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{{Short description|American lawyer and history researcher}}
{{Short description|American lawyer and fringe theorist}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name =
| name =
| birth_date = 1898
| birth_date = {{Birth-date|1896}}
| death_date = 1985
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1985|08|17|1896}}
| occupation = Patent attorney
| occupation = Patent attorney
| known_for = Fringe archaeological theories
| known_for = Fringe archaeological theories
}}
}}
'''Henriette Mertz''' (1898&ndash;1985) was an American [[patent attorney]] from [[Chicago]] and a proponent of pseudoarchaeological [[hyperdiffusionism]] in relation to ancient American history.<ref name="Childress1996-143" /><ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Fagan| editor-first=Garrett G.|title=Archaeological Fantasies| year=2006| publisher=Routledge| location=Oxford, England|isbn=978-0-415-30593-8|pages=362–367}}</ref> During [[World War II]], she worked as a code-breaker for the U.S. government's [[cryptography]] department. She published several controversial works during the 1960s and 1970s relating to the early discovery and settlement of America.
'''Henriette Mertz''' (1896 – August 17, 1985) was an American [[patent attorney]] from [[Chicago]] and a proponent of pseudoarchaeological [[hyperdiffusionism]] in relation to ancient American history.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Fagan| editor-first=Garrett G.|title=Archaeological Fantasies| year=2006| publisher=Routledge| location=Oxford, England|isbn=978-0-415-30593-8|pages=362–367}}</ref> During [[World War II]], she worked as a code-breaker for the U.S. government's [[cryptography]] department. She published several controversial works during the 1960s and 1970s relating to the early discovery and settlement of America.


She died on August 17, 1985, in Chicago at 89; her book ''The Mystic Symbol'' was published posthumously.<ref>{{Cite web |title=HENRIETTE MERTZ |work=Chicago Tribune |date=20 August 1985 |access-date=10 March 2023 |url= https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-08-20-8502240529-story.html }}</ref>
== Bat Creek Stone ==
In 1964, Mertz suggested that a photograph of the [[Bat Creek inscription]] had been published upside down.<ref>''The Wine Dark Sea'' p.130</ref> Later [[Cyrus H. Gordon]] suggested that the inscriptions were derived from a [[Hebrew]] alphabet from the 1st century AD but today mainstream archaeologists consider it to be a fraud.<ref>Mainfort & Kwas "The Bat Creek Stone Revisited: A Fraud Exposed" ''American Antiquity'' 69.4 (Oct 2004): p761</ref>


== Greek voyages ==
== Career ==
Mertz was a cryptographer for the U.S. Navy during World War II.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Regal |first=Brian |title=The Battle Over America's Origin Story |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2022 |isbn=9783030995386 |pages=167–195 |chapter=The Asia and Africa Theories |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-99538-6_8}}</ref> She then worked at the U.S. Copyright Office in Washington, D.C., as a patent lawyer.<ref name=":0" /> She traveled extensively to locations including the Amazon, the Andes, and Mexico.<ref name=":0" />
In her work entitled ''The Wine Dark Sea'', Mertz argued that ''[[The Odyssey]]'' was not a legend but an historical account and that [[Odysseus]] had sailed through the [[Straits of Gibraltar]] and into the [[North Atlantic]]. Mertz believed that Odysseus faced [[Scylla]] and [[Charybdis]] when he arrived at the [[Bay of Fundy]] in [[Nova Scotia]].<ref>[[David Hatcher Childress|Childress]], ''Lost Cities of Atlantis, Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean'', p. 142. "In ''The Wine Dark Sea'' Mertz takes a scholarly look at the voyage of Odysseus (Ulysses to the Romans) from Homer's epic and tracks the voyage of the legendary sailor through the North Atlantic. According to Mertz's detailed itinerary, Odysseus sails through the Straits of Gibraltar *[and into the North Atlantic, eventually arriving at the dangerous Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, the area she identifies as the "monsters" of Scylla and Charybdis. Homer has Odysseus attacked by Charybdis; being "sucked down into the salty sea - we could see within the swirling cataclysm of the great vortex and at the bottom the earth appeared black with sand while round about the rock roared terribly..." He is in reality (according to Mertz) caught in the deadly tidal bore of the Bay of Fundy."</ref> Mertz also proposed that the [[Argonauts]] travelled across the [[Atlantic Ocean]], down the east coast of [[South America]], past the mouth of the [[Amazon River|Amazon]] and [[Rio de Janeiro]] to the [[Rio Plata]] of [[Argentina]]. From Rio Plata, Jason went to the altiplano of [[Bolivia]] and to [[Tihuanaco]] where the [[Golden Fleece]] was located.<ref name="Childress1996-143">Childress, ''Lost Cities of Atlantis, Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean'', p. 143. "Similarly, Mertz gives a detailed account of how the story of Jason and the Argonauts is actually a story of a trip across the Atlantic, down the east coast of South America, past the mouth of the Amazon and Rio de Janeiro to the Rio de Plata of Argentina. Jason and the Argonauts then go up this river to the altiplano of Bolivia and to Tihuanaco, the location of the Golden Fleece."</ref>


