supplementary articles
The "Megalithic Civilization' of the Atlantic coast, and the Legend of Atlantis
SKIN-BOATS VENTURE INTO THE ATLANTIC
While the British Isles was originally the western extremity of an
apparent range of eastward expanding boat peoples, it soon found
its waters filled with oceanic sea-hunters, and then at the junction of
the sea-route of an Atlantic sea-trader people. The latter
sea-traders laid the foundations for a civilization in western
Europe, loosely united by the exchange of goods and ideas
promoted by trade. This ancient loose civilization, characterized by
constructions made of enormous rocks, or "megaliths", can be
called the "Megalithic Civilization".
This civilization probably began with the wealth procured
from the sea. The original sea-hunters of the Atlantic
flourished from the bounty of sea-life on the Atlantic coasts, and
civilization began from the free time that the abundance provided.
Unlike the original dugout boat people who stayed in rivers
and lakes or close to coasts, Atlantic sea-hunters ventured into
open expanses of sea, and camped on barren rocky islands and coasts.
Their lives were dominated by three elements - water, sky and rocks.
Their camps consisted of ingenous ways of building with rocks and
sod, and their culture paid much attention to the patterns in the sky
-- what else was there for an oceanic people to study?
Thus when wealth made it possible and people from these roots began to
express themselves in more pronounced ways, the attention to enormous
rocks may have been the ultimate expression of their earlier traditions
of building rock shelters and structures, while the alignments of
these rock constructions with seeming astronomical purposes, may
have been an expression of a sea-farer's highly developed focus on the
patterns and movements in the sky. It makes sense. The megalithic
constructions of Western Europe make sense if viewed as having
originated from sea-trading people with roots in Atlantic sea-hunting.
The building with rocks, the attention to the sky, and, as we will see
below, their view of the earth as a Mother Sea - something which
survives in the similarity between French mer ('sea')and mère
('mother') - all seem to support such a theory.
TOWARDS AN EARLY ATLANTIC CIVILIZATION
Prosperity does not necessarily require farming, as most think.
This is clear when we note that the rich culture of the Pacific coast
of North America, the familiar one which produced totem poles and other
elaborate cultural works, was produced by wealth in salmon. It is said
that they harvested and preserved an entire year's supply of salmon
within the few weeks of the salmon run, and then they had the rest of
the year to pursue culture, trade, and other secondary activities.
Something similar must have occurred on the Atlantic coast of Europe.
It is interesting that the major evidence of the early sea route, the
earliest megalithic hill-tombs, appear BOTH in Brittany and southern
Portugal.
If we begin with the assumption that the initial wealth that spawned
the "Megalithic Civilization" came from the sea, then we are more
inclined to begin the civilization in Brittany and the British Isles,
and have it spread south. The reason is that the British Isles are
located on a continental shelf, with the Gulf Stream, the North
Atlantic Drift, bringing warmer waters northward, on its west and
north. Seals, whales, walrus, and other important sea life were also
found in the more northern waters. Clearly long before Europeans
depleted the stocks around the British Isles, the seas were teeming
with marine life. We need only refer to anecdotes about the waters of a
similar continental shelf off Canada's Newfoundland in the 16th century
to get an idea of just how rich with sea-life the British continental
shelf must once have been.
Certainly the Atlantic salmon could have played a strong role, as
salmon make migratory runs up northern rivers, during which time a
year's supply of basic food could have been procured. Salmon would not
have been found south of the British Isles. Similarly, marine life like
seals and walrus, tended to make the British Isles their most southerly
habitat. Thus, if "Megalithic Civilization" originated from
sea-hunters, it originated in the region of the British Isles. But
then, how do we explain the megalithic constructions of southern
Portugal?
Other sea-life that would have driven boat people to
the open sea would be eels and whales. Whale migrations up and down the
Atlantic coast would have been an invitation to settle in a location
midway in the migration path, so they could harvest them both
travelling north and then later travelling south.
If the oceanic sealife of interest was the Atlantic
eel, then locations at the Strait of Gibraltar and other channels
through which eel migrations passed, would be locations of interest.
The eels, like
salmon, are migratory. Born in the Sargasso Sea between the Azores and
the West Indies, they make a long journey to the Mediterranean Sea and
the Atlantic coast north to the British Isles and beyond as far as the
Baltic Sea. Reaching their destinations they climb rivers and settle in
the lakes and rivers for about a decade. Then, reaching old age, they
begin a long trek back to the Sargasso Sea. As unpleasantly
snakelike as the eel may look, like the salmon the eel can be
harvested in quantities when it is migrating, and preserved smoked,
dried, etc. A wealthy static culture can easily develop around this
animal as it can around the salmon, a culture of a character similar to
the American Pacific coast cultures, excepting using rock as their
major building material.We can observe the situation on the Pacific
coast of Canada, where indigenous people exploited salmon extensively,
but also intercepted whales migrating north and south. Can we envision
parallels to the Canadian Pacific coast native peoples might once have
been found along the coast of what is now Portugal.
Eel migration from the Sargasso would have been concentrated as it
entered the English Channel or passed through the Strait of
Gibraltar, both locations being where the earliest megalithic
hill-tombs appeared aboutt the same time about 4500 BC. Coincidence?
