Why Alexander's Tomb is in Illinois

Ancient American Published Title


Actual Title:

Let the Rocks Speak

By Paul Schaffranke

MCMXCVI

When approached by the staff of Ancient American to provide its readers with an article that featured decipherments from this Tomb, there were many decisions that had to be made concerning what direction to take. There are now so many tablets translated, with so many different languages and indicative styles of writing that it seemed difficult to decide what subject would be most readily understood while not repeating information which has appeared on previous works or videos. The topics depicted on various inscribed tablets deal with the subjects of: Biology, History, Zoology, Music, Astronomy, Geography (River and Land maps); Religious and Ceremonial Rites; Land Claims, Building/Ship Blueprints, and War Records to name a few. There are tablets that describe details of ancient battles not only in the region of present day United States, but also events taking place on modern day Canadian soil as well, 2000 years ago.

It became apparent that this article should follow a single topic line and present specific details of the primary persons (ancient) who were most involved (as the data currently relates) to the presumption that Alexander the Great's Tomb has been relocated to North America. The lineage of the Ptolemaic Dynasty and the History surrounding the fundamental facts of these persons are quite lengthy but covered in detail on Tomb Tape III. Our theories often shift and change as more data is added to the pile already existing, but whenever there is a historical discrepancy, we always side with the decipherment; none of the decipherments have contradicted themselves.

The following stones have been selected, because of their precise linear relationship, to purposefully introduce you to an Ancient King who ruled the entire Mississippi/Ohio/Missouri River Basins, including the Great Lakes region through Canada east to encompass the island of Newfoundland and the immediate regions north and south along the Atlantic Coast. His domain was called "Aderion" in most texts and "Happyland" or "Land of Many Smiles" in others. His fleet of many ships was well supplied with goods, colonists and artisans. This Ancient King's name is Alexander Helios (Helios, in Greek means Sun). The abbreviated symbol for his name is always his motif, and commonly appears with a Sun symbol. Alexander Helios has been missing from History since age 10, when he was last recorded by the ancient writer Cassius Dio, in his History, Book 51.

Helios was born in 40 B.C. and had a twin sister named Selene. They were the oldest children birthed by Cleopatra to Mark Antony. Helios was of Royal lineage as was his father and mother. Recorded History provides no clues as to what happened to Alexander Helios after he became a palace hostage and somewhat adopted by Octavia, Octavian's sister / Mark Antony's former wife. History does record that Cleopatra Selene (twin sister) married Juba II, (also a hostage in the court of Octavian) who later was granted back his homeland of ancient Mauretania and acclaimed King Juba II by Octavian.

Working together, Alexander Helios and his brother-in-law King Juba II, have left their fingerprints all over this Monumental Ancient Tomb as can be easily seen by the 100's of tablets representing their likenesses which also include their individual names. They are also written about together on some tablets referencing each other. The portraits of these two persons, as they are carved on the tablets, can be recognized quite readily after a thorough study of the pieces without the aid of script. There are differing faces representing Helios, some styles do appear rather comical, but the decipherment will give his title as 'King'.

Decipherments translated from these important tablets, build a complex story of an ancient civilization, made up of Mediterranean refugees, thriving in several settlements along the entire Mississippi / Ohio River systems and tributaries.

Figure 1 is a typical ornamental stone mummy with the insignia of Helios faintly inscribed across the lower front.  There are perhaps as many as twenty stones similar in style to this one so far accounted for.  Figure 2 is a stone carved in the shape of a lion's head. When carefully examined, inside the lion's mouth, reveals a line of script spelling out the name of Helios.  Figure 3 shows the reverse of Figure 2 and displays the sun symbol along with the "Helios" motif.

Figure 4 shows a replicated gold coin which surfaced in 1990.  We have noticed that several of the faked replica coins were poorly crafted having their positive casting altered somehow causing the images to be reversed.  These coins must be seen reflected, as with a mirror, to be observed correctly, as the original was intended.

Another simple portrait of Helios appears in Figure 5.  This tablet is inscribed within the circle-cross and translated as "Helios Rex;" in English, this means "Helios the King."  Dozens of stones similar to this style picture Helios as a ruler wearing a variety of garments, armor and cloaks.

A more complicated decipherment featuring Helios is shown in Figure 6.  This tablet is another portrait of Helios, but in this picture, he is shown in a Roman-style helmet with a plume protruding from the top-center.  We see the Sun above him, also giving clue as to who is portrayed on the stone.  The script is read from bottom to top:

Read as: "Aetas duo et vicesimus Helios."  Translated as: "Helios at age twenty-two."  "Aetas" is the Latin term for "age." 

The dots in this script give separation between numbers and words.  The number is written in reverse, perhaps as it was correctly pronounced.  Helios was born in 40 B.C., so this stone was most likely carved circa 18 B.C., in the new land.  Helios is not depicted as a king or ruler until a few years later.

