It’s not widely known that the US National Security Agency has a small section at Fort Meade devoted to the history of code-breaking: The Center for Cryptologic History. As well as making scans of a number of useful documents available on its website (most notably Mary D’Imperio’s “An Elegant Enigma”), the CCH convenes its own history of cryptology event every two years: the 2009 conference had David Kahn, Elonka Dunin, Whitfield Diffie and loads of other well-known crypto people both attending and giving talks. Though the focus was mainly 20th century, the two notable exceptions were…

  • Kathryn Schwartz, Harvard University – “The Academic, Poetic and Militarised Impetuses behind Medieval Arabic Cryptology’s Development
  • Richard Belfield, Fulcrum TV – “The Story Behind the Shepherd’s Monument Inscription at Shugborough Hall

Note that though I didn’t rate Richard Belfield’s “Six Unsolved Ciphers” book very highly when I reviewed it here, the Shepherd’s Monument chapter was by far its best section, so his lecture on that same subject would probably have been well worth catching.

And now we have a new reason to be interested in the CCH: its 2010 calendar contains several pictures of the Voynich Manuscript, which is an especially good reason for Cipher Mysteries readers to want their own copy. But you can’t buy this in the shops (except on eBay, where you can buy pretty much everything that isn’t actually thermonuclear): according to the CCH’s Barry Carleen…

If any of your subscribers would like to order calendars, they can send an e-mail to [email protected] and we’ll be glad to provide them as long as supplies last.

So there you go – a happy 2010 to you all! 🙂

2 thoughts on “The Center for Cryptologic History’s 2010 calendar…!

  1. Hello,

    The Holy Grail’s transition into a woman (Mary Magdalene) by earlier authors, and then more recently by Dan Brown, will be shown to be just terminologies for the real source of the legends. The legend of the Holy Grail or challice – is the legend of the EYE of Horus.

    Although my work is short on volume, it’s content is quality and will raise new questions amongst the academics and scholars. It reveals powerful errors of translation, and sheds new light on the true meaning of the legends. It begins where the Da Vinci Code ends, and provides a new solution and explanation for the legends of the Holy Grail.

    My work is a serious study of the Pyramid Texts – and is a ‘new’ revelation that is waiting to be understood. The mysteries of the world is something that grips the imagination of us all, and once in a while someone comes along with ‘new’ revelations. The book, Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, shows the deep interest of the world with that of legends and mysteries – my ‘new’ translation of the Pyramid Texts takes the legends of the Holy Grail even further, and presents the audience with a ‘new’ understanding and insight to the mysteries of the ancients and possible origins for the Grail legend.

    Please take the time with a un-biased mind, to read my new translation. If you would like to discuss my written work, I would be more than happy to engage in conversation and ideas with you and be a possible future speaker concerning my findings.

    Thankyou for you time!

    Derek A. Jones. http://eyeofhorus.yolasite.com

  2. Chris Davis on March 7, 2011 at 7:43 pm said:

    Please help.
    I read Richard Belfield’s book a couple of years ago and picked it up again a couple of weeks ago. I got interested in the Zodiac killer and reasoned that serial killers may be all sorts of things but probably not the type of person to devote themselves to hours of academic study. So, admittedly for amusement, I had a go at the Cyphers.

    Now I have a problem. I have seemed to have found the key and and then found Name, Location and Reason. I thought that I would get a sense of achievement, but no, it is just what do I do now?

    I am fully aware that there are victims and still living relatives involved and I would also not like to implicate an innnocent man because of any (or probable) amateur mistake.

    Where do I go?
    Is there someone that could contact me in confidence? I do not think that I am mad, but that may be for others to judge.

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