Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Dighton Rock

In the 1950s, workers uncovered a huge 40-ton rock near Berkeley, Massachusetts with strange marks and symbols carved on it. It had first been described around 1680 and was studied many times by scholars in the centuries after, as per New England.
Because it appears to have both pictorial inscriptions as well as some letter-like carvings, not everyone thinks it is the work of Native tribes in the area, but possibly the work of sailors from Portugal or even proof of Viking or Phoenician visitation.

Andre says, "If anyone can decipher this message, it would have to be a writer."

Share your theory, and solve the message in the marks and symbols. Convince your readers that your theory is the only factual solution.

DIGHTON ROCK

Edmund DeLabarre's translation: “Miguel Cortereal. 1511. By the Will of God, leader of the natives of India in this place” reference from: The State Library of Massachusetts. Rock originally found in the Taunton River, which leads to Hopes Bay.

I'm siding with the Portuguese population, who live in the area. One fact leads me. Miguel Corte-real, Portuguese explorer, was last seen searching for his brother, whose ship disappeared in this area of the Atlantic.

There are hazardous waters off the coast of Massachusetts. TheOcean Graveyard is estimated to hold 1000 wreaks buried in the sands of the ocean. Ships listed lost as early as the 1700s. Or maybe lost even earlier?

The best pictures I saw of the Dighton Rock writings are shown in the Library of Massachusetts. The pictures of the writings in Wikipedia actually look like kids defaced the original writings.

It makes sense to me, both of the brothers Corte may have lost their ships to weather or coastal manipulations when sailing to close to the land. Miguel would easily make an impression on local inhabitants with his writing, gunpowder, and other implements of the age and became their leader. If he lost his ship? It would be his desire if any other ships came his way to leave a message.

My Theory:

Perhaps the Brighton Rock holds more than one type of writing. Carved at more than one age. It could even be laying on it's side, when first discovered. Earlier pictograms could be confusing the message, if the rock also held a message from an earlier age?

The rock could have been some kind of marker of the place, where salt water turned to fresh which is a biological fact about sea inlets fed by fresh water rivers. The biological animals living in such places are interesting to hunters.




Reference: Wikipedia and The American Heritage Museum

Word Count: 307 plus prompt 431











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