History of the Dottoman Empire (part III)

On page 130 in "The Book of the Damned" by Charles Fort, is the report of a strange vessel of unidentified metal that was blasted out of a piece of solid rock. This happened in June, 1851. It was a bell-shaped vessel with silver, floral inlays. The editor of Scientific American attributed the workmanship to Tubal Cain, the first inhabitant of Dorchester, Mass.

The role Tubal Cain played in early recorded Dottoman history will be discussed later. We are only in Chapter Three of our history and it is already apparent that citizens inhabited the part of Boston we call Dorchester long before Euroamerican bias declared the area a tabula rasa. In fact, the Dottoman Empire has a long prologue that has been erased and written over. The palimpsest still shows through though and makes itself felt.

What was the Dorchester Urn that was discovered while a farmer was leveling some ledge on his land with dynamite? Some crypto-archaeologists posit that it was a relic left behind by Atlantean wanderers. Ignatius Donnelly was certainly of that opinion. We tend to side with the experts who have studied these facts more intently than we have.

The Dorchester Urn has disappeared, probably sold on the black market for antiquities. It may rest in Steve Job's private gallery. It may reside in the collection of an anonymous, Hong Kong billionaire for him to fondle in his penthouse and chortle while he scoffs at the ignorance of Western antiquarians who do not know he holds a premier piece of treasure in his trove. It may be locked up in the same vault as the antediluvian statuettes of bipedal, giant periwinkles kept secret by the Dorchester Historical Society. We choose not to speculate. All we can say is that eye witnesses described this marvellous artifact just after it was found.

Interestingly, the term "Dorchester Urn" is still used in the funerary business. The current model doesn't resemble the description in the Book of the Damned. The design was simplified to keep expenses down for mass production, but this bit of Dorchester history lives on wherever cremated people choose to bequeath their ashes in style.

Astute readers will note that we have dropped the word "brief" from the title of this history. It's going to be a long slog folks, but an informative one. Bear with us. We will be leaving the realm of legend and old wives' tales in a few weeks. As for tomorrow, part IV is coming...