Markings on Dighton landmark mystify through the centuries

It could have been Vikings, crusaders or ancient Phoenicians; nobody knows for sure who put the strange markings on Dighton Rock.

"We're pretty certain it wasn't aliens," Fall River Historical Society Board Member Bob Kitchen said with a laugh.

Kitchen presented "Dighton Rock: Catalyst to Discovery" July 16 at Bristol Community College, the first in the society's summer lecture series.

Since its existence was first recorded by the Rev. John Danforth in 1680, the enigmatic 40-ton boulder with its curious carvings has mystified archeologists, historians and scientists alike. According to Kitchen, Danforth's detailed drawings of the markings, now at the British Museum, verify the authenticity of the petroglyphs on the rock.

"Although they had no written language, the native Wampanoag Indians certainly could have put many of the various symbols on the rock," Kitchen said.

Calling it a "glacial erratic," Kitchen said the rock was probably deposited in the shallows of the Taunton River by a receding glacier more than 10,000 years ago.

"It's relatively soft sandstone, so no special tools were needed to carve it," Kitchen said.

A decade after Danforth's discovery, the Rev. Cotton Mather mentions in his book, "The Wonderful Works of God Commemorated," a partially submerged rock in a New England river covered with strange engraved characters. The details and dimensions Mather recorded accurately describe Dighton Rock.

In addition to Indians, Norsemen and Phoenicians, Kitchen's list of possible authors of the rock's ancient graffiti include medieval Knights Templar, Portuguese explorers and the Chinese. Although dismissive of the medieval knights and Chinese theories, Kitchen gives serious consideration to the Vikings.

"The Vikings had the means to get here," Kitchen said. "We know that they came at least as far south as Newfoundland."

According to Kitchen, one of the most popular and plausible theories, conceived by Brown University professor Edmund Delabarre in 1912, is that at least some of the engravings were created by Miguel Corte-Real, a Portuguese explorer. Corte-Real sailed from Lisbon in 1502 in search of his brother Gaspar, also an explorer, who had failed to return from his second voyage to North America.

Examining the engravings, Delabarre asserted that the rock bore the Portuguese V-shaped coat of arms, the name Miguel Corte-Real and the date 1511. Like his brother, Miguel never returned to Portugal.

In 1960, Bristol, R.I., physician Manuel Luciano da Silva discovered the Cross of the Order of Christ engraved on the rock. Comparing the rock's engravings with verified Portuguese exploration markings in Africa and Asia, da Silva declared them similar, strengthening Delabarre's theory.

"The similarity of these land markers so many thousands of miles away from each other is indeed striking," da Silva said during a 1960 presentation in Portugal. "They have engraved on them the same Portuguese coat of arms, the same Cross of the Order of Christ and the same style of numerals. ... They were made by Portuguese navigators who received the same training and education at the Nautical School of Prince Henry the Navigator, in Sagres, Portugal."

Saying "sometimes people see what they want to see on the rock," Kitchen claims he still believes that the most likely explanation for the markings lies with the native Wampanoag Indians.

"For all we know, it's just their version of 'Kilroy was here,'" he said.

More information about the Fall River Historical Society summer lecture series is available by calling (508) 679-1071.