(Thanks very much to VViews for passing this story my way, much appreciated!) The original French article appeared in Le Télégramme, though behind a paywall (boo!). So here’s my free-and-easy English translation:
It is a rock that has intrigued Michel Paugam, councillor of Plougastel (29) for several years. In order to solve its mystery, the municipality is this month launching a national call for applications.
On a rock not far from Anse du Caro in Plougastel-Daoulas in Brittany is carved (what looks like) a message that begins “grocar drear diozeevbio …“, followed on by other strange writings. This text is further embellished with no-less-enigmatic drawings: a heart linked to a cross that might evoke the Chouans of the Vendée stranded in the peninsula, a sailboat close to the sea licking the base of the engraved rock at high tide…
Of the numbers on the rock, only two seem to be obviously decryptable: 1786 and 1787. These correspond to the construction years of the nearby Fort du Corbeau and of other batteries that protect the harbour. But that’s all! So far, no satisfactory translation has emerged, despite its having been shown to associations, organizations, and various brainy people. The only thing we can be certain of is that during the First World War, a Russian soldier in the garrison added the date of 1920 to the original message. Naturally, contacts were made with Russia, thinking that understanding Cyrillic might provide some answers: but once again, the riddle remained unanswered. The mystery is such that some have suggested calling it “le mystère Champollion à Plougastel-Daoulas” (in tribute to the Rosetta Stone).
Hence a national contest has now been launched to try to solve this enigma: the municipality has launched an appeal to linguists, historians, students, academics, enthusiasts and enthusiasts of all of l’Hexagone to finally understand the text and, thus, its history. Running until the end of November 2019, this “mystère Champollion” competition will allow entrants to submit their research in the form of reports to be analyzed by a jury composed, among others, of academics and a representative of the service départemental d’archéologie. A prize fund of € 2,000 will be distributed by the jury, though without the participants being able to claim any remuneration or compensation. To find out more, to learn about the terms of participation and the rules or to visit the site (or ask for photos), contact : [email protected]
Yes, I can already see the possible connection with the mysterious (and quite probably 18th century) rock carvings found in Mauritius. But let’s just start with getting better scans and see where we go from there, hein?
Details can be asked from the Plougastel town hall: Règlement de participation auprès de Véronique Martin. Par mail : [email protected]. Adresse postale : 1, rue Jean-Fournier, 29470 Plougastel-Daoulas.
You’ll ask for the pictures, Nick?
I’d start by seeing whether any paymasters’ or other records remain listing the names of the work-crews who built the Fort du Corbeau etc.
Ruby: I already have. 😉
Diane: for me, the first place I went was gallica.bnf.fr, but I found absolutely nothing there. The next place would surely be the Société archéologique du Finistère, which – you’d have thought – would have written something about it (however brief).
I can’t quite see it because of the crack and the shadows, but the text at the end looks like it might be is[heart]s or eis[heart]s (which could be Jesus).
Prigilo could be a name, but it’s also a word in a couple of languages.
Avelacheod or Velacheod also potentially could be a name. It looks like the first part MIGHT be “Av” ligature and the way it is drawn is common in Spanish manuscripts.
It looks almost like a mixture of Norman and Latin or Spanish/Portuguese and Latin but I can’t see it well enough to make it out.
I might completely revise this when I see clearer scans. 🙂
Well cool! Thank you to VViews and Nick.
diozeev might be “diozeeu” (diocese) but I can only see part of it, so it’s a complete guess.
…and now, having trawled through the Société archéologique du Finistère’s website, I can see nothing there either. A mystery without any history, really?
https://epdf.tips/french-fortifications-1715-1815-an-illustrated-history.html
Perhaps something in the above might give a better idea of who was involved in making those fortifications. The Bibliography seems pretty good.
For all we know, the letters could represent the initials of a bored ship’s crew, or construction crew, deciding to memorialise themselves and omitting full stops from their initials to save time and ensure everyone had a turn before their day-leave expired. What’s the view to sea from the point of that stone? Any good as a trig point?
Diane: “Legion short on provisions” seems to be what the fuss is about and the rest may not be relevant or even of the same period eg. the years 1786 and 1787, but especially that of 1920 by which time the war had been won and old Boris should have been either back in St. Pb. with his Bolshie mates or in Paris with Kerensky in his cups.