By whatever means the wealth manifested itself among the Atlantic
sea-hunters, when the culture became so successful that basic
food needs were taken care of, then visits to neighbouring people for
the exclusive purpose of socializing and trading would grow. Increased
interest in trading thier goods would promote the development of
sea-trade as a designed activity, rather than an informal one. Perhaps
it is in this way that the "Megalithic civilization" of Atlantic Europe
began.
THE MEGALITHIC CIVILIZATION ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST BETWEEN 6500-4000 YEARS AGO
The evidence of the Megalithic civilization mainly takes two forms, the
hill-tombs, and the megalithic alignments and circles (The Stonehenge
is a later example). Of the major and oldest megalithic hill-tombs,
dating techniques suggest they first appear in the mid 4th century BC,
almost at the same time in southern Portugal and the Britanny
Peninsula. The British sites on both sides of the Irish Sea are dated
to about a millenium later. In northern Britain, west Scotland,
the hills at Lochhill and Monamore are dated to 3700 BC. In Ireland
some dates are: Newgrange 3350 BC, Knowth 3300 BC and Tara
3000 BC.
Additional ones were created in the Orkneys (the Maes Howe dated to
2800 BC) and on the east coast of what is now Scotland (Raigmore, dated
3000-2700 BC). Several more were built due east across the sea in
northern Jutland (for example, Jordhoj 3350 BC, Tustrup 3300-3000),
thus suggesting the original sea-trader culture on the megalithic route
brought west European culture eastward by sea trade contacts.
However, note the great spans of time between the dates: centuries,
even millenia. The slowness of the cultural expansion eliminates any
theory of a designed expansion of a specific people, and suggests
instead a slow development, the spread of culture through the
development of trade connections that tied various locations together,
and distributed styles, values, world-view, practices. But the
foundation of it all had to be the mastery of sea travel which had
originated from sea-hunting - eels, whales, and other sea-mammals. The
sea-hunting of course would have continued as a source of food, and any
trading activity would have arisen from a natural human interest in
obtaining goods not available locally. As the map shows.
Figure 1
This
map shows how the megalithic culture begins close to the coasts, and by
a millenium later the sea-people have travelled up the rivers, probably
for trading purposes. (Note maps showing areas are in reality not
correct. A proper map would use dots. Cultures that covered large areas
had to be land-based such as farmers.
Besides the hill-tombs, today the remains of the thousands of large
stones of megalithic engineering, dot Europe's Atlantic seabord; some
standing singly, others arranged in rough lines or circles. The
Stonehenge in southern Britain is the most impressive and famous.
Excavation has revealed there is nothing beneath the stones. Inside the
stone circles there is evidence of cremation, and outside charcoal
suggesting the use of fire perhaps in a ceremonial fashion.
Because of the great work involved in hewing the great blocks and
dragging them into position often many kilometres, their purpose was
not casual or frivolous.
At this stage monement sites like the original
Stonehenge were gathering places for many tribes. Being sea people,
they would have come by sea from far way at predetermined times - such
as solitices or equinoxes. This was a common practice of all nomadic,
widely scattered, tribes who needed to gather regularly to affirm a
tribe, or a multitribal identity. Except that these sea people
the gathering places used monumental stones that are highly permanent
and easily noticed by archeologists. (Alta, Norway, was a gathering
place too, but in that case it has been identified by the permanent
carvings made into granite.
Thus the early megalithic constructions were not
used by local settlements, but by seagoing people. That is why the
original ones were located close to the coasts. It is only
millenia later when farming and farming settlements developed, that
sites like Stonehenge provide evidence of serving land-based
peoples in the surrounding lands.
Some stones are unbelievably enormous. A stone called Grand Menhire
Brise at Locmariaquer in Britanny, felled by some natural event, once
stood 50 meters high and weighed 340 tons. This stone is not far from
Carnac, where there are more than 3000 stones arranged in rows that
stretch to the horizon, and which originally formed an enormous
geometric pattern. (reference: Hitching, World Atlas of Mysteries,
1978m p 58-64)
Studies of this and lesser stone circles found everywhere that
megalithic hill tombs are found, reveal a high level of
astronomical and mathematical purpose. What is obvious is that
while the megalithic hill tombs are related to the earth, the circles
and alignments are related to the sky. Their purposes may relate to an
original cosmology, still found in aboriginal shamanistic cultures,
that the universe was divided in two, an upper, external part, and a
lower, inner part, with the plane of life separating the two.
The megalithic hill tombs could have addressed the inner part, the womb
of the Earth, the underworld of the ghosts of ancestors waiting to be
reborn. For seagoing people, the deceased coud not be left just
anywhere in the Atlantic they died, but had to be carried to the
communal tomb site. Thus the purpose of the hill-tombs is clear. But
what was the purpose of the stone alignments (of which the Stonehenge
is a later development)
While the hill-tombs addressed the inner realm - the
underworld that was like a womb of the earth, the stone alignments and
circles paid attention to the sky, and therefore addressed
the other part, the upper part, the
heaven of the vital spirit, energy waiting to fill a soul. A
basic concept in early beliefs is that at birth a spirit and a soul
would unite in a single body, and at death separate
How the
megalith-builders actually used these structures can only be guessed;
however, it is obvious that in human prehistory, cremations, with smoke
rising to the sky, could represent sendoffs for the spirit of
something, while entombment represent sendoff for the soul. This view
of cremations endured in boat peoples down through the ages, and it is
noticable in the customs of the ancient Veneti, a colony of which was
located in Brittany in Roman times.
