Mysterious carving with biblical message linked to Jesus' crucifixion found in North America
Archaeologists have deciphered 255 ancient characters that were etched into a stone more than 200 years ago.
The runic inscription, carved into bedrock, was first uncovered in 2018 after a fallen tree exposed the writing, which is arranged in a square formation.
Ryan Primrose, an archaeologist and the director of the Ontario Center for Archaeological Education, has now revealed that the symbols spell out the Lord's Prayer in Swedish.
The prayer, also known as the 'Our Father,' is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that was written sometime after his crucifixion.
Primrose, who has been analyzing the artifact since its discovery, determined that the characters were Nordic runes, part of Futhark, a writing system used in Scandinavia in past centuries.
He and his team were surprised to find this ancient script in the Canadian wilderness, but later learned that the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) hired Swedes in the 1800s to work at trading posts, suggesting that this may be when the carvings were made.
Due to the lack of artifacts around the site, Primrose believed the site was used as a place of worship.
The carved slab was found near the town of Wawa, located about 155 miles from the nearest US border crossing in Michigan.
In the 1800s, the HBCa British fur trading enterprise, was rapidly expanding its operations across North America, from the Pacific Northwest to the Canadian Arctic.
To keep these trading posts staffed, HBC frequently recruited workers from European countries, including Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
The Scandinavian workers were mostly stationed at trading posts in Canada's interior or Pacific Northwest.
The characters were written inside a square, also carved in the rock, measuring three feet by four feet.
Also included was an image of a boat with 16 people drawing around it, which may have reflected the Swedes who traveled to Canada hundreds of years ago.
Primrose said that the slab appeared to have been intentionally buried.
'There were ruins covered by about six inches of soil,' he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
The wear of the stone suggests it could be as old as the 1600s, but experts only have the evidence of Swedish speaking individuals being in the region some 200 years ago.
Henrik Williams, an emeritus professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, was sent images of the symbols who was disappointed that it was not an ancient artifact.
'Any runic inscription is rare, he told CBC. 'Someone put all this effort into this particular text and you wonder why. The mystery does not decrease just because of its age.'
Primrose said he did not want to release the information publicly until he was completely sure about the translation of the symbols.
'This is certainly among the least expected finds I have encountered in my career,' he said.
The Lord's Prayer appears in two places in the New Testament.
The first is in Matthew 6:9-13 during the Sermon on the Mount and again in Luke 11:2-4 when a disciple asks Jesus how to pray.
The prayer is a short, powerful summary of Christian beliefs and expresses key themes, honoring God's name, asking for God's will to be done, requesting daily bread, forgiving and being forgiven, and avoiding temptation.
For the first few centuries of Christian practice, the Lord's Prayer was taught to converts and frequently recited in communal worship and private devotion.
It became a central part of Christian liturgy across traditions, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant, and was often called 'the perfect prayer.'
It was then translated into countless languages and incorporated into church services and daily prayers around the world.
The prayer etched in the stone in Canada was the Swedish version, which featured the Norse linguistic heritage.
While the Bible was translated to Swedish in 1541, scholars chose to transcribe the Lord's Prayer into runes as a way to celebrate or connect with their Scandinavian past.
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