Phoenicians in AmericaIn 1780, on a rock on the shores of Mount Hope Bay in Bristol, Rhode Island, there was discovered an inscription, which Fell deciphered in 1975 to read:
" VOYAGERS FROM TARSHISH THIS STONE PROCLAIMS "
This suggests strongly that here on the eastern seaboard of North America there was once a port for "ships of Tarshish".
On the island of Hispaniola, Columbus discovered immense ancient mines. In Haiti, he thought he could trace furnaces in which gold had been refined.
Between 1850 and 1910, travelers in the Amazon region and other parts of Brazil were reporting the finding of old inscriptions on rock faces.
Former rubber tapper Bernardo da Silva Ramos, in a now rare book in Portuguese, has published 1,500 reproductions from such rock carvings. They are all covered over with the letters of the Phoenician alphabet. Investigator Pierre Honore discussing the finds of other Brazilian travelers and explorers of last century, states:
Today there is a whole library full of their reports; and they too were firmly convinced that the inscriptions were Phoenician texts. They were sure that King Solomon (975-935 BC) had once come to the Amazon with his ships; that the gold countries of Ophir, Tarshish and Parvaim were not to be looked for in the Old World at all, but here in the Amazon region on the Rio Solimoes, Solomon?s River.
It is reported that in Havea near Rio de Janeiro are letters several feet high inscribed upon a sheer cliff face in cuneiform. The inscription reads:
" BADEZIR OF THE PHOENICIAN TYRE. THE FIRST SON OF JETHBAAL "
Jethbaal ruled Tyre from 887 to 856 BC.
In 1872, on the coast of Brazil near Paraiba, Joaquim Alves da Costa found on his property a stone that bore numerous characters which no one understood. He copied them and sent them to the President of the Instituto Historico. A translation is as follows:
We are Sidonian Canaanites from the city of the Merchant King. We were cast up on this distant island, a land of mountains. We sacrificed a youth to the celestial gods and goddesses in the nineteenth year of our mighty King Hiram and embarked from Ezion-geber into the Red Sea. We voyaged with ten ships and were at sea together for two years around Africa. Then we were separated by the hand of Baal and were no longer with our companions. So we have come here, twelve men and three women, into "Island of Iron". Am I, the Admiral, a man who would flee? Nay! May the celestial gods and goddesses favor us well.
This eight-line inscription proved to be in Phoenician characters. There are reasons to believe that the king referred to was Hiram III (553-533 BC). Brazil was known, anciently, as Hy Brasil. The incorporation of ?I? or ?Hy? is typically Phoenician. According to Cyrus Gordon, Head of the Department of Mediterranean studies at Brandeis University, Massachusetts, the Phoenicians certainly knew Brazil, which they called "Island of Iron". Hy Brasil means "Island of Iron". Iron is still the country?s main resource.
When I first learned of this inscription, I was skeptical. Mention of it was omitted from my book Dead Men?s Secrets, since I preferred to publish only discoveries which could be confirmed beyond doubt as genuine. Others also considered it to be a fraud. As we noted, at the time the alleged inscription was found, the script was not known. No one other than the original translator could read it. That has now changed. Significantly, it contains Phoenician idiosyncrasies that were unknown in 1872 but which are now authenticated by other inscriptions found since.
Concerning many such initially rejected finds, Barry Fell says:
One by one competent scholars who hold responsible positions in universities and museums are now coming forward with confirmations of the decipherments.
The trend of Phoenician colonial development prior to 1000 BC was mainly in a westerly direction. However, it is quite certain that they did not long rest satisfied with that. With their overland routes to the east at risk from unrest in Babylonia, the Phoenicians gave careful attention to an alternative eastern route. We know that Hiram I, king of Tyre, shared a friendship with Israel?s King David, and with his son Solomon.
There was also a religious sympathy. These early Phoenicians ? contrary to the now current notions of popular writers ? were monotheists. As a result of a commercial treaty, Hiram assisted in the erection of Solomon?s Temple and Israel granted Phoenicia the two ports of Eilat and Ezion-geber on the Gulf of Aqaba.
