Figure 11-3b, showing what is commonly known as the Embden Dragon glyph, is found on the Kennebec River in Embden, Maine. In the lower-left side of Figure 11-3b may be the harbor of St. John. The wavy zigzag follows the Maine/New Brunswick coast into the St. Lawrence Gulf. The arrow on the tail of the dragon probably represents the preferred sailing direction going into the St. Lawrence River. The dragon’s mouth in the upper right of Figure 11-3b represents the coastline going north.
Figure 11-4 is commonly named the Three Rivers glyph and is found on the Neversink River, Catskill Mountains, New York.
Figure 11-4: Three Rivers glyph (Reference 16)
This represents three rivers flowing into some harbor, maybe on the Hudson River. Twisted the other way, it could represent three rivers feeding into the St. Lawrence in the eastern part of Lake Ontario. In either case, Figure 11-4 has three rivers flowing into a spiral harbor. No indication of north has been observed.
Figures 11-3 and 11-4 need proper north-south orientation for decoding purposes. They are included to illustrate the Irish symbols of zigzag counting, angles, and spiral harbors connecting freshwater rivers to seawaters. They all represent maps needed and constructed by the seafarers.
Figure 11-5a represents boat travel to Peterborough, Ontario, and is dated c. 1700 BCE.
Figure 11-5a: Sun ship found on a rock near Peterborough, Ontario (Reference 61)
Figure 11-5b: Winter solstice on stone circle near Peterborough, Ontario (Reference 19)
Sea travel continued west on the rivers and lakes. Note the sun on the mast to measure the shadow angles. The boat has a stone anchor.
Figure 11-5b represents the stone circle near Peterborough. The angle of thirty-eight degrees relative to the east-west axis in Figure 11-5b has a sun-shadow latitude of thirty-eight degrees north. Applying the golden ratio calculation, it predicts a latitude of 44.7 degrees north.
Peterborough, Ontario
Latitude: 44.3° N has a sun-shadow-degrees-north latitude of thirty-eight degrees
Longitude: 73.8° W
Figure 11-6: Ships found on rocks around Lake Superior and Copper Harbor, Michigan (Reference 61)
Figure 11-6a shows a ship etched in Agawa rock in Lake Superior at about the time 1700 BCE (Reference 61).
Figure 11-6b is a boat carving found near Copper Harbor, Northern Michigan (Reference 61).
Figures 11-3 to 11-6 simply illustrate that seafarers sailed the northern trade routes, in St. Lawrence River area around 1700 BCE and leaving symbols similar to the Irish symbols for navigation. If the seafarer chose the southern route in the Gulf of Mexico, one would expect to find similar navigation aids in the harbors and gardens (of Eden) on the southern trade routes in North America.
Harbors on the Mississippi River
The initial seafarers using the southern route found the Mississippi River Delta as early as 3500 BCE. The seafarer would leave the Strait of Gibraltar and sail west on a thirty-degree sun-shadow latitude course. The location of the next set of islands was either the Canary Islands or the Azores Islands. The Caribbean Islands were reached, and then the seafarers went into the Gulf of Mexico. Staying on a course of a sun-shadow latitude of thirty degrees, the seafarer would arrive at the Mississippi Delta. The following megalithic sites were key locations for the seafarers on the Mississippi River.
Watson Brake, Louisiana
Latitude: 32.4° N or a sun-shadow latitude of 30.4 degrees north
Longitude: 92.1° W
The earliest mound complex in North America, 3500 BCE, is located one hundred miles north of the Mississippi River Delta, Figure 11-7 (Reference 61).
Figure 11-7a: Watson Brake, satellite images of mounds, oval shape
Figure 11-7b: Watson Brake, Mississippi Delta schematic of mounds
The mounds form an elliptical (oval) configuration with a major axis of nine hundred feet. The mounds have heights from three to twenty-five feet high. Watson Brake is a one-day sail north of New Orleans. Exploration of this site would be interesting.
Figure 11-7a is a satellite image of the Watson Brake mound circle. The line has a thirty-degree angle relative to the east-west direction, as does the line in Figure 11-7b. The thirty-degree angle is the sun-shadow latitude for Watson Brake. A forty-/thirty-degree triangle of mounds is formed, as seen in Figure 11-7a. If a line is drawn from the mound with the widest angle to the large mound at the bottom large mound in Figure 11-7a, then the Northern Cross is formed.
