To some, they looked like random scratchings, or perhaps the marks left by the erosive effects of wind and water through the years. But for Robert Pyle, they were something entirely different. He was in Wyoming County, West Virginia following up on a 1983 article in the monthly magazine "Wonderful West Virginia." That article dealt with the legends of the voyages of St. Brendan, an Irish monk who wrote of travels to a land far to the west. Some of the legends seemed to describe a land very much like West Virginia. While many scholars — and all politically correct ones — dismiss any pre-Colombian contact (in other words — no one except the Vikings ever made it to the North American landmass from Europe until Columbus), cracks are beginning to appear in that academic wall. 

Robert Pyle was (and is) no amateur. His book "All That Remains" is a classic, thrilling read. He had taught archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution, Carnegie Mellon University, Waynesburg College and many other institutions of higher learning. He was an expert in ancient legends, ancient languages, and in archaeological fieldwork. He has discovered over 30 new archaeological sites in West Virginia alone. So, imagine the feeling that hit him when he turned towards a rock overhang… and was able to read the rock!

It wasn’t scratching and it wasn’t erosive ridges. It was Ogham script. Ogham (or Ogam) was an ancient writing style found in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales — and much less frequently, in England. It was a language written by gouges, carved lines and diagonals, often on the edges of stones. The type Robert Pyle was reading was a specific form known as Stem Type Ogham, used in very early Christian Ireland.

And it was a very long way from home.

In 1989, a human skull was found next to the Ogham script. In the last five years enough money was raised to carry out extensive (and expensive) research on the skull. It was a matter of some concern to the standard "Columbus first" model for the skull was brachycephalic — a round headed cranial type usually indicating European origins. So when did this skull get there? Was it the skull of an early trapper or explorer who came to some bitter, lonely end? It would require carbon dating and examination of mitochondrial DNA to answer the question.

The carbon dating put the skull solidly at 1292+/-40 years old. In other words, this man died in 710AD, plus or minus 40 years. The DNA was intact enough to show no evidence of Native American association. The matches that could be made were all European, or strongly suggestive of European.

Let’s review: we have a skull of a man who died during the time of St. Brendan’s voyages and in the type of topography described in the legends. That skull is found within ten feet of a large Ogham script used only in the 7th-9th centuries in Ireland, and DNA shows the skull was probably European (90%+ probability).

What was an 8th century Irishman doing in Southern West Virginia? Two top Celtic language scholars — Dr. William Grant from Edinburgh University in Scotland and Dr. John Grant of Oakland, Maryland — were dispatched to validate that these really were Ogham characters, made in ancient times, and not a hoax, a naturally occurring set of ridges, or some Native American art. Their conclusion? This was authentic Ogham script. Dr. William Grant invited Robert Pyle to come to Ireland to see its companion piece. You see, in Southern Ireland, well off the tourist trod paths of the Ring of Derry, stands an unusual Ogham panel. Just as the panel in Wyoming County, WV, this breaks from the standard use of Ogham by not using the edges of a stone but carving a relief panel.

Many of the words, phrasings, and characters are the same. Those of us who know the old stories, who have listened to old men and women with faces like tanned leather tell their tales by the fireside, and who have walked up hidden glens and spoken to the hidden people are not surprised. There have always been those I call The Long Walkers. They are not a part of the cultures in which they travel. They are just moving from one place to the next, leaving few marks, acknowledging the other Long Walkers they meet with a nod or a helping hand. They are the strangers among us — but we usually don’t recognize that. They are "red and yellow, black and white" as the old song goes for I have found Long Walkers from Africa, Asia, and many from Europe. Their families usually have one or two children who keep the walk alive, eschewing the settled life of those around them; moving on.

They are those of the 80% code. I’ll explain that the next time we meet.