Nick,
someone in this group (see ResearchGate) will probably have some knowledge of these rock engravings, and may have a professional opinion regarding them.
Du nouveau à l’Ouest :résultats préliminaires sur l’Azilien anciende l’abri sous roche du Rocher de l’Impératrice (Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère, France)
Nicolas NAUDINOT, Michel LE GOFFIC, Ludovic BELLOT-GURLET, Sylvie BEYRIES, Camille BOURDIER, Jérémie JACQUIER),Marine LAFORGE, Céline PARIS, Sabine SORIN
Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281776081_Du_nouveau_a_l%27Ouest_l%27abri_sous_roche_du_Rocher_de_l%27Imperatrice_Plougastel-Daoulas_Finistere_et_les_premiers_temps_de_l%27Azilien_sur_le_Massif_armoricain
The carving knife is still lying on the rock, so the photographer should know more 😉 However, the image above doesn’t show the entire inscription, this is the lower part: https://theworldnews.net/fr-news/rocher-grave-du-finistere-c-est-peut-etre-du-breton-du-vieux-breton-ou-du-chouan-on-ne-sait-pas-trop
Thomas: Looks more like a small paring knife to me, it’s purpose being to show comparitive size of the object which seems to be about one metre in width. It does seem, from a very narrow view perspective that the rock may have broken away from an original setting as flagging and slid down to it’s resting place on the beach before splitting. Could it have been subjected to prolonged abuse by bored coastal watchers on high over many years, from their lonesome and desolate, guard posts far above, as a means to while away the dreary time. It could even have been man handled to the precipice and pushed over by a couple of pissed off soldats in more recent times.
I agree that it is a little odd that there seems to be absolutely no mention of this rock anywhere. I can’t find anything about it online before the current contest announcement.
The article Thomas linked to mentions that a local person’s grandmother claimed the 1920 date was added by a russian soldier, which would indicate that the inscription was known to the local community, but I find this a little fishy too: how would she know this? Did the russian soldier brag about adding the date? Did the grandmother (or someone she knew) personally witness him doing it?
Based on the coordinates, the rock is in a somewhat remote location, with the nearest houses at least 500m away.
My gut feeling is that this is legit, but… if this is all some sort of hoax by the municipality to boost tourism to the area this summer, I hope they own up to it come November.
Thomas: of course, the knife was probably used for cleaning out the dirt prior to taking the photograph, but you knew that already. 😉
Thanks very much for the link to photo of the lower part where the “1920” part is clearly visible, though it has to be said that this date arguably looks older than the rest of the markings. :-/
VViews: converting the coordinates to a Google Maps link – https://www.google.com/maps/place/48%C2%B020'41.0%22N+4%C2%B026'37.0%22W
Here’s a mention from 2017:
https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/plougastel-daoulas-29470/plougastel-en-bas-d-une-falaise-le-mystere-de-la-pierre-gravee-5064612
(Note the same clothes – probably means that the new photo is 2 years old).
Rene: nice link, thanks. We can therefore scientifically push the latest date it could have been made all the way back to 2017. 😉
Thanks for the link to this article Rene!
The heart with cross symbol used is described in the article as “the symbol of Vendée”.
But the symbol of Vendée has a double heart and a crown under the cross, and was only officially adopted by Vendée in the 20th Century.
Considering the dates featured in the engravings, the symbol might to be related to the the emblem of the Chouans and other local groups who were loyal to the catholic church after the French Revolution. The Chouannerie only began in earnest in the early 1790’s, but pre-chouan peasant groups began to assemble in the late 1780’s.
The double heart with crown and cross, current symbol of Vendée, explicitly signifies loyalty to both the king and God (“utrique fidelis”). It seems to be a derivative from the earlier, simpler symbol with only the heart and cross.
See for example paintings of their namesake leader Jean Chouan who wore the symbol on his lapel. Other chouans also wore it.
The earliest date featured on the stone is the year when Jean Chouan was first imprisoned.
Could this be relevant?
The 2017 article was really posted in 2017 (courtesy of the Wayback machine).
In it, the question is raised whether this is a practical joke (which is then dismissed because it would have been too cumbersome to carve any number of letters in rock).
It is also said that the two gentlemen do not (yet) want to divulge the precise location.
Furthermore, it was found ‘some time before’ by passers-by, and must have fallen down the cliff due to erosion.
Who knows what’s on the other side 🙂
It’s a hoax for touristic purpose. It said it is a contest with 2000 euros reward and the results will be disclosed at the end of september. Veronique Martin work for town in charge of communication and tourism.
More precision. Rocks really exist (I went to see them yesterday, I live next door to the place).
Because the mayor’s office failed to find the meaning of the scriptures, they made a national call. Research is not remunerated. The sum of 2000€ is an envelope that will be distributed by a jury according to the veracity of the research files sent to the town hall.
Just a simple question; did you people read it backwards and in evangelical style German French?… or something like that.
I just thought I should throw a few “isms” into the mix. I’m no language expert but I do know people.
I notice a lack of neatness and possibly several different hands in the writing, this suggests it was never intended to be an official record of any kind. It was certainly not carved by a scholar.
The language appears strange but may have been written by different people with very poor literacy skills, many people could write their own name, learnt by rote, but were unable to actually read or write. Most could read or write numbers though.
My thoughts are that if it’s not a complete hoax then it’s likely to be nothing more than 18th century graffiti. And just like modern graffiti it is very dated, within just a few years the words used have lost or altered their meanings.
Examine some modern graffiti for comparisons.
Cheers,
Andrew.
The end of the second to last line looks like ‘rei di mevs me’ to me. ‘My gods [need a verb] as a thing to me’ (double dative construction). The only other thing is that it looks like code switching to me because relatively little of it looks like it can be parsed into Latin. And this is a port town, right? Multilingualism would be common place. The only issue with that is that code switching denotes a high degree of proficiency by the speaker in all involved languages. Which means that ‘gods’ plural is not a competency error. Polytheism wasn’t exactly in vogue in 1780’s France. So maybe the engraver(s) was trying to quote a Roman?
Found this very interesting and sure is a puzzle.
Some of the words would appear to be Basque, with a mix of Portuguese, and some Germanic words. Certainly Adreirig would seems to be Welsh.
There is mention of bread (Azomoar Pa) & flesh (Vleseld) … I wonder if it is some kind of prayer?
Is ‘Oscar Cloive’ a name?
Is it too much to expect that -someone- behind this ‘attempt to get a translation’ could actually publish a -reasonably visible- transcription of the text, and not just a pic of the rock with a few words as ‘examples’ of what’s in the text?
Buez ar saent gant reflexionou spirituel…..Messir Clauda-Guillou Marigo appears to be a useful reference point for the Breton words used in the section that has been widely publicised
“ROC AR B… DRE AR GRIO SE EVELOH AR VIRIONES BAOAVEL… R I ou encore OBBIIE: BRISBVILAR… FROIK…AL”
These words feature:
Roc, ar, dre, gri, se, evelo, virion, bao, avel, bris, bui, lar
This section at least should be fairly obvious to anyone with a grasp of Breton. I’m not a linguist, but presumably it is something to do with Saint Rocco and the plague – “evelo” destruction “virions” virus.
Probably haven’t added anything new with this.
Ted: I’ve registered with the mairie, and have just been sent a link through to more information (hopefully with some better pictures). I hope to post an update to Cipher Mysteries this evening, and will add a link to that new post in this comments section.
Hello all,
Interesting stuff and following. Just looked at it today (the few lines I can see) and fiddling around with some of the text backwards – Levaoab. the sphere of the Mood from Book Of Magical Art, Hindu Magic And Indian Occultism. I don’t know, but Hindi, Turk, Scandanavian (Froik) . Interesting to say the least
Grecar,,, Great Care about being decieved, and also a reference to roman catholic RC being so virtuous but not in fact, I wish I could see the entire script accentuated in either chalk or,so this all about the time of the importation of a new strawberry plant, the writer has short formed ie RC for roman catholic, and more instances, many had been duped into the service of France as sailors and mercenaries, I suspect of course a greater reference to sailors lost or taken by force by pirates local.
I know what it is and it is nothing that they think it may be. And it was already there in 1756. The British Admiralty talked about it. There are more than just this single stone. They will never figure it out.