If seafarers were involved at Watson Brake, they would naturally sail northward on the Mississippi River, at a longitude 120 degrees west of the Nile River Delta harbor of Alexandria/Canopus. The 3500 BCE dating of Watson Brake coincides with the sailing explorations of the Nubians at that time. The Nubians were also known as birdmen, using an ibis as a symbol. This becomes relevant when the bird mounds are found in Poverty Point and Cahokia.
Poverty Point, Louisiana
Latitude: 32.6° N, a predicted sun shadow of 30.5 degrees north
Longitude: 91.4° W or 121 degrees west of the Nile River reed fields of Canopus
Poverty Point is a prehistoric earthworks close to the Mississippi River in Northeastern Louisiana and south of the Arkansas River, slightly north of the circle in Figure 11-7a. The Poverty Point mounds are thought to have been built between 1650 and 700 BCE. However, radiocarbon-dating has estimated 4000 BCE. Mound construction may have begun as early as 3500 BCE and continued for five hundred years.
Poverty Point was possibly used as a trading center. There are indications that trading occurred with the prehistoric copper-producing tribes in the upper Great Lakes region.
Figure 11-8 shows a large calendar structure. The lines in Figure 11-8 have a thirty-degree angle and may estimate the sun-shadow latitude.
Figure 11-8: Poverty Point, Mississippi Delta, calendar mound (Reference 61)
Deep pits for wood post holes exist for calendars. One of the mounds is a step pyramid aligned east to west with a height of fifty feet and a length of five hundred feet (Reference 61).
Above the calendar structure is Mound A, the Bird Mound. The Bird Mound is seventy feet high and 640 feet across. The reason for the naming of the Bird Mound has not been determined. Chapter 12 may provide some insight.
Cahokia, Illinois
Latitude: 38.6° N, and a predicted sun shadow latitude of 34.2 degrees north
Longitude: 90.2° W or 120 degrees west from the prime meridian of the Nile River reed fields at Canopus
Cahokia was a major harbor and distribution center strategically located between the Ohio River and the Missouri River on the eastern banks of the Mississippi. The Cahokia Harbor is a little north of St. Louis, Missouri, known as Mound City. Figure 11-9c is a view of the Cahokia complex of step pyramids, circles, and effigy mounds.
Figure 11-9a: Cahokia, three-step pyramid (Reference 61)
Figure 11-9b: The sun-shadow latitude for Cahokia
Figure 11-9c: Cahokia, Illinois, schematic of the mound complex near the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers (Reference 61)
Figure 11-9d: Copper figurines
Cahokia is North America’s first city and one of eight World Heritage sites in America, and is also the largest archeological site in America. A thousand years ago, Cahokia had a maximum population estimated at twenty thousand. There were trade links between Cahokia and the Great Lakes and to the Gulf of Mexico in Florida. Arrowheads have been found at Cahokia and were separated into four types, each from a different geographical region in North America.
The three-step pyramid, Figure 11-9a, known as Monks Mound, is the third largest pyramid in the Western world (Reference Travel Channel) and is ninety-two feet (28 m) high, 951 feet (290 m) long, and 836 feet (255 m) wide. There is evidence that a building was on the top of the pyramid.
There is a circle of postholes interpreted as an astronomical indicator of summer solstice sunrise, winter solstice sunrise, and equinox sunrise. This circle was referred to as “Woodhenge,” a circle of posts used
to make astronomical sightings west of Monk’s Mound.
A beaker found in a pit near the winter solstice post bore a circle and cross symbol. Cahokia also has a copper workshop. Copper bird figurines from Birdman’s Tomb were also found. See Figure 11-9d for examples.
An interesting skeleton was found at Cahokia and named the Birdman. The Birdman was buried on a bed of more than twenty thousand marine-shell disc beads arranged in the shape of a falcon, with the bird’s head appearing beneath and beside the man’s head and its wings and tail beneath its arms and legs, finely worked. It is interesting to note that a bird accompanied the “departed” soul as he entered the “otherworld” in the Nile River Dynasty myths.
