Author: Gordon, Cyrus Herzl [1908 - 19??]
Title: Riddles in History
Description: New York, Crown Publishers, [1974]. orig.boards. 24x15cm, 188 pp.. illus. maps, plates. Some rubbing. Name inked on flyleaf. VG. In a torn dustwrapper. ¶ Ever since the Bronze Age men have made their way across the Atlantic. They left only a few mysterious clues - riddles which have baffled the most distinguished scholars. But the eminent linguist & historian Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon now reveals how ancient cryptograms can be decoded to prove the actuality of pre-Columbian contacts between the Old World and the New. He skilfully examines the reaons why esoteric messages were cleverly embedded in ancient inscriptions and Medieval Norse texts, showing how literacy was limited to professional scribes who wrote for an elite taught to master riddles and cryptograms and grasp subtly concealed meanings. Recounting the intriguing stories behind the discovery of these ancient puzzles, the author concentrates on the Paraiba text, a stone found in 1872 in Brazil; the Kensington Stone, discovered by a farmer in Minnesota, and the Spirit Pond Inscriptions, three rune-stones found by a carpenter in Maine. He also assesses the latest findings in regard to the so-called Vinland map" - dustwrapper [Contents: Stranger than Fiction; Ancient Cryptograms; The Paraiba Inscription; The Vinland Map; The Kensington Stela; The Spirit Pond Runestones; Perspective and Conclusions].

Keywords: Ancient Cryptograms, Norse Voyages, Pre-Columbian, Discovery, Exploration, Runes Rune Runic, Viking Vikings, Inscriptions, Epigraphy