The Urban Legends Surrounding The Toynbee Tiles Are Explored In ‘Resurrect Dead’

Ever walk down a street and see the above image embedded in it???

You may have, or walked by one and didn’t ever realize it was there, or have zero clue what any of this is and now are wondering what it’s all about.

Toynbee? Who dat? And what does he have to do with Kubrick’s 2001, or the planet Jupiter for that matter?

These tiles are known as “Toynbee Tiles,” and starting in around 1985, they started popping up all over Philadelphia, and then up and down the Mid-Atlantic, as far west as Kansas City, and even a few down in Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

Not all tiles were constructed the same. Some varied on the main text, many included sidebar notes, and one was even a full-blown manifiesto, a paranoid rambling railing against the media and journalists.

In the pre-internet age these tiles and their meaning were a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, wrapped in 9 more enigmas, that were wrapped in 22 more riddles, and wrapped in 28892727 more mysteries.  So mysterious! So enigmatic!! So riddle-iculous!!!!

Well, in a current-internet age, the tiles basically remain the same – a complete and total mystery.

But that hasn’t stopped some armchair and computer keyboard investigators, the world round, from delving deep into the mystery and attempting to bring clarity to the big questions…

What are the meaning of the tiles?

Who is behind these tiles?

Why is the tiler or tilers doing any of this in the first place?

Enter three curiosity seeking gentlemen (who apparently have a lot of free time on their hands) – Justin Duerr, Steve Weinik and Colin Smith. They once had separate quests seeking the answers to the above questions, and then banded together, pooled their resources and intel, and put their results in the form of one of the more intriguing documentaries of this decade – Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, directed by Jon Foy, released in 2011, and currently available for streaming on Amazon.

Beyond the tiles themselves, Duerr, Weinik and Smith had three major clues to work from – a Philadelphia address in a tile found in Chile (!!!), a 1983 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer featuring the crazed theories of someone who called up a staff reporter (Wanna Run That By Me Again?), and even a David Mamet (!!!!) short story called 4 A.M. that echoes the same blather about resurrecting the dead of Earth on Jupiter.

From those clues, they were able to come up with three names of Philadelphian suspects in which to investigate further. They start knocking on the doors of recluses, calling their relatives, interviewing neighbors, and even attending a shortwave pirate radio convention to try to find ANYthing that would help to solve this mystery.

As they peel back the layers and dig deeper, they find that the RESURRECT DEADing didn’t start with the tiles, as the person behind the curtain grew so frustrated with his ideas being stifled by the media that they turned to the streets to literally get their message out.

Our investigators zero in on a person of MUCH interest and come to the conclusion that they are the one and only Toynbee tiler. But the doc and our guides never come face to face with the tiler. Well, that’s not entirely true. Closure on the case actually stood right in front of the face of Mr. Duerr (a Thurston Moore look-a-like), but instead of confirming his findings, he ultimately decided to walk away, and let the mystery remain that – a mystery.

What makes for a great mystery is that it that it can never seem to be solved. Once the world found out who ‘Deep Throat’ was, ‘Deep Throat’ wasn’t so exciting anymore.  He was just a G-Man looking to do good.

In a way, our three subjects obsessed for years on end over solving the Toynbee tiles mystery mirrors the same way that the three real-life principles did in David Fincher’s Zodiac, in their hunt for the elusive serial killer’s identity. That case has never been solved, and because of the lack of closure, it continues to haunt us to this day – a boogeyman we can never tangibly see.

The Toynbee tiles and tiler didn’t murder anyone, but their enduring mysteries have certainly left us lost in a cloud of intrigue. There are now more tiles on the street today than ever. Whether they were created and laid into the streets by the original tiler or copycats, it’s hard to say. To see these tiles, all you have to do is keep your eyes open, and perhaps your mind too. If we don’t meet again in this life, perhaps we’ll meet again in another form on Jupiter.

Michael Palan is a New York based writer and multimedia producer. He got an A+ in bowling at a midwestern university, and once handed Kurt Vonnegut his coat. In his free time he enjoys Edward Hopper paintings and eating fried chicken.

Where to stream Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles