Category Archives: Ancient Relics

These posts discuss physical evidence of daily life from Mu

Examining the ‘Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone’ Part 5

Posted on March 15, 2014 | Comments Off

Our examination of the Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone that appears on page 230 of the 1932 Sacred Symbols of Mu by my great-grandfather, James Churchward, continues with the response I received from the National Park Service.

From Sacred Symbols of Mu
A Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone Found in the Ouachita River, Hot Springs, Arkansas
From Col. J. R. Fordyce, Little Rock, Arkansas

Links to Examining the ‘Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone’ parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six.

Nobody has to twist my arm to make me admit that my email to Tom Hill, Curator of the Hot Springs National Park was not only answered in a timely manner, but extremely thorough as well. My sincere thanks go out to Mr. Hill who went above and beyond the call of duty in his response to my request for information. Not only did he provide references to the ‘Calendar Stone’ in print, but also consulted with knowledgeable individuals and provided other links to real information about the genuine article. Until now in this examination of the Calendar Stone, it has relied on accounts by people that have never actually seen the original article.
One such reference is a description from the Newby Collection from Purdue University on the Arkansas Calendar Stone (thanks to again to Tom Hill and Meeks Etchieson, archaeologist with the United States Forest Service at the Ouachita National Forest):

Stone Calendar: Arkansas, USA 500 ad. – 1000ad.
approx. 15″ long x 12″ wide x 3″ thick,

Dark basalt in a tear shape form. Along the outer edge of the stone there are nine figures placed around thirteen rectangles that contains geometric designs. In the center there is a smooth flat plain with a shallow hole in the center. Ettween the point of the tear and the rectangles there are five phases of the moon in bas-relief and above the moons there is a design in the form of a mound that contains a dimond with a circle in its center.

Another reference provided by Mr. Hill (after contacting Dr. Dawn Bringelson at the NPS Midwest Archeological Center in Lincoln, NE) concerned an Aztec Calendar stone. This Calendar stone from the collection of the Peabody Museum of Yale University has no resemblance to the one contained in Sacred Symbols of Mu, but the photographs provided in the pdf downloaded from this link clearly show what an Aztec calendar stone looks like (as opposed to what some people claim.)
Due to copyright restrictions I am unable to reproduce any images from the downloaded pdf.

Additionally, from Mr. Hill’s email:

So I contacted Dr. Mary Beth Trubitt, archeologist at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, AR, and Dr. Ann M. Early, head of the Arkansas Archeological Survey at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and State Archeologist for Arkansas. Dr. Trubitt had no information, but Dr. Early said she did not recall finding the calendar stone when she inventoried the Fordyce collection that the University received from the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock a few years ago. However, she did say that she knows about the stone. She explained that the Fordyce family collection kicked around in Hot Springs for many years before it was sold to the MacArthur Park Museum/Museum of Discovery, and it resided there mostly in storerooms (at least the stone artifacts did) for 50 years after that…

Dr. Early added that Sam Dickinson acquired John Fordyce’s archeological and historical files, and he eventually placed them along with his own in the Cammie Henry Research Center in the Watson Library at Northwestern State University, in Natchitoches, LA. One can see a box inventory list of the Dickinson collection on their web page. There is one box labeled “calendar stone,” and it had a proviso that it was not to be opened till after Sam’s death. Sam has passed away, and when Dr. Early was in the center about 4 years ago, looking through the Fordyce papers, she took a quick glance in that box. The stone is not there, as she recalls. There were only some newspaper clippings and a few other documents, and photos, in the box. There are a great many files in the Fordyce portion of the Dickinson collection, but Dr. Early only got to go very rapidly through about half of them. She did not find a file of information about where Fordyce got the relics that he purchased. She explained that Fordyce acquired pots, thousands of lithic artifacts, and many plains Indian ethnographic items. Anyway, she says the stone itself has been around since the 1930s, but is clearly not an ancient artifact. Dr. Early is not sure where it is though, or if it still exists.

