| Line ~ | Passage / Theme | Invention? / Disclosure angle | | 668–690 | Deep circular basin; low hills; yellowish moss-like vegetation; no water; low walled enclosure (incubator) | Dead sea bottom — aligns with Lowell/canal-era Mars. Possible invention: “moss” as filler. |
| 845–860 | Ancient city on tableland; ruined roadway; buildings deserted, not greatly decayed; plaza; “evidences of extreme antiquity”; furnishings sized for humans, not Green Martians — “long-extinct and forgotten race” | Abandoned human-scale city — Korad. Implies prior civilization. Who told Burroughs human-scale ruins exist? |
| 2609–2610 | Korad: “center of commerce and culture”; “beautiful natural harbor”; “little valley… all that remained of the harbor”; “pass through the hills to the old sea bottom had been the channel” | Port city, receded sea — matches drying-ocean hypothesis. Parallel to Lowell. |
| 2610–2615 | “Shores of ancient seas dotted with just such cities”; “follow the receding waters”; “ultimate salvation, the so-called Martian canals” | Canals as response to drying — Lowell’s thesis. Burroughs or common source? |
| 2640–2645 | “Barsoom of today”; “countless intervening ages”; “fair-haired, laughing people” driven out by “cosmic laws” | Ancient race displaced — recurring encoded motif. |
| 1020–1025 | Buildings: gleaming white marble, gold, brilliant stones; “magnificent edifice”; galleries | Architecture — specific. Invented or described? |
| 1125–1135 | Mural paintings: mountains, rivers, lakes, ocean, meadow, trees; “no representation of living animal” | Art without fauna — odd detail. Encoding? |
| 3095–3110 | Atmosphere Factory (Ch XX); “mightiest engine” sustaining all Barsoomian life | Atmosphere plant — critical tech. Oberon Zell map marks these. Lowell-era speculation or disclosed? |
| 3195–3205 | Zodanga; Helium; map drawn by Dejah Thoris | City-states — political geography. |
| Line ~ | Passage / Theme | Invention? / Disclosure angle | | 720–790 | Green Martians: 15 ft tall, olive-green, six limbs (2 arms, 2 legs, 2 intermediary), blood-red iris, white teeth/tusks, antennae ears; eggs in incubator; 1000-year lifespan; “voluntary pilgrimage” down River Iss | Green Martians — highly specific physiology. No prior SF has this. Where from? |
| 855–885 | “Only one mammal on Mars”; “highest type of man”; “no hoofed animals”; “multiplicity of legs” characteristic of Martian fauna | Faunal rules — systematic. Invention or taxonomy? |
| 880–905 | “River Iss… no living Martian knows whither”; “from whose bosom no Martian has ever returned”; ~1 in 1000 dies of sickness; ~20 take pilgrimage; rest die violently | River Iss pilgrimage — religious fraud setup (gods-of-mars). Extremely specific. |
| 935–945 | Red Martian women: tusks larger; bodies smaller, lighter; “rudiments of nails” (males lack); 10–12 ft | Red vs Green physiology — detailed differentiation. |
| 2595–2610 | Three great divisions: “fair-haired” (light), “very dark, almost black,” “reddish yellow”; mixed into Red Men; “drying up of Martian seas” forced alliance; “wild hordes of green men” | Race history — three founding races. Matches later First Born, Therns, etc. Coherent system. |
| 2615–2625 | “Ages of hardships”; “much of high civilization… become lost”; “archives, records, literature… lost” | Lost archives — standard collapse trope or encoded? |
| 1315–1340 | Thoat: 10 ft at shoulder, 8 legs, flat tail, slate color, padded nailless feet; guided by telepathy | Thoat — riding beast. Specific. |
| 1140–1160 | Calot (watch-dog): frog-like head, 3 rows of tusks, 10 legs; obeys telepathically; “fleetest animal on Mars” | Calot — guard beast. |
| 1135–1145 | Milk from plant, not animal; “eight or ten quarts per day”; “distills from soil, air, sun” | Mantalia/milk-plant — distinctive. Oberon Zell map notes this. Invented? |
| Line ~ | Passage / Theme | Invention? / Disclosure angle | | 850–860 | Rifle: white metal, explosive radium projectiles; “theoretic effective radius 300 miles”; “wireless finders and sighters”; “over 200 miles” practical | Radium rifle — pre-atomic era. Radium known 1898+. Range implausible; or encoded capability? |
| 2530–2540 | “Instruments… throw upon a screen a perfect image of what is transpiring upon any planet”; “objects no greater than a blade of grass”; “used and been perfecting for ages” | Telescopic observation of Earth — matches real astronomy/Theosophical claims. Who told Burroughs? |
| 2550–2560 | Earth men “cover bodies with cloth”; “hideous contraptions” on heads; Carter “undisfigured” — proof of non-Barsoomian origin | Cultural encoding — Earth as observed from “outside.” |
| 3095–3110 | Atmosphere Factory; “sustaining life” of planet | Planetary life-support — terraforming/atmosphere. Lowell + tech speculation. |
| Element | Why it might be invented | Why it might be disclosure | | John Carter’s astral projection (cave → Mars) | Standard pulp frame; author surrogate | Fits “soul travel” / remote viewing claims |
| “Virginia gentleman” / Confederate backstory | Burroughs’s milieu; romance | Encodes Southern/US archetype; not Mars-specific |
| Telepathic control of animals | Theosophical/occult lore; pulp convention | Recurring in Mars fiction; possible cultural memory |
| Exact measurements (15 ft, 300 mi rifle) | Author filling in details | Over-specific for pure invention; suggests source |
