There is an equivalent to the Brazilian Paraiba Phoenician inscription in Canada, the Bromptonville-Sherbrooke Libyan inscriptions, pictured below.
The image (Source) shows what are supposed to be Libyan (i.e. Carthaginian) inscriptions, and was published in the Canadian media in the mid 1970s.
The story began in 1904 when two inscribed stones were found "on the construction site of the Bromptonville church. They were handed over to the Séminaire Saint-Charles-Borromée. In 1966, specialists were unable to decipher them." (Source).
But then, in the mid 1970s, professor Thomas Lee of Laval University, announced that a professor Howard Fell of the comparative zoology department of Harvard University (odd, connection! zoology and ancient scripts! However, the he was a member of the Epigraphic Society) had deciphered a script incised in three sandstone rocks found in Bromptonville, and Sherbrooke, Canada (see spot in Google Maps). The script was an ancient Libyan one, called Boustrophedon.
Lee believed that those who engraved the rock, had sailed up the St. Lawrence and St. Francis rivers and left these texts to mark the end of their long voyage.
One of the stones found on a cliff overlooking Sherbrooke says, "Hanno, son of Tamu, reached this mountain landmark." The other two rocks, found side by side in a field close to Bromptonville said "record by Hatta, who attained this limit on the river, moored his ship and engraved this rock" and "expedition that crossed in the service of Lord Hiram to conquer territory."
Fell found the inscriptions similar to others he had deciphered in Yucatan, Mexico (source) that read: "... of Hanno, a Phoenician re-provisioning at this landfall, for the favour of Hercules that our hardships may be mitigated. He ordered this stone to be cut. Do not overturn or deface and do not destroy it, lest the lord Baal cast you down and forsake you."
The Stones: Fake or Genuine?
Intriguing story, and most probably false evidence and wishful thinking, so I decided to see what more I could find about these Carthaginian stones.
An interesting article published back in 1985 looked into the above mentioned newspaper article. It says that Ignace J. Gelb, an authority in ancient languages, of Chicago's Oriental University, reported in 1976 that the script wasn't ancient Libyan. Further rsearch by James P. Whittall II (yes, this person and I, have the same surname), Director of The Archaeological Department of The New England Antiquities Research Association, wrote, also in 1976, that the marks in the stones were provoked by natural erosion. The 1985 included similar rocks like the one shown below, the Petit Mitis rock with natural engravings mistaken for "inscriptions".
It also added the "text" from the Sherbrooke rock as a comparison:
These stones, and other similar ones found in the region were not engraved by Carthaginian scribes using Libyan characters. The article says that "There is no doubt of the natural origin of the "petroglyphs", and chemical weathering agents have made good use of the natural predisposition of the structure of this rock." However is continues with a hopeful note for those who believe in such voyagers having reached America: " The fact that the markings are "ludi naturae" does not disprove the presence of the Phoenicians in North America, it simply indicates that these stones are not proof such a visit. However, it is now possible to cast doubt on certain "proof" based on the translation of "petroglyphs" that this continent was visited by the Egyptians, Celts, Iberians, Libyans, ..."
The stones were said to have been added to the collection of the seminary museum, the Musée du Séminaire de Sherbrooke, which is now the Sherbrooke Museum of Nature and Science , but I have not been able to locate them in their website.
However, I did find a paper about some petroglyphs discoverd by amateur archaeologists in 1963, in Estrie, Quebec. But they aren't the Carthaginian stones. These are real, they have drawings of animals and people and were carved by natives and Europeans between the mid 1700s and 1815. Below is a view of some of the inscriptions.
Closing comments
I believe they are stones that were naturally weathered and eroded, and that human beings try to make out patterns and shapes (even in clouds). These are not Carthaginian, Phoenician or Libyan inscriptions.
Further Reading
Norman Totten. 1981, The inscribed Sherbrooke boulder, The Epigraphic Society Vol. 9 no 215 June 1981. Occasional Publications
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©