AFTER THE MEGALITHIC CULTURE
Farming allowed humans to grow their own food in a controlled,
compact area, and wherever farming activity arose, populations grew
until farming oriented settled people came to dominate. Long distance
trading would have continued strongly, as a full time professional
activity. Sea-hunting peoples would have become periferalized and lost
in their circuits of hunting.
Modern Celtologists for a long time attributed the megalithic
constructions to ancient Celts, until archeology dated the major
megalithic sites in Britain and Ireland to from 2000 to 4000 B.C.,
many millenia before the Celts appeared in Europe. The megalithic
constructions even predate the earliest appearance of
Indo-Europeans in eastern Europe and the Middle East. And when the
early Indo-Europeans (Corded-Ware, etc) did try to expand
westward, archeology suggests they did not get further west
than the Rhine. Western Europe remained Pre-Indo-European, pre-Celtic,
and pre-Roman until changes brought about by the development and
control of iron from about 500 B.C.
Archeology suggests that eventually all of western Europe
shared roughly the same pre-Indo-European culture,
perhaps reaching its height in the Bronze Age; and the profusion of
remains of megalithic structures in the British Isles leave nobody any
doubt that Britain originally belonged to such an earlier
"Megalithic" pre-Indo-European, pre-Celtic, civilization.
Combined with the east-west orientation due to its original
"Maglemosian" heritage, the British Isles found itself at the junction
of maritime activity oriented both east-west and north-south.
Was this early post-megalithic culture the roots of
Celtic? The existence of the Basque language today, which is
acknowledged to be "pre-Indo-European" (Celtic is considered an
"Indo-European" language along with Germanic, Roman, Greek, Slavic, etc.
Among the "pre-Indo-European" languages besides
Basque, which may have arisen from Roman era "Aquitanic", there was the
Iberian language that was still alive at the beginning of the Roman
era. Other unusual indigenous languages observed around the Roman ear,
were Etruscan and Ligurian.
Just by belonging to languages that predated the
"Indo-European", we can assume that there was an original western
European language that in general belonged to the earlier period,
because archeology and linguistics tends to suggest the "Indo-European"
languages arrived from southeast Europe. Celtic scholars would like to
find Celtic roots in these earlier languages, however it is generally
agreed that there once existed unique languages in western Europe
before the Roman conquest, and even before the Celtic, Germanic, and
Slavic languages. But what was the nature of the original languages?
When you think of it, all the original languages of
the original natives before immigrations from the east, were basically
descended from the original Native peoples. While the northern, more
isolated Native languages, would have changed little, those towards the
south and interior would have changed more, but stlll having the
aboriginal roots.
While settled farming people would develop their own
local dialects, long distance trader peoples would tend to maintain
their language over a broad area and it would then become a widely used
lingua franca in conjunction
with large scale trade acitivity. For that reason, if there was a large
scale language, it would have been based on the language of the
traders, who arose from the boat peoples.
GETTING A SENSE OF THE
PRE-INDO-EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION
Pre-Indo-European cultures were of a different character than the
male-warrior cultures associated with the term "Indo-European". One
noticable feature is that they seemed to have worshipped the World
Mother.
In southern Europe and Asia Minor, we can detect the early stratum of
World-Mother oriented cultures from the presence of female goddess
figurines, absence of evidence of external organization or social
stratification, and the importance of the bull as a male symbol. The
earliest urban settlements of the Middle East and Mediterranean display
these properties. Notable among them is an Anatolian town known as
Catal Huyuk, originating as early as about 7000 B.C. After this
early period, as evidence of the arrivla of Indo-Europeans accumulates,
the female figurines and bull imagery vanish from the Middle East
archeology, and there is a rise in heirarchical societies with
males in authority; with the exception of Crete, where the
Goddess-and-Bull world view and culture continued up until about
1500 B.C. when Crete was finally absorbed into the rising Greek
(Indo-European) culture of the Aegean region.
Cretan culture is well-known from archeology for its apparent
orientation to the female and a sport involving vaulting over a
bull after grabbing its horns. The very fact that the bull receives
attention yet today in Spain, in bull-fighting, seems to connect
ancient Crete to a similar ancient culture in the Iberian Peninsula, an
ancient culture that lies at the foundation of modern bull-veneration.
Sea-hunting traditions would not have originally venerated the bull,
thus we do not have to find evidence of it in the Atlantic :Megalithic
Civilization". Most likely, bull veneration was descended from the
land-based people, those who originally hunted bison, and venerated it
on their cave walls. Its origins would be expected among the
descendants of the cave dwellers of southwest France and the Iberian
Peninsula. Nonetheless, at this early time languages and cultures were
not as far appart as they are today.
In Latin, the bull was taurus,
but this cannot be a Latin word
as there are no similar words in Latin with associated meaning. Taurus,
or the original non-Latin source, did not mean
'bull' but generally 'male' in its full sexual
implications. In English the original pre-Indo-European word
seems to survive in tornado, an event which was obviously originally
viewed as a penis from the sky to the earth during a storm.
