Secrets of Ancient America: Archaeoastronomy and the Legacy of the Phoenicians, Celts, and Other Forgotten Explorers

by Carl Lehrburger

Overview

The real history of the New World and the visitors, from both East and West, who traveled to the Americas long before 1492

• Provides more than 300 photographs and drawings, including Celtic runes in New England, Gaelic inscriptions in Colorado, and Asian symbols in the West

• Reinterprets many archaeological finds, such as the Ohio Serpent Mound

• Reveals Celtic, Hebrew, Roman, early Christian, Templar, Egyptian, Chinese, and Japanese influences in North American artifacts and ruins

As the myth of Columbus “discovering” America falls from the pedestal of established history, we are given the opportunity to discover the real story of the New World and the visitors, from both East and West, who traveled there long before 1492.

Sharing his more than 25 years of research and travel to sites throughout North America, Carl Lehrburger employs epigraphy, archaeology, and archaeoastronomy to reveal extensive evidence for pre-Columbian explorers in ancient America. He provides more than 300 photographs and drawings of sites, relics, and rock art, including Celtic and Norse runes in New England, Phoenician and Hebrew inscriptions in the Midwest, and ancient Shiva linga and Egyptian hieroglyphs in the West. He uncovers the real story of Columbus and his motives for coming to the Americas. He reinterprets many well-known archaeological and astronomical finds, such as the Ohio Serpent Mound, America’s Stonehenge in New Hampshire, and the Crespi Collection in Ecuador. He reveals Celtic, Hebrew, Roman, early Christian, Templar, Egyptian, Chinese, and Japanese influences in famous stones and ruins, reconstructing the record of what really happened on the American continents prior to Columbus. He also looks at Hindu influences in Mesoamerica and sacred sexuality encoded in archaeological sites.

Expanding upon the work of well-known diffusionists such as Barry Fell and Gunnar Thompson, the author documents the travels and settlements of trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific explorers, miners, and settlers who made it to the Americas and left their marks for us to discover. Interpreting their sacred symbols, he shows how their teachings, prayers, and cosmologies reveal the cosmic order and sacred landscape of the Americas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591431930
Publisher:	Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Publication date:	01/02/2015
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	287,659
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Carl Lehrburger has studied archaeological and sacred sites in North America, with a focus on ancient Old World peoples in America before Columbus, for more than 25 years. He has published articles in Ancient American magazine. An avid traveler and explorer, he lives in Colorado.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 9
More Celtic America

CROSS-QUARTER DAY ALIGNMENT
AT THE SUN TEMPLE

Local ranchers knew of the Sun Temple petroglyphs for many years before McGlone and Leonard arrived in 1984. It is located on a large ranch property that was situated on the high plains in eastern Colorado amid numerous five-story-tall, wind-sculpted “hoodoos” standing as sandstone sentries above a wide and shallow canyon. In addition to what was instantly recognized as an ancient Celtic alphabet, the modern explorers also found the engraved profile of a human head, featureless except for an upturned, button nose. Some forty feet away, an isolated, east-facing 14-inch (35.5 centimeter) diameter circle was found inscribed at the back of the amphitheater-like cove. It was then that McGlone and Leonard decided to name the place the Sun Temple.

Most of the Sun Temple’s alphabetic grooves appear on the ceiling of a small, shallow cave approximately seven feet above the amphitheater floor, which is elevated well above the canyon floor. Protected somewhat by the ceiling’s overthrust is a panel tilted skyward on the lower lip of the wedge-like cave that has a bold but short inscription with several crisscross carvings.

Nearby, about twenty feet higher up is a clue that nearly escaped the attention of McGlone and Leonard because splotchy black patina on the cliff face had camouflaged the grooves. What initially appeared to be a crudely etched tree trunk with branches on the cliff face was later understood to be the Sun Temple’s key Ogham inscription, underscoring an ancient scribe’s intent to memorialize a date- and site-specific sunrise alignment—that is, when to stand and where.

The Tree Ogham, along with some grooves to the left, was written in Gaelic and was translated by McGlone and Leonard to mean THE RING ALONG WITH THE SHOULDER BY MEANS OF SUN AND HILL. Because of the site’s orientation, they supposed the Sun Temple might have an alignment at dawn on the Summer solstice but a number of sunrise vigils on June 21 yielded no obvious solar alignments and nothing involving the conspicuously inscribed ring.

