Secrets of Ancient America: Archaeoastronomy and the Legacy of the Phoenicians, Celts, and Other Forgotten Explorers

by Carl Lehrburger

The real history of the New World and the visitors, from both East and West, who traveled to the Americas long before 1492

• Provides more than 300 photographs and drawings, including Celtic runes in New England, Gaelic inscriptions in Colorado, and Asian symbols in the West

• Reinterprets many archaeological finds, such as the Ohio Serpent Mound

• Reveals Celtic, Hebrew, Roman, early Christian, Templar, Egyptian, Chinese, and Japanese influences in North American artifacts and ruins

As the myth of Columbus “discovering” America falls from the pedestal of established history, we are given the opportunity to discover the real story of the New World and the visitors, from both East and West, who traveled there long before 1492.

Sharing his more than 25 years of research and travel to sites throughout North America, Carl Lehrburger employs epigraphy, archaeology, and archaeoastronomy to reveal extensive evidence for pre-Columbian explorers in ancient America. He provides more than 300 photographs and drawings of sites, relics, and rock art, including Celtic and Norse runes in New England, Phoenician and Hebrew inscriptions in the Midwest, and ancient Shiva linga and Egyptian hieroglyphs in the West. He uncovers the real story of Columbus and his motives for coming to the Americas. He reinterprets many well-known archaeological and astronomical finds, such as the Ohio Serpent Mound, America’s Stonehenge in New Hampshire, and the Crespi Collection in Ecuador. He reveals Celtic, Hebrew, Roman, early Christian, Templar, Egyptian, Chinese, and Japanese influences in famous stones and ruins, reconstructing the record of what really happened on the American continents prior to Columbus. He also looks at Hindu influences in Mesoamerica and sacred sexuality encoded in archaeological sites.

Expanding upon the work of well-known diffusionists such as Barry Fell and Gunnar Thompson, the author documents the travels and settlements of trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific explorers, miners, and settlers who made it to the Americas and left their marks for us to discover. Interpreting their sacred symbols, he shows how their teachings, prayers, and cosmologies reveal the cosmic order and sacred landscape of the Americas.

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction, Ancient History

480 pages, Paperback

First published December 22, 2014

Reviews

[Joe White · Rating 1 out of 5]

review : Secrets Of Ancient America
Carl Lehrburger
978-1-59143-775-8 2015
epub version

1 Star:

Here are some of the problems I had with this publication:

1. The book is a part rant regarding the traditional view that Columbus was the first to "discover" America - and the book notably ended with a rant that Columbus destroyed the Caribbean native civilizations, as well as being the spearpoint for the Spanish, and Church destruction of most of the Southwest and Southern hemisphere native tribes.

This view is fine except that the author didn't originate it. He has a very naive view of contemporary archaeology. The author freely spouts off as many reasons as fast as he can about ideas that Columbus had prior maps and knowledge about how to get to the Caribbean, and what he would find there. And the author absolutely did not document any statement he made.

I have to mention just one example here: He stated that Columbus only took 30 days worth of food because he knew the trip could be made in 30 days. This statement was barely noticeable amongst the "louder" ranting, but I noticed it because this is something that should be relatively easy to research. Columbus's trips have been pretty well documented with surprisingly thorough details from original documents in the past 30 years. I have several reference books focused on Columbus and don't remember having read notations regarding food store quantities, so now I'll have to do my own independent research on this topic. I would chide the author for casually throwing out a statement like this and providing no reference. How is the reader supposed to decide whether the food stores had limitations such as quantity vs. storage space on-board; did the food supplies have a maximum or average shelf life where 6 months worth would have spoiled by 30 days?; was there a shortage due to funding limitations?; was Columbus attempting to defraud the crew into believing this would be a short trip? What constituted long term food supplies on an ocean vessel in the late 1400's. My point here is that a good researcher could generate a full book, or at least a good chapter just on this one barely mentioned topic, but the author chose to just use it as a blast with no confirmation.

