As noted two blogs ago, I don’t buy the whole “the mounds were built by Kelts” theory. However, it would be foolish to discount the presence of Kelts and their lasting influence on the cultures they met. I do not believe that they came to pre-Columbian America in huge numbers but they DID come here and they left art, stories, legends, artifacts, language behind. Here are some of the bits and pieces we have found so far.

We’ve already mentioned the stone village known as Mystery Hill (Or America’s Stonehenge) but there are also several standing stones and other broch-like structures in the eastern US that remain mysteries to those who hold to the Official Story. Were any of them found in Germany, Scotland, Cornwall, or Denmark they would immediately be attributed to the ancient or medieval Kelts. Find them here… and you generally get a lot of silence. Most of them are gone or nearly gone now, victims of neglect or outright abuse. The Great Stone Stack outside of Newark, Ohio is one example. Once, it had a base of 500 square feet and a height of 45 feet. Early settlers drew pictures of it and wrote detailed accounts of it… but they didn’t treasure it. It was pulled down in 1860 so that its stone could be taken to what is now West Virginia. I have often played golf at Tygart Lake and thought of the ancient monument that was pulled down and brought there so that they could dam the river and create that beautiful lake.

Some believe that the habit of Native American tribes (or at least some of them) to paint their bodies is a relic of contact with Kelts. It is true that the Kelts painted themselves (as anyone who saw Braveheart knows!) and some Kelts were called “Picts” by the Romans from a word meaning “painted ones.” However, the mound builders’ designs are not the same as the Kelts or Picts and while they may be related it is at least just as possible that they are not. You see, many tribes all over the world did — and still do — paint their bodies for ritual purposes. The Kelts (and especially the Picts) often took the skulls of their enemies and made them into bowls or cups. So did the mound builders. Still… the Kelts usually took a lot of time to decorate the skulls with elaborate ornamentation and that is not generally found among the mound builders.

There are lots of coincidences that some people like to make into something major such as both the Adena and the Kelts revering the wolf, both of them were accomplished weavers, both of them wore more linen than skins, both wore ritual masks that included mouthpieces, and both had Shaman who wore antlers. I think it is plausible that some of this originated in Keltic contact with the Adena but it is just too much to say that the Adena culture was formed — in total — by a mass immigration of Kelts into the Midwest. One piece of evidence that would have been useful here was lost to us. Several explorers, including Father Jacques Marquette (you have to read about his life sometime. Amazing person), drew and reported on a huge mural with two shamanistic figures drawn on a cliff overlooking the Mississippi River near present day Elsah, Illinois. Native Americans didn’t do large murals, so that is enough to get everyone’s attention. Marquette described them as having antlers on their heads, huge beards, a body covered with scales (chainmail?), and tails attached to their backs. Nothing like it has been found in America. Sadly, local tribes used the mural as target practice shortly after obtaining modern firearms and its destruction was complete when white men quarried the rocks from the cliff in 1920.

It is likely that the mural was a representation of Cernunnos, a Keltic demi-god. The description matches him precisely. Other depictions of Cernunnos (remember to pronounce the C like a K) exist in France and Cornwall. They also have him antlered, with fish scales or chainmail, a tail, and with a heavy beard.

A Keltic coin was found among 15 Roman coins on the banks of the Wisconsin River back in 1994. The Keltic coin showed a man with a very heavy mustache — something a Roman would not wear. Romans were clean shaven and thought of facial hair as a sign of barbarism. The Kelts, on the other hand, traditionally grew as bushy a mustache as they could. Beards were also common.

One wildly controversial area of study is the link between Keltic languages and that of the Algonquian. Some are convinced that there is massive evidence of cultural crossover while others are just as adamant that there is NO evidence. I will have to admit that, after reading both sides several times, I cannot tell who is right.

As previously discussed, the Grave Creek Mound in West Virginia gave up a tablet that, when translated, said the mound had been built for Tasach, another Keltic figure (aka Teth). I know of six stones found that were written in Keltic languages. Dozens more are posited but I am not sure they are what their proponents say they are.

There are many other evidences of Keltic tribes or explorers making it to America, but there are enough differences between known Kelts and the Adena to say that the Adena were a separate people. Perhaps there was a lot of interaction between them and their white visitors and there was certainly intermarriage (stories abound in Native American tradition) but there were also great battles between them such as the battle at the Falls of Ohio that we discussed some months ago. As a rule, the Kelts did not fare well in these battles, perhaps due to smaller numbers, poor health, or just being out-fought by the Natives.

The Kelts would disappear, but the Adena would not reign eternally. Another tribe was about to appear. The days of the Adena were numbered….