DNA Results Reported

This photo, too, is from Farris Cemetery near Onia in Stone County, Arkansas. Perhaps when St. Patrick ran the snakes out of Ireland, they did not ALL go to Ohio where the famous Serpent Mound and Serpent Relief Sculpture are located.

My research indicates the serpent/egg/water religion can be traced back to the Tower of Babel where Nimrod's mother was its author.

Does your research agree? –Larry
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Larry Stroud
January 17, 2007

Dr. Brent Kennedy, author of The Melungeons, the Resurrection of a Proud People, learned about the Melungeons after he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in 1994. He wondered what a Southern man was doing developing a disease that has its roots in the Mediterranean area.

Since then, he has determined he is a Melungeon descendant.

See last week's column for more information about the Melungeons, or do your own research on the Internet. A good place to start is www.melungeons.com. A free downloadable book, American Indian Melungeons, is even available at the site.

Melungeons is the name given to a mysterious people first documented in 1654, when English explorers discovered them in the Appalachian wilderness. The people were not American Indians, although some had intermarried with Indians. They were brown-skinned, possibly of Moorish descent, had European features, and often had reddish hair and very distinctive green or blue-green eyes.

They lived in log cabins that had peculiar arched windows, spoke a language that was neither English nor any Indian dialect, and claimed to be, as they pronounced it, Phorty-gee.

Evidence is strong that in 1586 Sir Francis Drake deposited several hundred Turkish and Moorish sailors, liberated from the Spanish, on the coast of North Carolina at Roanoke Island. No trace was found of these people.

Some Melungeons following the early days of their discovery stated they were from a lost colony. That could very well be so, if little Virginia Dare and her people (from the colony of Sir Walter Raleigh) found some of these Turks and Moors who had married American Indian women. Evidence also suggests that some members of the lost Raleigh colony may already have had some Mediterranean ancestry.

It is known, too, that in those early days of American history, a Portuguese fleet wrecked off the coast of North Carolina, and survivors could have made their way inland.

Other possibilities listed in Mysteries of Ancient America (Readers Digest Association, 1986, 320 pages) include: they are descendants of Welsh explorer Prince Madoc, from a band that deserted the forces of Hernando de Soto (he did have Portuguese and people from the Greek Isles in his party), or from the lost tribes of Israel. I will add that they could also be related to Coptic Egyptians and other miners of native copper in Michigan hundreds of years ago, and/or the Norse, who visited the Northeast much more often and stayed much longer than mainstream scholars would have anyone believe.

The whole New England area was called Northumbra, meaning Northmans Land, when the (quote) first (unquote colonists arrived.

DNA tests on known Melungeon descendants, so far, have not completely solved the puzzle but show links with several peoples including some of those previously mentioned, as well as Sephardic Jews.

Sephardic Jews are members of the branch of European Jews who settled mainly in Spain, Portugal and northern Africa, although many of those had migrated to England, Ireland and Scotland and embraced the Christian faith before the English (or whatever passed for English) began colonizing what is known today as the United States.

DNA results reported in 2002 from known Melungeon descendants showed them to have 83 percent European genetic material, representing Europeans from north to south; 7 percent matching populations in Turkey, Syria and northern India; 5 percent American Indian; and 5 percent African.

In other words, the surviving genes from Middle Eastern and East Indian ancestors are in equal proportion to those of Native Americans and Africans. The original, seventeenth-century percentages of all three groups (African, Native American, and Middle Eastern/East Indian) were undoubtedly much higher in the past than what we are seeing today because those genetic traces have been diluted with continued intermarriage with surrounding populations.

But enough of them are there to still be traceable among the Melungeon descendants of today. The Mediterranean and Middle Eastern heritages are definitely there.

Further piquing my interest in Melungeons is that many other so-called tri-racial isolate populations exist in the eastern U.S. I am not making up any of these names: the Lumbee of North Carolina, Person County Indians also known as Cubans and Portuguese, of North Carolina, Goinstown Indians in North Carolina, Goins in eastern Tennessee, Monacan Indians also known as Issues, in Virginia; Magoffin County People of Kentucky; Carmel Indians of Ohio; Brown People of Kentucky; Guineas of West Virginia; Chestnut Ridge People of West Virginia; We-Sorts of Maryland; Nanticoke-Moors of Delaware; Turks and Brass Ankles of South Carolina; Redbones of South Carolina (not the same as Gulf States Redbones); Dead Lake People of Florida; Dominickers of Florida; and Ramapough Mountain Indians (Jackson Whites) of New York and New Jersey.

Illnesses or diseases to which Melungeon descendants have a tendency to contract include sarcoidosis, Bechets Syndrome, Josephs Disease, Mediterranean Familial Fever, thallasemia and related disorders.

To read more about these illnesses, visit the melungeon.com Web pages.