2. The entire book is a regurgitation of previous diffusionist's theories, and all the references come from those people's publications. The ideas are interesting. But over the years some (most) of the ideas have been pretty credibly attacked. Where is the support documentation that was never present in the first round, that should be presented in the second round of claims? It isn't here. Just because a guy said it once before and published, does not qualify that old publication as an authority unless new evidence is presented. In regard to the Columbus rant, I have seen one or more books with titles implying "Columbus wasn't the first", so I'm not even sure if this is even an original viewpoint of the author's.

Since the mid 1960's there has been mounting evidence supported by documentation, that Columbus wasn't the first. For the last 20 or 30 years the Norse Greenlanders have been acknowledged as having a viable settlement, and having made at least one documented trip that reached as far south as the Northern parts of the current US. Lots of researchers have looked for some supportable documentation for Madoc, and other mid 15th century explores having reached and possibly settled in the US. But to make justifiable claims requires substantive proof, and the search is ongoing.

3. The author had to throw in two chapters to relate the fact that the world is round, is tilted on it's spinning orbital axis with relation to the sun, and that the procession of it's orbit around the earth is the cause of solstaces and equinoxes, which can be observed by solar sunrise and sunset with reference to fixed horizon points. No new information here. I think it is widely accepted now among academics that this knowledge wasn't lost over time. The Catholic church had a reason to suppress this knowledge and keep it from illerate people whom they could control, but there have always been knowledge centers in Europe, even if they had to operate subversively. Most of the round earth theory and mathematical theory still existed in the Middle East, it just wasn't as easy to find for the common laborer. I don't think that the author should be beating on Columbus for hiding the round earth theory.

4. The author's approach to Columbus seems to me to be more related to history as taught in the 5th grade in the 1960's US public schools. But I remember reading several texts from the 8th grade school library (mid- 60's) that espoused a broader view both of knowledge of the earth, and of Columbus' motives for gaining financial support and resources for a voyage. I suspect that the only people still chanting the song "1492...Ocean Blue" are very young kids in their first round of training, and of course the Texas legislature.

5. Slavery wasn't initiated by Columbus. He was ousted from control of the colony he established, I think by his 2nd voyage. On his 4th voyage he was able to enlist native help in survival, which included an 80 mile open water trip in a canoe to reach an established Spanish colony. This was after he had shipwrecked near the end of an incredibly long voyage of discovery along the peninsula where Panama is, and along the Northern coastline of South American. He was desperate to find resources (gold-monetary trade goods) to placate the Spanish crown, and find his gateway to China in order to re-establish his position of authority with the crown. Slavery as practiced in the Caribbean was an extension of slavery cultures in every historic period recorded. The Spanish and Roman empire remnants thought of it as part of their economic systems. So did the Arabic traders and African participants who provided people from their own cultures.

6. Columbus didn't single handedly introduce the germs and viruses that decimated the native population.

7. Columbus was only the first with a highly recognized, documented voyage, that established a permanent colony. It was the Spanish Crown supported by the Catholic church that implemented policies which decimated populations. The English and French only did a little better, a little later, and they both imported unsuspected germ warfare. When Columbus began the invasion he was just a step ahead in the race against other explorers attempting to perform the same voyage. Now I've done what the author did - make a statement without documentation.

8. The bulk of the book concerns rock pictograms, their significance, and meaning. There were a lot of photos, most of which reflected chalked or painted enhancements on rocks in order to increase the visibility of lines. I don't think all of these were photo-shopped on image overlays. Many or most looked like chalk or enhanced actual etchings directly on the rocks.
The author uniformly treats these as being Celtic recordings, but he throws in Egyptian symbolism, Indian (the original guys) symbolism, Chinese, Jamon, Arabic - there were so many mentions and sidetrack discourses that it was often difficult to reason why the Celts got credit for the etchings. Naturally all these cultures reached America first, and this was their record. As is customary in this type book, there is a secrecy of the location. There was criticism, which might be well founded, of the government's lack of preservation. There was hostility expressed to the overt obstruction to access in some cases. Maybe some readers can gain accreditation to perform studies and/or raise cultural awareness for preservation. I hope that their resultant publications have better documentation than what is presented here. A stronger historical timeline with causational investigation is required.

