DIGHTON ROCK
Chapter 7
Click on all photos for a larger view
Dighton Rock in it's original site at midtide
WHERE IS DIGHTON ROCK?
The position of Dighton Rock is 41.48° North, 71.7° West. It is located on the Atlantic Coast of the United States of America, in the southern part of Massachusetts. It rests on the left bank of Taunton River, 30 miles from the mouth of Narragansett Bay, within the boundaries of the town of Berkley. (The town of Berkley was formerly a part of Dighton. Dighton Rock faces the town of Dighton on the right side of the Taunton River.
Dighton Rock is 9 miles from Fall River, 8 miles from Taunton, 20 miles from New Bedford, 50 miles from Boston, and 210 miles from New York City. (It can be reached by Mass. Route 21. Exit 10.)
In November, 1952, the Miguel Corte Real Memorial Society of New York City acquired 49 1/2 acres of land ($5,0OO) 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. Many more acres were purchased and Dighton Rock State Park now has an area of 100 acres. The vicinity of Dighton Rock has been beautified and furnished with parking and picnic facilities.
PHYSICAL HISTORY OF DIGHTON ROCK:
Up until August, 1963, Dighton Rock was situated on the left bank of the Taunton River between the flow of the high and low tides. At high tide, the top of the rock was covered by three to four feet of water. During the winter when the river was frozen, the rock could not be seen because of the thick ice cap. In the past the rock was covered by tidal water about 20 hours daily. Only during the period when the tide was sufficiently low (during new and full moon) could the inscriptions be satisfactorily studied but only for two hours each day.
White Man's brook, near Dighton Rock
For centuries this monument was covered with mud and exposed to all kinds of weather conditions. Ironically, because the inscriptions were covered by water most of the day, vandalism such as the throwing of stones or bottles or the engraving of initials and dates, was discouraged.
NEW SITE:
Since 1 829, there were many proposals to remove the rock to various museums in Fall River, Boston, and even as far as Denmark. Only in 1955 was action taken to relocate the rock. However, because the cables of the crane damaged the rock, a court injunction was obtained to stop the removal.
In 1963, the Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources ended a long controversy by proving that the rock was a boulder and not a ledge. The Department then built a coffer dam at a cost of $50,000. The rock is now situated on the cofferdam, eleven feet above its original level, and protected by a fence.
Dighton Rock, covered by winter ice cap
Damage to Dighton Rock from the 1st removal attempt in 1955
DIMENSIONS AND POSITION:
Dighton Rock is approximately the form of a parallelepiped 5 feet high, 9 1/2 feet wide, and 11 feet long. The face of the rock overlooks the river, and has a trapezoidal surface, 11 feet long and 5 feet high. When the rock was in its original site, the face was inclined at an angle of 39 degrees to the vertical. Now, it is inclined at 70 degrees it continues to face northwest as before.
Dighton Rock being removed from its original site (1963)
Dighton Rock on Cofferdam. (1963) The inscriptions face the river.
All the engravings on Dighton Rock delineated by Delabarre in 1927Click on all photos for a larger view
COMPOSITION:
Dighton Rock is a gray-brown feldspathic sandstone of medium to coarse density. It does not have a strong consistency. Weather and vandals have erased or obscured some of the original engravings. It has a density of2.45 g /cm3 and a volume of 500 + cubic feet. Therefore, it weighs approximately 40 tons.
DEPTH OF ENGRAVINGS:
The first documents written about Dighton Rock refer to it as the “Dighton Writing Rock”. Perhaps. students of Dighton Rock use the word “writing’’ to better convey the fact that the rock has on it many inscriptions similar to a blackboard, with one writing on top of another. The depth of engraving runs from 2 to 7 millimeters The markings on the rock are not doodlings or cracks due to weathering. All the lilies carved on Dighton Rock were done by human hands, using sharp instruments of metal or hard stone
WHY A PUZZLE FOR SO LONG?:
There are two main reasons why the inscriptions have been a puzzle for so many years and to so many scholars:
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(1) Throughout the years. different individuals have inscribed dates, their initials and other drawings on the surface of the rock obscuring the ORIGINAL inscriptions.
