Archaeologists have cracked the code of 255 mysterious symbols carved into a rock in Canada more than 200 years ago.
The writing was discovered in 2018 after a fallen tree revealed the square-shaped inscription near the town of Wawa, located about 155 miles from the nearest US border crossing in Michigan.
Ryan Primrose, an archaeologist from the Ontario Center for Archaeological Education, has now revealed that the symbols form the Lord’s Prayer — a well-known Christian prayer — written in Swedish.
He identified the characters as Nordic runes, part of an old alphabet once used in Sweden and other parts of Scandinavia.
It was a surprising find in the middle of Canada, but researchers later discovered that Swedish workers were hired by the Hudson’s Bay Company in the 1800s to work at remote trading posts — suggesting one of them may have made the carving.
Because no other objects were found at the site, Primrose believes it may have been a simple outdoor place of worship.
In the 1800s, the HBCa British fur trading enterprise was rapidly expanding its operations across North America, from the Pacific Northwest to the Canadian Arctic.
To keep these trading posts staffed, HBC frequently recruited workers from European countries, including Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
Archaeologists have deciphered 255 ancient characters that were etched into a stone more than 200 years ago
The runic inscription , carved into bedrock, was first uncovered in 2018 after a fallen tree exposed the writing, which is arranged in a square formation
The Scandinavian workers were mostly stationed at trading posts in Canada’s interior or Pacific Northwest.
The characters were written inside a square, also carved in the rock, measuring three feet by four feet.
Also included was an image of a boat with 16 people drawing around it, which may have reflected the Swedes who traveled to Canada hundreds of years ago.
Primrose said that the slab appeared to have been intentionally buried.
‘There were ruins covered by about six inches of soil,’ he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
The wear of the stone suggests it could be as old as the 1600s, but experts only have the evidence of Swedish speaking individuals being in the region some 200 years ago.
Henrik Williams, an emeritus professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, who helped decipher the mystery, told CBC: ‘Any runic inscription is rare. Someone put all this effort into this particular text and you wonder why. The mystery does not decrease just because of its age.’
Primrose said he did not want to release the information publicly until he was completely sure about the translation of the symbols.
‘This is certainly among the least expected finds I have encountered in my career,’ he said.
The Lord’s Prayer appears in two places in the New Testament.
The first is in Matthew 6:9-13 during the Sermon on the Mount and again in Luke 11:2-4 when a disciple asks Jesus how to pray.
Due to the lack of artifacts around the site, Primrose believed the site was used as a place of worship
The prayer is a short, powerful summary of Christian beliefs and expresses key themes, honoring God’s name, asking for God’s will to be done, requesting daily bread, forgiving and being forgiven, and avoiding temptation.
For the first few centuries of Christian practice, the Lord’s Prayer was taught to converts and frequently recited in communal worship and private devotion.
It became a central part of Christian liturgy across traditions, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant, and was often called ‘the perfect prayer.’
It was then translated into countless languages and incorporated into church services and daily prayers around the world.
The prayer etched in the stone in Canada was the Swedish version, which featured the Norse linguistic heritage.
While the Bible was translated to Swedish in 1541, scholars chose to transcribe the Lord’s Prayer into runes as a way to celebrate or connect with their Scandinavian past.
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