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The Bearded Profile
A second chance to explore the Turkey Mountain area occurred on New Year's Day of 1976. The last day of 1975 was a warm and sunny 70o Fahrenheit, and the promise of assistance from a group of college students was heard. During the night the temperature dropped to 20o. Nevertheless, the next morning at the meeting place was one young man, Bart Torbert. Considerate and respectful, Torbert was to assist me ably many times during the coming years.
In order to drive as close to the site as possible, the car was parked in a private lot of the city sewage plant, not knowing that this was forbidden. Later we found a sign on the windshield threatening a tow-away. Meanwhile, bundled to our ears and carrying paper, crayons, a gallon of liquid latex (labeled "Do not allow to freeze"), and a paint brush, we walked down the track to a point where there was more distance between the track and the cliffs.
We were hunting the profile of a man's head. As sketched by Coover, it featured a long pointed beard. When we found it, about 15 feet high on the cliff, Torbert managed to make a latex mold only because he was 6 feet 4 inches tall and stood on rocks (Fig. 3-14). Deeply pecked, the head measured 17 inches high and 25 inches long. The man wore a softly-folded headdress like a snood, his nose was in a straight line with his forehead, his chin receded, and his pointed beard was absurdly long. I had seen such a profile before, but on this day I could not remember where.
Fig. 3-14 Pecked profile, Turkey Mountain, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Gwen the Linguist
Below the petroglyph of the face was a space where a huge slab of stone had split away from the cliff, forming a hallway about 3 feet wide. Pecked on the inner wall were the legends, "LOS CAVE" and "Bad Dog." We turned our attention to an inscription on the cliff to the left of the profile, at chest height. It consisted of vertical lines which intersected a horizontal stemline formed by a deep natural crack. Below were three symbols which looked like the English letters "PIA."(Fig. 3-15). I was reasonably certain that the top line formed Ogam script, and I suspected that the three capital letters might also be ancient script because of the shape of the "A" (see Appendix A, page 469).
Fig. 3-15 Bilingual autograph of Gwen, Turkey Mountain, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
As usual, the tracing of this inscription was sent to Fell. He replied, "The Ogam script is 'G-W-N,' meaning 'Gwen' or 'Gwynn,' masculine form of 'Fair,' one of the commonest Celtic names and equivalent to the English 'White.'" He also said concerning the letters "P-I-A," "I think this must be modern initials."
To this I replied, "Look again! The lettering is all of the same age, pecked with the same tool, and this is not a Roman 'A.' The crossbar is bent down like the Iberic form of the letter." Soon a note was received from Fell saying:
"Congratulations again. Your second sense for antiquity triumphs. Upon your repeated urging to think about 'PIA' again, I find that this is a fine bilingual. 'P I A = Pa-ya-a = White' in Punic."
The latex mold which was later made and sent to Fell was photographed and used in his book America B.C. Fell wrote:
"Gwynn, an early Celtic explorer, put his autograph in two languages on a rock face on Turkey Mountain near Tulsa, Oklahoma. The inscription below the Ogam, reading from left to right, are the North Iberian letters, 'Pa-ya-a,' spelling a Punic word that also means 'white.' The date of the inscription is perhaps around 500 B.C."
Three years later I received a telephone call from the Tulsa Police Department, informing me that I was being prosecuted for stealing Tulsa's rock! Astounded, I asked, "What rock?" and was told that it was the one published in the book, America B.C. I said, "Sir, the inscription is on a cliff and the cliff is still there." The caller apologized.
In light of Fells's verification in 1976 that a Celt from Iberia had stood at the site, the profile with the long beard was reconsidered. In searching references I found a dimly-remembered illustration with the chart of the Iberic alphabet, in Volume 2 of David Diringer's The Alphabet. On a jagged fragment of an excavated vase from Liria, Spain, rode two Iberian horsemen, both wearing snood-like headdresses and both with the same receding chins and prominent noses in line with their foreheads. One of them had a long pointed beard (Fig. 3-16).
Fig. 3-16 Comparison to Fig. 2-14: Profiles of Iberian Horsemen. Redrawn from Diringer.
Was there the portrait of an Iberian on a Tulsa cliff? The profile was pecked in rather a crude manner. So was the "LOS CAVE" and "BAD DOG." It was rumored that in the 1920's a hobo had lived at the site in a shelter he had made. There were gouges at the entrance to the narrow hallway as if someone had hung a gate. There were notches cut in the top of the slab and also into the cliff opposite as if someone had laid boards across for a roof. Had a hobo named LOS pecked the profile? Latex molds of all the petroglyphs concerned indicate that a different tool was used for the profile, than was used for the "LOS CAVE" and "BAD DOG" inscriptions.