8a. The author referenced the diffusionist's theories regarding Pacific sea voyages, and resulting river travels in from the Pacific. He also claims Atlantic crossings by earlier cultures, with inland excursions from the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers. No substantive investigations, not even a book or two to document how Mediterranean vessels might have crossed the Atlantic. No nautical discussion of how the boats would have been subjected to long exposures to shipworms and torsional shearing on the hull, in large waves that tend to weaken the shell-first hull construction of mortise and tenon joinery. The working lifespan of the reproduction trireme vessel Olympias was demonstrated to have been much less than expected, particularly when the shipworms began life in weakened mortise/tenon joints and practically destroyed some portions of the hull. This occurred even with the boat having been stored on shore for a good portion of it's working lifespan (approx. 10 years). It had also been exposed to rain (freshwater), which when accumulated in it's bilges, caused wood rot. Columbus lost at least 1, and possibly more boats to shipworms, using boats with a design a thousand years newer than the trireme. He could have been stranded if he hadn't had 3 to begin with on the initial trip.

Regarding Oriental voyages to the Americas, only the Polynesians have an observed and recorded capability of regularly making oceanic voyages, and I'm not sure of the dates for the beginning of this cultural capability. It is nearly impossible to find Arabic, Indian, Chinese, Southeast Asian, or Japanese oceanic voyaging beyond the Indian ocean and near South Pacific.
And Gavin Menzies books are not substantive documentation of Chinese voyages.

There are a number of recorded contemporary ocean crossings in the Pacific by small craft. These people have boats made with contemporary materials, plotted charts of reefs and coastlines, and communication capabilities, particularly so in the last 20 years with thermal plots of currents from satellites, advanced weather observations, and GPS plotting. Even with all these advancements, it is still hard to cross an ocean.

If Menzies has made enough money from his publications, then I would encourage him to form a project council to design and build an actual ship as closely to historical or imagined records. It should use the correct wood types, and have the correct rudder, keel, steerage, and mast rigging systems. For inland navigation, it should have demonstrated testing of it's capabilities under oars, or as towed by smaller boats under oars. Assumptive statements are easy to make, but proving them, even if only by re-creative measures is hard. Measured results of performance would be invaluable.

Getting accurate reproduction projects to the working stage are very difficult to do now, given requirements for safety, lighting, communication, crew costs, governmental registration requirements, logistical shipping issues, and on and on. Finding archaeological evidence, the gold standard, is an even more remote possibility - there may have never been any in the first place, it may have been overtly destroyed, it probably perished by natural forces if it ever did exist.

Faced with two difficult to impossible approaches, the authors who propose early voyaging should provide substantive documentation with measurable testable data possibilities, where aspects can be tested experimentally in modules. For example tank tests on models. Survival trips using native time period food supplies.
Tim Severin used the recreation approach and ran into numerous difficulties. I think his Pacific trip failed, but was a worthy effort. His other voyages to duplicate the Brendan voyage and the Argo voyage, were successful and were difficult, but provided a baseline for establishing performance probabilities.

9. I've always wondered how ocean crossing voyagers from early cultures would have navigated up river systems in the US. The St. Lawrence has an obstacle at Niagara Falls. I don't think the rivers connecting the Great Lakes flowed smoothly without rapids at points of elevation changes. Same problem on the Mississippi/Ohio system. So large expedition ocean crossing forces would have had to divide forces to guard their ships and use small boats to travel upriver to unknown destinations. There's no physical evidence that they constructed villages or river altering constructions. This is a critical topic that I have never seen addressed by authors. Transporting gods downriver always sounds easier than it would have been without some navigation alterations. All the recorded early downriver expeditions that I've read, lost men and canoes to the point of losing the entire venture. And these adventures were launched from within the continent or from ports on the continent. There should be evidence of canals, tow paths, dams, - something if early explorers had shipped out tons of copper, gold, hides, or other trade goods on a frequent basis. There should be some port or village records with remains of regular activity if all this commercial navigation had occurred. The authors who propose these theories should also propose How the voyages were made, and where the remains are, in order to be credible. I didn't even mention hostilities from natives to be factored in. Columbus wasn't always greeted with open arms, and endured confrontations. So did the English and the French. La Salle must have been a smooth operator and talker, as his hostile encounters were documented in text.

