Gloria Farley's Pre-Columbian Contact Claims: Evidence and Controversy
The 1960 discovery of L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, confirmed Viking presence in the New World around 500 years before Columbus. However, amateur archaeologist Gloria Farley spent 50 years documenting purported evidence of even earlier trans-Atlantic voyages by Norse, Egyptians, Celts, and others. Her claims, detailed in her 1994 book 'In Plain Sight', include the Heavener Runestone in Oklahoma, the Anubis Caves, and various petroglyphs and inscriptions across the Midwest. Farley's interpretations, often made with controversial scholar Barry Fell, have been largely rejected by mainstream academia due to lack of archaeological evidence and questionable linguistic analyses. Despite this, her work has preserved numerous sites and sparked ongoing debate about pre-Columbian contact.
Key facts
- L'Anse aux Meadows, discovered in 1960, proved Viking presence in North America around AD 1000.
- Gloria Farley, a citizen scientist, documented purported pre-Columbian artifacts for 50 years.
- The Heavener Runestone in Oklahoma was identified as Norse runes by the Smithsonian in 1923.
- Alf Monge proposed the Heavener Runestone dates to November 11, 1012.
- The Poteau Runestone, found in 1967, was suggested to date to November 11, 1017.
- The Anubis Caves in Oklahoma contain petroglyphs Farley identified as Egyptian, including Anubis and a sun god.
- Barry Fell, a Harvard marine biologist, published 'America BC' in 1976, claiming Old World scripts in American petroglyphs.
- The Six-Months Inscription in Cave 3 was deciphered by Fell as six months in the Celtic calendar.
- A light show at the Anubis Caves on the fall equinox projects a shaft of light onto the Anubis Panel.
- Farley claimed to find ship petroglyphs in Minoan, Phoenician, Celt-Iberian, and Norse styles.
- Coins from Syracuse (490 BC), Syria (AD 63), and Carthage (pre-146 BC) were found in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
- Mainstream scholars attribute the caves and petroglyphs to Indigenous Americans, not Old World visitors.
Entities
Artists
- Gloria Farley
- Barry Fell
- Alf Monge
- Leif Erikson
- Bjarni Hergólfsson
- Adam of Bremen
- Eben Horsford
- Olof Ohman
- Prince Madoc
Institutions
- Smithsonian
- Harvard
- Library of Congress
- Oklahoma Historical Society
- Robert S. Kerr Museum
- Council for West Virginia Archaeology
Locations
- L'Anse aux Meadows
- Newfoundland
- Canada
- Boston
- Massachusetts
- Cambridge
- Minnesota
- Kensington
- Heavener
- Oklahoma
- Ouachita Mountains
- Poteau
- Shawnee
- Anubis Caves
- Alabama
- Chaco Canyon
- New Mexico
- Colorado
- Arkansas
- Missouri
- Wyoming
- Picture Canyon
- Iberian Peninsula
- Ireland
- Scotland
- Wales
- Greenland
- Vinland
- Norumbega