A fresh new day, and a fresh set of web searches brings up useful information on the Jabron Cryptogram that so intrigued Alfred Weysel for his (1972) book “L’Île des Veilleurs”. Firstly, as to where it is, this 2011 post by Philippe Mathé helps us improve on “somewhere in the gorges by Jabron”:-
Au lieu-dit “le pont de l’Evescat”, entre Jabron et Le Bourguet, une inscription est gravée sur la falaise bordant l’ancienne piste templière.
Luckily, Google Maps happens to know about Le Pont de l’Evescat, so we can see that it sits between Jabron and the bridge that carries the D252 from Le Bourguet over Le Jabron river. Any Cipher Mysteries reader holidaying in Provence now knows where to point their hire car’s GPS towards. 🙂
Another thing that needed improvement was the quality of the scans: thankfully, the thunting treasure-hunting site has a couple of nice clear photos, though I’m not wholly convinced that their attempt to trace the letters worked out too well. There are lots of lines there, sure: but which are carved and which are natural? 🙁
So… just to prove it’s not easy, here’s my own attempt at tracing them:-
Personally, unless someone sensible can get there and take some properly high-res images of these, as well as others with (e.g.) raking lights shone across them, I don’t think we’ll be able to reliably tell what are merely old cracks and what are really old letters. There’s also a shape below these letters in the thunting tracing which doesn’t appear in the letters, making this all very odd and unsatisfactory (but that’s how it nearly always goes with these things, right?)
Incidentally, the same two websites (which look to have largely come from the same source) also mention some odd cryptograms allegedly found in 1942 in the wall of the chapel at Valcros nearby, and claim that there’s a large body of people investigating these mysteries. I’d be a bit surprised if that’s true, but will go and have a look for these now, and post what I find in a few weary days’ time. 🙂