== Chinese voyages ==
== Theories ==
In her work entitled ''Pale Ink'' (self-published c. 1958), Mertz proposed that two accounts of Chinese travels to [[Fusang]]—one found in the ''[[Shan Hai Jing]]'' (which Mertz dates to 2250 BC) and the other by [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] missionary Hui Shen in 499 AD—describe visits to the American continent.<ref name="Needham43"/> As supporting evidence she proposed that the [[Milk River (Alberta–Montana)|Milk River]] inscriptions were [[Chinese language|Chinese]] [[glyphs]] made by one of the exploration parties. According to [[David Hatcher Childress]], Mertz also interpreted Fusang as meaning "fir trees" in Chinese, and ruminated that they might refer to the fir trees of [[British Columbia]].<ref name="Childress">Childress, ''Lost Cities of North & Central America'', p. 565. "Other ancient inscriptions on the Milk River include the Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park carvings south of Lethbridge. Here can be found all kinds of "writing" though no one may ever decipher these strange glyphs. Henriette Mertz in her book ''Pale Ink'', about two Chinese voyages to the Americas, mentions the Milk River inscriptions by name, and claims that they are Chinese glyphs made by one of the exploration parties. The book "Fu-Sang," traditionally said to have been written in 499 A.D. is said to mean "Fir Tree" when translated from Chinese. Asks Mertz, Did the ancient Chinese know British Columbia as the land of the fir tree?"</ref> The hypothesis had long been rejected by academic sinologists having been first advocated in English by [[Charles Godfrey Leland]] in 1875, but apparently Mertz was unaware of these facts. In her book, Mertz also proposed that [[Quetzalcoatl]] was Hui Shen, the 5th century Buddhist traveler to Fusang. About Mertz's hypotheses, [[Joseph Needham]] writes in a footnote that "the proposed identities in general require a heroic suspension of disbelief".<ref name="Needham43">{{cite book|author1=Joseph Needham|author-link=Joseph Needham|author2=Ling Wang|author3=Gwei-Djen|title=Science and civilisation in China: Vol. 4, Physics and physical technology. Pt. 3, Civil engineering and nautics|year=1971|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-07060-7|pages=540–542}}</ref>
In 1936, Mertz met a man in Mexico who she said "looked to be pure Chinese" but described himself as "Indian".<ref name=":0" /> It turned out that his family was originally from China, but had settled and lived in Mexico for many generations.<ref name=":0" /> After the war, she read ''An Inglorious Columbus'' (1885) by writer [[Edward P. Vining]], which argued that Chinese explorers had founded Mexican culture and religion.<ref name=":0" /> To Mertz, this explained the curious case of the Mexican-Chinese-Indian man she had met many years prior.<ref name=":0" /> Lacking any training as a historian, she started developing her own theories about the Chinese discovery of the Americas, and decided to self-publish ''Pale Ink'' (1953) after the manuscript was rejected by commercial publishers.<ref name=":0" />
=== Bat Creek Stone ===
In 1964, Mertz suggested that a photograph of the [[Bat Creek inscription]] had been published upside down.<ref>''The Wine Dark Sea'' p.130</ref> Later [[Cyrus H. Gordon]], scholar of Near Eastern cultures and ancient languages, suggested that the inscriptions were derived from a [[Hebrew]] alphabet from the 1st century AD but today mainstream archaeologists consider it to be a fraud.<ref>Mainfort & Kwas "The Bat Creek Stone Revisited: A Fraud Exposed" ''American Antiquity'' 69.4 (Oct 2004): p761</ref>
=== Chinese voyages ===
In her work entitled ''Pale Ink'' (self-published {{circa|1958}}), Mertz proposed that two accounts of Chinese travels to [[Fusang]]—one found in the ''[[Shan Hai Jing]]'' (which Mertz dates to 2250 BC) and the other by [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] missionary Hui Shen in 499 AD—describe visits to the American continent.<ref name="Needham43" /> As supporting evidence she proposed that the [[Milk River (Alberta–Montana)|Milk River]] inscriptions were [[Chinese language|Chinese]] [[glyphs]] made by one of the exploration parties. According to author [[David Hatcher Childress]], Mertz also interpreted Fusang as meaning "fir trees" in Chinese, and ruminated that they might refer to the fir trees of [[British Columbia]].<ref name="Childress">Childress, ''Lost Cities of North & Central America'', p. 565. "Other ancient inscriptions on the Milk River include the Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park carvings south of Lethbridge. Here can be found all kinds of "writing" though no one may ever decipher these strange glyphs. Henriette Mertz in her book ''Pale Ink'', about two Chinese voyages to the Americas, mentions the Milk River inscriptions by name, and claims that they are Chinese glyphs made by one of the exploration parties. The book "Fu-Sang," traditionally said to have been written in 499 A.D. is said to mean "Fir Tree" when translated from Chinese. Asks Mertz, Did the ancient Chinese know British Columbia as the land of the fir tree?"</ref> The hypothesis had long been rejected by academic sinologists having been first advocated in English by [[Charles Godfrey Leland]] in 1875, but apparently Mertz was unaware of these facts. In her book, Mertz also proposed that [[Quetzalcoatl]] was Hui Shen, the 5th century Buddhist traveler to Fusang. About Mertz's hypotheses, sinologist [[Joseph Needham]] writes in a footnote that "the proposed identities in general require a heroic suspension of disbelief".<ref name="Needham43">{{cite book|author1=Joseph Needham|author-link=Joseph Needham|author2=Ling Wang|author3=Gwei-Djen|title=Science and civilisation in China: Vol. 4, Physics and physical technology. Pt. 3, Civil engineering and nautics|year=1971|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-07060-7|pages=540–542}}</ref>


