Anthon Transcript Characters And Reformed Egyptian

[searchinguy]

I have always wondered about Martin Harris' account of the Anthon event and if anything in the characters (Anthon transcript) now show a connection to written Egyptian. Are the characters similar to any new world characters/written langauge? Has there been any research on the topic?

http://www.cometozarahemla.org/graphics/anthon.jpg

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[LeSellers]

The "Caractors" in the Anthon Manuscript are unique, as far as I know.

However, Charles Anthon made an interesting observation nearly five years later in regards to the event with Martin Harris. See this (although I do not trust the source in the least): Professor Charles Anthon Letter, Feb. 17, 1834.

He requested an opinion from me in writing, which of course I declined giving, and he then took his leave carrying the paper with him. This paper was in fact a singular scrawl. It consisted of all kinds of crooked characters disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets. Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters inverted or placed sideways, were arranged in perpendicular [vertical?] columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican Calender given by Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was derived. I am thus particular as to the contents of the paper, inasmuch as I have frequently conversed with my friends on the subject, since the Mormonite excitement began, and well remember that the paper contained any thing else but "Egyptian Hieroglyphics."

If we compare this description with the actual artifact , we see few or no similarities. Not "columns", not "vertical", no "Mexican Calendar". It seems we have an example of an early anti-Mormon misrepresentation.

One of the most striking kind of caractor is what I call the "tick marks", vertical lines with cross hatching (once with a "Q-like tail") under them. A similar caractor is a series of four dots with an overbar. I recall reading (but not the source, alas) that the Maya used a similar system for counting. Whether other characters match known Mayan or other similar "alphabets", I simply do not know.

Lehi