In 1970, Marshall McKusick, state archeologist of Iowa, wrote a book called The Davenport Conspiracy in which he assembled the massive evidence of a fraud. Included was testimony by Davenport residents that the objects were manufactured in the basement of the Davenport Academy, the headquarters of an amateur scientific society similar to many that existed in nineteenth century America.
The tablets probably served originally as slate-tile siding on a local house of ill repute, and the elephant pipes were most likely aged with grease or a similar substance, McKusick says.
Fell himself now downplays the importance of the Davenport finds, denying that the tablet is the "American Rosetta Stone" hailed by his publisher and the Reader's Digest. Nevertheless, he still defends its authenticity. After all, he can read it, he says. One of the scripts on it, Libyan, was supposedly deciphered for the first time by Fell himself in 1973.
In several places in America B.C. Fell writes of "bronze" weapons that were supposedly imported from the Old World in ancient times. However, Harvard archeologists Stephen Williams, Jeffrey Brain, and Michael Roberts all say that Fell's "bronze" weapons are actually American copper of native origin. Brain says laboratory tests at MIT established that fact, and he adds that no bronze objects of ancient origin have ever been found in North America.
Other archeological evidence amassed by Fell depends upon similarities between native American artifacts and others found in Europe and North Africa. But archeologists at Harvard insist that the similarities depicted in Fell's illustrations in America B.C. are no more than superficial and that they prove nothing. Moreover, they say it is common among amateurs to jump to conclusions about common origins for objects based on such similarities. They say there is a well-established literature dealing with similar objects and artistic motifs that have arisen independently in different cultures.
Ruth Tringham, associate professor of Anthropology, emphasizes that much more than similarities between dagger and axe outlines is necessary to prove a common origin. Method of manufacture, type of material used, the precise function of the object, and the date of manufacture must all be considered.
What's more, Tringham says the contexts of archeological finds are extremely important. The geological history of the site, the other objects found with artifacts, and innumerable other factors should be considered when constructing an archeological hypothesis. Tringham points out that Fell and other amateur archeologists, like von Daniken (whom she has debated), tend to base their theories on isolated bits of data taken out of context and thrown together in one grand design.
Fell's responses to the objections raised by the professional archeologists always refer back to his claimed expertise in linguistics. "Yes," he admits, "anyone can make similar artifacts, but similar languages? The chances of the same words evolving in two separate languages are infinitesimal." His archeology may not be so good, "but I'm an epigrapher, not an archeologist. They say I'm trying to be an archeologist. Naturally, I don't have the credentials, so they dismiss me."
So how good is Fell's linguistic evidence?
As presented in America B.C., it consists in large part of lists comparing words from modern American Indian languages and ancient European and North African tongues.
Dr. Ives Goddard, formerly of Harvard and presently of the Smithsonian Institution, where he is linguistic editor of the Handbook of North American Indians, doesn't think highly of Barry Fell's word lists. Goddard, who is an authority on Algonquin languages, says Fell's work in that area is "full of errors of analysis and interpretation. He has trouble getting Indian words and their glosses right, he mixes languages together [a cardinal sin in comparative linguistics]...There is not even a vague inkling of enough resemblances to require an historical explanation."
As for Fell's assertion that Ogam is an ancient Celtic script that reached both Ireland and America after its origin on the Iberian peninsula, both Goddard and Calvert Watkins, professor of Linguistics and the Classics, maintain that there is a well-established literature on Ogam that identifies it as a script developed in Ireland by someone who knew Latin, sometime around 400 A.D.
Fell's use of Ogam is convenient; as Goddard notes, "It is an epigrapher's delight." Ogam, which consists of clusters of vertical parallel lines positioned above or below a horizontal median, is easily made ambiguous by weathering. In addition, most of Fell's supposed Ogam inscriptions are written without vowels. Goddard says this makes it easy for Fell to read anything he wants to.
Several archeologists point out that Fell hardly deals with alternative hypotheses for the origin of the markings he calls writing. Fell responds that alternative hypotheses are hardly necessary, since he can read the inscriptions. The archeologists, he says, should learn to read them too. He gets angry at their criticisms, because, after all, all he does is literally read the writing on the walls (of caves).
Fell deals extensively with Algonquin place names in New England, which he says were derived from ancient Celtic. Curiously, he attempts to prove their Celtic origin by pointing out similarities between the Algonquin and recent Gaelic. Goddard described this as similar to "using a modern French dictionary to read Latin."
Of all the professional archeologists and linguists at Harvard and other places who were contacted for their opinion of Fell's theories, not one took him seriously, except to lament the damage they felt he was inflicting on legitimate archeological inquiry. Fell himself claims that there are experts in many European universities and museums who do believe in his work. But the American experts contacted did not recognize a single name that Fell listed. People that are described as archeologists in America B.C. and in magazine articles about Fell's work were not known to archeologists at Harvard. On investigation, they turned out for the most part to be amateurs.
On Wednesday, part two of this article will examine Fell's theories from a historical perspective.