== Published works ==
== Published works ==
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{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}



== Sources ==
* McNeil, William F. ''Visitors to Ancient America: The Evidence for European and Asian Presence in America Prior to Columbus''. McFarland, 2005. {{ISBN|0-7864-1917-2}}
* [[David Hatcher Childress|Childress, David Hatcher]]. ''Lost Cities of Atlantis, Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean''. Adventures Unlimited Press, 1996. {{ISBN|0-932813-25-9}}
* Childress, David Hatcher. ''Lost Cities of North & Central America''. Adventures Unlimited Press, 1992. {{ISBN|0-932813-09-7}}


== External links ==
== External links ==
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[[Category:American women archaeologists]]
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[[Category:20th-century American archaeologists]]
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[[Category:Fringe theories]]

Latest revision as of 00:37, 2 March 2024

Henriette Mertz
Born1896 (1896)
DiedAugust 17, 1985(1985-08-17) (aged 88–89)
OccupationPatent attorney
Known forFringe archaeological theories

Henriette Mertz (1896 – August 17, 1985) was an American patent attorney from Chicago and a proponent of pseudoarchaeological hyperdiffusionism in relation to ancient American history.[1] During World War II, she worked as a code-breaker for the U.S. government's cryptography department. She published several controversial works during the 1960s and 1970s relating to the early discovery and settlement of America.