The final part of the examination of the ‘Mound-builder’s Calendar Stone’ covers a book that shows a photograph of the artifact and devotes a few pages to it.

Have a great day.

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Posted in Ancient Relics

Examining the ‘Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone’ Part 4

Posted on March 9, 2014 | Comments Off

Continuing the research on the artifact shown on page 230 of the 1932 Sacred Symbols of Mu, my web search yielded 2 links. One was to a New York Times article, reprinted in the July 1, 1933 Arkansas Catholic and discussed in this previous posting. The other to the Manataka Indian Council and an email link to Lee Standing Bear Moore with more information on the stone, that Mr. Moore calls the “Manataka Stone.”

From Sacred Symbols of Mu
A Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone Found in the Ouachita River, Hot Springs, Arkansas
From Col. J. R. Fordyce, Little Rock, Arkansas

Links to Examining the ‘Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone’ parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six.

This posting covers the information gained from Lee Standing Bear and the Manataka Indian Council.
From his email:

The book, “Sacred Symbols of Mu” is largely discounted by the Department of the Interior, Hot Springs National Park Service.
The NPS refers to the object as the “Calendar Stone”

The Manataka Stone was discovered inside one of the ceremonial caves on the sacred Manataka mountain. It was kept by a private individual for several years until it was taken to the ‘government house’ here at Hot Springs where it was frequently used as a doorstop by the federal agent in residence. A study was done by a professor from Boston circa 1921, who made a dark pencil etching of the actual stone and the picture of the stone is a copy of that etching. Immediately after the report was completed the Calendar Stone disappeared. Presumably, the stone was taken to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

However, the Smithsonian and the Department of the Interior say the location of the Calendar Stone is not known and it was a phony dreamed up by the author of Sacred Symbols of Mu who copied information from Col. John Rison Fordyce. We know this is true because of a report written by Colonel John Rison Fordyce (1869-1939) sometime in the early 1930’s. Col. Fordyce obviously personally measured the stone. See Attached “Manataka Calendar Stone”

Col. Fordyce’s biography: http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3186

You will find that Col. Fordyce’s report contains references to “Mu”. This report is most likely the source for your grandfather’s assumption that the Calendar Stone came from “Mu”. Col. Fordyce was a promoter of sorts and often engaged in fanciful descriptions about Hot Springs history and indigenous artifacts inherited from his father and grandfather, Samuel Fordyce. Therefore, your g-grandfather copied the Fordyce report – a report that was not correct in its descriptions of the thirteen glyphs found on the stone. For some reason, Fordyce also alleged that the stone had been recovered from the Ouachita River where it had been for several centuries. We know this is not correct because the stone is made from sandstone, and sandstone quickly disintegrates in water.

Quotes from the Manataka website
“The southern-most cave, nearest the surface of the ground, once held the Manataka Stone, or as referred to by the National Park Service as the ” Calendar Stone” brought by people from the south. Workmen digging on the mountain to capture the sacred waters of Nowasalon for the ornate bathhouses of the rich removed the Calendar Stone after the Civil War.”http://www.manataka.org/page352.html

“The southern-most cave, nearest the surface of the ground, once held the Manataka Stone, or as referred to by the National Park Service as the “Calendar Stone” brought by people from the south. The Calendar Stone was removed after the Civil War by workmen digging on the mountain to capture the sacred waters of Nowasalon and build ornate bathhouses for the rich.” http://manataka.org/page2.html

Our Understanding
We were informed by a group of Mayan elders who visited Manataka in 2003 that the calendar stone came from their ancestors, the Tula. The Tula were also the ancestors of the Toltec residing approximately 65 miles NW of present day Mexico City. The Tula people sent a large group to Manataka long ago and they established a village called Tanico located at today’s Caddo Gap in the Ouachita Mountains about 45 miles NW of present day Hot Springs, AR. Interesting enough, the same sandstone material used to create the stone is abundant at Gaddo Gap.

