Lenape Stone

The two halves of the Lenape Stone – the fracture line can be seen running diagonally through the rightmost hole.

The Lenape Stone is a piece of slate found in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1872, which appears to depict Native Americans hunting a woolly mammoth. This image, however, seems to have been carved some time after the stone was broken into two; for this and other reasons, it is generally considered an archaeological forgery.

History

The first portion of the stone is reported to have been found in Bucks County by Bernard Hansell, a farmer, in the spring of 1872. In 1881, Hansell sold the fragment to Henry Paxon, a young man with an interest in Native American artifacts. A few months later, Hansell reported finding the second piece of the stone in the same field where he had unearthed the first.

Once the two pieces were joined, they were examined by members of the Bucks County Historical Society, including archaeologist and historian Henry Chapman Mercer. Despite evidence which cast doubt on the stone's origin, Mercer came to be an ardent proponent of its authenticity, an argument which he put forth in his 1885 book, The Lenape Stone, or the Indian and the Mammoth. However, even Mercer acknowledged that the stone's unique nature and a lack of physical evidence (such as soil samples) made scientific certainty impossible.

The Lenape Stone was acquired by the Mercer Museum in 1934 for $600. In 1967 the stone was stolen from the museum and was missing for two years. It was recovered in 1969 during an undercover investigation in Philadelphia.

The stone is still housed at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

The Lenape Stone - both sides

Physical description

The Lenape Stone is a small piece of slate, 4 ⅜ by 1 ¾ inches, ½ inch thick and 2 inches wide. It is hypothesised to have been a gorget, a type of ornamental necklace. Supporting this theory are the two holes drilled into the stone which would have enabled it to be worn about the neck. The stone comprises two fragments, each of which is decorated with clear engravings on both sides; they form a complete picture when the two halves are joined. On one side there are numerous depictions of turtles, fish, birds, and snakes. The reverse side shows an elephant-like creature, apparently a mammoth, along with humanoid figures, a forest, some teepees, and other markings. The humanoid figures are engaged in battle with the mammoth, and one even appears to have been trampled by it.

Authenticity

Henry Mercer purported the Lenape Stone was authentic. The stone was a significant find at the time, being supposedly the first ancient illustration of a mammoth in America. Mercer went to great lengths detailing his analysis in his 1885 book, The Lenape Stone, or the Indian and the Mammoth, which he personally paid to have published. He conducted an archaeological dig on the Hansell Farm, collected testimony, documented contemporary expert opinions (including contemporary Indians and scholars who disagreed with his own conclusion), and researched related findings and Native American mythology. Mercer theorized that the back side of the stone, with the various animal depictions, could have been a pictographic or mnemonic device depicting an oral history or "song-chronicle" of Indian history. He compared the pictographs with that of the Walam Olum, which Mercer believed to be the genuine Lenape origin story.

However, there is much evidence against the authenticity of the Lenape Stone. While mammoths were indeed in North America, they are thought to have become extinct in North America around 10,000 years ago. Most gorgets uncovered in archaeological digs are less than 2,000 years old. In addition, other artifacts found in the same field as the Lenape Stone bore stylistically similar carvings, and these were all dated to around 2,000 years ago.

There were no witnesses to verify the circumstances under which either fragment of the stone was found, and after it was found, the stone was cleaned multiple times, making geological tests virtually impossible. The carvings on each half of the stone appear not to match up perfectly, which may indicate that they were made after the stone was broken.

Herbert C. Kraft, a leading scholar on Lenape History from the 1960s to the 1990s, concluded the Lenape Stone is a fake. While gorget stones were used from 1000 BC to 1000 AD, few are incised with figures. The bow and arrow shown on the stone was not in use by Paleo-Indian mastodon or mammoth hunters. Teepees, as depicted on the stone, were not known to be used by Native Americans in the East.

"Copycat" Stones

Bernard Hansell, the alleged finder of the Lenape Stone, claimed to have discovered three more similar stones in 1885, while Mercer was writing his book. Mercer documented these finds in his book and believed this bolstered the authenticity of the Lenape Stone, while others believe these were more of Hansell's frauds.

The Taunton Stone, also known as the Hammond Stone, bears a strikingly similar resemblance to the Lenape Stone. It was a gorget stone found in 1918 in Taunton, Massachusetts about five miles upstream from Dighton Rock, known for it's mysterious petroglyphs. Frank C. Hammond, a local railroad engineer and artifact collector, uncovered the stone while he was plowing on his farm. The stone was made of dark slate like the Lenape Stone, although it was bigger at 12 inches long, 6 inches wide, and 1/2 inches thick. It was in the shape of an animal pelt and each side depicted scenes very similar to the Lenape Stone. It had four holes while the Lenape Stone only has two.

The Taunton Stone has been lost, but pictures and tracings of the stone are stored at and have been digitized by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.

An article in the Boston Post from 1921 chronicled multiple experts who had varying theories, ranging from the stone being authentic to a fraud perpetrated by Mormons. Lenape history Scholar Herbert C. Kraft believed the Taunton Stone was "plagiarized from the equally fake Lenape Stone."

See also

• Holly Oak gorget – another forged artifact bearing a carving of a mammoth

Further reading

• Mercer, Henry Chapman (1885). The Lenape Stone, or the Indian and the Mammoth. (Part A, Part B)