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(2) Scholars did not correctly interpret the ORIGINAL inscriptions because they did not consider the possibility of a Portuguese origin
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ENGRAVINGS:
Professor Edmund Delabarre published in 1927 a photograph of the face of the rock on which lie delineated all the lines en graved up until 1920. If we examine this photo graph. we are immediately overcome by a tangled net of lines. This mesh of lines and curves suggested to several scholars Greek, Japanese, or Hieroglyphic forms.
To sonic scholars, the inscriptions became a joke. The attitude of the shortsighted scholar was expressed in this one sentence: “I believe the mystery of the inscriptions will never be interpreted.’’ That is what was said of Champollion and the Rosetta Stone.
Edmund Burke Delabarre (1920)
DELABARRE’S CORTE REAL THEORY:
Around 1913 Professor Edmund Burke Delabarre became interested in the study of Dighton Rock because:
Hathaway photo on which Delabarre first saw the date 1511. (Dec 2 1918)
It took Delabarre two years to compile all the research concerning Dighton Rock. He found hundreds of articles dealing with the inscriptions: In 1915 he wrote the first volume entitled "Early interest in Dighton Rock’’ which was published by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. In 1 916 he completed the "Middle Period of Dighton Rock History” and in 1919 "The Recent History of Dighton Rock”.
In all three publications. Delabarre discussed the various theories, analyzing them without formulating any theory of his own. His investigation of Dighton Rock was impartial. Perhaps this was the reason why, after studying more than twenty distinct theories, an entirely new theory occurred to Delabarre: “It may well be imagined with what astonishment on examining the Hathaway Photograph for the hundredth time on December 2, 1918.
I saw in it clearly and undoubtedly the date 1511. No one had ever seen it before, on rock or photograph: yet once seen, its genuine presence on the rock cannot be doubted. The date 1511 was the earliest date engraved on the rock. This date gave Delabarre an exact period of World History to examine and led him to research navigators or explorers who might have landed in New England just before or on that date.
He began searching through European History and soon discovered that there existed in Lisbon, Portugal. royal charters attesting to the fact that Gaspar Corte Real came to North America in 1501—his second voyage—and never returned to Portugal. He further uncovered the fact that Miguel Cone Real, Gaspar’s brother left Lisbon on May 10. 1502 in his search. Both navigators, however, shared a similar fate, and never returned to their home land.
With this in formation available, Delabarre once more began to review all of the drawings, paintings, and photographs of Dighton Rock in order to formulate a new diagnosis.
Delabarre then verified that the date 1511 composed of shortened 's (ones) with serifs, and the 5, like a capital "S" could easily be deciphered:
‘‘Out of: twenty-seven drawings and chalking's of this part of the inscriptions, twenty one include both the initial and the final figures 1 , and only one omit them both."
Following the same line of investigation, he easily proved that the capital letters MI and CORT were undoubtedly a part of Miguel Corte Real’s name. It should be noted that the last drawing made of the inscriptions (Rhode Island Historical Society, 1830) reveals more letters of Miguel Corte Real’s name, but were not recognized as such.
A total of eight letters can be clearly seen on drawings and photographs made before 1918, that is, made by men who, (a) represented rival theories, (b) never gave any indication that they had ever thought of the Corte Real theory.
As he continued to familiarize himself with Portuguese history and national symbols, Professor Delabarre eventually detected the ‘V” shaped Portuguese coat-of-arms inscribed on the lower south side of the face of the rock. Delabarre reports that this shield within a shield could be seen in drawings of the inscriptions as far back as 1 768, but was never recognized as the Portuguese coat-of-arms.
As the originator of the Corte Real theory, Delabarre made the three basic discoveries:
- (I) Date 1511 (detected December 2, 1918)
- (2) The name of Miguel Corte Real.
