Egypt isn’t the only place with hieroglyphs, and not all hieroglyphs have Egyptian origins. In the 1970s, there was a controversial discovery of hieroglyphs in Australia, later known as the ‘Gosford Hieroglyphs‘. For some time, this discovery created a fuss among researchers, being a controversial issue and a subject of numerous debates among historians and archaeologists. However, no research was able to verify the authenticity of the hieroglyphs or their link to Ancient Egypt.

The Discovery

First reported in 1975 by local researcher Alan Dash, the hieroglyphs were the basis of the folklore in the area. With about 250 stone carvings, many indigenous people have believed it to be part of something grand.

The Kariong archaeological site is known for its prehistoric gravesite, which was discovered back in the early 1900s. The grave belongs to prince Nefer-Ti-Ru, who was buried by his brother, the commander of a ship that got wrecked along the coast of Gosford.

The glyphs were the writings that accompanied the grave. There is a belief that there is a relationship between the gravesite and the hieroglyphs of Kariong.

The Controversial Claims

Although most scholars strongly believe that the hieroglyphs in Australia are a product of a hoax, there are still many researchers who would disagree. This controversial discovery suggests that there may be earlier settlers to Australia that could possibly come from the Middle East. The proponents of this theory believe that they could be older than the Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Yet, egyptologist Mohamed Ibrahim and his team claim to have translated the glyphs. According to their results, the Gosford Hieroglyphs are authentic and even have grammatical variations that were present in the 2012 discovery of hieroglyphs in Egypt, which were found to have similarities with the text in Kariong.

Other researchers have linked these hieroglyphs to the archaic Phoenician writing of Egypt. Phoenician merchants were a nomadic tribe that travelled across all over the Mediterranean world. According to this point of view, there may be a possibility that a merchant boarded a ship that could have sailed to Gosford.

Some other pieces of text are said to have similarities with the Sumerian writings. Sumerian was a language of ancient Mesopotamia. The writing was used widely in their religion and scholarly works. Researchers claim to have found the link between the Sumerian writing with the hieroglyphs in Kariong.

Gosford Hieroglyphs Debunked

The majority of historians and archaeologists believe that the hieroglyphs in Australia have nothing to do with those in Egypt. The scientific community doesn’t accept these hieroglyphs as genuine.

If they were authentic, it would shake the mainstream version of history. The acceptance of the authenticity of these glyphs could very well disprove many theories that are the basis of the history we know today. New discoveries will always arise and many of them will probably change the way we see the past, the present, and the future.

However, this doesn’t seem to be the case, unfortunately. According to egyptologist Professor Boyo Ockinga from Macquarie University, the hieroglyphs are fake and have no connection with Ancient Egypt. The problem is that there are too many inconsistencies. Some examples include:

  • The Gosford hieroglyphs are too disorganized
  • The shapes of the signs are wrong
  • They contain symbols from totally different ages of Ancient Egyptian history, with a chronological gap of thousands of years

Professor Ockinga believes that the engravings could have been made in the 1920s when the Tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered, which sparked an interest in the history of Ancient Egypt among the general population. To sum up, the egyptologist said:

“It’d be wonderful…but I’m afraid it’s just not possible.”

References:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org
  2. https://www.abc.net.au
  3. Featured image: Jorge Láscar from Melbourne, Australia / CC BY

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This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. Andre Alporter

    Some elements of this universe is not met for everyone to understand.
    Even if you had another 10,000 years to study. You won’t get. It was not
    met for you to read this code.

    1. dumb

      what a patronising and smug comment, confirmation bias creates a closed mind – let some light in

  2. Loci Shi

    Here alittle there alittle…

  3. Peter

    Given that there are drawings of Kangaroos and Wattles on the walls of tunnels to Egyptian Tombs it is obvious that Egyptian seafarers travelled to Australia and returned to Egypt long before anyone else travelled to Australia

  4. Tracie

    What I’ve learned over the course of the past 5 years is if the say “Debunked” then it’s Absolutely true.

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