Shugborough inscription
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The Shugborough inscription, a carved sequence of letters that has never been satisfactorily explained, has been called one of the world's top uncracked ciphertexts.[1][2] The letters are carved on the 18th-century Shepherd's Monument in the grounds of Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire, England, below a mirror image of Nicholas Poussin's painting, the Shepherds of Arcadia.
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[edit] The Monument
The monument was built some time between 1748 and 1763. It was commissioned by Thomas Anson, paid for by his brother, Admiral George Anson, and fashioned by the Flemish sculptor Peter Scheemakers.
It is set within a stone arch, carved to look natural and wild.
The relief copy of the Poussin painting shows a woman and three shepherds, two of whom are pointing to a tomb. On the tomb is carved the Latin text Et in arcadia ego ("I am also in Arcadia" or "I am, even in Arcadia"). The carving displays a number of small alterations from the original painting. Notably, the letters to which the shepherds are pointing have been changed, and an extra sarcophagus has been placed on top of the main tomb.
Above the Poussin scene are two stone heads, one of which bears a strong likeness to the goat-horned Greek god Pan.
Below it, an unknown craftsman carved the mysterious eight-letter inscription, contained within the letters 'D.M.' On Roman tombs, these commonly stood for Diis Manibus, meaning "dedicated to the shades".
[edit] Theories
Josiah Wedgwood, Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens are all said to have attempted to solve the enigma and failed.[3] In recent decades, investigators have proposed several possible solutions, none of which have gained widespread acceptance.
- One suggestion is that the eight letters are a coded dedication by George Anson to his deceased wife. In 1951 Morchard Bishop speculated that the letters might be an acronym for the Latin phrase Optimae Uxoris Optimae Sororis Viduus Amantissimus Vovit Virtutibus ("Best of wives, Best of sisters, a most devoted Widower dedicates (this) to your virtues").
- According to the Shugborough Estate, another suggestion is that the letters stand for Orator Ut Omnia Sunt Vanitas Ait Vanitas Vanitatem, a version of the phrase "Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity" from Ecclesiastes, albeit different from that which appears in the Latin Bible.[4]
- Margaret, Countess of Lichfield has claimed that the inscription was a love message, referring to the lines Out Your Own Sweet Vale, Alicia, Vanishes Vanity. Twixt Deity and Man Thou, Shepherdess, The Way, but no source for these words has ever been traced.[4]
- Other suggestions have included one that relies on pronouncing 'UOSV' as 'Iosef', interpreted as a reference to the biblical prophet Joseph, and another that involves reading 'VV' as 'TEN', with reference to Roman numerals.
No solution has yet been proposed which rests on a solid cryptanalytic footing.
[edit] Holy Grail
The enigmatic inscription became widely known as a result of its mention in the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, in which the authors suggest that Poussin was a member of the Priory of Sion and that his Shepherds of Arcadia painting contains hidden meanings of great esoteric significance. Interest has grown as several of the book's themes have subsequently also been addressed in other works, including Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code; and speculation has arisen that the inscription may encode secrets related to the Priory,[5] or even a clue to the location of the Holy Grail.
As a result, this was one of the avenues explored by a team of codebreakers at Bletchley Park in 2004, while another team sought explanations related to the love story. Among them, Oliver Lawn proposed that the letters may encode the phrase Jesus H Defy, where the H supposedly stands for "Christos" (Greek for "Messiah") and the reference is to the story of a Jesus bloodline allegedly preserved by the Priory.[3] Sheila Lawn, his wife, preferred the love story theory. As with the acronym theories, neither of these suggestions enjoyed reliable cryptanalytic support and both were presented as speculative.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Top 10 Uncracked Codes". The List Universe. http://listverse.com/miscellaneous/top-10-uncracked-codes. Retrieved on 2008-11-24.
- ^ Belfield, Richard (August 2007). The Six Unsolved Ciphers: Inside the Mysterious Codes That Have Confounded the World's Greatest Cryptographers. Ulysses Press. ISBN 1-5697-5628-7.
- ^ a b "Letters remain the holy grail to code-breakers". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1477527/Letters-remain-the-holy-grail-to-code-breakers.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-25.
- ^ a b "The Shepherd's Monument". Staffordshire County Council. http://www.shugborough.org.uk/AcademyShepherdsMon-169. Retrieved on 2008-11-25.
- ^ "Code points away from Holy Grail". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/4040127.stm. Retrieved on 2008-11-25.
[edit] External links
- Images of the monument
- The Changing Face of Poussin's Pentagon, by Geoff Bath
- Shugborough Hall and the Holy Grail, by Graham Phillips
- New puzzle for war code breakers (BBC)
- Bletchley veterans tackle 'toughest puzzle yet' (The Guardian)
- Da Vinci Code at Shugborough Hall (BBC)
- Holy Grail 'clue' at stately home (The Times)
