- "It's proof of Prince Madoc in America circa 560,"
say leading British and US historians.
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- A team of leading independent historians and researchers
announced today that Radio Carbon dating evidence, and the discovery of
ancient British style artefacts and inscriptions in the American Midwest,
provided, "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.
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- Research team members have known the location of burial
sites of Madoc's close relatives in Wales for some time, it emerged today;
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.
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- TRANSATLANTIC EFFORT
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- "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.
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- BAT CREEK MOUND
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- 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."
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- A MADOC INSCRIPTION
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- 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 business,
"especially when we knew it read, 'Madoc the ruler he is'."
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- THE MADOC 'LEGEND'
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- 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."
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- ACADEMICS SLOW TO RESPOND
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- "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. 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.
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- "In the American Mid West the results could be very
similar," added Jim Michael.
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- IN BRIEF
-
- - 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.
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- ENDS."
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- Alan Wilson and Baram Blackett
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- They 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.
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- 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).
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- 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).
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