X ) Y (Near Chartrock in Arkansas)
T M R (Sounds if Tifinag symbols, c3700 years ago)
The letters X ) Y. which are found near the Chartrock in Arkansas are still a puzzle. In the library, my search of more than 200 Minoan-Mycenae Linear B symbols did not find any match.
I checked out Dr. Barry Fell’s, Bronze Age America, 1982. In that book in the table of Tifinag symbols I found the “)” symbol, which appears to mean the sound “M”.
The “)” symbol was used often on the Peterborough, ON rock. The Peterborough markings include a date of about 3700 years ago. Dr. Fell translates “)” on the Peterborough stone to mean the sound “M.”
So, if “)” is a Tifinag symbol, then “X” may be Tifinag also. Tifinag “X” sounds like “T.”
The “Y” symbol is the problem. Dr. Fell does not illustrate the symbol in the table showing Tifinag letters. However on page 242 are two inverted “Y”s, which have the sound “R.”
Ten of the seventeen Tifinag symbols have two or more orientations. Perhaps the “Y” symbol sounded like “R”. Then the three letters, X ) Y, might sound like “TMR” whatever that means. Dr. Fell wrote in the Language of our Bronze Age Ancestors table in Chapter 18 that “TM” referred to “TAMR,” which meant “tame,” but the “word as inscribed is uncertain.”
A search for “TAMR” via Google shows that Tamr Henna is an Egyptian movie, a boat on the Nile and, most important a place on the west shore of the Red Sea. This area is known in ancient history as the port of the Egyptians ocean going ships. We know the word “henna” to mean rusty red.
The mosque in the picture is called El Gouna Tamr Henna. The mosque was probably built long after the place was named Tamr Henna.
Cairo, Egypt is a short distance northwest. Crews from Tamr-Henna might have been on the ocean going ships going north into the Mediterranean. There is substantial evidence that ships from Egypt were involved in the copper trade about 3700 years ago. According to Dr. Fell, the Tifinag language was used in northern Africa well before the Roman invasion. So sailors out of Egypt would have learned Tifinag. Or they may have taught the symology.
Names are persistent in people’s minds and home town names are often duplicated by explorers in a new land. Perhaps explorers did come from Tamr-Henna in Egypt. The area near Batesville would be a very good spot to over winter, while the crews waited for the sailing season to the Copper fields in Lake Superior. Perhaps they wrote the name of TMR in Arkansas. Two years ago, I convinced myself that the chart on the Dhartrock was a Sun Synbol, which was the old Egyptian religion.
Do you have a better explanation for X ) Y ?