Like Gades in the west, the Persian Gulf colonies must now be viewed not as an end of Phoenician navigation in the east, but as the starting point for more distant navigation. Fortunately, a mass of undigested historic data leaves no doubt concerning this fact.
We find that the ships employed in the prosecution of the silver trade in both easterly and westerly directions were now "ships of Tarshish".
Suddenly we find gold and silver in such abundance in Jerusalem that Solomon made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones? for abundance" And why? "... for the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks."
There can be no question that the peacocks came from South-East Asia. But whence the abundance of silver?
Heeren:
Silver is also found in Siberia and in China or South Asia, but the large annual importation of the metal from Europe in consequence of the high price it bore in the East sufficiently prove that it was found there in small quantities. We may therefore conclude with certainty that the greater portion of the silver possessed of old by the Asiatic nations was imported, and there can be no question that the Phoenicians were the channel of importation.
The ultimate destination of the ships of Hiram and Solomon was a place or region called Ophir. "And they came to Ophir," says the Scripture, "and fetched from thence gold." "And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones." From the books of Genesis and Josephus, it can be found that Ophir was the general name for the rich southern countries lying on the African, Arabian and Indian coasts.
But when we ask, Where was that Ophir which could be reached from Ezion-geber that provided silver in such abundance, we are faced with a problem.
It can be shown that the source was not Asia, the greater portion of whose silver was imported. Silver was so scarce in Arabia, that it was assessed at ten times the value of gold. Yet in Solomon?s Jerusalem it became as common as stones.I am aware of the nineteenth century explorers? tales that supposedly identified the mines of Ophir with central Africa. There are people who refuse to accept that the massive stone fortress known as the ruins of Zimbabwe (and situated in that country) could have been built by native Africans. Such identification with King Solomon must be regarded as romantic fiction.
Zimbabwe is AD not BC and almost certainly it is the work of a powerful indigenous African empire.
That the expeditions pushed into regions much more distant than the Indian Ocean is apparent from the "three years" required for the double voyage, only nine months being required for a return journey to the extremities of Arabia. Thomas Johnston suggests that Ophir "must be looked for in the farther East, and in a territory that was not only capable of supplying silver in practically unlimited quantities, but of affording conclusive evidence of occupancy by the Jews and Phoenicians." Johnston argues persuasively that the route of the expeditions can be traced beyond the peacock lands, through Indonesia, the Torres Strait (at the north of Australia), and via Samoa and Tahiti to Mexico and Peru. It appears that they founded colonies along the route.
An American destination accords well with the fact that the world?s largest silver deposits are in the Americas ? in the United States, Mexico, Canada and Peru.
The Bible says that the distant land of Tarshish was rich in silver, iron, tin and lead. It could be reached from the Mediterranean port of Joppa (Jaffa), or the Red Sea port of Ezion-geber. A glance at the map tells us that the only part of the world that one would reach by ship from either the Mediterranean or Red Sea ports is the Atlantic seaboard. Cyrus Gordon of Brandeis University, Massachusetts, says that a text mentioning "gold of Ophir" found at Tell Qasile on the Mediterranean coast of Israel, suggests that Ophir could be reached via Gibraltar. I am aware that many places have been suggested as the location of Solomon?s fabled mines. New respect for the seagoing capabilities of early navigators makes the Americas a strong possibility.
The Ugha Mongulala tribe of north-west Brazil preserve written records of an ancient city called Ofir (Ophir) which once stood at the mouth of the Amazon River.
This is the ONLY independent mention of a specific locality called Ophir, outside of the Bible. Could this be significant?
tradition states :
Lhasa, the prince of Akakor... commanded the construction of Ofir, a powerful harbor city at the mouth of the Great River [the Amazon]. Ships from Samon?s [Solomon?s?] empire docked there with their valuable cargoes. In exchange for gold and silver. Perhaps, like that of Tarshish, the name Ophir became displaced, and as the trade of the Phoenicians moved further eastward and westward, it moved with the trade, until in course of time it came to be applied to a more distant region controlled by the Phoenicians. Corroborating this, the Phoenician Ophir or Ofor means, in their ancient language, the Western Country.
And what land lay to the west? The Americas, no less.
to be continued.....
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