Early depiction of Eastern Woodlands natives under the name of "Algonquins"
Hearing that the entire language group including the Algonquins (and the others more generically called Algonkians) is most closely related to Old World languages with a Megalithic connection was revealing to me because the peoples with the Algonquin-related languages are also ones that are otherwise compared to Western Europeans.
In the times when some Anthropologists were into extensive classifications of humans into different subtypes, the Woodlands Native Americans were classified as "Sylvids" and stated to have the closest appearance to Western Europeans. In specific, to the Megalith-builder type of Western Europeans known as Atlanto-Mediterraneans or Iberians (Donnelly uses the term "Iberians" in that sense in 1881) Both types are recognisable by a prominent nose of a certain type, and even a specific proportion of nose length to chin length, and a long form of the skull when seen from above.
So here are some photos comparinng a "Sylvid" to a selection of Atlanto-Mediterraneans, from an Anthropology website that still deals in such things.
It should be most specifically noted that we are not speaking in terms of "Race" when remarking on phenotypes such as these, the more appropriate way to say this would be that there appears to be a family resemblance between peoples that are related. These would be genetic continuities
along lineage lines and not ethnic packages as such. And we are not talking master races here because as far as it seems, various peoples came to America in ancient times and were basically swallowed up together in the melting-pot. So that whatever they might have started out as, they finished up as Americans (Before Columbus)
A Shawnee and a an Ottowa. These are also very good portraits of men who had strong facial features resembling those of Europeans.
Alfred Sherwood Romer wrote in the book Man and the Vertebrates (U of Chicago Press, 1941) 0n page 249
"We have every reason to believe that longheaded brunets essentially Mediterranean passed still farther to the Northeast (Northwest?) and become early, perhaps the earliest, inhabitants of the Americas. The Indians are usually classified as a subdivision of the Mongoloids, and rightly so,it seems, as regards the majority of the population. But there are Indians and there are Indians. In many regions there are groups which show few if any of the characters of typical Mongoloids and tend to have long heads, cheekbones less prominent than in typical Mongols, and other features suggesting the basic Mediterranean type...Even in North America the Eastern Indians, now nearly extinct, lacked a full Mongoloid development [and were thus more like Mediterraneans]"
A woman of the Atlanto-Mediterranean type. Native women of the East also tended to resemble this type, from the older depictions.
Several sources have remarked that the first Native Americans met and illustrated by the colonists looked an awful lot like other white men, as illustrated in the old prints. I have heard that spoken in University-level Anthropology courses and Ignatius Donnelly mentioned that in 1881 in his Atlantis, The Antediluvian World. These prints were made by Debry in the 1600s.
Neolithic Grave Goods from Orkney Islands, Scotland
Examination of the “Red Paint,” or Maritime Archaic, cultures in Maine show that a seafaring culture flourished there between 4,000 years ago and 7,500 years ago. Remains of swordfish and other deep sea fish, plummets, gouges, slate lance points and toggling harpoons confirm that these were seafarers of considerable skill. Images of whales, and other marine species, as well as stylised bird heads appeared on decorated objects, such as combs and pendants, and funeral sites revealed the use of red ochre at burial sites. The cemeteries were inevitably placed on high hills overlooking the sea.
James Tuck and Robert Mcgee of St.John’s Memorial University uncovered a rectangular stone chamber of upright stones on the coast of Labrador that closely resembled similar stones found on the island of Teviec just off the coast of France. Both were burial sites where the dead were covered with red ochre, and dating of charcoal pieces from ceremonial burnings at these sites have been carbon dated as being 7,500 years old. The graves, like pyramids built in Mesoamerica, were oriented to reflect light at the time of the rising sun on one day only, at the time of the summer solstice. And instead of a red ochre burial we find at these sites an urn containing cremated ashes, obviously a special treatment for a unusual person, a shaman or tribal chief.
The use of ground slate, a material inferior only to metal, in harpoons and bayonets in both northern Scandinavia and the northern shores of the Americas may not by itself reveal a shared maritime culture 7,500 years ago. But the use of red ochre, the similarity of designs and engravings, the use of sea mammal bone and ivory in tools, and a similar use of oil lamps, all point to a shared culture across the North Atlantic.
From Atlantis in America – Navigators of the Ancient World by Ivar Zapp and George Ericson
Slate Tools of the Maritime Archaic Peoples are very similar to Scandinavian Mesolithic and Neolithic ground-slate tools and in turn are similar to ground-slate tools all around the arctic. The similarity of the ground-slate tools on both sides of the Atlantic at about 3000 BC was noted by Scandinavian archaeologists as far back as the 1920s.
