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No. 88: Jul-Aug 1993

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Egyptians in acadia?

Micmac writing is often very similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs
The Micmac are an Algonquian tribe living in that part of eastern Canada called Acadia. In contrast to most tribes of North American Indians, the Micmac possess their own written language. This language was supposedly invented and taught to them by Pierre Maillard, a French priest who lived among the Micmac in the Eighteenth Century. The strange part about the Micmac writing is that its signs are often very similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs having the same meanings. B. Fell made this association in his book America B.C. He noted further that the priest Maillard actually had died 61 years before Champollion first published his decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is unreasonable, therefore, to believe that Maillard could have invented Micmac writing with its Egyptian affinities. Either the affinities are the product of chance or Precolumbian contacts occurred between the Micmac and Egyptian voyagers.

In the latest volume of Epigraphic Society papers, Fell discusses many additional similarities between Micmac and Egyptian hieroglyphics. We have room here for only a few of the simpler comparisons. Refer to the article for a great many more -- so many more that the "chance" theory seems most unlikely.

(Fell, Barry; "The Micmac Manuscripts," Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers, 21:295, 1992.)

Reference. Anomalous epigraphic is treated in our handbook: Ancient Man. To order, visit: here.

From Science Frontiers #88, JUL-AUG 1993. � 1993-2000 William R. Corliss