In this type of solar alignment, the sun is observed from a fixed target or at sunrise in the case of the circular pecked “RING” mentioned in the inscription. By looking at the “SUN and HILL” from the pecked RING on the cross-quarter day the specific event is seen. The word HILL clearly refers to the topology on the opposite side of the canyon, which is called a mesa from the Spanish meaning “table” in today’s terminology. However, one of this site’s most remarkable features is a massive rock overhang that juts out from the northern cliff wall. The overhang is parallel to and just above the horizon from the northern cliff wall, as viewed from the front of the approximate 1-foot diameter inscribed pecked circle or RING.

On subsequent investigations, the researchers discovered that when one’s head is positioned in the pecked ring only on Lughnasa and Beltane, its Springtime cross-quarter mirror, the rising solar disc is perfectly framed within the gap formed by the shelf, the cliff face, and the distant hill. Thus, the jutting overhang must be the SHELF mentioned in the Tree Ogham inscription.

COSMOLOGY OF THE SUN TEMPLE

Much of the Sun Temple’s association with Lughnasa evolved from the translation of the Gaelic Ogham. In addition to the Tree Ogham message there is another Ogham inscription on the roof of the wedge cave. A small circle dominates the ceiling within which appear the bold Ogham consonant, S-L, representing the word “SOL” (sun) and announcing in Gaelic (and other ancient scripts) that this place is a solar observatory. Strokes on the other side of the SOL inscription are thought to read, in Ogham: AT LUGHNASA THE SUMMER SUN RESTORES THE GATHERING FOR SPORTS.

Close by the SOL inscription is another inscription translated by McGlone and Leonard as “SEASON FOR REAPING,” which coincides with the harvest festival of Lughnasa. The inscription includes a large pointed arrow or triangle aligned toward the rising sun in August. The triangular glyph could represent a cornucopia opening that is filled by the rays of the sun.

Adding to the astronomical references, Phil Leonard has translated the bold Gaelic Ogham on the lower lip of the cave to read NOBLE TWINS, an Old World synonym for the Gemini constellation.

Rollin Gillespie also was involved in unraveling the mystery of the Sun Temple. A mathematician and rocket engineer during the heady days of NASA’s Apollo missions, Rollin is credited with developing the navigational calculus that plotted the trajectories needed to reliably transport men to the moon and safely return them to Earth. Rollin had visited many of the Purgatoire River sites with Ted, Bill and others and at the Sun Temple, he postulated that the pattern of the marks resembled the Gemini constellation, with the slightly elongated two lead stars representing Castor and Pollux.

The age of the Sun Temple has been unclear. However, two dating methods have been utilized. Professor Ron Dorn of Arizona State University used an experimental Cation ratio technique involving chemical analyses of the patina embedded in the grooves of the Noble Twins and Tree Ogham inscription that resulted in a dating of 900-1000 BCE, +/- 250 years.

The second dating method involved astronomy as suggested by Rollin Gillespie. He showed that the marks in the inscription that are about one inch long represent Castor and Pollux in the Gemini constellation, whereas the three-inch plus marks are most likely planets. Gillespie, helped by Phil Leonard and associates at Evans & Sutherland in Salt Lake City, the leading manufacturer of digital planetariums in the world, identified an extremely rare triple planetary alignment in Gemini that occurred in the pre-dawn skies of August 471 CE. This alignment involved Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn and would have been seen from the site. Since it coincided with the season of Lughnasa it would undoubtedly have been worthy of memorializing in rock by posterity-conscious traveling Celts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Challenging Long-Held Views
The Heart of the Matter
The Old History: Are We Living in Flatland?
The Archeopriests
Landing of the Diffusionists

1 Two Stories of Columbus
Discovering a New History
The Usual Story of Columbus
The Real Story of Columbus Emerges
The Dynamics of Slavery
Aftermath

2 American History Abc
Barry Fell’s America B.C.
The Phoenicians in America
The Phoenician Newton Stone in Scotland
The Bourne Stone
The Crespi Collection from Ecuador
Other Phoenician/American Discoveries
The Celtic Ogham Writing on the Newton Stone
Coins by the Hundreds
The Davenport Relics Conspiracy
The Critics Prevail