History records the name of the priestly class of WesternEurope in Roman
times as the Druids. Serious Celtologists (example Jean Markale,
The Celts, 1976) acknowledge that the Druids originated before the
Celts, probably having descended from the original priestly class
associated with the megalithic constructions. It is quite possible that
the word Druid is based on TORU (or similar) plus the plural marker
-ID. If the religion worshipped the male symbol (which in some cultures
was symbolized by the bull), the name T'RUID, would have implied 'men
harnessing the male force of the universe'. It explains why there is no
evidence of female Druids, even though Celtologists try to imagine and
prove there were. Females in Celtic times probably had no role, but in
pre-Indo-European times definitely did. Female strength in Roman
Britain did not represent Celtic culture, but pre-Celtic culture.
The idea that there was a worshipping of the male-force, as manifested
in the energies of the sky, for example, is supported by the fact
that history records that Estonian pre-Christian religion included
Taara , which was the same as in Finnish Tuuri, or among the Khanti
Toorum. He appears in Scandinavia as Thor.
Although Ireland is brimming with Celtic mythology and legend dating
to relatively recent times almost nothing is known about Celtic gods.
Caesar and Romans generally named the gods with Roman equivalents, as
for example Caesar writing: (VI, 18) "The god they revere the most is
Mercury. . . next to him they revere Apollo, Mars, Jupiter and
Minerva." However Latin author Lucian (Pharsalia I, 444) mentioned
"cruel Teutates, horrible Esus, and Taranis whose altar is as
bloody as the Scythian Diana". In the case of the Celts, therefore,
probably the applicable god is Taranis.
Although the Indo-Europeans inherited and embraced the male gods and
male principle, it is clear from pre-Indo-European archeology, from the
fertility goddesses (plump women) on the one hand and bull-images on
the other, that originally the world-view was balanced, with the female
seen in a living landscape, and the male seen in the energetic sky.
DID THE MEGALITHIC CIVILIZATION EXTEND INTO THE MEDITERREANEAN?
Did the "Megalithic Civilization" extend also into the
Mediterranean? We can suppose that it did, at least in
terms of sea-traders. History does not reach back to megalithic times,
but does tell us that the Cretans ruled sea-trade in the Mediterranean
before Phoenicians or Greeks became involved. Judging from the
goods found on Crete, the Minoans traded with the Italy peninsula,
north Africa and the eastern Mediterranean; but some goods, like tin,
may have come from further afield. Thus, since the megalithic sea-route
of the Atlantic and associated ones in the Mediterranean
originated before the Cretan civilization, perhaps Crete
originally began as a trader colony of the original Atlantic
civilization. If so, the archeology of Minoan Crete may very well
reflect culture that existed earlier on the Atlantic.
The Egyptian civilization too was younger than the original Atlantic
megalithic civilization and perhaps the Egyptian pyramid is
ultimately inspired from the earlier megalithic hill-tombs.
Minoan Crete may have lacked hill-tombs because their island had
an abundance of natural caves, some of which, it is known, were used as
communal burial places. This suggests a theory that the religious
beliefs originated in natural caves, and the megalithic hill-tombs were
probably created as artificial caves by colonies who found themselves
in places without natural caves. The concept of a destination for
the deceased in an underworld deep in caves is familiar one in
Greek mythology and probably comes from the pre-Greek peoples of
the Aegean Sea and their beliefs.
ATLANTIS CREATED BY MEGALITHIC CIVILIZATION
This brings us to the possibility that the hub of the early
megalithic sea-trading civilization was located offshore from some of
the oldest megalithic sites in southern Portugal, in the form of the
place known as "Atlantis". The information on "Atlantis", a
maritime civilization outside the Strait of Gibraltar, comes via
Plato's books Criteas and Timaeus, written around 355 B.C., and is
attributed to one of Socrates' friends, Critias, who stated that the
story is "derived from ancient traditions".
While "Atlantis" has been
debated for centuries, the fact remains that something existed that
was the nucleus of the story, whether the embellisments themselves were
true of not.
There is nothing very remarkable in the "Atlantis" name itself:
it obviously has a relationship with the Atlas Mountains of northern
Africa. In fact the underwater mountain range to which
the Atlas Mountains belong
begins in the most likely region of the legendary "Atlantis" as
Plato described it - a major seaport on an island in the sea, and
it is possible, that geologic movements which would be associated with
that ridge may have caused part of that region to collapse and
drop beneath sea level.
The legend or myth of "Atlantis" as a large
continent was a separate development later, as Plato did not imply it
was a large continent. Plato described a wealthy seaport. Perhaps it
had people similar to the civilization on the island of Crete.
The legend of "Atlantis" as a hub of sea-merchant activity
has captivated the human mind ever since Plato spoke of it. Plato
wrote: "..the canal and the large harbour were crowded with vast
numbers of merchant ships from all quarters, from which rose a constant
din of shouting and noise day and night." Atlantis, according to
Plato, "controlled, within the Strait (of Gibraltar, ie within the
Mediterranean), Libya up to the borders of Egypt and Europe as far as
Tyrrhenia (ie Etruria in central Italy)".
It sounds like peoples of the Megalithic
Civilization discussed above, who had developed long distance seatrade
both up and down the Atlantic, east into the Mediterranean,
interracting obviously with early Etruscans and Cretans - exotic
pre-Indo-European, original peoples, of the Megalithic trading
civilization.
In the north direction, the traders may have
extended as far as the Jutland Peninsula. Indeed, Roman historian
Tacitus, in describing the "Cimbri" mof the north end of the peninsula, describes a very ancient peope with exotic monuments.
