The 'Crossed Out' line is a myth?
Yes, I believe it could well be.Let's go back to the time that the SA Police first examined the code page. What they did was, using a UV light or similar, they faithfully traced what it was they saw on the back page of the copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. It was very feint and difficult to see and thus in order to view it more clearly they first 'dusted' the page with graphite powder, very fine and of the type used for fingerprinting. This powder found it's way into the indentations that were left by whoever it was, in my view, that formed their miniature writing into the shape of the larger, now more familiar, letters of the 'code'.
Their tracing work, presumably done using a sheet of acetate over the actual image or similar as to write directly onto the page would have been a no no, naturally included every line they saw, this next part is very important, they had no idea when each individual line was created in other words which came first the line or the letters. People have assumed that because it is how they have been conditioned to think, if you see a word or letters with a line through it, it must be a mistake because they crossed it out. Maybe and maybe not.
The lines not only included the shapes of the code letters, they also included the two crossed lines subject of an earlier post, the flourishes as seen beneath the last letter B in the last line of the code, the flourish at the bottom of the page and finally the line that, for various reasons, people have assumed was a mistake and had been crossed out. Put simply, there was nothing to suggest it had been crossed out, it was simply a line on the page that the SA Police traced, but was the line there before the letters or after? I have highlighted 4 aspects of Line 2 below, please click on the image to enlarge:
2. Area two shows a second break in the line just after the first 'I'
3. Area 3 shows a break in the line central to the letter 'A'
4. Area 4. This is interesting because if you incline your viewing aspect slightly to the left and read the first leg of the M from bottom to top you will see the outline of the word 'COMNIV', I did some research and found it is in fact a Russian military term.
Tags
1948
Code
Cold Case
crossed out line
fingerprinting
line 2
Micro Writing
Miniature Writing
SA Police
somerton
Somerton Man
Tamam Shud
the closest russian military term is COMDIV (Commander of Division)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Nemisha, Gosh that's one of the first posts on this blog! The answer still holds true about the line and I thank you for your comment on COMDIV. Subsequently both the line and the letter M have been shown to contain microcode. Your comment has prompted me to revisit and update this post with some of the newer images. Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteAnd now a message for Milongal, I noted your recent comment regarding:
ReplyDelete1. The second line of the code, first raised on this blog 2013 as you can see. Sadly that destroys the current 'A' thinking.
2. The AR sign off, first raised on this blog in 2014 (Pro-Signs)
3. The 'squeezy' lines as you call them, first raised on this blog in 2016/17.
Each line of the code page begins with an M, you, hopefully, will see that that is the reason for the 'squeezy' lines. You before all others should remember that, when you lay the code out with M leading each separate line then move the Ms back and look at the body of the larger code letters on the page you will find an acrostic word, DANETTA.
It is generally acknowledged that when you use another's content you acknowledge its source, be a good chap and do the right thing.
One last thing, the current discussion regarding the letter A would perhaps benefit by a visit to the Littlemore papers, an example amongst them that showed lines beginning with M and seemingly answered with lines beginning with A. Or was that amongst the Senator Cavanagh's papers?
John, This ‘crossed out line’ posted more than 10 years ago, maybe it will help you with your thinking.
ReplyDeleteDavid, the ‘underlines’ as you call them were not put there to make a point, they and the ‘smudge’ marks and the overwriting of the letters were put there to cover things that someone didn’t want to be seen. For example, in case of the top right ‘smudge’, things like telephone numbers, X2987 perhaps, just a random number.