The Michigan relics and alleged Old World inscriptions

Record summary

Collections of purported inscribed tablets, crosses, coins, and other objects from Michigan were promoted in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as evidence of ancient European or Near Eastern visitors. Museums, antiquarians, and religiously motivated writers treated some items as discoveries, while professional archaeologists generally rejected them because of suspicious manufacture, inconsistent provenance, and anachronistic iconography. The material is useful for studying how local collecting, mound speculation, and diffusionism produced a persistent archaeological mystery. Individual objects should be identified separately in catalogues because “Michigan relics” is a broad label.