Some Web sites contain surnames of families whose members are likely to be descended from Melungeons.
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Six Fingered clasp

The picture to the right is another grave marker for the people with six fingers.

So I can get Leary’s articles into this blog, I will be adding them in the following blog pages. Also, the following page after that, will add a description of the physical characteristics of the Melungeons and a link so you can read more.

Plus if you Google “Lumbee Surname Project” you will read that the Surnames of the “vanished” Roanoke colony are still being passed from generation to generation in Kentucky and Tennessee.
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Hi, Lee and Myron

Charles Berry is working on smoothing our entry to the Chart Rock area, as well as working on the copper or bronze breastplate angle. The man who found the breastplate is dead and his now-elderly wife had possession of all his Indian artifacts. I think she went into an assisted living place and someone else is now in charge but the way I hear it the collection remains intact but boxed up.

I am working on that from two angles. A lady who works in a barber/beauty shop in Ash Flat knows the people involved and is willing to speak to them for us. I will see her Thursday if she is in the shop that day.

How many people may I invite to FAR? Charles Berry is a must, and so also is Steve Cargill who caused me to be able to be the one to find the DeSoto inscription.

A couple more people are going to be not too happy with me if they are not invited. I do not know whether either would be free to go along, at least all three days, but I like to keep my friends and like-minded friends (of ancient American history) happy.

Myron, the headstone I e-mailed the photo of (with the blue chalk on it) and which is pictured on the FAR blog is about six minutes from where we parked to walk in to Chart Rock. So we can go get a good look at it and probably spend no more than 40 minutes unless we just want to spend more time there.

That gravestone has a fish on it; a fish that looks sort of like a whale and which I took to mean a Christian is buried there. That inscription features something unique that you will not notice until you stand by it — something I have never seen done on a gravestone. It is a visual effect.

Also, not too far from Chart Rock is what appears to be a meteorite of several hundred pounds mostly buried in the earth. I took a sample of it to a talk on meteorites a few years ago and the geologist giving the talk said it could be a meteorite that has been there a long time and ground minerals leached into the material on its outer portion (including the sample I had). It is an interesting thing. I will inquire of the guy who took me there last time and see if he is still in charge of that property.

Looking forward to seeing everyone. —Larry
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Our FAR headquarters will be at the Holiday Inn Express in Batesville. Lee, Joy, and I expect to arrive sometime in late afternoon on March 24, 2010. On Sunday Morning Lee will give me a ride to the Little Rock airport, March 28th, where I will catch an empty seat going to SFO.

I found out that the USGS maps can be downloaded FREE. I down loaded only Batesville. So far I have not looked at the map very close. I have Xeroxed most of the ancient script for America B. C. The check list helped me pick up the slack. The rest of the items appear to be on track.

I think we are on track for a good Trip to FAR.

The picture shows a smelter for silver that is about a century and a half old. You ask; what is a silver smelter doing in a zinc mine? Well, it is Larry’s story. I want to be there when he tells it again.

Meanwhile, the smelter reminds me to still up the fire and make a check list. Let’s see now:

Tavel
..March 23, Birdie and I to Denver
....OK with Hallorans?
..March 24, to Memphis at ?, ?, or ?
....Shuttle to Jonesville
....Larry to pick up or can Lee?
....Batesville motels? Make arrangements
..March 28,
....Ride to Jonesville?
....Overnight? Select motel?
Shuttle to Memphis
,,,,Flight home
PEOPLE
..Larry -- check
..Lee and Joy—check
..Susan and friend?? Better find out.
..Charlie?
..Larry’s other friends?
..Arkansas invitees ??
Schedules
....Atl-Atl demo?
....Program at School?
....Evening program?
....Leni Lenape were Christians at Cowboy Church?
....Vehicles, how many and who?
Things
..Contour Maps, Gotta get.
..Bronze Age America, copy to Larry
..Ogam and other ancient scripts. OK.
..Dickinson Projectile Point. OK
TO Do
..Fix Suitcase
..Load Notebook computer
..Copy Cornstalk IV heritage
..Find Chaos of Cosmic Catastrophe

Looks like I got my “fire” stirred up again. I have many things to do. Larry, Lee, and Susan; help every chance you get.

Lee, I have to fly to Memphis. If you could pick me up there on your way to Batesville, the inbound travel schedule would be simpler. I understand that you are headed west after FAR. I could fly out of Little Rock or Branson, if that would fit your travel plans. Please coordinate with me.

Ghost Town

Last Monday, Larry wrote to Lee.

“Hi, The arrowhead came from somewhere near the ghost town of Rush, Arkansas, an old zinc mining town. “

On the way, we had stopped to admire the early morning sun and the flowers of spring. The nice spot over looked a ravine showing a river with pretty blue water glistening in the distance far below. As we stepped further onto the bank for a better look, Larry’s toe kicked up the arrowhead.