10. The author just tossed out as a fact that there are are Roman era shipwrecks off Brazil or Honduras which are indicated by amphoras, and that the government(s) won't let researchers investigate. How does anyone know what type of shipwreck exists if nothing has been brought up for investigation. I think that if there were identified shipwreck locations, there are enough university programs, and nautical research organizations (including treasure hunters) that would have the influence to work a deal with governmental officials to be allowed to investigate. Since the author didn't provide any documentation, then Google will have to work overtime to find me some relevant references. Bob Ballard would be there with a well equipped research ship very quickly, if there were substantive facts to these claims.

11. There are some interesting facts buried in this book's blast of claims. In 56 BC there was a Battle of Moribhan, off the coast of France (Brittany), where Julius Caesar had a fleet hastily constructed to attack Veneti galleys. The Veneti boats were larger than the galleys constructed by the Romans, and required a special strategic tactic to gain a victory. I got this from Wikipedia, and the account there is almost word for word what is published in the Secrets book. No sources were referenced from the Secrets book. The point of the story was to provide proof that the Celts had boats that could cross the Atlantic. I think that just because the boats were bigger than the Roman galleys used at the fight, doesn't give any indication that they were capable of an ocean crossing. Galley sizes varied both over time, and for purpose built situations. Generally they were at best coastal cruisers with limited inter-island crossing capability. When Caesar ordered a fleet built, I couldn't find a reference to details of the build, such as the time frame available, the supplies at hand (timber and connectors), and specialized boat builders available. The Romans could have assumed a victory, and not wasted resources building a huge one-time-use navy on the spot. They did win despite their underdog fleet combatant size. The author could have assumed some of the responsibility for providing further proof of the capabilities of the Veniti. I think that's one aspect and purpose of investigative historical research and theorem promulgation.

[Kelly Korby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book, but I felt like the author had to make amends in the last 2 chapters for the previous 15. Still worth the read.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is an age old adage that extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence. This book has part of that adage. I have always felt there was a part of history either unknown or covered up in regards to the Americas. Some of the evidence shown has the potential to alter human timelines. The problem that then rears its ugly head is that no competent researcher or person with an academic background wants to put their name with this type of research. The author leans on other's work in an attempt to prove some of his points.

This is a good, fun read but you need to take it not necessarily at face value.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of conjecture and leaps like many of the books in this genre, but it makes some good suggestions and thoughts.

[Kyle Philson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kyle Philson Host of Expanded Perspectives Podcast

-Free Review Copy Courtesy of Inner Traditions/Bear & Company


The Secrets of Ancient America is an incredible book. It is a must read for any American interested in occupants of our continent long before Christopher Columbus. This is not a theory, it is a fact. In the beginning of the book Carl explains that the people of Columbus’s time did not think that the earth was flat. This was an invention of the nineteenth century. The Egyptian- Greek scientist Eratosthenes had already established the circumference and diameter of the earth in the third century BC. Columbus would have had access to ancient Viking and Arab maritime maps; he knew how much food to take, etc. Then he tells the stories of the Phoenicians and the copper mines of Isle Royale, The Crespi Caves of Ecuador, Roman Coins found throughout the Americas, Hebrew inscriptions, Celtic and Norse runes, Shiva linga, Egyptian Hieroglyphs even Chinese and Japanese influences. The reader is left with little doubt that there were visitors here from many cultures and their level of understanding of the Cosmos was vast. There are over 300 pictures that show these solar picture shows that are expertly mapped out on the walls of caves and flat surfaces on the solstices and equinoxes. Like the ones at the Anubis Caves. All in all one of the best books I have read on the subject matter. My hat is off to the work that Carl Lehrburger has done with this book. Fantastic!!

[Ulana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book giving information that the Americas were discovered and explored by people from many different lands including the Celts, the Phoenicians, etc. with photographs of relics, sites, and rock art. He compares them with drawings and relics from other parts of the world that are similar in India , China, etc.