Using the golden ratio calculation, the predicted sun-shadow latitude would be 34.2 degrees north. A thirty-four-degree angle from the east-west axis is shown by the lines in Figure 11-9b. The interesting observation is that the mounds were constructed to align with the winter solstice shadow. No stones were used.
The evidence of stepped pyramids, bird mounds, and copper working indicate a much earlier prehistoric origin at Cahokia.
The seafarer is still sailing north on the 120-degree west meridian relative to the Nile River.
Aztalan, Wisconsin
Latitude: 43.1° N, a predicted sun-shadow latitudeof thirty-seven degrees north
Longitude: 89° W, or relative to the Nile meridian, 119 degrees west
Aztalan and nearby Rock Lake were part of an ancient mining center, where raw copper extracted from the Great Lakes region was readied for shipment elsewhere. The miners would return to Michigan the following summer. This mining center operation would have employed many miners, handlers, sailors, and overseers. An efficient calendar technology would have been vital to the center’s success and survival. An abundance of astronomically significant structures were found, stretching from Rock Lake to the Upper Peninsula.
The mining center in the Aztalan area was abandoned approximately 1200 BCE. The site was reopened in approximately 700 AD, which corresponds with the expansion of the establishment at Cahokia.
The pyramid mound complex at Aztalan is located at the intersection of the Mississippi River and the Wisconsin River that feeds from Lake Michigan. The pyramids were dedicated to the sun, moon, and Venus (Reference 61). Figure 11-10a shows one of the step pyramids.
Figure 11-10a: Aztalan, three-step pyramid
Figure 11-10b: Aztalan, schematic of sun, moon, and Venus temples connected as Summer (navigation) Triangle (Reference 50, author’s annotations)
Figure 11-10b shows the three-step pyramid complex.
The largest pyramid platform, the Pyramid of the Sun, was aligned to the dawn of the winter solstice. The opposite pyramid platform, the Pyramid of the Venus, was oriented to the appearance of the Morning Star. The third pyramid platform, the Pyramid of the Moon, plowed out of existence in the southeastern quadrant, was aligned to the rising of the moon at its most northerly point. The fourth pyramid is the smallest. Three of the four platform pyramid mounds remain at Aztalan, as noted by squares in Figure 11-10b.
The largest mound was built in three stages, with a set of steps leading to the top, where a structure was built over the entire flat top. There were storage pits in the Pyramid of the Sun. The northwestern mound was also built in three stages. A structure with its long axis toward the northeast/southwest was built on the west side of the mound. Its doorway was in its southwest corner. It would be of interest to study the passageway related to this door. The eastern mound had a large open-walled structure built on top of it, with fire pits lined with white sand inside. A row of round mounds extended northward. Each mound had a large post set in a pit in its center. These mounds have been termed “marker mounds” (Reference 61).
Each September at the autumn equinox, a constellation known as the Summer (navigation) Triangle appears directly over Southern Wisconsin. This is truly significant. So let’s connect the pyramids seen in Figure 11-10b.
These three pyramids are in a thirty-/sixty-degree triangle. However, if the plowed-under pyramid was used, the dotted triangle may have existed with a thirty-/seventy-degree triangle. Is it possible that the four pyramids at Aztalan actually track the movement of the Summer (navigation) Triangle? My guess is that the passageways in the Aztalan pyramids have a Northern Cross design. This is by design by seafarers having a common perspective.
The Summer (navigation) Triangle consists of Deneb: in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan, Vega; in the constellation Lyra, the Harp, and Altair; and in the constellation Aquila, the Eagle, as shown in Figure 7-10. It should also be noted that Deneb is part of the Northern Cross. Near midnight, the summer triangle lies virtually overhead at midnorthern latitudes during the summer months, but it can also be seen during spring in the early morning to the east. See Figure C-5 in Appendix C to observe the migration of Deneb between the spring and fall equinoxes. In the autumn, the Summer (navigation) Triangle is visible in the evening to the west well until November. As the autumn equinox approaches and harvest begins, seafarers moved south to Cahokia or Poverty Point.
