ISAC
Articles about Schaffranke and Hubbard
By Dr. Joseph B. Mahan
I S A C Newsletter - June 1995
Summaries of papers read on Friday of the April conference were printed in the previous REPORT. Two summaries of papers appear below which deal with the central question whether important inscriptions from Illinois cave are written in Latin. Others will follow in subsequent issues.
Paul Schaffranke and Harry Hubbard
Presentation began with Schaffranke playing a segment of an earlier video identifying the Etruscan-related alphabet upon which translations are based and historically known personages depicted in portrait sketches on the stones. These include: Helios, son of Cleopatra and Marc Antony, who is shown in several types of American Indian dress and accouterments indicating his respect for North American customs and that he was allied with people on America. Stones were used to demonstrate the translating method. They were shown in original form, then transliterated into Roman letters, read as Latin translated: One bearing a profile sketch of a man wearing a three-feather, Algonquin-type headdress was labeled Heli (short form of Helios). It reads: "Depicted as sworn by Jupiter to belong and represent his forefathers, the Ptolemies of Egypt"
Helios' identity is further proved by another portrait stone containing the statement that "He is the handsome white Heli, defined as the righteous one by the people and possessor of the Hellenic kings."
A Portrait sketch with distinctive Macedonian (?) head gear is identified as: "Ptolemy I of Egypt." There is a portrait of a man rugged countenance wearing a type of helmet the authch ships are shown. or identified as belonging to the Garamantes. It bears the name Juba. A square-jawed man with a distinct "Roman" nose is identified as Julius Caesar. He is shown wearing the royal Uraeus crown of Egypt. The author explained that this was because he was recognized as a Pharaoh, being the Husband of Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt.
One stone contains a map of a river system emptying into a bay on which the reverse side contains an inscription which the author transliterated as Fleos iubae de Helio flusu Baetom caeli quos poto fila Punis Finikeo Pervuneet Raumulis. This was read as "Yuba's map of rivers by Helios on this river the powerful Punic branch of the Phoenicians sailed and vanished after the Romans crushed them." The river was shown by its representation on later maps to be the Quadaquivir in southern Spain which empties in the bay at Cadez. Marked with Roman numerals on the stone map are the site of the battle in which the Romans defeated the Carthaginians in 208 B.C., and the location of the Battle of Munda where Julius Caesar defeated the forces under Pompey in 45 B.C.
Schaffranke emphasized the importance of one low bas-relief profile portrait on marble/ the subject is a man wearing the Uraeus of Egypt with a peacock feather. There is a spread-wing falcon on his breast-plate. An inscription over head was translated as "Bas Alex of Pella," (King Alex of Pella, Alexander the Great.) It is appropriate for Alexander to be included as he was the founder of the Ptolemy dynasty. It is the author's belief that Alexander's tomb is the main crypt in the Illinois cave and that the others are the re-located tombs of the Ptolemy dynasty.
There were translations in addition to those on the original video. Some of these are notes on subjects of natural history and other scientific data. On a stone containing a drawing of a whale is the notation: "I affirm that whales make sounds when mating and occasionally beach themselves."