Endnote 4 – The Bat Creek Inscription: Did Judean Refugees Escape to Tennessee?

The Smithsonian incorrectly gives 1885 as the date of the discovery in its standard public statement on the inscription (Smithsonian Anthropology Department, “The Bat Creek Stone,” an anonymous information sheet written c. 1971). Field reports in the Smithsonian’s archives demonstrate that it was excavated sometime between Feb. 1 and Feb. 15, 1889 (John W. Emmert, letters to Cyrus Thomas dated Feb. 1 and Feb. 15, 1889 [Smithsonian National Anthropological Archives, MS 2400, Tennessee]).