos, this head is in the same spot as the other renderings, but this head is turned a bit to his right whereas the head in the rubbing appears to looking straight up:


Again, not a scientific analysis but I have had a lot of questions about this so I wanted to share this image.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Brody new novel: "The Oath of Nimrod"


In September the 4th novel in my "Templars in America" series came out. This is a continuation of my exploration, using actual sites and artifacts, of the untold history of North America.  Site/artifacts included in this book include America's Stonehenge, the Bat Creek Stone, the Grave Creek Tablet and burial mound, the Vinland Map, the Narragansett Rune Stone, Judaculla Rock, the Newport Tower, the Westford Knight, and Burrows Cave.

In "The Oath of Nimrod," protagonists Cam and Amanda return for another adventure, this one triggered by hundreds of giant human skeletons unearthed in burial mounds across North America in the 19th century.  A secret CIA brainwashing program in the 1960s known as MK-Ultra and a mysterious blood oath made by blindfolded Freemasons also fuel the plot.
 
The book is available on Amazon (link below) as well as on Kindle and Nook:
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Update: Hooked X on Westford Knight Carving

In late June I posted some images of what appear to be a Hooked X or Forked X on the Westford Knight carving. On August 31 researcher Jerry Lutgen, along with geologist Scott Wolter, came to Westford to photograph and examine the mark.  I won't try to describe Jerry's work other than to say he uses digital imaging to create 3D images and models of the carvings he studies.  Here is a color image of the Hooked X mark:



As Jerry explained it to me, because the rock is not a flat surface, the thing to focus on here is the comparative depth of the lines in question, not their absolute depth. What we are looking for is a consistency in the relative depth of the lines in question (this consistency shows a manmade origin rather than a naturally occurring one). 

Looking at the X (you may need to zoom in), the "hook," and the 2 "word separator" dots on either side, we see that the upper left stem, the lower left stem, the upper right stem, the "hook" stem and the left dot all contain light blue "punch" marks within the green-colored surface. The lower right stem and the right dot are solid green amid the yellowish/orange-colored surface. Looking at the color chart on the right of the image, we see that all the carved lines/dots in question are approximately one to one-and-a-half color gradations in depth--in other words, carved or punched at a relatively similar depth.  Again, this points to a manmade origin.

We can next compare the Hooked X mark with the sword portion of the carving:


This sword area is a relatively flatter surface, and we see that the punch marks are mostly light green amid a yellowish surface (around the pommel) or dark green amid a light green surface (near the cross-guard). Again, we have a carved/punched depth equal to approximately one color gradation.

Scott Wolter has not reviewed all the data yet, but he and I had a long telephone conversation on September 26 and his preliminary conclusion is that it is 85-90% likely that the mark is indeed a manmade Hooked X carved at a time contemporaneous to the sword carving. As I understand it (and Scott has not reviewed this post), this conclusion is based on the following factors:

1.  The orientation of the mark is perfectly consistent with the orientation of the rest of the carving.

2.  The "word separator" dots are equally spaced on either side of the mark and positioned similarly to separator dots in other runic carvings.

3.  The carving depth is consistent within the Hooked X itself and also consistent as between the Hooked X and the sword (see above).

4.  The weathering profile within the Hooked X mark is consistent with the weathering within the sword carving.

5.  It is extremely unlikely that a Hooked X mark and a pair of separator dots, all appearing in the proper orientation, would somehow naturally form on the face of the Westford Knight carving.

When I asked Scott why this only added up to 85-90% certainty, he laughed and said that his only hesitation was that finding a Hooked X on the Westford Knight carving was simply "too good to be true."

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

1325 Date on Newport Tower?

I visited the Newport Tower last Friday to investigate claims that the date "1325" appears on the Tower and is its likely date of construction. I came away unconvinced.

Researcher Gary Gianotti identified two different locations on the Tower which he believes contain the 1325 date. First, on a capstone of a northern-facing pillar (see pair of light-colored rectangular rocks; capstone in question is the one to the right):


We visited at night and were able to bring a latter inside the fence to closely examine the capstone. We wet it down and examined it using low-angle light, which tends to best highlight carvings in stone. While I could see a "1" mark and part of what might be a "3" next to it, I did not see the "2" or "5". That is not to say the date did not at one point exist--I simply can not see it now.

In addition, a second smaller stone on the inside of this pillar contains some carvings that Mr. Gianotti believes reflect the 1325 date.


Again, after wetting the stone and examining it with low-angle lighting, I could see what may be a series of 3 dates one atop the other; the top one I believe reads 1826 and the bottom one 1848; I did not see the 1325 date on the middle one as Mr. Gianotti does.

Mr. Gianotti also has identified what he believes to be Anglo-Saxon runes on the right side of this smaller stone, which if validated may provide clues to the Tower's origin.

I commend Mr. Gianotti on his research, and look forward to investigating more of his findings.

I was joined on this investigation by past and/or present NEARA Board members Steve DiMarzo, Rick Lynch and Jim Egan.

[Photos courtesy Gary Gianotti and Steve DiMarzo.]