Case file · Folklore / legend
Grave Creek Stone
A small sandstone disk with about 25 alphabet-like characters, said to have been found in Grave Creek Mound in 1838 and claimed as proof of pre-Columbian writing.
1838 CE · 39.92, -80.74 · status: hoax
The account
It was variously read as Celtic, Phoenician, runic or Iberian. The original is lost; only replicas and an old photograph survive.
The sceptical view
The characters can be found in a 1752 book of alphabets, which suggests a fraud.