Hi everyone,
As promised, I’ve just added a follow-on Cipher Mysteries post (with two transcriptions) on the same subject here:
http://ciphermysteries.com/2019/05/10/the-mysterious-stone-near-plougastel-daoulas-continued
Cheers, Nick
Hello all,
I live near Plougastel, across the Elorn river in Le Relecq-Kerhuon and never heard of this. But, I don’t think it’s a hoax like Laurent said above. The historian Michel Paugam is trustful enough and some articles about this stone emerged very recently. The tree with apples (yes, not the apple tree) is more popular in Plougastel than this stone, it’s an old pagan belief. For the stone, I think it’s old briton mixed with some latin, spanish or portuguese, and old norse. The sacred heart of the Chouans may have been sculpted after, before the Revolution for instance. The time at which each symbol was sculpted is not a clue unfortunately, but my intuition is that several people participated, as proven by the russian soldier story. I will also get the pictures from the Plougastel town to investigate more, playing with anagrams, phonetic, looking for gaelic connections, etc…
It’s a Dutch/ low German mixture text:
“OBBIIE: BRISBVILAR … FROIK … AL”
“Op Bie: BRIS E VIL AR … FROI IK … AL”
“Op Bie: Brise und viel Luft ….freu mich…..schon”
On sea trip: breeze and lots of air….looking forward…..already!
Good luck!
Just a guess after a bit of Latin scouting (I’m no expert) suggests a record of a marriage (by this rock, in this environment, by this servant on this eve). 2 old names mentioned together with a Villa.
One could be excused for believing that we’re looking at two different rocks, Nick’s original trolled photo being of a rough uneven form, and the one posted by Rene, appearing larger and squared off, as if it had been shaped with a scutch comb prior to it’s later overlay of mixed language inscriptions. Notwithstanding, we’re sure to find the original setting closeby the cliff overlook somewhere, in which case, a volunteer should make an effort to either make their way up to the top of the escarpment, or if not so adventurous, send a drone overhead to survey for tell tale signs of likely upheaval in the past.
Hello.
Thanks for all this information. I’m waiting for the reply from the «Mairie», they must be quite busy!
I live in Brittany, seen a few engraved stones from different eras but nothing quite like this. Breton dialects vary from one place to the next, spelling even more. Some groups of letters could be Breton words form a certain dialect…
Maybe older then the dates on it?
Wilhelm Wilhelmsburger, you mention other stones. Someone once told me about some engraved stones off the north Breton coast. Do you have any more info on this. You also mention British Admiralty in 1756, do you know of any record ?
Thanks!
Hello,
Living in Brest near Plougastel, I took some pictures of the rock and inscriptions last week (which I can share). Even if the researches on my family are centered on the Brittany center (Poher), I am interested in this mystery to try to understand the meaning. I searched “in the base of the departmental archives marriages, baptisms and deaths at Plougastel 184- 1877 if there was mention of an unusual name or fact, but nothing. Regards, Françoise MQ
FrançoiseMQ: thank you very much for offering! I would be very happy to post your pictures of the rock and inscriptions here on Cipher Mysteries, there is a lot of interest both in France and in the rest of the world. I’ll email you separately in a few minutes, hope that’s OK.
Ceejie: I’m fairly sure the mairie is closed over the weekend, but you probably won’t have to wait very long. 🙂
Ok and if you need research in the digitized archives of the Plougastel or other Finistère towns, tell me. Françoise
Hi Françoise,
I’ve just posted all your splendid photos on this new Cipher Mysteries page: http://ciphermysteries.com/2019/05/13/plougastel-inscription-photographs
Thanks very much!, Nick
Somebody said Rock on, the prisoner said “I’m tired of breaking rock” “Jesus am I Tired of breaking rock” after building the forts.
I’m emailing the results today 🙂 wish me luck!!
YOUR transcriptions are not good
gro car dre ar dioseev bi o
ar urf’s onez lath huel
that is celtic , i have traduce all the text
“une petite étable demeure pour le petit descendant de JOSEPH , porté à pied par une esclave…” IN FRENCH ill win!
I wonder(admittedly based on very little save conjecture and some remote possibilities) if this was a warning to convert to Islam. I have much more to investigate.
Chris: seems exoplanetarily remote to me. :-/