They Scoff at the Rock : But Professor Says Boulder Proves Columbus Was Late

Barry Fell thinks the two-ton, marked-up rock he and his wife found on a recent beachcombing expedition is a kind of cablegram from the ancient world.

Its message, according to Fell:

Christopher Columbus was a Johnny-come-lately by at least 1,000 years.

But scoffers--and there are many--believe Fell and his followers are on very rocky ground indeed, scientifically speaking.

Officials at San Diego’s Museum of Man have refused to put the boulder on display, even though Fell, a Harvard professor emeritus of marine biology, insists it is inscribed in ancient script that went out of use about AD 500.

Patrick Abbott, 49, a San Diego State University geology professor called in by the city to evaluate the find, has turned thumbs down on the discovery.

About the only civic validation came when the city last month allowed members of Fell’s Epigraphic Society to remove the three-foot-long rock from the beach and place it in storage.

No matter. Fell remains unshaken in his beliefs.

“Grooves in the rock in the shape of Numidian letters translate into the word ‘Tangy,’ meaning people from Tangier, graffiti I’m certain was left by sailors from an ancient ship,” said Fell. In 1974, he founded the Epigraphic Society, a rebel archeological group that studies writing in ancient European and North African languages it claims was chiseled on rocks and cave walls in America by pre-Columbian explorers.

Fell, 73, the balding guru of the 1,000-member society, is used to skepticism from the American scientific Establishment.

Gordon Willey, a Harvard professor, has called the society “escapism, fable, fantasy, fun.”

Ives Goddard, curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s department of anthropology, labeled Fell’s work “the linguistic equivalent of alchemy.”

San Diego State geology professor Abbott says Fell is way off base with his interpretation of the scratches on the rock: “By close observation it is obvious the markings were made at different time periods, accidentally cut into the rock by the teeth of a machine that scoops up seaweed which piles up quite high in that area. If the grooves look like ancient writing, it is sheer coincidence.”

Fell shrugs it off. “We know we’re right and they are wrong,” he said. “We will keep gathering evidence until the scientific community finally realizes we’re onto something extremely important to the history of America.”

Fell said he and his wife, Rene, were walking along the beach when they came upon the rock beneath a 65-foot-high cliff.

“I’m always looking for ancient writing on beach rocks, but every time I spot something I think is it, Barry tells me it’s nothing,” recalled Rene, who is secretary of the organization headquartered in their home. “Then I saw this rock.”

Fell admits that most rocks along the beach are scarred from the blades and teeth of seaweed removal equipment. “But this was different,” he said. “I recognized it immediately as Numidian. There was no doubt in my mind.”

Marshall Payn, vice president of the Epigraphic Society and owner of a chain of commercial art schools, flew recently to Tripoli, Libya, to show photos of the rock to Prof. Ali Khushaim, author of a book on ancient inscriptions and a faculty member of the Libyan Studies Center and Al-Sateh University.

“The letters on the rock look like a Numidian word meaning a person from Tangier,” Khushaim told The Times by phone. “Of course . . . I have not seen the rock. I cannot date it. But it appears to be an authentic ancient inscription. It was a habit of ancient sailors from North Africa to write one word or two words alone on rocks at places far away from home.”

Dawson and Fell are convinced that Irish and Arab explorers traveled old American Indian trade routes from the Pacific Coast across the Sierra to the Lone Pine area. The Irish would have been there about the time of Christ, the Arabs about AD 800, they theorize. How did they get there?

“Same way as Columbus,” Dawson said. “By ship. Ancient people weren’t stupid. Despite popular belief, they sailed all the oceans of the world. They did not think the world was flat.”