67:, a Nazi and fringe author writing under the name Frank Joseph, was in the Pontiac Correctional Facility in Illinois while Burrows was working there as a prison guard and later wrote articles and books about Burrows with differing and conflicting details. Both versions agree that that Burrows claimed to have been a pothunter searching for artefacts near the Embarrass River. In Collin's first version Burrows was using a metal detector which started to ossiculate rapidly and he fell into a vertical narrow pit. Both versions describe him finding long corridors, a series of sealed portals, statues, mummies, bronze weapons, diamonds, parchment scrolls, etc. He also claimed to have found portraits which, according to Joseph, showed "an impossible mix of apparent Romans, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Christians, American Indians, and even Black Africans".
149:. Alongside this claim, he included a legitimate image of a Phoenician vessel and combined it with the picture of the alleged Phoenician ship from Burrows Cave. In doing so, he cropped the image from the Burrows stone making the paddle end of a steering oar unidentifiable but leaving the steering oars that are shown on what he calls (and the artist depicts) as the prow of the boat. This would have been unnoticeable, except Joseph included steering oars at both ends of the ship on this tablet, which is impossible in real life. Essentially, this mistake made by Joseph contributed to the belief in inaccurate claims, until it was ultimately squashed by critics.
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been inspected by archaeologists or anthropologists due to
Burrows' extreme secrecy. Although, perhaps the artifacts he is best known for are the carved stone tablets with writing in various unknown languages, many with image depictions. The stone tablets are said to represent Old World people, such as Romans, Hebrews, Egyptians, Sumerians, Greeks and Phoenicians. Thousands of these tablets have been sold to private collectors.
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In the second version described by Joseph
Burrows finds a 15 foot natural cave entrance which he thought was covered with Native American inscriptions. Trying to remove these the wall broke revealing stone steps lined with oil lamps and the remains of torches. The rest of Joseph's report is the same
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Burrows claimed that the artifacts within the cave were ancient and diverse. He reported that there were life-sized gold statues, gold coffins, mummies, pagan idols, weapons, diamonds, coins, portraits, burial urns, scrolls, swords, weaponry, and suits of armor. Many of these treasures have never
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Burrows claims that the cave was a tomb that was meant to hold the ancient artifacts of the dead. Currently, nobody outside
Burrows's immediate circle has claimed to have been inside the cave. Anthropologists and archaeologists have not been able to conduct scientific research on the cave due to
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magazine began to publish articles about the cave. At that point
Burrows started to publish photographs of Judeo-Christian artefacts in Ancient American, claiming that he had not revealed them fearing ridicule. Joseph argued that the colonizers using the cave had witnessed Jesus's crucifixion.
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reputedly discovered by
Russell E. Burrows in 1982 which he claimed contained many ancient artifacts. Because the many inconsistencies and lack of evidence for his claims of discovery and findings, the cave, which has never been located, is considered a
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Russel E. Burrows was a former
Illinois prison guard. He also served in the Korean War and was a war veteran. Burrows did not have any archeology or anthropology background. During the time of the alleged discovery, Burrows was 42 years old.
164:"The 'author' did not recognize the paired oars, and hung an 'impossible' oar over the bow. All others equally botched up. Fanciful stern pieces...Oar over bow - crude fakery by an ignoramus in the world of ships."
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Up until around 1993 the details discussed by
Burrows and Joseph suggested that the cave was part of a mid-first millennium colony trading Michigan copper to the Old World. This changed when the Mormon owned
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Burrows' intense secrecy. Many of Burrow’s so-called artifacts have been revealed as forgeries. The cave and its artifacts are widely considered to be a hoax or fraud, even among proponents of other
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With no evidence of the cave and its existence, many archaeologists quickly dismissed
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Rutland, Reece (Dec 21, 2013). "Marion County to appear in
America Unearthed episode". Centralia Morning Sentinel.
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Wilson, Joseph AP (2012). "The Cave Who Never Was: Outsider
Archaeology and Failed Collaboration in the USA".
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Fell, H. B. (1987). Detecting Fraudulent Inscriptions. Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications, 16: 24.
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The Lost Treasure of King Juba: The Evidence of Africans in America before Columbus
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Weird Illinois: Your Travel Guide to Illinois' Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets
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The Cave Who Never Was: Outsider Archaeology and Failed Collaboration in the USA
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Haunting the Prairie: A Tourists Guide to the Weird and Wild Places of Illinois
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Burrows claimed that the cave was located near the Embarrass River in
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Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum
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is the name given to an alleged cave site in Southern
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450:Burrows cave and other archaeological fantasies
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407:Falling into Burrows Cave
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307:Feder, Kenneth L (2010).
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183:References
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228:162312493
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