Zarya the Farmer
My assistants Shuller and Murphy happened to be students at universities in Tulsa during the spring of 1976. They explored Turkey Mountain and reported more inscriptions, one of which was on top of the slab of stone which stood upright by the profile and the Gwen bilingual. I had to see what they found.
The day we scheduled to go to the site was rainy and turned into a deluge as we walked down the track. With us also was Harold Arter, a co-worker. Our cameras were useless. Who could take photographs with water running over the lens?
Upon reaching the upright slab, we noted that it was 12 feet tall on the inner side but had a 30-foot drop-off on the side toward the track. It was about 3 feet wide on top. Our intention was to get me onto the top to inspect an inscription that Murphy had described. But how?
Shuller had a plan. Since Murphy was young and slightly built, he could be boosted part way. He would scramble up first. Shuller, being 6 feet 3 inches tall, made a good step-ladder; he would stand against the slab. Then came the tricky part: I would climb onto a 6-inch shelf of stone protruding from the cliff side opposite the slab. From the shelf, I would step across onto Shuller's shoulders. Then Murphy would pull me up. This plan was carefully considered. I was wearing heavy hiking boots, a man's raincoat, a plastic head scarf, and gloves which I took off to wring out while water ran off my nose and chin and cascaded behind my glasses. Why not try? Soon I was on top. How could the slanting surface be slick with mud?
On a later trip, I studied the inscription more carefully. It is always frustrating to find an inscription damaged by vandalism, or by natural weathering. Obviously, this can make an inscription difficult or even impossible to read, even though a careful and correct copy is submitted to the translator. This is a price we often pay in the search for ancient writing. Here the symbols on top of the slab had been spalled by the elements.
The inscription consists of three lines (Fig. 3-17). Above the rectangle are three letters, the first of which is spalled in the center, and an arrow pointing up-river. Within the rectangle are either nine or ten symbols, with the first and third broken off at the top. The fourth, or fourth and fifth, are problematical. Working within these limitations, Fell stated that the top three letters, read from right to left, are a name in Iberian Punic: "Z-r-A," or "Zarya." The meaning is "farmer," the same meaning as the English name "George." Fell also stated that an Iberian king who left his record in New York has this same name. The letters within the rectangle are also Iberian Punic, reading from right to left "K- -s -r-p-i-," or "continue on this way." This would relate to the pointing arrow mentioned above. Two other letters on a slant below, with one intersecting the bottom line of the rectangle, are the Numidian letters "s(z)o-h," meaning "continue on." Thus, the inscription is bilingual, according to Fell.
More directional markers are found to the south, or downriver. There Shuller and Murphy had found a carved boulder slanted against another stone and the bank, as if forming an entrance to a shelter. Two symbols there resemble windows: the first with two horizontal panes, the second with two vertical panes. Fell thought the first had been intended to be a symbol resembling the numeral "8," distorted to a more easily carved squarish form. If this is correct, the symbol might transliterate to "s-b," meaning "go on" or "keep traveling."
Fig. 3-17 Autograph of Zarya and bilingual message deciphered by Fell, Turkey Mountain, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Sturdy and Zeb
Shuller and Murphy had also found another inscribed boulder. It was above and near the first large boulder by the railroad track. The 32-inch inscription on the large, knee-high boulder consisted of several letters, each 4 to 5 inches high. It may have been made by the same person who carved the message near the tracks, as one of the symbols repeats the bisected oval found there.
The symbols in the inscription are grouped like letters forming words. One group consists of three letters: a backward "L," the bisected oval, and a straight vertical line with a straight branch to the right (Fig. 3-18). Fell stated that if intended for the slightly different Iberian Punic "w-t-d," read right to left, the word would mean "Sturdy," a man's name.
Fig. 3-18 Possible autograph of Sturdy and Zeb, Turkey Mountain, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Transliteration and translation by Fell.
To the right of these letters and slightly higher on the stone, are two symbols which at first glance resemble the numerals "2" and "9." But the "2" is not like our Arabic numeral "2," and the "9" is not closed and the stem is curved far to the left. Fell stated that if not the numeral "2," then it may be the Iberian Punic, read right to left, "z-b," or "Zeb," as in "Zebedee," a common Semitic name meaning "Gift (of God)."
There are bold diagonal slashes above each group of letters. Although their meaning is not understood, Fell and I think that the slashes suggest that both groups were made at the same time, and that the last group is not a modern numeral.