We cannot neglect seapeoples also travelling south
along the African coast and possibly a few venturing west and coming
upon North America in the same fashion as later Columbus did. Since
currents and winds do not change, what Columbus achieved would be
achieved earlier too, for peoples who also had seagoing ships with
sails.,
Nor does it seem these sea-people were limited to the
European region since Plato wrote: "The island...was a way to other
islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite
continent, which surrounds the true ocean." This "true ocean" is
the Atlantic as opposed to the Mediterraean Sea, and therefore Plato is
in fact acknowledging the existence of North America as the "opposite
continent that surrounds the true ocean".
In a world in which the existence of North America
was unknown, it was easy to imagine that "opposite continent" was
Atlantis. Confusing the port descibed by Plato, which sank, with the
mention of a continent, is obviously the source of the myth of a
continent sinking.
The source of Plato's story was an elderly Greek statesman of
about 600 B.C. named Solon who told it to the renowned Greek Critias,
who in turn told it to his grandson Critias, from whom Plato heard it.
Solon, the ultimate origin of the story, had travelled the
Mediterranean and learnt of Atlantis from Egyptian priests.
According to the information these Egyptian priests provided,
Atlantis existed about the time of wars between people outside and
inside the Strait of Gibraltar, a classic case of competition to
control that narrow strait, perhaps when trade up and down the Atlantic
coast became competitive. These wars, they said occurred about 1000
years before the formal formation of Egypt. Modern Egyptologists
place the birth of Egypt at about 3100 B.C., meaning Atlantis existed
1000 years before that, which is consistent with the time of the
megalithic sea-route. (This well-reasoned theory is offered in
Hitching, The World Atlas of Mysteries, p 138)
Plato explicitly stated the date of Atlantis at 9000 BC, but that is
probably an exaggeration or error. If we select about 4500 BC. then all
the pieces of historic and archeological data fit together well,
including the time frame for the development of oceanic boat travel.
The Atlantis legend was obviously embellished and exaggerated a little
by the time Plato heard it and he himself may have added a little; but
his descriptions of temples to Poseiden (actually to an Atlantean
sea-deity) a large canal and immense harbour, all ring true in the
light of the sea-going nature and capabilities of the megalithic
culture . We may wonder though, if there were horses there, or even
farming. These were not necessary for an oceanic culture living off
sea-harvesting and trade. The later Minoan Crete is an example of a
civilization whose wealth came mainly from sea-trade, which did not
have agriculture as a basis.
Plato is very clear that Atlantis was located outside the "Pillars of
Hercules", meaning ouside the Strait of Gibraltar. The megalithic
sea-route seems to suggest that this is where it would most suitably be
located, off the coast of some of the oldest megalithic constructions
dating to around 4500 B.C. in the Lisbon area. Such a location would be
ideally situated for sea-trade in all directions - north to Britain,
east to the Mediterranean, south to Africa, and even west to North
America (if we want to be so bold as to suggest there may have been
formal visits to North America some 5000 years before Columbus.)
Another source of the notion that Atlantis was a continent cold have come from the
Iberian Peninsula being misinterpreted as being a very
large island to navigators that do not completely circumnavigate it. If
this is the case then the meglithic civilization and "Atlantis" are one
and the same! The only part of Atlantis that vanished was its main
center, probably a Crete-sized island, off the coast of Portugal from
Lisbon.
THE NATURAL DESTRUCTION OF THE PORT OF ATLANTIS
Atlantis final destruction is described thus: "There occurred
violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night, the
island of Atlantis dissappeared in the depths of the sea." If Atlantis
was located exactly as described, then Atlantis would indeed have been
located in a region where earthquakes could have occurred. Modern
geology divides the earth into Tectonic Plates which shift relative to
one another, with mountain building, volcanoes, earthquakes associated
in the regions where the plates interract.
According to geology the
North American and Eurasian plus African Plates are pulling appart,
something that tends to create land, not submerge it (meaning the idea
of a continent vanishing from the middle of the Atlantic is
geologically impossible); however the Eurasian and African plates seam
starting from the Azores and running to the Atlas Mountains and east to
the Aegean sea, seem to be pushing or shearing against each other,
something that can cause unpredictable rising or dropping of land more
locally.
Whether we fully believe Plato's description of Atlantis, the fact
remains that there was an original oceanic civilization along the
Atlantic coast dating to about 4500 B.C. which probably not only
followed the Atlantic megalithic sea-route but, as Plato said, extended
into the Mediterranean with the inevitable port-colonies, one of which
might have been started on Crete.
Since Plato implies that a far continent was known, we can assume that
there were journeys to North America too.
POST-ATLANTIS ARCHEOLOGY?
Archeology older than that of Crete or Egypt, that may reveal
more about the early "megalithic" or "Atlantean" civilization,
has been found on the island of Malta south of Sicily in the
Mediterranean. Being situated on an island, these Maltese were
obviously also accustomed to sailing the sea. Were they a colony of the
Atlantian sea-traders? What is interesting about the archeology of
Malta is that megalithic temples are built in terms of ovals with
large stone blocks, interconnected with passages, giving a
cellular character. The walls are corbelled, meaning sloping inward to
make the roof span smaller. This archeology is dated to between 3600
B.C. - 2500 B.C. about the same time as megalithic hill
tombs appear in Britain.
