Martin Brennan at Anubis Caves
Boulder, Colorado, resident Martin Brennan is known for writing visionary books about ancient megalithic monuments, such as The Boyne Valley Vision.
A new video clip shows him discussing the mysterious carvings that appear to be synched to the equinoctial sunset shadows at "Anubis Caves," a site in the Oklahoma Panhandle. You can view them at filmmaker Scott Monahan's site or at the Mythical Ireland site.
The case for a Celtic connection was made by Barry Fell, Gloria Farley, and the late Bill McGlone, particulary in his book Ancient American Inscriptions: Plow Marks or History?
I have discussed this issue before. It truly baffles me. McGlone makes a plausible argument for the transatlantic origin of these symbols and writings, except . . . .
Why here? Why in far western Oklahoma and southeastern Colorado? There were no great trading cities here 2,000 years ago and no gold nuggets lying on the ground. According to conventional archaeology, there were only a few people here, living the simplest hunter-gatherer lives. They were probably similar to the people encountered by the Coronado expedition in the 1540s living along the rivers (little rivers, mostly) of the High Plains and hunting buffalo when they could.
It's a hell of a long way to go for a Druidic vision quest.
Nevertheless, the other more contemporary puzzle is why these alleged Celtic inscriptions are so ignored by contemporary Colorado Pagans, most of whom have never heard of them. If you had Stonehenge only four hours' drive from metro Denver, wouldn't you go there now and then?
UPDATE: While I concentrated on the alleged Celtic presence in the Southern Plains, I should point out that other students of the inscriptions claim a Punic (Phoenician or Libyan) presence also. It is hard to discuss all this without getting into the politics of diffusionism and the turf battles between Old World and New World archaeologists, all beyond the scope of this blog.
A new video clip shows him discussing the mysterious carvings that appear to be synched to the equinoctial sunset shadows at "Anubis Caves," a site in the Oklahoma Panhandle. You can view them at filmmaker Scott Monahan's site or at the Mythical Ireland site.
The case for a Celtic connection was made by Barry Fell, Gloria Farley, and the late Bill McGlone, particulary in his book Ancient American Inscriptions: Plow Marks or History?
I have discussed this issue before. It truly baffles me. McGlone makes a plausible argument for the transatlantic origin of these symbols and writings, except . . . .
Why here? Why in far western Oklahoma and southeastern Colorado? There were no great trading cities here 2,000 years ago and no gold nuggets lying on the ground. According to conventional archaeology, there were only a few people here, living the simplest hunter-gatherer lives. They were probably similar to the people encountered by the Coronado expedition in the 1540s living along the rivers (little rivers, mostly) of the High Plains and hunting buffalo when they could.
It's a hell of a long way to go for a Druidic vision quest.
Nevertheless, the other more contemporary puzzle is why these alleged Celtic inscriptions are so ignored by contemporary Colorado Pagans, most of whom have never heard of them. If you had Stonehenge only four hours' drive from metro Denver, wouldn't you go there now and then?
UPDATE: While I concentrated on the alleged Celtic presence in the Southern Plains, I should point out that other students of the inscriptions claim a Punic (Phoenician or Libyan) presence also. It is hard to discuss all this without getting into the politics of diffusionism and the turf battles between Old World and New World archaeologists, all beyond the scope of this blog.
Labels: archaeology, Celts, Colorado
posted by Chas S. Clifton at 3:52 PM Permalink
9 Comments:
1. The resemblance to Ogham is not so clear-cut to my eyes.
2. These would pre-date any Ogham inscriptions in Ireland.
3. *Mithras*? ahem...real celtic.
4. Barry Fell and his theories have been widely discredited.
Furthermore, lest we underestimate the indigenous inhabitants, the artwork at Lasceaux, Altamira, etc, was made by people "living the simplest hunter-gatherer lives". The chauvanistic assumption that the achievments of pre-contact indegenous peoples must have really been created by Europeans or other more "advanced" people has been going on since we arrived here to kill, disposess, and subjugate, I mean "civilize" them.
Anonymous 1:59 p.m.:
While I would be the last person to jump to the assumption that these inscriptions are pre-columbian European, I equally reject the counter-attack that says it is "chauvinist" or "racist" to even ask that question.
(Then-Colorado state archaeologist Jack Gooding was quick to label McGlone a racist in a 1980s PBS program. Whatever McGlone was, he was not a racist.)
So I mistrust your approach, which seeks to stifle inquiry by planting the flag of Political Correctness and dancing around it.
I'm not seeking to stifle inquiry, I'm attemtping to challenge long-held assumptions. Big difference. It sure seems to be a stretch to intepret these glyph's as Celtic, and frankly, from the Hopewell and Mississippian earthworks to any number of other pre-columbian sites, there is a long history of Euro-Americans wanting to believe that *anybody*, from space aliens to atlanteans to our own forefathers were the creators of these sites, rather than the Indians who lived here. This isn't "political correctness", it's a factual observation, and manifestly moreso than any supposed Celticness of these inscriptions.
Anonymous 3:04 p.m.:
That is a rhetorical argument, not an archaeological argument.
I am interested in archaeological arguments -- or arguments about why today's Pagans ignore these sites, which function astronomically, regardless of who made them.
Your rhetorical argument was made twenty years ago and is fairly tired. Go watch Scott Monahan's History on the Rocks (1986) and you will see it there.
And here is the link for History on the Rocks
Ok, to return to the archeology...
- Mithras is not Celtic, and to interpret that figure as Mithras is wildly speculative.
- The idea of the Celts having solar deities is quite outdated.
- All the sites in Ireland and other Celtic lands that have solar or other astronomical alignments were created long before Celtic culture by neolithic peoples who did not use ogham.
- The glyphs in question here predate any Ogham insciptions in Ireland by about 500 years.
- Are the sites you point out interesting? Of course. Should they recieve archological attention? Sure. I hope they get some by credible archeologists rather than folks in the vein of Erik Von Daniken who seem to know very little about either Celtic belief or pre-columbian archeology.
And BTW, if my 20 year old argument is tired, then the 500 year old attitudes it opposes should really be exhausted by now.
Anonymous archaeo-troll:
The sites have received some attention from credible archaeologists, including one from U. of Calgary and a doctoral student from Arizona. If you did the reading, you would know that. Some chemical dating of the inscriptions has already been done. Does that show who made them? No.
Please read my update to the original post.
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