Posted on 02/15/2015 12:13:46 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Deep in the mountains of Jackson County, just outside Sylva, North Carolina, sets a large, baffling stone. It is a soapstone boulder, and it's covered with a plethora of strange drawings that some archaeologists believe may be 2,000 to 3,000 years old. Even the Cherokee Indians consider the site ancient, pre-dating their presence in the area...
According to Cherokee legend, the markings on the rock were created by Judaculla, a slant-eyed giant who dominated the mountains in years long past. He was the "Great Lord of the hunt," a powerful being who could leap from one mountain to another, and even control the weather. They believed the rock not only marked his territory, but even bore his 7-fingered handprint, since he once used the rock to steady himself from a fall...
It seems Judaculla Rock is one of at least three other such stones on the same property. However, one of them was buried in a 20th century mining operation, and the other cannot be found, perhaps covered with vegetation or severely eroded. The visible relic is probably the tip of a vast iceberg. Considering the site has never been excavated, there's no telling what other ancient markings and artifacts may lie a short distance below the surrounding earth.
Everyone who sees the stone has a different theory about what the markings may mean. Some think it could be a map, a peace treaty, a battle plan, abstract religious symbols, simple story illustrations, antiquated graffiti, or a veritable Rosetta Stone of some kind, providing the key to unlock a new language...
Judaculla Rock is now owned by Jackson County and can be visited during the day free of charge.
(Excerpt) Read more at judacullarock.com ...
The petroglyphs resemble the ones on a stone discovered on Sweetwater creek...less than a mile from my house. You have posted a thread about it before.
Huh, I’d forgotten about this, I must be getting old and feeble:
Experts solve mystery of ancient stone monument near Atlanta
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2703625/posts?page=22#22
Looking at it, especially the lower right below the long diagonal, it becomes obvious it was inscribed by “The Mad Arab,” Abdul Alhazred.
ping
Oh, we’ve gotta see this thing while I’m out there.
[snip] Scott Ashcraft, staff archaeologist for the U.S. Forest Service in Asheville, has been studying and photographing the rock for several years now, collecting its history. "Basically, where you find rock art, you will find petroglyphs because the Native American was everywhere," Ashcraft says. "Rock art was a lot more prevalent around here than we thought in years past." Important finds in East Tennessee, he said, have been uncovered in caves. The rock is located atop a deposit of soapstone, and according to Ashcraft the rock carvings are roughly 4,500 years old. [/snip] (Judaculla Rock's Mystery - Does It Contain A Secret Coded Message To Mankind? - MessageToEagle.com)
Judaculla Rock isn't the only petroglyph in Western North Carolina. But you don't hear much about the other ones. I've paid a couple of visits to another nearby rock carving that couldn't be more different from the well-known Caney Fork landmark. Sadly, what I will call "Mystery Rock" has been the victim of vandals, but much of it remains. The photo that I took doesn't reveal the carved lines very clearly, so I've enhanced them in this illustration. As with Judaculla Rock, nobody REALLY knows what it means, but I've heard one plausible explanation based on Mystery Rock's location near the confluence of two rivers. Although I'll admit that my personal theory is more far-fetched, to the point that I don't put much stock in it, I'm still partial to it. Shortly after observing Mystery Rock for the first time, I learned of Ogham, the Celtic Tree Alphabet, an Early Medieval alphabet [sic -- Ogham is Pre-Roman] used to represent the Old Irish language and also the Brythonic ancestor of Welsh. Hundreds of Ogham inscriptions can still be found on stone monuments across Ireland and Britain. -- Ruminations from the Distant Hills: A Smoky Mountain Mystery | Saturday, February 6, 2010
http://www.epigraphy.org/volume_24.htm
Correspondence: Louis L’Amour –An Early Fan (2 pp) The Editors 24-p 34
The archives of the Epigraphic Society have turned up the fact that Louis L’Amour, the famous Western writer, was in touch with Dr. Fell as early as March 1977 (a letter from him to Fell was published in ESOP 14 in 1985). L’Amour speaks of coin finds he knows about and of a cave at Smith’s Fork, a branch of Caney Fork, where the bodies of three white people with red hair were found wrapped in deerskins sewn together and then further wrapped in blankets of woven bark. He stated that in the course of his research he had come across many such accounts. Only a one page of the letter is available at this time. It was in a folder with material on the Judaculla Rock, a petroglyph site on Caney Fork Creek, Jackson Co., NC. Information on Judaculla Rock and its inscriptions follow, along with quotes from L’Amour’s books showing his continuing interest in epigraphy and diffusion.
Post pics, if you can!
Going out there MAR 9-16. ‘Have iPhone, Will Travel’
Couldn’t be a cookbook, there was no “road kill” back then.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3257838/posts?page=31#31
Excellent! It’ll be spring by then in that area. We’ll be thinking about spring, and enjoying the acres of annual flower flats in the stores everywhere around here.
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