Longbladed "Bayonet" And shorter groundslate points below
Many common forms of ground-slate items including the halfmoon-knife or Ulu are illustrated at left. A stone lamp for burning seal oil is below. Similar groundslate artifacts are found in Neolithic and Mesolithic Ireland and in the Orkney Islands: however the oldest ones seem to come from Spain (From Andalucia according to Margaret Whishaw, who notes the use of ground slate used regularly in the place of the more usual Upper Paleolithic in other parts of Spain. Atlantis in Andalucia)
Eastern Woodlands Fishers and potters. They are very much like the European Mesolithic peoples living around the North Sea (when it was dry land) as illustrated in an earlier posting on this blog (The Peoples of Atlantis)
Woodlands way of making pottery, built up by coiling clay and then smoothing it over with a paddle, also using patterened paddles to mark designs. The pottery was also frequently marked by impressing marks of cordage or fabrics upon it, which was also very much like the common type of pottery being manufactured across the Atlantic at the same time
Drawing of Eastern Woodlands pottery on the Left, European Bell Beaker on the Right.
Map illustrating the extent and growth of Megalith-builder culture in Europe.
The organization most especially devoted to exploring and exploring and evaluating Megalithic-appearing remains in New England is the NEARA
A definition and some description of the megaliths can be found on the Wikipedia at the following link:
Some New England Megalithic Chambers as illustrated by photos from the NEARA web pages, credits and copyrights belong to their respective original owners.
Incidentally, my interpretation of the situation is not exactly the same as in America BC. (Simon & Schuster, 1976)by Barry Fell; I am mostly concerned with an older period. If graffitti from younger periods should appear on older structures, that supports his hypotheses but is essentially of no importance to my thesis.
Semisubterranean megalithic dwwellings on the Orkney islands, structures that are the most comparable to some of the New England examples. Some of the New England examples of subterranean chambers are quite extensive.
Radiocarbon samples taken from various of these New England remains have commonly dated to between 1000 to 3000 BC, and then some later dates (Presumably from continued subsequent later use)
Megalithic chambers at Knowth, Ireland.
Definite Megalithic- architecture in this "Tholos" structure found in New Hampshire
New England Dolmen. Dolmens are definitely characteristic of the European Megalithic.
Common decorations on megalithic structures include round cupmarks and concentric rings drawn around them. This is sometimes referred to as an "Omphalos" symbol ("Navel" in reference to the "Navel in the World") Cupmarks and concentric circles are common on both sides of the Atlanic, from whence the motif seems to have spread to other parts of the world.
The concentric rings are also reflected in the pattern of settlements and forts, frequently made with pounded-earth walls separated by dug-out ditches. This type of structure is known as a "Henge"
Most Megalithic structures are Neolithic and continue on into the succeding Bronze age. Some are older, however, belonging to the Mesolithic age. One example of Mesolithic activity is actually at Stonehenge, where some constructions (made from tree-trunks and not stone pillars) date back to 8000 BC as shown by radiocarbon dates. (noted on the Wikipedia entry)
Cultures such as the Neolithic cultures of Greece and Turkey and the civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica (Mayans)grew out of the general Megalithic Culture independantly.
Reconstruction of Adena mound-buildres of Ohio: the Adenas alkso built the rammed-earth circular walls and the versions of Stoneheng built with trees (known as "Woodhenges")
"Moundbuilders" means basically people that built mounds. Since several different unrelated peoples built mounds at one time or another, Archaeologists frown on the use of "Moundbuilders" as the name used for the builders of the mounds. The more specific cultures that can be identified as going in for building mounds include the Poverty Point, Adena, Hopewell and Mississippian peoples. Adenas and Hopewells were located mostly in the Midwest of the USA but had relationships to other outlying areas, as is shown by trade items. In the case of the Adenas centered around Ohio, they do seem to have come into the area already inhabited by the relatives of the Red-Paint peoples already there, and there were exchanges of cultural items between the two. Which included the building of mounds.
Here are some remains of "Moundbuilder" stone walls from Kansas City Missouri photographed around the turn of the 20th century. The walls are still being built by the same drystone techniques as the New England "Megalithic" structures.
The peoples that built Stonehenge also built conical round mounds of the same sort as the Adenas did in the New World. Their cultures were similar otherwise, except for the fact that Bronze became more important in the Old World while the peoples of the New World continued to favor Native Copper.
Older than the Adena cultures were the Poverty Point peoles of Louisiana. most notable for having a settlement in the form of several concentric semicircles. They also made enigmatic clay objects, several of which exactly match the tokens of the Old World, forerunners to writing.