Heavener Runestone
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The Heavener Runestone is a runestone found in Heavener, Oklahoma. The stone is located on Poteau Mountain just outside the town's limits. There is much speculation as to the origin and meaning of the ancient stone's runic carvings, and there is such an attraction that a state park has been erected around the mysterious rock. In addition to the stone itself, the park offers Ouachita hiking trails, playground equipment and a spectacular outlook over the Poteau River Valley.
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[edit] Inscription hypotheses
Local tradition attributes the inscription to wandering pre-Columbian Norsemen,[1] however the inscription has been rejected by Scandinavian philologists and runologists, who consider it to be modern (19th or 20th century). The reading of the "Elder Futhark" style runes should probably be "GNOMEDAL" (meaning "Gnome Valley", or perhaps a personal name "G. Nomedal").
One difficulty facing those who would use the Heavener Runestone to demonstrate that Viking explorers pushed down the Atlantic Coast, through the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi River to the Arkansas River to the Poteau River to the ankle-depth watercourse at the site, is that only six of the eight characters are correct Elder Futhark runes. A transliteration would read "G [rough backwards N] O M E D A [backwards L]". Another problem is that the Elder Futhark had become obsolete by the 8th century, which was long before the Viking expeditions to Greenland and Vinland.
The first proposed explanation, by Alf Monge in 1967 (summarised by Landsverk, 1970) is that the letters represent an elaborate cryptogram, using three runic alphabets, that decodes to "November 11, 1012".
In recent years, this idea has lost ground among local defenders in favor of the engineer Dr. Richard Nielsen's proposal (in Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications, Vol. 15, 1986, page 133) that a Viking explorer hastily reversed the last letter and substituted a letter from the then-extinct Gothic alphabet in the second position. According to this interpretation, the inscription reads "GLOME DAL" -- the Valley of Glome.
Another recent interpretation by Rev. Lee Woodward that the inscription is an elaborate cryptogram marking the final resting place of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (http://www.lasallemonument.com) has yet to gain substantive support.
In September, 2007, locally-born filmmaker Jackson Burns, filmed Hidden Histories - Heavener Runestone, a documentary on the stone and the other rocks found around Oklahoma with what are claimed to be runic inscriptions. As yet unbroadcast, the documentary claims that the runes could be Gothic and Elder Futhark used during a transitional phase.
[edit] Cultural significance
- In 1991, Carl Albert State College in nearby Poteau changed its mascot to the Vikings in the stone's honor.
- Don Coldsmith's 1995 novel Runestone, offers a speculative theory about how an 11th century Viking could have made his way to the area of Heavener.
[edit] Other local stones
Two other, much smaller runestones have been found near Heavener. In the 1970s scholars allegedly translated these stones.
Heavener stone #2 is said to show the letter "R" and a "bind rune". This would be in the Anglo-Saxon character set since in the Norwegian this might be an "M" and a small cross. In the Elder Futhark, this could be an "R"/"Z" or a "T". It has also been given as "25 December, 1015" in Monge's "Norse Code" date system.
Heavener stone #3 is said to show the letters "G", "R" and "T". This could be in the Anglo-Saxon character set since in the Norwegian set this might be an "M", a "T" and the small cross COULD be an "N". In Monge's system (which seems to be applicable to any group of runes) this gives the date "30 December, 1022".
Several other runestones have been found in Oklahoma, one near Poteau, one in Shawnee, and one in Turley north of Tulsa. In fact, the Tulsa area is alleged to have 4 of these rune stones along the Arkansas River on Turkey Mountain all with very similar characters, but one was destroyed in the ‘60s, and the specific locations of two others are unknown (see Turkey Mountain inscriptions).
[edit] See also
- Kensington Runestone
- Nomans Land (Massachusetts)
- Bat Creek Inscription
- Viking Altar Rock
- Vinland map
- Mandan Indians
- Bryggen inscriptions
- Kingigtorssuaq Runestone
[edit] References
- ^ Farley, Gloria (1994). In plain sight : Old World records in ancient America. Columbus, GA USA: ISAC Press, 481. ISBN 1880820080.
