A large glacial boulder near Overton, Nova Scotia, bearing a carved inscription that combines Christian and Mi'kmaw symbols. First reported by Beverly Wells-Pinkney in 2009 and investigated by local historian Terry J. Deveau for the New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA). The carving consists of a stylized cross inside an oval, a pair of crossed Native tobacco leaves overlaid by an eagle feather, and a three-day-old evening crescent moon. Deveau interprets the stone as a possible monument to a friendship treaty between Portuguese explorers and the Mi'kmaq people, based on the cross's resemblance to Knights of Christ insignia and parallels with Portuguese padrão markers found in Africa, Indonesia, and the Cape Verde Islands.
About This Site
The Overton Stone is a large glacial boulder of 430-million-year-old tuffaceous metasiltstone from the White Rock Formation that has broken into two nearly equal pieces, each about the size of a small car. It sits at the top of a small rise near the shore. The carving is on the more inland and higher of the two pieces, on a vertical south-facing and sea-facing surface.
The inscription was carved into the thick weathering patina present on the stone surface. As a glacial boulder, the undisturbed patina would be approximately 13,000 years old. The cross was carved deeply enough to expose dark unpatinated material, and some subsequent repatination is visible in the interior of the cross, suggesting the carving is not recent. The carving consists of three groups of elements: a stylized Christian cross with outward-widening arms surrounded by an oval with four deep dots outside it, a pair of Native tobacco leaves (identified as Nicotiana tabacum) with an eagle feather overlying them, and a three-day-old evening crescent moon.
A secondary carving of the stylized initials "HT" and an abbreviated date "06/07" appears about one metre to the lower right of the main inscription. The tool-mark pattern and degree of weathering differ from the main carving. Deveau suggests these initials may have been carved much later, possibly as a calibration test to estimate the age of the original inscription by comparing weathering rates.
An area below the main carving shows signs of possible deliberate defacement, with very little patination compared to the surrounding surface, as if an oblong horizontal piece of the stone was removed. Deveau suggests that if the stone originally included a date, a later group (perhaps the French after 1600 or the British after 1713) may have removed it to invalidate the monument as evidence of a prior Portuguese land claim.
Deveau's analysis considers and largely rules out several alternative origins: Norse (no runic elements; archaeologist Rob Ferguson of Parks Canada and Mats Larsson of Linnaeus University found nothing Norse about the carvings), Mi\'kmaw (the deeply sculpted steel chisel work is stylistically different from typical Mi'kmaw petroglyphs, which tend toward line-art on flat quartzite bedrock; Ruth Whitehead, retired ethnologist at the Nova Scotia Museum, agreed it was unlikely to be an ancient Mi'kmaw petroglyph), and recreational carver (the motif is unlike typical recreational carvings, and the HT initials appear to be a separate, later addition). The Portuguese are identified as the strongest candidate based on the cross's resemblance to known Knights of Christ insignia, the Portuguese practice of erecting padrão stones and crosses as territorial markers worldwide between 1460 and 1580, and documented Portuguese land claims to Nova Scotia by explorers including Joam Alvares Fagundes (circa 1520) and the Corte-Real brothers (1500-1502).
Connection to Oak Island
The Overton Stone sits near the opening of the Bay of Fundy, a name itself derived from the Portuguese "Rio Fundo." The Portuguese connection to Nova Scotia is well documented through 16th-century cartography, including the Pedro Reinel portolan map (circa 1504-1520), which shows Knights of Christ insignia flags on Portuguese land claims in Atlantic Canada. The Lopo Homem world map of 1554 shows the Bay of Fundy in remarkable cartographic detail and includes Mi'kmaw place names on Cape Breton Island, evidence of what historian W.F. Ganong described as contact "far more lasting and intimate than was possible to the usual explorer of the sixteenth century, suggesting rather some contemporary settler there."
The Oak Island team visited the stone in Season 3, Episode 4 after researcher Robert Marcus identified it as a possible waypoint on an antique treasure map. Terry Deveau led Rick and Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and Dave Blankenship to the site. Deveau identified the cross as Portuguese rather than Templar, noting its flared arms match the style of the Knights of Christ, the Portuguese successor order to the Knights Templar. The Order of Christ was founded in 1317 to inherit the Templar assets and property in Portugal, and its Grand Master Prince Henry the Navigator funded the great wave of Portuguese exploration using the order's resources. The same cross adorned Portuguese sails across the world.
Fieldwork Notes
The carving was first reported to the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives on March 31, 2009, by Wilfred H. Allan, following inquiries from Beverly Wells-Pinkney and Anne Harding. Beverly Wells-Pinkney is credited as the first person to report the carving and make an inquiry about it. Terry Deveau, president of NEARA, first visited the stone on May 17, 2009, guided by Wells-Pinkney.
Deveau consulted widely during his investigation: no one at the Yarmouth County Museum, the Nova Scotia Museum, or the Nova Scotia Archaeology Society had previously heard of the carving. Deborah Trask of the Mahone Bay Settlers Museum noted she had spent considerable time at the location as a younger person without ever noticing it. Rock art expert Edward Lenik corroborated the identification of Native tobacco leaves in the carving. The exact location is withheld at the request of researchers to protect the stone from vandalism.