Larry gave it to me as a souvenir. When I looked at the photos in an arrowhead book, I decided arrowhead was similar to a Dickinson Arrowhead, worth about $250. For two years I have had a guilty conscience because I had not returned the favor to Larry.

But, now, Dickinson Arrowheads sell for about $4 to $6 dollars in Ebay. That price sooths my conscience. I will buy Larry lunch. My Dickinson Arrowhead is still valued at $250 for sentimental reasons.

Actually I do not believe the Arkansas rock is an arrowhead. I believe it is a projectile point. A projectile point fits onto a spear or, most likely, was used with an Atl-Atl. We may see several of them if we return to Charlie’s for an Atl-Atl session. The point might also be used as a knife by attaching a short handle

My projectile point has a small chip broken away near the tip, so I can envision that it lodged into a bone in an animal that got away a long time ago. Dickinson Arrowheads are found in Missouri, where they may have been made, Northeast Arkansas, and in Illinois.

You may be able to see one or more Dickinson Arrowheads on Ebay. Archaeologists and Anthropologists, who research via Google, will have a puzzle to explain how the prehistoric stone from Missouri could be connected to the Dickinson Arrowhead movie theaters in eastern Oklahoma.

That puzzle may be a good topic for after dinner conversation on the Trip to FAR.

PLACE NAMES

WHY would a man carve RUNES on a GRAVE STONE in ARKANSAS?

CONSIDER the PLACE NAMES ALONG THE RIVERS
from the Mississippi, vis the Arkansas, up the White

MODERN NAME..........OLD NORSE................OLD NORSE MEANING
MISSISSIPPI..............MESTR SIPPI...............MIGHTY WATERS
ARKANSAS................AA KAN (al) SA (lt)..,.....RIVER CHANNEL SALT
WAPANOCCI..............FA BA MOKI................WHITE (no salt) FISH
CASSCOE..................KASSE KØYE................BOX BERTH
MAGNESS.................MAGNUS.....................NORWAY KING, c 1070
BATESVILLE..............BAKKE VILL..................HILL VILLAGE
POWHATTEN..............POW HATTEN..............PRIESTS TOWN
POCAHOANTAS...........POKKE HANN (tas)........ROUNDED bank HARBOR (breast)
ASH FLAT.................ASK FLATE,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,..WOOD FLAT
WISEMAN..................VIS MAN....................WISE PEOPLE

from the ARKANSAS/WHITE FORK up the ARKANSAS

PINE BLUFf...............PEN BLØFFE.................NICE BLUFF

From the ARKANSAS/POTEAU FORk up the POTEAU

POTEAU...................PORTAL........................PORTAL (narrow valey)
HEAVENER.................HEVE NOR......................HIGH POINT (Runes)
BATES.....................BAKKE...........................HILL

From the ARKANSAS/CANADIAN FORK up the CANADIAN into TEXAS

CANADIAN.................KANAl DAl (ian.................WIDE RIVER VALLEY
OKLAHOMA................OGSA HJEMME..................FOLKS' HOME
SPIRO.......................SPIRitUOsa......................SPIRITS
WASHITA MT...............AA CHU TA......................WAY MOUNTAINS THERE
WANNETTE.............. .. WANN SETTE...................ATER PLACE
ALI BATES...................ALLE BAKKE....................EVERYONE’S HILL
BORGER......................BORe GIRe......................BORE GEAR
STINETTE....................STINkd sETTE...................STINK PLACE

Maybe. so the NORSE travelers who passed by would read the MEMORIAL

OLD GRAVE MARKER

OLD GRAVE MARKER

This picture is a grave marker near at the inscription camp ground. I understand this to be the camp ground where we can park to walk to the Chartrock and the inscription. Last trip we took a different route for a reason I do not remember. Probably, we took a different route because of the lack of time to get permissions.

A couple of things are interesting about this grave marker. First, there are two dates on it. The oldest date is with the inscription that says “Died, Aug ?? AD 1779 ." This inscription implies that the first person in (or near) the marker may have been alive during the revolutionary war. The grave marker may have been put in place by the relatives of the person associated with the 1878 date.

Whatever time the grave marker got there, the implications are that grave yards in the area had been in use for a long, long time.

Second. Although the engraving in the center of the grave marker is very weather worn, the engraving at “A” appears to be similar to the clasped hand engravings on the grave markers near the Princess’ box grave. There are two chisel marks nearby. These chisel marks may have been made later to call attention to the finger area.

My imagination is very strong, but I used, at least, a few faint marks to allow me to sketch what may be the tips of five fingers (the thumb is above the arm). You may see something else in the faint marks. If so, our discussion will result in a better understanding of the grave marker inscription.

Hmmm, still no response from Susan? I may have to call again.

X ) Y

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 ?