Dighton Rock

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Dighton Rock

The Dighton Rock is a 40 ton boulder

Boulder

In geology, a boulder is a rock with Particle size of usually no less than 256 mm diameter. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive....
, originally located in the riverbed of the Taunton River

Taunton River

The Taunton River , is a river in southeastern Massachusetts in the United States. It arises from the confluence of the Town River and Matfield River, in the town of Bridgewater, Massachusetts....
at Berkley, Massachusetts

Berkley, Massachusetts

Berkley is a New England town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census, making it the least populated town in the county....
(formerly part of the town of Dighton

Dighton, Massachusetts

Dighton is a New England town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,175 at the 2000 census....
). The rock

Rock (geology)

In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock....
is noted for the controversy surrounding a set of mysterious inscriptions on it. In 1963, the rock was removed from the river by a coffer dam and is under the protection of the state of Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
.

The boulder was most likely deposited in the riverbed during the last ice age

Ice age

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The Dighton Rock is a 40 ton boulder

Boulder

Taunton River

Berkley, Massachusetts

Dighton, Massachusetts

Dighton is a New England town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,175 at the 2000 census....
). The rock

Rock (geology)

Massachusetts

Ice age

The general term "ice age" or, more precisely, "glacial age" denotes a geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in an expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers....
, approximately 13,000 years ago. The boulder has the form of a slanted, six-sided block, approximately 5 feet (1.5 m) high, 9.5 feet (2.9 m) wide, and 11 feet (3.4 m) long. It is gray-brown crystalline sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock Particle size . Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust ....
of medium to coarse texture. The surface with the inscriptions has a trapezoid

Trapezoid

In geometry, a trapezoid or trapezium is a quadrilateral with twoparallel sides. The term “trapezoid” is used in North America, while the term “trapezium” is prevalent in Britain....
al face and is inclined 70 degree

Degree (angle)

A degree , usually denoted by ? , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1/360 of a Turn ; one degree is equivalent to p/180 radians....
s to the northwest .

Over the last three hundred years, many theories have been proposed for the origin of the mysterious inscriptions. These include:

American Indian
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
origin
Phoenicia
Phoenicia

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and the Palestinian territories....
n origin
Norse
Norsemen

Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language. The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North" and was applied primarily to Nordic people originating from southern and central Scandinavia....
origin (proposed in 1837 by Carl Christian Rafn
Carl Christian Rafn

Carl Christian Rafn was a Denmark antiquarian noted for his early advocacy of the theory that the Vikings had explored North America centuries before Christopher Columbus's and John Cabot's voyages....
)
Portuguese
Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
origin (see Miguel Corte-Real
Miguel Corte-Real

Miguel Corte-Real was a 15th century Portugal List of explorers.He was a son of Jo?o Vaz Corte-Real and a brother of explorer Gaspar Corte-Real....
and the theory proposed by Edmund B. Delabarre
Edmund B. Delabarre

Edmund Burke Delabarre , was a researcher and professor of psychology at Brown University. He graduated from Amherst College in 1886. Professor Delabarre was a pioneer in the field of shape perception and on the interaction between mental processes and the involuntary movements of the body....
)
Chinese
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
origin (proposed by Gavin Menzies
Gavin Menzies

Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies is a retired British submarine commander and amateur historian best known as the author of the controversial book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, which asserts that ships from the Chinese fleet of admiral Zheng He traveled to the Americas prior to Christopher Columbus' arrival in 1492 and circumnaviga...
in his book 1421: The Year China Discovered America)

In 1848, Massachusetts writer James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell was an United States Romanticism poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets....
suggested, concerning the promise-filled letters which were being written by Presidential candidates

United States presidential election

Elections for President of the United States and Vice President of the United States of the United States are indirect elections in which voters cast ballots for a slate of electors of the Electoral College , who in turn directly elect the President and Vice President....
to newspapers:

"if letters must be written, profitable use might be made of the Dighton rock hieroglyphic or the cuneiform script, every fresh decipherer of which is enabled to educe a different meaning".

Lowell made other references to the Rock in his widely-circulated satirical writing, and may thus have helped to popularise it.

In November 1952, the Miguel Corte Real Memorial Society of New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
acquired 49 1/2 acres (200,000 m²) of land adjacent to the Rock for the purpose of creating a park. However, in 1951 the Massachusetts Legislature expropriated the same land for a State Park

State park

State parks are parks or other protected areas of the United States and in Mexico for an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreation, or other reason, and under the administration of the government of a U.S....
. More land was purchased, and Dighton Rock State Park

Dighton Rock State Park

Dighton Rock State Park is a Massachusetts state park located in Berkley, Massachusetts. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation ....
now has an area of 100 acres (400,000 m²). The vicinity of Dighton Rock has been beautified and furnished with parking and picnic facilities.

External links

, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
, by Manuel DaSilva, a proponent of the Portuguese-origin theory of the inscriptions.

Dighton Rock

See also

External links