She died on August 17, 1985, in Chicago at 89; her book The Mystic Symbol was published posthumously.[2]

Career

Mertz was a cryptographer for the U.S. Navy during World War II.[3] She then worked at the U.S. Copyright Office in Washington, D.C., as a patent lawyer.[3] She traveled extensively to locations including the Amazon, the Andes, and Mexico.[3]

Theories

In 1936, Mertz met a man in Mexico who she said "looked to be pure Chinese" but described himself as "Indian".[3] It turned out that his family was originally from China, but had settled and lived in Mexico for many generations.[3] After the war, she read An Inglorious Columbus (1885) by writer Edward P. Vining, which argued that Chinese explorers had founded Mexican culture and religion.[3] To Mertz, this explained the curious case of the Mexican-Chinese-Indian man she had met many years prior.[3] Lacking any training as a historian, she started developing her own theories about the Chinese discovery of the Americas, and decided to self-publish Pale Ink (1953) after the manuscript was rejected by commercial publishers.[3]

Bat Creek Stone

In 1964, Mertz suggested that a photograph of the Bat Creek inscription had been published upside down.[4] Later Cyrus H. Gordon, scholar of Near Eastern cultures and ancient languages, suggested that the inscriptions were derived from a Hebrew alphabet from the 1st century AD but today mainstream archaeologists consider it to be a fraud.[5]

Chinese voyages

In her work entitled Pale Ink (self-published c. 1958), Mertz proposed that two accounts of Chinese travels to Fusang—one found in the Shan Hai Jing (which Mertz dates to 2250 BC) and the other by Buddhist missionary Hui Shen in 499 AD—describe visits to the American continent.[6] As supporting evidence she proposed that the Milk River inscriptions were Chinese glyphs made by one of the exploration parties. According to author David Hatcher Childress, Mertz also interpreted Fusang as meaning "fir trees" in Chinese, and ruminated that they might refer to the fir trees of British Columbia.[7] The hypothesis had long been rejected by academic sinologists having been first advocated in English by Charles Godfrey Leland in 1875, but apparently Mertz was unaware of these facts. In her book, Mertz also proposed that Quetzalcoatl was Hui Shen, the 5th century Buddhist traveler to Fusang. About Mertz's hypotheses, sinologist Joseph Needham writes in a footnote that "the proposed identities in general require a heroic suspension of disbelief".[6]

Published works

  • 1986: The Mystic Symbol: Mark of the Michigan Mound Builders. Global Books, ISBN 0-9617235-0-5.
  • 1976: Atlantis: Dwelling Place of the Gods, ISBN 0-9600952-3-3.
  • 1974: Gods from the Far East: How the Chinese Discovered America. Seattle, Washington: Ballantine Books, ISBN 0-345-23964-4.
  • 1964: The Wine Dark Sea: Homer's Heroic Epic of the North Atlantic, ASIN: B0006CHG68.
  • 1958, 1972: Pale Ink: Two Ancient Records of Chinese Exploration in America. Swallow Press, ISBN 0-8040-0599-0.
  • 1957: The Nephtali: One Lost Tribe, ASIN: B0007EYTXS.

References

  1. ^ Fagan, Garrett G., ed. (2006). Archaeological Fantasies. Oxford, England: Routledge. pp. 362–367. ISBN 978-0-415-30593-8.
  2. ^ "HENRIETTE MERTZ". Chicago Tribune. 20 August 1985. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Regal, Brian (2022). "The Asia and Africa Theories". The Battle Over America's Origin Story. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 167–195. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-99538-6_8. ISBN 9783030995386.
  4. ^ The Wine Dark Sea p.130
  5. ^ Mainfort & Kwas "The Bat Creek Stone Revisited: A Fraud Exposed" American Antiquity 69.4 (Oct 2004): p761
  6. ^ a b Joseph Needham; Ling Wang; Gwei-Djen (1971). Science and civilisation in China: Vol. 4, Physics and physical technology. Pt. 3, Civil engineering and nautics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 540–542. ISBN 978-0-521-07060-7.
  7. ^ Childress, Lost Cities of North & Central America, p. 565. "Other ancient inscriptions on the Milk River include the Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park carvings south of Lethbridge. Here can be found all kinds of "writing" though no one may ever decipher these strange glyphs. Henriette Mertz in her book Pale Ink, about two Chinese voyages to the Americas, mentions the Milk River inscriptions by name, and claims that they are Chinese glyphs made by one of the exploration parties. The book "Fu-Sang," traditionally said to have been written in 499 A.D. is said to mean "Fir Tree" when translated from Chinese. Asks Mertz, Did the ancient Chinese know British Columbia as the land of the fir tree?"


External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henriette_Mertz&oldid=1211331428"