Pompey stone

Upon its discovery that year, the stone was quickly accepted as authentic, dated to circa 1520, and extensively analyzed by historians of the day for its significance as an early record of European presence in the region.

It was commonly thought to have marked the grave of a Spaniard, who was proposed to have been an explorer, missionary, or captive of a Native American tribe.

[4] In 1937 Noah T. Clarke,[a] the New York state archaeologist, noted that the stone's inscription had been changed, with the 1520 altered to read 1584, and the 'L on' disappeared.

He attempted to restore other parts of the stone, but was limited in research as many records had been destroyed in the 1911 New York State Capitol fire.

In 1842, Barber and Howe theorized in their book Historical Collections of the State of New York, that the stone could mark the resting place of a Spaniard who died after traveling from Florida in search of riches.

[15] Joshua V. H. Clark in his 1849 Onondaga, or Reminiscences also concluded that the stone might mark the burial ground of a dead Spanish explorer.

[16] Two years later E. G. Squier, an American archaeologist, published the book Antiquities of the State of New York, which endorsed the stone's authenticity.

[17] The author and researcher Buckingham Smith, in 1863, submitted a paper to the American Antiquarian Society that suggested that the stone was a memorial to a dead Spanish missionary and the inscription a reference to Pope Leo X.

[18][19] In the 1860s, John F. Boynton, an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and scientist, proposed that there were connections between the stone and the Cardiff Giant, another artifact that was later proven to be a hoax.

Homes, librarian of the New York State Library, gave a lecture to the Oneida Historical Society on November 11, 1879,[21] arguing that if it was not a hoax and was understood correctly, the stone held "the earliest evidence of the presence of the European in North America.

Beauchamp became skeptical of the stone's origins in 1894 upon hearing from a member of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York that its authenticity had almost never been questioned.

[29] In 1939 the historian Arthur C. Parker wrote an article in American Antiquity titled "The Perversion of Archaeological Data" and noted the "discredited" Pompey stone as an example of "shoddy work [.