Henriette Mertz facts for kids

Henriette Mertz (born 1898, died 1985) was an American patent attorney from Chicago. She was also known for her interesting ideas about ancient American history. Mertz believed that people from old civilizations traveled across oceans to America a long time ago. During World War II, she worked as a code-breaker for the U.S. government. She wrote several books in the 1960s and 1970s. These books shared her theories about how America might have been discovered and settled very early.

The Bat Creek Stone Mystery

In 1964, Henriette Mertz looked at a photo of the Bat Creek inscription. This was a stone with strange carvings on it. Mertz thought the photo had been printed upside down. Later, a scholar named Cyrus H. Gordon suggested the carvings looked like ancient Hebrew writing from the 1st century AD. However, most modern archaeologists today believe the inscription is not real. They think it was made more recently.

Greek Explorers in America?

In her book called The Wine Dark Sea, Mertz had some bold ideas about ancient Greek journeys. She suggested that the famous Greek hero Odysseus sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Atlantic Ocean. Mertz believed that Odysseus faced the monsters Scylla and Charybdis when he reached the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Mertz also proposed that the Argonauts, another group of Greek heroes, traveled very far. She thought they crossed the Atlantic Ocean and sailed down the east coast of South America. According to Mertz, they went past the mouth of the Amazon River and Rio de Janeiro. Their journey continued to the Río de la Plata in Argentina. From there, Mertz believed Jason went to the high plains of Bolivia. She thought he found the Golden Fleece in a place called Tiwanaku.

Chinese Voyages to America?

In her book Pale Ink, published around 1958, Mertz shared another theory. She suggested that two old Chinese stories described visits to the American continent. One story was from a book called the Shan Hai Jing, which Mertz thought was from 2250 BC. The other story was by a Buddhist traveler named Hui Shen in 499 AD.

Mertz believed these stories were about trips to a place called Fusang. As proof, she suggested that carvings on rocks near the Milk River were actually Chinese symbols. She thought these symbols were made by Chinese explorers. According to writer David Hatcher Childress, Mertz also thought "Fusang" meant "fir trees" in Chinese. She wondered if it referred to the fir trees found in British Columbia, Canada.

Most experts on Chinese history had already disagreed with this idea. However, Mertz seemed unaware of their earlier findings. In her book, Mertz also suggested that Quetzalcoatl, an important god in ancient American cultures, was actually Hui Shen, the Chinese traveler. A scholar named Joseph Needham commented on Mertz's ideas. He wrote that believing her theories would require a "heroic suspension of disbelief," meaning they are very hard to believe.

Published Works

Here are some of the books Henriette Mertz wrote:

• 1986: The Mystic Symbol: Mark of the Michigan Mound Builders. Global Books, ISBN: 0-9617235-0-5.
• 1976: Atlantis: Dwelling Place of the Gods, ISBN: 0-9600952-3-3.
• 1974: Gods from the Far East: How the Chinese Discovered America. Seattle, Washington: Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0-345-23964-4.
• 1964: The Wine Dark Sea: Homer's Heroic Epic of the North Atlantic, ASIN: B0006CHG68.
• 1958, 1972: Pale Ink: Two Ancient Records of Chinese Exploration in America. Swallow Press, ISBN: 0-8040-0599-0.
• 1957: The Nephtali: One Lost Tribe, ASIN: B0007EYTXS.