[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.]
We are continuing to pursue the first people in our area from pre-historic time. Archaeologists have developed a significant record from artifacts. The history of these Original Americans is just now being written.
What does the Inga Stone in Brazil have to do with the Original Americans who built Watson Brake, the oldest mound complex in North America? As it turns out, numerous things.
The Inga Stone is in a riverbed of northeast Brazil about 100 kilometers upriver from the Atlantic Ocean. The massive Gneiss formation measures some 46 meters long by a height about 3.5 meters and covered with glyphs. The stone engravings date to 4000 BCE, a key date in history.
Archaeologists and researchers have only deciphered some of the carvings including fruits, animals, figures, the Milky Way and the constellation Orion. Orion is significant. Astronomy is a recurrent feature of ancient civilizations, indicating a navigation, mathematical, and physics technology.
The patterns and techniques of carving illustrate a sophisticated ancient technology of carving and treatment. Although there is wear, the stone is remarkably preserved. The ancient petroglyphs on our local sandstone rock formations above the river have noticeably deteriorated.
Who could have created such an astounding artifact?
Father Ignatius Rolim, a nineteenth century theology professor of Greek and Latin, has transcribed portions and affirmed they are identical to ancient Phoenician carvings. Ludwig Schwennhagen affirmed Phoenician links with ancient demotic Egyptian writing.
Consider a few key points.
- The date, 4000 BCE, corresponds to the settling of the Original Americans, downriver from us, before building Watson Brake.
- The date also corresponds to the disruption of the ancient city of Babel, scattering people around the world.
- The emperor of the region was Marduk, the hunter. He is the “god of 50 names,” known as Nimrod to the Hebrew, Baal to the Phoenician, and Orion the hunter to the Greek. Contemporaneously, his symbol as a constellation is on the Inga Stone.
- He was the “immortal” son of the Bull of Heaven, but he died. The time was early in the apparent decay in lifespans, so his long-life would appear immortal to succeeding generations.
- The Sumerian hero, Gilgamesh, made months long journeys across the seas.
- Multiple artifacts from cultures in the Americas have been related to Egyptian, Phoenician, and east Mediterranean civilizations, including the well-known Mayan and Incan civilizations.
The sticking point is anthropologists have persisted with the hypothesis that ancient, ignorant humans made a slow, tortuous overland journey from the Cradle of Civilization to the Ouachita River. Then super-civilizations suddenly appear.
The conflict arises between perception of the ignorant, stone-age savages in the Americas and the super intelligence of the eastern Mediterranean people who built the first pyramid between the time of Watson Brake and Poverty Point, about 2500 BCE. Many unknowing argue that a ship was not available to make the trip across the sea.
Consider ancient ships with which modern Eurocentric cultures are familiar. Columbus’ smallest ship, Nina, was 65 feet long by 18 feet wide, with a 7-foot draft, according to Captain Morgan P. Sanger, founder of the Columbus Foundation. Other much larger ships sailed for decades before. The Nina was small, but made multiple voyages across the Atlantic. She is an excellent illustration of naval capabilities. They left Spain for a 10-week adventure. The return voyage was only 8-weeks.
What do we know of Mediterranean ship builders and what do we not know? Egyptian frescos show a naval battle about 3500 BCE. By the Bronze Age, Minoans were building substantial sea-going vessels. A single 100-foot long cypress log formed into the keel through cutting and bending. Then cypress logs joined by mortice and tenons made the sides. Resin filled the joints. Once in the water, the wood swelled, preventing leaks. The ships were 35 meters long by 6 meters wide, very similar in width but longer than Columbus’ ship 4000 years later.
The same materials were at Watson Break and Poverty Point for their boats and housing. It was impossible to traverse the wide, deep Ouachita River without a substantial boat.
Finding artifact ships is unlikely. Ships by nature are on water, consist of wood, and subject to decay. When they sink, water hides them virtually forever. The overgrowth of the murky swamps along the Ouachita to Atchafalaya and the Gulf seals the fate of anything left for a decade.
Why have no stone or hieroglyphs been associated with the Original Americans? Poverty Point and Watson Brake have no large stones only smaller gravel. Hence their art involves individual carvings on local Gneiss gravel. Rather than glyphs they left numerous carvings fitting the size of the rock. Figures recovered at Poverty Point are very similar to European artifacts.
Connections across the Pacific to Easter Island is often a hypothesis without adequate correlation. Conversely, there is just too much evidence of ancient travel across the Atlantic to dismiss the idea. The early locations of civilizations in the Western Hemisphere are on the Atlantic side of the continent. It was not only possible, but is the better hypothesis for settling the Americas.
Father Ignatius Rolim shows evidence of Phoenician inscriptions near the coast of Brazil. At the same time Original Americans were settling along the Ouachita River and would develop one of the great civilizations.
In history, coincidences are not. They only appear so from lack of data.
Think about the year is 4000 BCE: Which is the better hypothesis? Ignorant people walked across continents to end up in diverse societies at the same time as world events report a dispersal? Alternately, technologically capable people made a few weeks voyage, settling along rivers near the coast accessible to the Atlantic?