Noteworthy is that the Aztalan pyramids of the sun, Venus, and moon have a thirty-/sixty-degree triangle shape, but the Boyne Valley mounds of Dowth (Sun), Knowth (Moon), and Newgrange (Venus) have a thirty-/forty-degree triangular arrangement. The Aztalan pyramids relate to the Summer (navigation) Triangle. The Boyne Valley mounds relate to Libra, le Balance.
Joseph Francis states that it seems that the people in the upper Mississippi River suddenly appeared on the scene and were fully operational at approximately 3000 BCE (Reference 26). They were using crib lifts to hoist more than three tons of rock at a time and highly efficient prospecting methods superior to late-eighteenth-century British technology. They were able to cut straight down into sixty feet of solid rock and organized a hierarchy of tasks for thousands of workers. Add that they had advanced knowledge of astronomy, ship building, and navigation. According to the lunar date given in Plato’s dialogues and corroborative Egyptian records, Atlantis was destroyed in the month of Goddess Hathor, roughly corresponding to our November, 1198 BCE, the approximate time Michigan copper mines were abandoned.
Isle Royale, Michigan
Latitude (actual): 48° N, a predicted sun-shadow latitude of forty degrees north
Longitude (actual): 88° W, which, using the Nile prime meridian, has a 118 degrees west longitude
The purest copper in the world is found in the Isle Royale region, shown in Figure 11-11a.
Figure 11-11a: Copper nugget: 97 percent copper, 3 percent silver from Isle Royale, Northern Michigan
Figure 11-11b: Isle Royale, Michigan, map (Reference 61)
Figure 11-11c: The northern and southern studied copper trade routes
Figure 11-11a is a hunk of copper having a chemistry of 97 percent copper and 3 percent silver, which I found in an antique shop in Southport, North Carolina.
The Isle Royale region had, from open pit mines, over five hundred thousand tons of copper mined from 2200 to 1200 BCE. The mystery is, where did it go? The television’s America Unearthed series surely stated that Isle Royale copper was found in a shipwreck in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. That is a major clue.
Mounds with passageways were used for storage. Over ten thousand mounds in Wisconsin existed at one time. For security reasons alone, locations of mines never had stone circles or mounds surrounding them. Copper had to be transported over the two trade routes identified in this chapter: the northern trade route to the St. Lawrence Gulf and the southern trade route down to the Mississippi Delta. Extensions of both trade routes end, or start, at the Isle Royale and the Copper Harbor on the Keweenaw Peninsula, Northern Michigan.
Other clues exist for where the copper went. The oral traditions and myths having location names surely indicate the movement of copper in both of these trade routes. For the southern route, the Algonquin name for the Mississippi River was “Great serpent came up Mississippi for copper.” Lake Sinissippi was “se
rpent ore.”
The Central American name for copper, and metals in general, was Anta, with variations of anti, anto, onta, and onto. So the consonant name for copper was NT with variations of the vowels as oral traditions became written languages. Going farther south, the copper name got translated to andes, as in mountains, the mountain of metals. Anta, onta, anti were root names for copper in the Americas.
The trade routes have the following locations having a copper root:
Ontario, copper quay
Toronto, copper rock or copper god
Ontonagon, copper vein
Antigo, copper place
Ottawa, copper stream
Anticosta, copper coast, eastern island at the end of the St. Lawrence River
Atlantic Ocean, copper sea
Antigua
Greater and Lesser Antilles
Antelas, Portugal
Andalusia Mountains, Spain
Anticura, copper mixed with gold
Anta, Peruvian name for copper
Anti, Central American for copper
Onta, a South America copper company name
Copper moved south and east from the Isle Royale to the customers who needed copper as part of the Copper Age and the early, middle, and late Bronze Age. As the Iron Age evolved, the need for copper stopped, such that the great harbors and distribution centers comprising these two trade routes became indigenous to America. We have followed the trade routes to the copper and observed that the names of many of the locations and the trade routes have copper roots.
The remainder of this chapter will briefly identity other locations relevant to the trade routes, for they are important in understanding how the overseas seafarers came for the copper and left Irish symbols at key locations on the American trade routes. From a seafarer’s perspective, it is important to decode the celestial navigation symbols in America that were also found in Ireland.
A Seafarer's Decoding of the Irish Symbols Page 17