MS 2014-03 Robert C. Mainfort, Jr. and Mary L. Kwas papers on the Bat Creek stone
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: NAA MS 2014-03
name: label: Creator
content: Mainfort, Robert C., 1948-
label: Creator
content: Kwas, Mary L.
label: Names
content: Emmert, John W., 1842-1917
place: label: Place
content: Tennessee -- Antiquities
topic: label: Topic
content: Hoaxes
label: Topic
content: Indians of North America -- Transatlantic influences
creator: label: Creator
content: Mainfort, Robert C., 1948-
label: Creator
content: Kwas, Mary L.
culture: label: Culture
content: Indians of North America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: The Bat Creek stone is a small inscribed rock that was reportedly excavated from an undisturbed burial mound at Bat Creek in Loudon County, Tennessee, by John W. Emmert, a Smithsonian field assistant for the Bureau of American Ethnology Mound Survey. Cyrus Thomas, director of the Mound Survey, claimed the marks resembled Cherokee syllabary in his publication, "Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology" (1894). In 1970, Cyrus Gordon, a Semitic languages scholar, identified the marks as Paleo-Hebrew. The tablet has since been cited (most notably by J. Huston McCulloch) as evidence of Precolumbian contacts between the Old World and New World. Robert C. Mainfort, Jr. and Mary L. Kwas refuted this claim in their 2004 article in American Antiquity 69(4), "The Bat Creek Stone Revisited: A Fraud Exposed." According to Mainfort and Kwas, evidence suggests that the inscription is a forgery, likely perpetrated by John W. Emmert.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 33 Items (0.33 linear feet (1 box)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1987-2005
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: These files were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Mary L. Kwas and Robert C. Mainfort in 2014.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS2014-03
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Correspondence
label: Type
content: Research
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Correspondence
label: Genre/Form
content: Research
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This collection contains Robert C. Mainfort, Jr. and Mary L. Kwas' research files for their article "The Bat Creek Stone Revisited: A Fraud Exposed." The files include a copy of their article, correspondence, notes from archival and bibliographic research, and reference sources.
relatedmaterial: label: Other Archival Materials
content: The Bat Creek stone (Accession A134902-0) and a cast (Accession A134902A-0) are held by the Department of Anthropology Collections, National Museum of Natural History. The records of the Mound Survey, MS 2400, are at the National Anthropological Archives.