A similar kind of cellular cluster architectural concept and
construction, except done in a more primitive fashion, was located in
the Orkney Islands. For example, the Skara Brae site has been dated to
3100 B.C. to 2500 B.C. Although not large and not designed as
temples, nonetheless it seems derived from the same architectural
tradition as at Malta. The walls were also
corbelled here, to make the roof-span small. In this case the
settlement was covered with dirt and sod and must have seemed like an
underground settlement. Other similar unusual constructions have been
found elsewhere in the region, as if perhaps this was a home base for
seasons of sea-harvesting, or a trading colony dealing with other
peoples who did so. Sites similar to Skara Brae have been found
at Barnhouse on Orkney, Rinyo on Rousay, Pool on Sanday, Noltland
on Westray, and underneath newer structures at Jarlshof on Shetland.
This type of building no doubt survived in the northern British
Isles sea-hunters and created the defensive "brochs" when the
Roman Age began. Later in history the "Pictish" igloo-like rock
dwelling covered with sod were the models for the rock shelters that
Irish monks built as late as the 8th century when planting themselves
on isolated islands.
Why were these people of Skara Brae, etc. there in the northern British Isles? What was so
special about the Orkneys area?
The British Isles was located on
the continental shelf and a branch of the Gulf Stream flowed east
between the Shetlands and Orkneys. The waters must have been rich with
fish, seals, walrus, and whales. The British Isles were prime
marine-hunting regions, and any Atlantean sea-trader people would have
wanted to access the bounty of marine products found there.
Archeology, however minimizes the fishing aspect of their economy.
Remains seems to point to the Skara Brae settlement having sheep
and cattle. In that case their locating themselves there may have had
more to do with being handy with respect to a trade route, a place for
collecting and warehousing trade goods, and providing temporary shelter
for arriving long distance voyagers. We can't avoid the obvious
fact that if they had not been somehow oriented to the sea, that
similar settlements should have been found by now in the interior of
Scotland and elsewhere, not just here.
We note that some megalithic hill-tombs appear in the north at this
time too: in the Orkneys (the Maes Howe dated to 2800 BC) and on the
east coast of what is now Scotland (Raigmore, dated 3000-2700
BC). Since the next location of megalithic hill tombs from there
is the north end of the Jutland Peninsula, and since the latter was the
home of the Cimbrians, Skara Brae and the other sides may
represent colonies of Cimbrians, or Cimmerians on the megalithic
route, The Cimmerians are discussed below,
DID THE STONE ALIGNMENTS OF THE MEGALITHIC PEOPLES HAVE A PRACTICAL PURPOSE OR WAS IT ONLY RELIGIOUS?
Throughout Western Europe and the British Isles, in addition to
the hill-tombs, there were the meglithic alignments associated with
astronomic events, particularly the shift of the sun through the year.
We have mentioned them, without yet going into any detail.
The best known is the Stonehenge, whose first version is estimated to
have been established in 2800 B.C. and current version about 1560 B.C.
Another extraordinary site is at Carnac in the Brittany Peninsula,
where rows of enormous rocks were stood on end in parallel rows
stretching to the horizon with an egg-shaped ring at each end. In
addition to impressive sites such as these, western Europe is
dotted with remains of seemingly calendric stone circles.
Humans have no doubt always been fascinated with some of the more
obvious events in the sky, especially the movement of the sun and moon.
Counting days and the cycle of the moon phases obviously existed in
earliest hunter-gatherer times; so what would cause seagoing people at
the Atlantic to start
making precise measurements of equinoxes, solistices, and mark them on
the land? Who would benefit most from a detailed understanding of
the heavens? Seafarers, for navigation.
Oceanic
seafarers, once out of
sight of land, needed to take their orientation from the heavens, thus,
through repeated observations they determined how it could be done, and
created circular devices for it. No doubt seafarers discovered quite
early that Polaris, the North Star, did not move in the sky while the
other stars turned slowly around it, and learnt to use it for
orientation. The sun too could be used for orientation if the position
of its sunrise and sunset could be known for the different times of the
year.
I believe the seafarers became very familiar with the movements in the
sky, and determined that the world was a disk which rotated within a
fixed sky-dome, with the center of the disc underneath Polaris. The sun
and moon were inside this sky dome, and regularly vanished from view
because the rotating disk was tilted. The megalithic constructions may
have been intended to precisely determine the behaviour of this
world-disk floating in the enormous sea. This information would
aid in navigation on the sea, and other functions.
It is easy to understand how the wisdom about the
sky would have developed among Atlantic sea people. In their original
circuits of sea-hunting, at night on rocky islands, all they had around
them were rocks, grass, enless sea, and the sky above. Normally boat
peoples oriented themselves to landmarks. But if out of sight of
landmarks, you begin to study the sky to see if it contained something
constant like a landmark that would help them navigate. Of course there
was Polaris, but the whole disk of the sky showed unchanging patterns
of stars (Other than the myserious movements of the planets. But the
whole sky disc was rotating. If you could figure out the rate of
rotation and the tilt, the sky could be as good as landmarks. So they
developed ways of measuring the rotations and tilts, with the help of
aligning stones at different times of year. They could build them on
small scale on islands. By visiting them, they could tell where they
were in latitude. By careful measurement of time, they could determine
longitude as well.
Clearly the monumental stone alignment observatories
were just giant monumental versions of what they were creating locally
on different islands.
WHERE THE "CIMMERIANS" OF HISTORY
DESCENDED FROM THE MEGALITHIC TRADERS?
