The Bat Creek inscription is an inscription carved on a stone allegedly found in a Native American burial mound in Loudon County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee, in 1889. The inscription consists of characters loosely resembling the Cherokee alphabet invented by Sequoyah in the early 19th century.
In the early 1970s, the inscription became a source of controversy when linguist Cyrus Gordon argued it was actually a Paleo-Hebrew inscription, and thus provided evidence of Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. However, a number of archaeologists and other experts reject Gordon's assertion, arguing instead that the inscription is a fraud typical of late-19th century archaeological hoaxes.
The stone was reported to have been initially found in 1889 by a burial mound survey team led by John W. Emmert of the Smithsonian Institution. The mound was located at the confluence of the Little Tennessee River and Bat Creek, a few miles north of modern Vonore. The mound had been leveled by the time University of Tennessee archaeologists conducted salvage excavations in the area in the 1970s.
Read more about Bat Creek Inscription: Geographic and Historical Context, Archaeological Excavations, Analysis and Debate, Recent Commentary, Current Location
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