studied the mountain, hoping that it could provide evidence for his beliefs that "there existed a pre-Columbian civilization on the American Continent contemporary with the apogee of Phoenician and Greek expansion in the Mediterranean." Ramos traveled to Pedra da Gávea, wrote down the markings described by the IHGB, and then with the aid of a rabbi in Manaus, he claimed to have "succeeded in deciphering the inscriptions". According to him, the inscription (when read from right to left, the direction that Phoenician is written) is "𐤋𐤀𐤀𐤁𐤇𐤕𐤄𐤉𐤁𐤀𐤓𐤓𐤉𐤆𐤃𐤀𐤁𐤍𐤀𐤉𐤔𐤉𐤍𐤄𐤏𐤅𐤓𐤅𐤆𐤕". This inscription, when transliterated into the Latin alphabet, is said to read "TZUR FOENISIAN BADZIR RAB JETHBAAL", which translates roughly to "Tyre, Phoenicia, Badezir, Firstborn of Jethbaal". This supposedly refers to a ruler of Phoenicia named Baal-Eser II who ruled Tyre in the mid-9th century, c. 850 BC. Ramos subsequently published a two-volume book entitled Tradições da America Pré-Histórica, Especialmente do Brasil, that attempted to document all evidence of supposed Phoenician inscriptions in Brazil. Various other people and organizations have attempted to rationalize and verify the inscription. At least one study was undertaken by a Latter Day Saint Elder named Irineu Petri to find "the possible relation between the inscription … and the Book of Mormon." Argentinian fringe archaeologist Jacques de Mahieu argued that the inscription was not Phoenician, but rather Nordic runes, which read: "Next to this rock, numerous oak planks for ship are deposited on the beaches of sand." Furthermore, he argued that Vikings would have revered the site, as the mountain would have appeared to them as their god Odin. The International Fortean Organization used the 1982 discovery of what were believed to be Phoenician amphorae in Guanabara Bay by Robert F. Marx as evidence that the Phoenicians were at least in the area. In addition to the purported inscription, the "face" of the rock is alleged by some to have been carved around the same time in the likeness of Badezir. Additionally, an issue of The INFO Journal speculated as to whether the mountain contains a Phoenician tomb (although there is no scientific evidence to suggest that this is the case). Scientific analysis Because Barbosa and Porto-Alegre's research was carried out during the early years of the reign of Brazilian Emperor Pedro II, Lucia Maria Pascoal Guimarães and Birgitte Holten later postulated that the focus placed on Pedra da Gávea was an attempt by the Brazilian Empire to nation-build and