The era of the megalithic sea-traders is so far in the past that there
are no direct references to them in historic texts. Ancient texts
referring to ancient sea-traders tell only about ancient Cretans,
Phoenicians, ancient Greeks, and Veneti, because they existed only
within a millenium or so in the BC period.
But common sense says that since the megalithic sea-route never really
closed, that the original sea-traders of that route never really
vanished either, but slowly transformed, as times changed. By Greek and
Roman times, ancient authors should still have been able to place a
name to a sea-going people who we can consider to have been descendants
of these early sea-merchants.
One possibility is that their descendants were the Veneti since the
Veneti appear to have still followed most of the original sea-routes
by Roman times, and their Brittany settlement was located
not far from the Carnac rock alignments.
According to Caesar's glowing description of their sea-faring skills,
the Brittany Veneti could very well have been descended from the
sea-traders of the megaliths, of the civilization of Atlantis.
But there is an interesting name in historic literature: the Cimmeri,
Cimmri, Cimbri, etc. We note that the Welsh of today call themselves
Cymmru. There is clearly something here in this name that needs some
investigation.
As stated earlier, the "megalithic sea-route", can be inferred
from the fact that the earliest megalithic constructions are so
located as to suggest they were made by an ancient seafaring
people who travelled up the Atlantic coast from southern Portugal
to the Brittany Peninsula, north through the Irish Sea between
Britain and Ireland to the western Scotland region. A further
leg existed between Scotland's northern and eastern coast
and northern Denmark, or between southeast Britain and that
region. It stands to reason that sea-trade would not stop at
Denmark, but continued into the wealthy regions of the Baltic too, and
possibly exploited the river routes into the east.
EUROPE IS CHANGED BY FARMING
Before static peoples (farmers, cities), there was no great need for a
special system of trade, and in fact migratory hunters did not seek to
accumulate possessions since when they migrated through their annual
rounds with the entire clan, they needed their material goods to be
light and portable. But when certain groups began farming, permanent
settlements were established beside the farm-fields. No longer on the
move, the settlements could grow, could accumulate possessions, and
indulge in materialism. That would be the point at which trading as a
specialized role began; and as mentioned earlier, it would have been
from among the northern boat-peoples, those making frequent contact
with static peoples, who would have taken up this specialized role.
This situation began very early. The first systematic farming,
say archeologists, began about 6000-5000 B.C. Thus it should be no
surprise that the earliest megalithic hill-tombs and the megalithic sea
route implied by their locations are dated to about 4500 B.C. Before
you have a people specialized in trade and transportation, you have to
have the static farmers and cities. Before you can create the links,
you have to create the nodes. And when the situation of static human
populations in the nodes existed, then trade grew in proportion
to the growth of such static populations, and their inevitable demand
for trade. Obviously in the beginninng it was very light, and
trade was very light. A merchant boat might arrive without warning at
an established market area at any time with goods to trade, or it could
arrive systematically every year.
Thus, there is no reason for us to restrict the "megalithic route" of
4500-2000 B.C. to the locations of coastal megalithic constructions.
The big question is whether history provides us with information that
may be tied to the early "megalithic route".As already stated a good
candidate would be the mysterious people that history refers to as
Cimmeri or Cimbri. These people may represent a sea-trader legacy
that predates the Veneti. The prime reason for considering them as
the earliest sea-traders is the fact that two manifestations of the
name, plus assorted other information, seem to place them in locations
which we can associate with the "megalithic route", notably that
northern Jultand Peninsula in the Roman Age was the home of the
Cimbri, and the modern Welsh call themselves Cymmru, or Cymry.
Both locations present evidence of an overlaying of VENEDE, thus
raising the question of whether the VENEDE evolved out of them. But
let's start by investigating what the literature reveals about the
Cimbri, Cimmeri, Cymry, etc.
The Cimbri of Roman times is most vivid in historic memory
because of ancient historians recording the exploits of one portion of
them, who in the decade or so after 113 BC attempted to secure
new land and ended up being defeated near Rome in 103 BC. The homeland
of these Cimbrians was northern Jutland Peninsula. Clearly the roving
expedition southward did not include all of them, because they were
still there a couple centuries later, and described by Tacitus in his
Germania 98AD; and the belief that they sought land because they
had lost land to tides makes no sense, as their location speaks of
their having been a sea-oriented people. More likely they used
the act of asking for land as a pretext for engaging the Romans in war
if refused, and as a challenge to the Romans.
A full two centuries after the drama at Rome, Tacitus acknowledges the
Cimbri in the Jutland Peninsula in his Germania. His description
seems to speak of a dying ancient people by Roman times:
In the same winding tract of Germany live the Cimbrians, close to the
ocean; a community now very small, but great in fame. Nay, of their
ancient renown, many and extensive are the traces and monuments still
remaining; even their entrenchments upon either shore, so vast in
compass that from thence you may even now measure the greatness and
numerous bands of that people, and assent to the account of an army so
mighty....[Tacitus, Germania, ch 37]
Tacitus seems to be describing megalithic structures in the passage
"many and extensive are the traces and monuments still remaining"
These then were the Cimbri of Roman times, whose homeland was at the
northern regions of the Jutland Peninsula. If they were of sea-faring
roots, they were in that location by design, and had been there from
earliest times, and had survived by basically being left alone by
land-based Indo-European invading peoples who would find coasts and
marshes of no interest.