- (3) Portuguese "V" shaped coat of arms.
(A) Miguel Corte Real (Folsom, 1868)
(B) Miguel Corte Real (Blake 1876)
(C) Miguel Corte Real - at daylight (Delabarre 1920)
(D) Miguel Corte Real - (Delabarre, 1920) with flash light
(E) Miguel Corte Real delineated by Delabarre (1920)
Because he firmly established the Corte Real theory, Delabarre was awarded the Cross of the Order of Christ by the Portuguese government. This decoration contains the same 45 degrees cross as appears on Dighton Rock. Even while wearing the Cross of the Order of Christ on his chest, Delabarre, unfortunately, missed making the diagnosis of the same Cross engraved on Dighton Rock.
Delabarre also proposed that the letters A.D. were engraved near the date 1511, and that a message in abbreviated Latin (V. Dei hic Dux Ind = By Grace of God, Chief of the Indians, here.), could be seen near the V shaped coat of arms. These additions to the theory are not correct as we shall see later.
First photograph of Dighton Rock by Capt. Seth Eastman (1853)
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WHERE IS DIGHTON ROCK?The position of Dighton Rock is 41.48° North, 71.7° West. It is located on the Atlantic Coast of the United States of America, in the southern part of Massachusetts. It rests on the left bank of Taunton River, 30 miles from the mouth of Narragansett Bay, within the boundaries of the town of Berkley. (The town of Berkley was formerly a part of Dighton. Dighton Rock faces the town of Dighton on the right side of the Taunton River.Dighton Rock is 9 miles from Fall River, 8 miles from Taunton, 20 miles from New Bedford, 50 miles from Boston, and 210 miles from New York City. (It can be reached by Mass. Route 21. Exit 10.)In November, 1952, the Miguel Corte Real Memorial Society of New York City acquired 49 1/2 acres of land ($5,0OO) 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. Many more acres were purchased and Dighton Rock State Park now has an area of 100 acres. The vicinity of Dighton Rock has been beautified and furnished with parking and picnic facilities.PHYSICAL HISTORY OF DIGHTON ROCK:Up until August, 1963, Dighton Rock was situated on the left bank of the Taunton River between the flow of the high and low tides. At high tide, the top of the rock was covered by three to four feet of water. During the winter when the river was frozen, the rock could not be seen because of the thick ice cap. In the past the rock was covered by tidal water about 20 hours daily. Only during the period when the tide was sufficiently low (during new and full moon) could the inscriptions be satisfactorily studied but only for two hours each day.White Man's brook, near Dighton RockFor centuries this monument was covered with mud and exposed to all kinds of weather conditions. Ironically, because the inscriptions were covered by water most of the day, vandalism such as the throwing of stones or bottles or the engraving of initials and dates, was discouraged.NEW SITE:Since 1 829, there were many proposals to remove the rock to various museums in Fall River, Boston, and even as far as Denmark. Only in 1955 was action taken to relocate the rock. However, because the cables of the crane damaged the rock, a court injunction was obtained to stop the removal.In 1963, the Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources ended a long controversy by proving that the rock was a boulder and not a ledge. The Department then built a coffer dam at a cost of $50,000. The rock is now situated on the cofferdam, eleven feet above its original level, and protected by a fence.Dighton Rock, covered by winter ice capDamage to Dighton Rock from the 1st removal attempt in 1955DIMENSIONS AND POSITION:Dighton Rock is approximately the form of a parallelepiped 5 feet high, 9 1/2 feet wide, and 11 feet long. The face of the rock overlooks the river, and has a trapezoidal surface, 11 feet long and 5 feet high. When the rock was in its original site, the face was inclined at an angle of 39 degrees to the vertical. Now, it is inclined at 70 degrees it continues to face northwest as before.
Edmund Burke Delabarre (1920)DELABARRE’S CORTE REAL THEORY:Around 1913 Professor Edmund Burke Delabarre became interested in the study of Dighton Rock because:
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