Davenport Tablets

Jacob Gass

The Davenport Tablets are three inscribed slate tiles discovered by Swiss immigrant and Reverend Jacob Gass inside an indigenous American burial mound at the Cook Farm site near Davenport, Iowa in 1879. The tablets depict scenes of cremation, hunting, an astronomical table and an array characters deriving from multiple ancient languages. Also found inside the mound were human skeletal remains, two tobacco “elephant” pipes and other valuable artifacts

Context

Moundbuilder Myth

As American settlers moved West in the 19th century they encountered huge earthen mounds throughout the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys whose origin were unknown. It was assumed by incoming settlers that contemporary indigenous Americans were not advanced enough to coordinate the means or labor to construct these mounds. European settlers argued that there must have been a past race, originating from Europe, existing in the area prior to contemporary indigenous populations. This “lost race”, which was unrelated to indigenous Americans, were claimed to have been superior in culture and intellect compared to indigenous Americans. Supposed evidence for this came from artifacts discovered in the mounds, which were considered a more advanced artistic style than contemporary indigenous populations were capable of. These ideas provided incoming settlers with two vital functions:

1. Fulfilled a desire by European settlers for ancestry in North America
2. Justified the colonization of indigenous American land as repossession

Both concepts fueled a racist ideology that persisted throughout America in the 19th century and robbed indigenous American populations of their agency, as well as their land. It was soon believed that contemporary indigenous populations were the descendants of invaders who had killed the peaceful moundbuilders and taken their land for themselves, thus justifying similar actions against contemporary indigenous populations.

Amateur Archaeologists

Archaeology in the 19th century was seen as a pastime or hobby that interested individuals of broad disciplines and occupations could participate in. This resulted in the first findings in archaeology following a nationalistic and Eurocentric pattern that aimed to romanticize people’s ancestry. Across the United States, numerous scientific clubs and organizations had sprung up for anyone interested in presenting theirs and listening to others findings. In 1867 a number of amateur scientists in the Davenport, Iowa area formed the Davenport Academy of Sciences to discuss their mutual interest in topics ranging from natural history to archaeology, with the aim of presenting their work in a more professional and scholarly manner than previous scientific interest groups.

By the mid-1880s, however, the Moundbuilder hypothesis had lost steam among national, professional archaeological organizations. The began to lobby to credit indigenous Americans with having built the mounds, causing much discontent with local amateur archaeologists, who were eager to find “proof” that would validate their ideas and discredit those of the national organizations.

Psuedoarchaeological Narrative

The Davenport Tablets were immediately believed to be the crucial, missing link that would prove the Moundbuilders were of European ancestry. The basis for this conclusion relied primarily on the inscriptions on the tablets, since indigenous Americans had no written script of their own, and the artistic quality of the images, deemed to be of European influence. With this information, Gass and the Davenport Academy of Sciences believed they had discovered the definitive missing clue that would once and for all prove the Moundbuilder hypothesis. Of equal importance was the fact the tablet had been discovered in the Davenport area, giving the city much publicity and fame.

Later psuedoarchaeologists would extend the origin of the moundbuilders to Africa. In 1976, Barry Fell argued in his book, “America B.C. – Ancient Settlers in the New World”, that the inscriptions on the tablets were written in the Phoenician, Iberian and Egyptian language. The message, Fell argued, discussed a certain time of year when celebrations should take place, denoted by the sun reflecting on a certain rock at a particular time of year. Fell also argues that the tablets show an opening of the mouth ceremony common in ancient Egyptian tradition. From these conclusions, Fell argues that the tablets were placed by Egyptian and Libyan explorers who sailed up the Mississippi River during the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt, which he argues was a period of intense overseas exploration.

Deconstruction

Soon after discovery, the tablets were examined by Dr. E Foreman at the Davenport Academy of Sciences, where he argued they were not genuine. He noticed that the spherical engravings on the zodiac tablet appeared to have been made with modern tools, and the tablets themselves showed little signs of weathering that would be expected with an ancient stone artifact. Foreman also noted that Gass’ excavation reports mention two of the tablets had been found in an area with loose soil while the contents of the grave were confusingly scattered about, which is highly indicative of tampering and planting at the site.

Soon after the tablets were sent to the Bureau of Ethnology, where Cyrus Thomas, who did not believe in the Moundbuilder hypothesis to begin with, also concluded the tablets were fake. This conclusion was based in part on the dubious deposition circumstances of the artifacts, and the fact the Hebrew and Hittite looking characters could be found on page 1766 in a copy of Webster’s Dictionary printed in 1872, five years before the artifacts were discovered. The Zodiac Calendar seen on the tablets can also be found in the same dictionary.

Shortly after Fell published his interpretation of the Davenport Tablets, Dr. Goddard and Fitzhugh at the Smithsonian Institute Department of Anthropology had the tablet reexamined by linguistic specialists, who concluded that the text was indecipherable gibberish and all of Fell’s conclusions were totally incorrect.

In 1967, Dr. McKusick, an archaeologist from the University of Iowa, interviewed some of the people who had been involved in the discovery of the Davenport Tablets, including one member of the Davenport Academy of Sciences. This member confessed that he and other members had fabricated the tablets as a joke to discredit Gass’ reputation. Gass was unliked by the rest of the academy due to his foreign birth and high status in the academy, which was only deepened after he had found valuable artifacts in mounds that had yielded nothing to previous excavations. According to the confessing member, the forgers had taken slate tiles from a prostitute house, which can be seen by the nail holes in the calendar stone, denoting the expected date of the planting of the tablet and the date when it was predicted Gass would uncover it. After the joke blew out of proportion due to tis publicity, the guilty members decided they could not confess, and let the incident develop on its own.