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Did The Welsh Discover America?
8-28-2
- A team of historians and researchers announced today that Radio Carbon
dating evidence, and the discovery of ancient British style artefacts and inscriptions in
the American Midwest, provide the strongest indications yet" that British explorers,
under the Prince Madoc ap Meurig, arrived in the country during the 6th Century and set up
colonies there.
- Research team members have known the location of burial sites of Madoc's
close relatives in Wales for some time, it emerged today; but they have decided to break
their self-imposed silence in order that their research be fully known and understood. DNA
evidence could provide vital new leads, they say.
- "We have a mass of remarkable evidence," said British
historian Alan Wilson, who has been working with Jim Michael of the Ancient Kentucke
Historical Association since 1989. "As experts in ancient British history, we were
approached by Jim and visited locations in the Mid West with him," he added.
- Many of the grave mounds found in the American mid West, including those
at Bat Creek, Tennessee, are ancient British in origin and design, Wilson said. Jim
Michael added, "the stone tablet found at Bat Creek in 1889 included an inscription
written in Coelbren, an ancient British alphabet known and recorded by historians and
bards down the ages."
- Wilson said that his research had brought him into contact with very
similar alphabet inscriptions in Britain, Europe and the Middle East. "The components
of the alphabet derive from the earliest days of the Khumric (Welsh) people," he
added, "and were used along their migration routes to Wales in antiquity."
- Wilson's research partner, Baram A. Blackett, said, "once we
discovered the cipher for the alphabet in recorded in texts dating to the 1500s we knew we
were in business. We have translated many of these inscriptions and they all make perfect
sense." Jim Michael commented that the final translation for the Bat Creek tablet was
an exciting task, "especially when we knew it read, 'Madoc the ruler he is'."
- Some historians have written off the evidence for Prince Madoc, the
Welsh Prince who sailed to America circa 562 (AD). "They often give a false date of
1170 and this legend has replaced the facts," added Wilson. "At the moment,
there is a small group of wreckers trying to steal our research and to promote this
misdating. Luckily, we've done all the groundwork and have a substantial body of evidence
in our favour."
- "In Britain and America the academics have been slow to
respond," said Jim Michael. "There is a theory that there was no European
settlement here before Columbus, despite the evidence, but this is for political and
theoretical reasons." In the UK, public bodies had, "failed to engage with this
vital research effort," added Alan Wilson. "I think they're afraid that an
independent group such as ours has made such progress. They prefer to ignore and neglect
ancient British history rather than to deal with it. The Welsh people have suffered, and
the opportunity to boost the economy, to bring thousands of jobs to Glamorgan and Gwent,
where Madoc and his brother Arthur ll ruled, has not been exploited."
- Public bodies in the US and UK must now start to actively pursue this
new evidence, they say.
- DNA profiling could help identify the human remains found at Bat Creek.
"It could well be Madoc himself," said Blackett. "After all, the
inscription was found right next to the bones, which are currently housed at the
Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC."
- Wilson, Blackett and their research team know the location of Madoc's
close relatives and have made significant archaeological finds at sites nearby. "So
we can use Welsh DNA evidence from the graves here, and compare it with the bone fragments
in the Smithsonian," he said. "This would be of massive historical value."
It is estimated that up to 20,000 jobs and hundreds of millions in tourism could be an
immediate benefit in South Wales, claimed the men.
- "In the American Mid West the results could be very similar,"
added Jim Michael.
- Background
- Wilson, Blackett, and Jim Michael made the identification of the Bat
Creek main tumulus as the likely tomb of Prince Madoc, in January 1990. Michael has been
in contact with the Smithsonian with a view to its allowing the bone fragments to be DNA
tested.
- There are numerous ancient British Coelbren inscriptions in the American
mid West.
- Skulls found in some US grave mounds are of European-Caucasian origin;
they do not include an Inca bone.
- There was only one Prince Madoc. He was the brother of King Arthur ll
and lived during the 6th Century. This is not in doubt. Ancient British manuscripts and
genealogies tell us this.
- Alan Wilson and Baram Blackett have been investigating the true history
of King Arthur and the Khumric-Welsh dynasty for a total of nearly 70 years. Wilson�s
interest began in 1956 and Blackett joined him in 1976, when the Arthurian Research
Foundation of Great Britain was started.
- They have written the best-selling The Holy Kingdom (Bantam, 1999) with
Adrian Gilbert and self-published underground classics including Arthur, King of Glamorgan
and Gwent, Artorius Rex Discovered, Arthur and the Charters of the Kings and Arthur, The
War King (a historical novel).
- The men have lectured extensively in the UK, including Manchester and
Jesus Colleges at Oxford University, and Alan Wilson gave the prestigious Bemis Lecture in
Boston in 1993. Wilson and Blackett were also commissioned to produce a detailed genealogy
of the Bush family by former President George Bush (senior).
- Source: http://www.kingarthur-online.co.uk/
- News Wales is published by
<http://www.onlinewales.co.uk/>onlineWales Internet copyright 1999-2001
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