Barry Fell
Encyclopedia
Barry Fell (June 6, 1917 – April 21, 1994) was a professor of invertebrate
zoology
at the Harvard
Museum of Comparative Zoology. His primary research was on starfish and sea urchin
s. Fell is most well known for his controversial work in New World
epigraphy
.
, Sussex
, England
, and was a grandson of the railway engineer and inventor John Barraclough Fell
. He moved with his mother to New Zealand
in the early 1920s after his father, who was a merchant seaman, died in a shipboard fire.
He returned to the British Isles for graduate work, receiving his Ph.D.
at the University of Edinburgh
in 1941. Fell then served with the British Army during World War II. In 1946 he returned to New Zealand, where he resumed his academic career, and lectured in zoology at Victoria University of Wellington
.
A world authority on fossil sea urchins, he was recruited by Harvard University
in 1964, and emigrated to the United States to join the staff of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Havard where he worked until retirement in 1979.
He died of heart failure in San Diego, California
, aged 77, while discussing a new book with his publisher.
at Harvard University, he is best known for three books which claim that many centuries before Christopher Columbus
reached America, Celts, Basques, Phoenicians, Egyptians, and others were visiting North America.
His interest in inscriptions began early in his career with a study of Polynesia
n petroglyph
s published in 1940, but his most famous work came much later, starting in 1976 with his publication of America BC, in which he proposed translations of alleged inscriptions found on rock surfaces and artifacts in North and South America which he believed to be written in Old World
scripts and languages. He followed up this work in 1980 with Saga America and in 1982 with Bronze Age America. Fell's work led to the establishment of several amateur epigraphic associations, such as the "Epigraphic Society" and the "Midwestern Epigraphic Society".
Fell's epigraphic work was not well-received in academia. Critics of Fell's work routinely dismissed him as an amateur, pointing out his lack of formal training in ancient scripts and languages.
A scholarly response to Fell's work was prepared by Ives Goddard and William W. Fitzhugh of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution
. They stated, in 1978, that "the arguments of America B. C. are unconvincing. The only accepted case of pre-Columbian European contact in North America remains the Norse site of L'Anse aux Meadows
in northern Newfoundland. Perhaps some day credible proof of other early European contacts will be discovered in the New World. However, America B.C. does not contain such proof and does not employ the standard linguistic and archeological methods that would be necessary to convince specialists in these fields."
One example of Fell's claims is his contention in Saga America that Brendan
of Clonfert may have reached North America centuries before Columbus. This is based on Fell's translation, published in the magazine Wonderful West Virginia in 1983, of two rock-cut inscriptions located at archaeological sites in Wyoming
and Boone
counties, West Virginia
. According to Fell, these inscriptions narrate the story of Christ
's nativity and are written in an old Irish script called Ogham
, dating back to the 6th or 8th century AD. This led to the publication of articles in the journal The West Virginia Archeologist that were highly critical of Fell's conclusions and methodology, including a 1983 article by archaeologist and historian W. Hunter Lesser describing Fell's claims as pseudoscientific
and unreliable. In 1989 lawyers Monroe Oppenheimer and Willard Wirtz wrote an article based on opinions of academic archaeologists and linguists to dispute that the inscription is written in Ogham script. They further accused Fell of deliberate fraud.
David H. Kelley
, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary
who is credited with a major breakthrough in the decipherment of Mayan glyphs, complained about Fell in a 1990 essay: "Fell's work [contains] major academic sins, the three worst being distortion of data, inadequate acknowledgment of predecessors, and lack of presentation of alternative views." In the same essay, however, Kelley went on to state that "I have no personal doubts that some of the inscriptions which have been reported are genuine Celtic ogham." Kelley concluded: "Despite my occasional harsh criticism of Fell's treatment of individual inscriptions, it should be recognized that without Fell's work there would be no [North American] ogham problem to perplex us. We need to ask not only what Fell has done wrong in his epigraphy, but also where we have gone wrong as archaeologists in not recognizing such an extensive European presence in the New World."
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
at the Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Museum of Comparative Zoology. His primary research was on starfish and sea urchin
Sea urchin
Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from across. Common colors include black and dull...
s. Fell is most well known for his controversial work in New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
epigraphy
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
.
Biography
Fell was born in LewesLewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and was a grandson of the railway engineer and inventor John Barraclough Fell
John Barraclough Fell
John Barraclough Fell , was a British railway engineer and inventor of the Fell mountain railway system.Fell spent the early part of his life in London, living with his parents. About 1835 he moved with them to the Lake District. In 1840, he married a 25-year-old woman named Martha in Kirkstall,...
. He moved with his mother to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
in the early 1920s after his father, who was a merchant seaman, died in a shipboard fire.
He returned to the British Isles for graduate work, receiving his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
in 1941. Fell then served with the British Army during World War II. In 1946 he returned to New Zealand, where he resumed his academic career, and lectured in zoology at Victoria University of Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...
.
A world authority on fossil sea urchins, he was recruited by Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1964, and emigrated to the United States to join the staff of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Havard where he worked until retirement in 1979.
He died of heart failure in San Diego, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, aged 77, while discussing a new book with his publisher.
Epigraphy
Though Fell was an accomplished marine biologistMarine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
at Harvard University, he is best known for three books which claim that many centuries before Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
reached America, Celts, Basques, Phoenicians, Egyptians, and others were visiting North America.
His interest in inscriptions began early in his career with a study of Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
n petroglyph
Petroglyph
Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
s published in 1940, but his most famous work came much later, starting in 1976 with his publication of America BC, in which he proposed translations of alleged inscriptions found on rock surfaces and artifacts in North and South America which he believed to be written in Old World
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
scripts and languages. He followed up this work in 1980 with Saga America and in 1982 with Bronze Age America. Fell's work led to the establishment of several amateur epigraphic associations, such as the "Epigraphic Society" and the "Midwestern Epigraphic Society".
