Dighton Rock

If you travel down Route 24 in Massachusetts, you will notice signs that mention Dighton Rock. If you have never seen Dighton Rock, you are missing an unusual piece of Massachusetts history.

Dighton Rock is a rock that sits in the city of Taunton. A boulder really, it was probably deposited during the last Ice Age, when glaciers grooved the landscape and left many remains, which are still seen scattered throughout the land.

The early settlers to the land were the first to wonder about the rock. It is unusual because there are strange carvings on the rock that baffle people to this day. No one knows where the carvings came from, but they are petroglyphs - a word and symbol type of language.

In 1680, Reverend John Danforth was one of the first to investigate the rock. He made the earliest known records of the inscriptions on the rock. Famed puritan leader Cotton Mather, who described the rock as a mystery in 1690 (ironically the same year as the Salem Witch Trials) and believed that they had been inscribed before the colonists arrived).

To this day, many theories abound as to where the carvings come from. They include:

Native Americans - they may have carved the symbols on the rocks. Most historians believe this to be true.

Norse - some historians believe that runic carvings are found throughout the land and attribute this to early Norse settlers. There are many who believe Leif Ericson's Greenland was indeed Massachusetts. The idea that Dighton Rock is Norse is a natural connection

Portuguese - some historians suggest early Portuguese explorers came to New England before the Papal decree in the 16th century made it a "Spanish" region.

Phoenicians - some historians believe that early Phoencians explored North America. Dighton Rock might be - in their mind - Phonecian.

Chinese - other historians believe that the Chinese explored North American in 1412. While most theorizes place the Chinese in California and the west coast, author Gavin Menzies suggested in 2002 that the rock might be Chinese in origin.