Figure 7: This tablet is one of the first describing who this Helios was and which Old World dynasty he came from.  Also solved is the puzzle of who lay buried in the crypts and main tomb of the cave.  Its decipherment marks the beginning of the end of the confusion that surrounded the site since its discovery was made.  The photographs of this stone appear in both previously written books about the Cave, but its decipherment was first made known on our video production titled "Tomb Tape III" and (in greater detail) on "Tomb Tape IV".

Here, the front clearly portrays Helios with his motif, directly underneath, wearing a costume similar to Native American chiefs.  Being the ruler of such a vast empire, he was most likely required to obtain the confidence of the tribal peoples in residence.  He must have achieved this goal and it would appear that he rose to become a great spiritual leader among tribes living in the Midwestern Basin.  Notice the distinct Caucasian facial features and the absence of facial hair. 

Read As:              Translated As:

Deputo                Depicted as:

iure Iupiter            sworn by Jupiter

iugi                      to the summit

et Pateriu             and of his forefathers

effigiueti                     the living image

Ptole Gipti              the Ptolemies of Egypt

Figure 8 is the reverse of Figure 7 and shows clear script in the "Schaff" alphabet and is read in retrograde.  After deciphering this tablet, it became clear to me that Helios was a descendant of the Ptolemaic Dynasty.  But where and when?  It was at this time that the search for Helios revealed he was indeed the missing son of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.  We learned not only what happened to Helios, but also the identity of the other kings in the crypt and what happened to them as well.  With our decipherment, we were able to begin piecing this complicated puzzle together with the identities of real people and places and actual events in recorded history.

Figure 9 is a tablet exhibiting Numidian script on the left and second rows of vertical lines to the right.  Numidian is the second most prevalent language on the tablets, "Schaff" being the first.  The vertical lines here are regarded as Ogam by a dedicated group of amateur linguists, however, they are sadly mistaken.  These lines comprise a numbering or dating system commonly used during that period.  Certain artifacts from the ruins at Carthage are marked with similar lines.  Breaking this ancient indexing system demands the expertise of some capable scholar familiar with Punic and North African mathematics.  Several tablets featuring the line-system translate into numbers and records of different events and calculations.

The Sun carved at the top of the stone identifies with Helios.  The script is read from bottom to top.

When translated from Numidian, it reads: "Territories of the King."  The lines cold signify anything from a tax collection to location coordinates under the dominion of Helios.  The Numidian word GLDT means "king" which became the root word for AGELAD, as the term for "king" is pronounced in the modern Berber language still being used in North Africa.

The artifact pictured in Figure 10 has become somewhat famous since its first public release at the 1995 ISAC convention.  Its inscription was flawlessly created by an Iberian colonist over two millennia ago, and written in the typical "Schaff" alphabetic characters.  The words are abbreviated roots in an early dialect of Iberic vernacular Latin.  The inscription reads in boustrophedon (as the ox plows), beginning at the upper right corner and finishing at the bottom left corner.  This is a rather large tablet and the script is executed with finesse.  Let's begin with a letter-by-letter transliteration placing the script in its proper direction of word-flow. 

When transliterated into Latin, the script reads: Bellu Helio albo et fil quideleo bene finiv quoque perhib regen Hellentoa

Translation: "The handsome white Helios, defined as the righteous one by the people, and also possessor of the Hellenic Kings."

The inscription informs us that Helios is a god-king to his subjects.  He is called the possessor of the Hellenic lineage of the Ptolemies and most likely the owner of the Sema including the corpse of Alexander the Great.

The words on this, as well as many other stones, can be researched more in-depth using a standard Latin dictionary.  The brief Lexicon to the grammar used on this tablet is only a primer explaining several abbreviated root-words and definitions:

Bellu - Root of Bellus meaning "handsome."  The early Greeks often referred to their Sun-God as "handsome."  This is how we get our modern word belle as in 'southern belle'.

Helio - Obviously the Helios motif repeated here.

Albo - Root word for Albus, meaning the color white

Et - The common Latin form of "and" or "in addition to."

Fil - Abbreviated form of filia, meaning "sons and daughters," as subjects under.

Quideleo - An archaic form of the word "who," in this case, it is an indirect object referring to Helios.  Like the Latin quid.

Bene - A form of the "bonus," meaning "good" or "righteous;" archaic prefix root of the modern English word "benefactor," which means "one who is gracious or giving," a good person; also used in the modern words benefit and benevolent.

Finiv - A variation of the Latin verb finio meaning "to define, determine or be appointed."

Quoque - Regular Latin term for "and also."

Perhib - Abbreviated form of the word perhibeo, which means "to bring forth, to call or to possess," as in ownership.

Regen - Abbreviated word for "regents," which comes from the word REX, meaning "king."