The major summary in ancient literature about the Cimbri or Cimmerii
comes from Plutarch. It begins thus. Note they have "black eyes" which
suggests Iberian origins, proving they were a colony of long distance
traders,
As these barbarians inhabited very distant lands, we did not know to
which nations they belonged and from which lands they had come to
thunder like a storm cloud on the Gauls and on Italy. Their great
height, their black eyes and their name, Cimbri, which the
Germans use for brigands, led us merely to suppose that they were one
of those races of Germania who lived on the shores of the Western Ocean
. ......
[Plutarch, Life of Marius, XI]
Plutarch summarizes what was known from other
authors, and illustrated
the problem that these people appear to have been found in
widely separate regions, including in the far north. The problem is
easily solved if we assume that the Cimmeri were sea and river
traders, who much like the VENEDE of later times , deposited their name
in various locations. It certainly stands to reason that people who
originally travelled the large distances up an down the Atlantic
coast, and probably also were the original sea peoples before Greek or
Phoenicians in the Mediterraneans, would also have travelled east-west
in the northern seas too.
Besides the Cimbri of Roman times and Cimmeri of Greek times, our
third encounter with the name is the Welsh calling
themselves Cymry. This is significant because the megalithic
sea-route went up the west coast of Britain, and there could have been
a permanent colony in the Wales location. The Welsh Cymry were not
necessarily originally Celtic, but the people could preserve, down through time, the name of
a people who adopted Celtic from people of the region.
The Wales area also adds an interesting situation which
involves the VENEDE best known from Roman times. North West Wales was
called Gwynned, which "would suggest that the Veneti had
considerable influence there, if not an actual colony" (Markale, The
Celts, p 87). This has a significance in any theory that the Veneti
or VENEDE as described earlier, may be descended from Cimmeri
since the VENEDE in their various manifestations, seem to have
followed the original northern sea and river routes. Markale
writes of the island of Anglesey, originally Mona, a religious centre
dating back to pre-Christian times: "Anglesey also occupied a position
of strategic importance, for apart from being an embarkation point to
Ireland it was effectively a watchtower between Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland. Until Wales lost its independence, Aberffraw in the South of
the island was principal residence of the kings of Gwynedd, The port of
Gwygyr, now Cemais, on the North West of the island, was one of the
"three privileged ports" of the island of Britain."(ibid. p 159)
This suggests that Anglesey/Mona was a major center of the sea trade,
and we would expect it to have been controlled by VENEDE 'kings', and
before that, by Cimmeri.
Trade systems flourished with the evolution of farming, permanent
settlements, and cities. Static people, tied to settlements and farms,
were unable to travel far. Permanent settlements also allowed the
accumulation of material possessions, since it was no longer necessary
to be light and mobile. Wherever farming and cities developed, demand
for trade goods developed. This demand drove the development of trade
systems. Trade was no longer causal, but a driven business, with all
the good and evil still found in business today.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The dating of the earliest megalithic hill tombs, shows that the
"Megalithic Civilization" began around 4500 BC, and this was also when
farming was evolving in the upper Danube.
First discovered in 1976, Danish archeologists have been
uncovering a 6000 year old settlement at Tybrind Vig, submerged
today and 750 feet off the coast, at the Baltic island of Funen,
Denmark. It is considered to have been part of the Ertebølle culture of
about 5400BC to 4000BC . This name comes from the site of the first
settlement of this period found in the last century at Ertebølle in
nothern Jutland.
At the Tybring site,, archeologists uncovered in 1980 a 27 foot dugout
canoe. It had a ballast stone and a clay fire hearth, and
apparently was used to catch eels by the light of flares about 4100
BC. When found it was realized to be Europe's oldest known boat.
It is thought the boat was also used for fishing, sealing, and porpoise
hunting on the open sea, and for travelling along the coast to other
settlements.
The Ertebølle culture, which preceded the Funnel-Beaker culture was a
vibrant and successful one, which we should view in the context of the
preceding discussions. At this location, the passage from the North Sea
to the ancient Baltic, was a constriction that concentrated the eel
migration, which no doubt was far greater than it is today. The
eel-catching boat can point to great wealth that would have come from
the eel.The Ertebølle culture laid the foundation for the
Funnel-Beaker culture. Its eel-enabled wealth is an example of what
might have occurred on the Atlantic too, to fuel the beginning of a
civilization: First came easy sustinence from a sea-animal, and then
the diversification of culture, followed by materialism and trading. In
fact the Funnel-beaker culture that evolved out of the Ertebølle might
be an example of a south Baltic civilization stimulated from the
Ertebølle origins.
Ertebølle origins.is significant as the "Megalithic"
sea route went as far as the Jutland Peninsula, and perhaps even
further east. The evidence of an institution of eel-harvesting suggests
perhaps eel-hunting was a major factor in the development of the
Atlantic sea-hunting peoples into the wealthy form that created the
megalithic monuments. Whale hunting could be a factor too, but whaling
was everywhere possible only at midpoints of their migrations.
My purpose in this article was not to solve any
mystery, but to in general open up discussion about the seagoing
peoples that have left behind their traces both in the background of
ancient literature and in mysterious monuments. Somehow we can tie them
to the origins of ancient civilizations that preceeded the
Indo-European invasions that introduced horses and generated wars and
conquests, bringing an end to the original Europe that was descended
directly from its Native origins.
author: A.Paabo, Box 478,
Apsley, Ont., Canada
2018 (c) A. Pääbo.