Fell's epigraphic work was not well-received in academia. Critics of Fell's work routinely dismissed him as an amateur, pointing out his lack of formal training in ancient scripts and languages.
A scholarly response to Fell's work was prepared by Ives Goddard and William W. Fitzhugh of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
. They stated, in 1978, that "the arguments of America B. C. are unconvincing. The only accepted case of pre-Columbian European contact in North America remains the Norse site of L'Anse aux Meadows
L'Anse aux Meadows
L'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Discovered in 1960, it is the only known site of a Norse or Viking village in Canada, and in North America outside of Greenland...
in northern Newfoundland. Perhaps some day credible proof of other early European contacts will be discovered in the New World. However, America B.C. does not contain such proof and does not employ the standard linguistic and archeological methods that would be necessary to convince specialists in these fields."
One example of Fell's claims is his contention in Saga America that Brendan
Brendan
Saint Brendan of Clonfert or Bréanainn of Clonfert called "the Navigator", "the Voyager", or "the Bold" is one of the early Irish monastic saints. He is chiefly renowned for his legendary quest to the "Isle of the Blessed," also called St. Brendan's Island. The Voyage of St...
of Clonfert may have reached North America centuries before Columbus. This is based on Fell's translation, published in the magazine Wonderful West Virginia in 1983, of two rock-cut inscriptions located at archaeological sites in Wyoming
Wyoming County, West Virginia
Wyoming County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,796. Its county seat is Pineville. Wyoming County was created in 1850 from Logan County and named for the Delaware Indian word meaning "large plains."-Geography:According to the U.S...
and Boone
Boone County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 25,535 people, 10,291 households, and 7,460 families residing in the county. The population density was 51 people per square mile . There were 11,575 housing units at an average density of 23 per square mile...
counties, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
. According to Fell, these inscriptions narrate the story of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
's nativity and are written in an old Irish script called Ogham
Ogham
Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the Old Irish language, and occasionally the Brythonic language. Ogham is sometimes called the "Celtic Tree Alphabet", based on a High Medieval Bríatharogam tradition ascribing names of trees to the individual letters.There are roughly...
, dating back to the 6th or 8th century AD. This led to the publication of articles in the journal The West Virginia Archeologist that were highly critical of Fell's conclusions and methodology, including a 1983 article by archaeologist and historian W. Hunter Lesser describing Fell's claims as pseudoscientific
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
and unreliable. In 1989 lawyers Monroe Oppenheimer and Willard Wirtz wrote an article based on opinions of academic archaeologists and linguists to dispute that the inscription is written in Ogham script. They further accused Fell of deliberate fraud.
David H. Kelley
David H. Kelley
David Humiston Kelley was a Canadian American archaeologist and epigrapher, most noted for his work on the phonetic analysis and major contributions toward the decipherment of the writing system used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the Maya script.-Work and interests:From...
, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
who is credited with a major breakthrough in the decipherment of Mayan glyphs, complained about Fell in a 1990 essay: "Fell's work [contains] major academic sins, the three worst being distortion of data, inadequate acknowledgment of predecessors, and lack of presentation of alternative views." In the same essay, however, Kelley went on to state that "I have no personal doubts that some of the inscriptions which have been reported are genuine Celtic ogham." Kelley concluded: "Despite my occasional harsh criticism of Fell's treatment of individual inscriptions, it should be recognized that without Fell's work there would be no [North American] ogham problem to perplex us. We need to ask not only what Fell has done wrong in his epigraphy, but also where we have gone wrong as archaeologists in not recognizing such an extensive European presence in the New World."
See also
- America's StonehengeAmerica's StonehengeAmerica's Stonehenge is an archaeological site consisting of a number of large rocks and stone structures scattered around roughly within the town of Salem, New Hampshire in the northeast United States. America's Stonehenge is open to the public for a fee...
- Bourne stoneBourne StoneThe Bourne Stone is an archaeological curiosity located in the town of Bourne, Massachusetts.The object is a 300-pound chunk of pink granite, upon which two lines of carvings were made. For many years it served as the doorstep for a meetinghouse in Bourne...
- Institute for the Study of American CulturesInstitute for the Study of American CulturesThe Institute for the Study of American Cultures or ISAC is a defunct organization devoted to the study of pre-Columbian contact between the Old and New Worlds. Although as an organization it did not espouse any particular theory, it was strongly oriented in a general way toward a hyperdiffusionist...
- Los Lunas Decalogue StoneLos Lunas Decalogue StoneThe Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is a large boulder on the side of Hidden Mountain, near Los Lunas, New Mexico, about 35 miles south of Albuquerque, that bears a very regular inscription carved into a flat panel. The stone is also known as the Los Lunas Mystery Stone or Commandment Rock...
- Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writingMi'kmaq hieroglyphic writingMíkmaq hieroglyphic writing was a writing system and memory aid used by the Míkmaq, a Native American people of the east coast of what is now Canada....
- Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contactPre-Columbian trans-oceanic contactTheories of Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact are those theories that propose interaction between indigenous peoples of the Americas who settled the Americas before 10,000 BC, and peoples of other continents , which occurred before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean in 1492.Many...
- PseudoarchaeologyPseudoarchaeologyPseudoarchaeology — also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, or cult archaeology — refers to interpretations of the past from outside of the academic archaeological community, which typically also reject the accepted scientific and analytical methods of the...
- Turkey Mountain inscriptionsTurkey Mountain inscriptionsTurkey Mountain inscriptions refers to some markings etched on stone in Turkey Mountain, a large hill on the west side of the Arkansas River in Tulsa, Oklahoma...