Toynbee Tiles

Origin Story

Beginning in the early 1980s, residents of Philadelphia began noticing small linoleum tiles cemented into asphalt streets and crosswalks, most bearing some version of the message: "TOYNBEE IDEA IN MOViE `2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPiTER." In 1983, a man identifying himself as James Morasco called local talk radio stations and newspapers to explain a theory he said he'd developed after reading historian Arnold Toynbee: that the dead could be resurrected if humanity colonized Jupiter, citing a passing reference in Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" as direct inspiration for the wording. During the 1980s and into the early 1990s, tiles attributed to the same creator turned up well beyond Philadelphia, with confirmed originals documented in New York City, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Boston, and Chicago, plus a handful of South American capitals, before new sightings outside the Philadelphia area became rare after the early 2000s.

Evidence & Claims

Documentary filmmaker and tile researcher Justin Duerr spent years tracking the tiles' distribution and construction method. Each one is built in layers and bonded with a tar-like adhesive, then likely dropped into traffic and pressed down by passing car tires, since installing one would otherwise require stopping in the street. Duerr's 2011 documentary "Resurrect Dead" identified a reclusive Philadelphia man, Severino "Sevy" Verna, as the most likely creator, tying him to the same shortwave radio broadcasts and home address linked to the original "Morasco" phone calls.

Skeptical Explanations

No one, including Verna himself, who has never publicly confirmed or denied authorship, has definitively closed the case. A separate man named James Joseph Morasco did exist in Philadelphia, but his widow told a local TV station he had no interest in Jupiter and didn't recognize the tiles, suggesting "Morasco" may have simply been an alias borrowed from a phone book rather than the real culprit. New tiles matching the original technique have rarely appeared since the early 2000s, and whether that's because the original creator stopped, died, or simply moved on remains exactly as unresolved as the tiles' message itself.

Most confirmed original tiles from the 1980s and 1990s have been paved over or worn away, including the long-documented example once at 4th and South Street, so survival of any specific tile isn't guaranteed. Center City's Chestnut Street corridor between 12th and 16th Streets has historically had the highest concentration. Confirmed originals also once existed in New York City near 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue and in Washington, D.C. near the 13th to 15th Street corridor northwest of the White House, though most outside Philadelphia have since disappeared.