3 The Stars and the Stones
Archaeo—What?
Megalithic Ireland and Martin Brennan

4 Celtic New England
Finding the Trailhead
Exploring Celtic America
An Auspicious Meeting
Standing Stones and Perched Rocks
The New Hampshire Ring of Stone
America’s Stonehenge

5 They Settled in Mesoamerica
Martin Brennan in Mexico
The Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh
The Maya Calendar
John Major Jenkins and the Galactic Alignment
The Hidden Sign Language of the Maya
Chichén Itzá’s Equinox Serpent
The Aztec Quetzalcoatl and the Mayan Kukulcán
Influences from Africa and Asia?
Influences from India?

6 Sacred Sexuality at the Pathfinder Site
Meeting Bill McGlone in Colorado
The Purgatoire River Canyon
Archaeoastronomy Basics
The Pathfinder
Meeting the Hunter and the Goddess
A Second Pathfinder Alignment
Divine Sexuality—The Story of Changing Woman

7 Equinox Sunrise: Celtic Sun Deities in Colorado
Diffusionists at Odds
A Cowboy Guide
Crack Cave, Southeastern Colorado
Equinox Sunrise at Crack Cave

8 Old World Cosmologies at the Anubis Caves
Celtic Religion in Oklahoma
Mitra, Mithra, or Mithras
Anubis Caves Inscriptions
The Six Months Ogham Inscription and the
Nose Pointer Alignment
The Silent Opera and Other Sunset Equinox Displays
Celtic Goddesses in Cave
Cosmology and Constellations

9 More Celtic America
Lugh and the Festival of Lughnasa
Cross-Quarter Day Alignment at the Sun Temple
Cosmology of the Sun Temple
Celts in Kansas
Cave Hollow Sunrise
Other Encounters
Equinox Sunset Cave near Russell, Kansas
Further Indications of Celtic Migrations in America

10 Westward to a Dwelling Place of a Great Spirit
Westward to California
A Destructive Legacy
The Equinox Sunrise Light Serpent at Mojave North
Schmidt’s Theories of Transoceanic Diffusion
More Solar Markers
Other Mojave North Petroglyphs
The SEA Rock

11 Mojave North II—Did They Come Across the Pacific?
Where Have All the Mystics Gone?
Cross-Quarter Days at Mojave North
Shiva’s Linga?
The Epigraphy of Mojave North
Lunar Alignment Discoveries
Ceremonial Basins Mystery
The Roots of Mojave North
Endangered History at Mojave North

12 The Great Basin Melting Pot
The Great Basin
Great Basin Journeys
Encounters with a Rock Art Investigator
Petroglyph Sites near Bishop, California
A Story of the Kiva
The Story of Kokopelli
Cupules and Grinding Holes
Diffusion of Vedic Cultures via the Pacific into
the Great Basin?
East Meets West in More Ways than One

13 Midwest Relics, Mounds, and Controversies
The Discovery and Excavation of Mounds in North America
Copper Mining in Michigan
Wayne May’s Ideas and the Mound Builders’ Culture
The Serpent Mound of Ohio
The Case for Old World Relics from the Midwest
Fakes?
In the End, Controversies and Skepticism

14 Hebrews, Romans, and Early Christians
Reports of Hebrew Contacts in the New World
The Bat Creek Stone
The Newark Holy Stones
Semitic Scripts
Hidden Mountain—A Hebrew Fortress in New Mexico?
Hidden Mountain Constellations
Other Hidden Mountain Connections
Artifacts from Calalus, “An Unknown Land” in the Arizona Desert
The Cherokees, DNA, and Other Connections to the Hebrews

15 More to Learn about Ancient America
Indus Valley Connections
Chinese Connections
Japanese Connections
Minoan, Phoenician, and Greek Connections
Roman Connections
More Irish and Welsh Connections
Arab Connections
Connections to Mesopotamia and Egypt
Viking Connections
A Norwegian Village in America and the Suppression of Thor Heyerdahl
The Knights Templar Connection
Do We Need More Proof?

16 The Legacy of the Conquest
America Before the Arrival of the Spanish
The Church and the Spanish Monarchy
Major Factors Impacting the Conquest
Aftermath: The Imposition and Maintenance of the Columbus Myth

17 Awakening a New History
A Return to Planet of the Apes?
A World in Amnesia
The Search for the Sacred
The Serpent of Consciousness
A Return of the Magi?
A Mind Adjustment Is Required
Much to Be Done
A Final Perspective

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

Sharing more than 25 years of research, Lehrburger employs epigraphy, archaeology, and archaeoastronomy to reveal extensive evidence for pre-Columbian explorers in ancient America. He provides more than 300 photographs and drawings of sites, relics, and rock art, and uncovers the real story of Columbus and his motives for coming to the Americas.

Watkins’ Mind Body Spirit

Carl Lehrburger exposes and slays the dragons of the “archeopriesthood”—their still persistent “flat-earth” science, historical conspiracies and cover-ups—to redefine our role in nature and history as inclusive participants, rather than conquering exploiters; as harvesters of the collective rather than selfish greed- and power-driven ends—hallmarks of our new history.

June 2015 Whole Life Times

The Secrets of Ancient America, by Carl Lehrburger eloquently argues that it is time for a new history of America to be written. Drawing on first-person accounts of his numerous visits to little known pre-Columbian sites across America, as well as a detailed overview of previous suppressed work in this field, this lavishly illustrated and compelling book makes a convincing case that Columbus was the last to discover America and that it is high time for the true history of pre-Columbian contact in America to be taught in our schools.

author of Ancient Giants Who Ruled America Richard Dewhurst

I found Secrets of Ancient America incredibly difficult to put down and Lehrburger’s analysis of the India/Mexico connection was mind blowing. Lehrburger’s Secrets of Ancient America is a tome spanning over 400 pages. Over 300 images have been included and the author went to great lengths to notate each of the images to better explain the petroglyphs that are typically time worn and challenging to decipher without the influence of natural lighting. The detailed explanation of the archaeoastronomical connection found at the majority of the ancient sites is thought provoking and eye opening. It is quite clear that the Americas were frequented by Old World inhabitants for thousands of years prior to the voyages of Columbus.

Lost-Origins.com

Impressive insights into the spirituality of ancient stargazers abound in Carl Lehrburger’s compelling, personally guided tour of archaeological sites from Stonehenge to Newport and from Serpent Mound, Ohio, to the Hindu campsites in the Mojave Desert. Fascinating research by an inquiring mind will inspire those who are curious about the new dimensions of archaeoastronomy and spirituality. Wherever a shaft of sunlight from the winter solstice has shined upon the ancient petroglyphs left by ancient Celtic seafarers in Ireland or along the eastern seaboard, you can bet Carl Lehrburger has been there to record it on camera. His easy-to-read compendium of sacred sites and archaeoastronomy is a spectacular, exciting guide for our own journey.

Gunnar Thompson

This is a fascinating exploration of the deep history of human migrations around the planet. Drawing from evidence systematically and irrationally dismissed by many of the professional archaeologists, Lehrburger shares his path of discovery, his pioneering field research, and his heartfelt observations about the peopling of the Americas. Clearly, there is a truer story here that has been right under our noses all along.

author of Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 and director of t John Major Jenkins

Carl Lehrburger’s comprehensive documentation of the dizzying number of ancient petroglyphs, artifacts, and sites in the Americas is stunning. This work proves beyond any doubt that many cultures from around the world came to the Americas and permanently left evidence of their extensive knowledge in the rocks and people who inhabited this land.

Scott Wolter

Threatening to topple the ‘archaeopriests’ who still think Columbus discovered America, Lehrburger strikes at the heart of the matter with his New History. An intimate and brilliantly illustrated journey back to the time of ancient sky-watchers . . . a game-changing work.

Susan B. Martinez

Sharing more than 25 years of research, Lehrburger employs epigraphy, archaeology, and archaeoastronomy to reveal extensive evidence for pre-Columbian explorers in ancient America. He provides more than 300 photographs and drawings of sites, relics, and rock art, and uncovers the real story of Columbus and his motives for coming to the Americas.

Watkins Mind Body Spirit

Sharing more than 25 years of research, Lehrburger employs epigraphy, archaeology, and archaeoastronomy to reveal extensive evidence for pre-Columbian explorers in ancient America. He provides more than 300 photographs and drawings of sites, relics, and rock art, and uncovers the real story of Columbus and his motives for coming to the Americas.

Watkins’ Mind Body Spirit