The Maya priests also informed Manataka’s Elders about the symbols that appear on the Calendar Stone. (Much different from those described by Fordyce.)
Today, we are the keepers the true meanings of those symbols shown on the Manataka Stone.

We do not know of any more authoritative information available about the Manataka Stone aside from the Elders of Manataka.

One thing we do know is the Manataka Stone, the Calendar Stone and the stone pictured in “Sacred Symbols of Mu” are obvious the same object, but none of them were from the Washitaw people. Your g-grandfather somehow made a wild assumption about its origin without any hard evidence other than the Fordyce report that was erroneous.

The contents of the attachment matched the contents of Sacred Symbols of Mu beginning on page 230 and reprinted in a previous posting. My reply to his correspondence included a request to publish the real meanings of the symbols on the stone, his response:

These people promoting the Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah must not be concerned about accuracy. We heard sometime back that the title of their group was taken from a story that was a joke – Dug-Dah-Mound-Yah. Sounds like a rap song.

The real meanings of some of the symbols engraved on the stone cannot be revealed to anyone outside the Elders of Manataka. We searched for over twenty-five years for that information and when I was about ready to give up, the Mayan Elders appeared here at Manataka and resolved many of our questions about their meanings. There still remains a number of questions about the meanings of the symbols, but the biggest open question is about the star map in the middle of the circle surrounded by the symbols. We can say with some certainty that Fordyce’s interpretations were nearly 90% incorrect and he completely overlooked largest most meaningful depiction, the star map, in his interpretation.

Further information about the Manataka Indian Council can be found on their website or in this article entitled, “DID ANCIENT STAR PEOPLE COME TO MANATAKA AND DEPOSIT WISDOM OF THE COSMOS IN A SECRET CRYSTAL CAVE?”

It would only be fair to follow up the National Park Service, so stay tuned for the next installment where we cover their response to my email and sources that actually have seen the artifact.

Have a great day.

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Posted in Ancient Relics, References to James' work

Examining the ‘Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone’ Part 3

Posted on March 8, 2014 | Comments Off

Continuing the research on the artifact shown on page 230 of the 1932 Sacred Symbols of Mu, my web search yielded 2 links. One was to a New York Times article, reprinted in the July 1, 1933 Arkansas Catholic. The other to the Manataka Indian Council and an email link to Lee Standing Bear Moore with more information on the stone, that Mr. Moore calls the “Manataka Stone.”

From Sacred Symbols of Mu
A Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone Found in the Ouachita River, Hot Springs, Arkansas
From Col. J. R. Fordyce, Little Rock, Arkansas

Links to Examining the ‘Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone’ parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six.

First let’s tackle the Arkansas Catholic article entitled, Curiously Carved Stone Found in Arkansas May be the Original 13-Month Calendar.

The article, a reprint attributed to the New York Times, contends that the Calendar Stone was uncovered by erosion from a mound near the Ouachita River by an unnamed boat-builder and presented to Colonel Fordyce.
It was described as:

Shaped like a flattened human heart, 15 inches long, 12 inches wide, and three inches thick in the middle, the stone bears a highly polished disk, in the center of which a small hole is etched. The disk is raised about 3-16 inch above a ring 1 1/8 inch in diameter. This is divided into thirteen spaces, approximately the same size. Upon the surface of each space is etched a design, evidently the name for a lunar month.

Etched in relief outside the circle are a number of figures and conforming to the curve of the circle the five phases of the moon are carved. Around the edge the carved figures ace to the right. They include the head of a whale; a large human eye, though from its stem it maybe a college boy’s pipe; a fish, an alligator, a swimming bird, a human head with a prominent Roman nose, a turtle, and a scorpion which shoots a zig-zag line across to the eye.

Next is the information supplied by Lee Standing Bear Moore and the Manataka Indian Council.

Have a great day.