Ellenetoa - A borrowed Greek word defined as "Hellenic."

The person inscribing this stone, like so many others, could only assume that the reader would have known enough Latin to determine what these words and their abbreviations were intended to mean.  The practice of abbreviating common words is frequently met with on ancient tablets found throughout the Italian and Iberian peninsulas.

The tablets' vernacular or common form of Latin in this stage of development is primarily created by connecting root-stems or root-words.  By attaching two of them together, they become compound words with no past, present or future tense; such a level in the development of a language is often called "agglutinative," and is a grammatical stage in the evolution of any civilized speech.

The significance of this tone and its decipherment is great and underscores or contention that the Ptolemies are interred at eh southern Illinois site. They considered themselves uniquely genuine Hellenic royalty, because of their singular imperial lineage descending from Alexander the Great.

With Figure 11, please allow me to introduce one of the wives of Helios.  The stone portrait depicts a woman facing right with her breasts predominating the subject matter.  Its script is deciphered in retrograde with abbreviated Latin using the "Schaff" alphabet.  Her name is "Luccia" or Light:  Reading: Lux Nupta Helion

Translation: "Light Married to Helios."  Helios here impersonates the Sun, while Luccia is identified with its light.

Figure 12 depicts the image of Helios' father who also appears in the archive.  This stone, though slightly defaced, features a portrait of Marc Antony carved many years after his death.  Written in retrograde:

T - is a common abbreviation for Tres.

V - is a common abbreviation for vir.  Together, they form the word "Triumvir."

M - used as a name, is a common abbreviation for Marcus.

Ants - abbreviated also and used by ancient Latin historians for Antonius or Antonine.

C - another common Roman abbreviation for Consul.

The inscription on this tablet thus reads, "Triumvir Marc Antony, Consul."  He seems to be outfitted in attire from his campaign against the Parthians, because the style appears oriental.

Figure 13 is another replica of a gold coin removed from the Tomb.  The original was minted in Gades, modern Spain's port city Cadiz.  

 

It should be noticed that the casting is also flipped and reversed, thereby leaving no doubt that it is a casting.  The coin features and elephant facing right on the obverse side with Numidian characters at the top.  

The letters were written in retrograde and the proper order is thus: YUBA GADIZA.  The coin bears the name of King Juba II, brother-in-law of Alexander Helios.  "Gadiza" is the old Iberic spelling and pronunciation for the port city of Cadiz, indicating that the coin was minted there under Roman supervision.  We know from Pliny that Juba wrote two volumes about elephants and was somewhat fascinated with the abilities and intuition of this great beast.

Moving along to Figure 14, you will notice a handsome warrior facing right.  This stone was selected for its shear simplicity and its relationship to the founder of the dynasty.  The king pictured on this tablet was not only his favorite hero, but Alexander truly believed that he was the direct descendant of this ferocious, but passionate warrior.  

 

This personage dates back to the war against Troy, where he fought on the side of the Greeks to become the turning factor which brought victory over their enemies.  He clearly bears his insignia across the breastplate pictured as a snake, which was closely associated with this king's name.  The stone is read in retrograde- as: Bas Achilles Vipeo  Translated as: King Achilles the Viper.

The word Bas is used frequently on tablets depicting kings and queens.  It is an abbreviated form of the Greek loan-word Basileos, meaning "royalty" or "leader of a nation."  The Classical Greek term for "viper" is Ecix, pronounced, "echis," where the root, "ech" is similar to "Ach" in "Achilles."  It is possible that the name could have meant "viper-like" in archaic Greek.  Achilles is a main character of Homer's epic The Iliad.  It was Alexander the Great's favorite book also and he kept it with him always during his campaigns, even sleeping with it under his pillow.

The decipherment of the tablet pictured in Figure 15, was first introduced on our video feature, Tomb Tape III, and was repeated on Tomb Tape IV.  It is a stone apparently removed from the main crypt, that clearly depicts a famous warrior-king wearing a breastplate emblazoned with a falcon.  It is very similar in style to the Achilles tablet mentioned above.  The script is read from top to bottom.

BaS   ALeKhs   U   PLEO

Basileos Alex of/from Pelleo

King Alexander of Pella

Alexandros in Classical Greek means "fowl of the air," as is depicted across his breastplate and on the famous Trojan shield (see Ancient American Volume 1 Number 4 backcover), which incidentally, was taken by Achilles after he defeated Hector and dragged his body around the Trojan capital's walls.

The evidence presented here speaks for itself.  I cannot imagine what other conclusions may be drawn from the site and its inscriptions.  The linguistics are clear, concise, and are profusely complimented with matching pictures and with the depictions of persons who lived at the time these ancient scripts were in common usage.  Difficult as it may be for us to accept, the Cave in Illinois is undoubtedly the Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great and his lineal descendants.

Thank you, Paul Schaffranke

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