Atlantean (film series)

Last updated

Atlantean
GenreDocumentary
Directed byBon Quinn
Country of originIreland
Original languageEnglish

Atlantean is a quartet of documentary films and accompanying book (The Atlantean Irish, Lilliput, 2005) by Irish filmmaker Bob Quinn. [1] The films and book dismissed as myth the popular belief in origins of the inhabitants of Ireland and proposed instead that they are part of a common 'Atlantean' culture that includes the western seaboard of Europe and North Africa.

Contents

Overview

Quinn focused on various traditional aspects of Irish culture and argued for their non-Celtic nature. One aspect he stressed is the role of sailing in Connemara society, where his films were made. Quinn investigated the history of the Atlantic sea lanes from the Baltic Sea, Ireland, Britain, as far south as the Mediterranean and North Africa. Quinn suggested that Ireland's first inhabitants came by boat sometime after the end of the last ice age – probably from the warmer, more populous south. As navigation gave rise to coastal settlement over long periods of time, overseas trade and cultural exchanges continued until at least the North African pirates of the 17th century. These connections can be seen in ship building styles and sailing techniques, for example in similarities between the Galway Púcán and the Arab Dhow.

Another aspect focused on by Quinn is the sean-nós or Old Style of Irish song and dance. The non-European feel of sean-nós singing in particular has often been commented upon. Quinn originally proposed a North African origin for sean-nós, but later agreed that it is shared by the Tatars of Tatarstan, thus an archetypal musical form older than the Book of Kells. Quinn argues that Irish language, music and art are related to ancient Iberian, Mediterranean and North African culture, in particular the indigenous Berbers of North Africa.

According to Quinn, the idea of "Celtic" origins was a Greek term – Keltoi (Κελτοί) – used to describe any "barbarian" who was not Greek. The Romans perpetuated the slur until 1707 when Edward Lluyd resurrected it as a compliment. It was taken for granted by Anglo-Irish antiquarians who found it a useful way of distinguishing themselves not only from the English but from the "mere Irish". The term also developed untermensch resonances (see Matthew Arnold).

Bob Quinn developed these ideas into a book: The Atlantean Irish: Ireland's oriental and maritime heritage. Barry Cunliffe, distinguished Professor Emeritus of European Archaeology and author of Facing the Ocean (2001) wrote the introduction to Quinn's Atlantean Irish'.'

Evidence

The 'Celtic' Origin of the Irish has long been questioned by archaeologists. In recent years, the discovery of mitochondrial DNA has been used as a method to map the historical migration of mankind's genetic groups. Such genetic tests, conducted in Ireland in 2004, seemed to confirm that the theory of Celtic origins of Ireland's population was genetically unfounded but recent advances in genetic testing (especially recent Ancient DNA findings) are giving an almost opposite picture from the older testing interpretations.[ citation needed ] In earlier tests, Bryan Sykes, genetic scientist and author of bestseller The Seven Daughters of Eve , while analysing European DNA groups identified what he called the "Clan of Tara" – a genetic group that originated in what is now Tuscany, Italy 17,000 years ago during the Ice Age and that spread along the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic seaboards of continental Europe, Ireland and Western Britain. [2] Sykes did not conduct genetic tests in North Africa amongst Berbers.

Criticisms

The Atlantean thesis has not generally been accepted by the Irish academic establishment, who have criticised Bob Quinn for his alleged lack of scholarly methodology and the absence of hard evidence to back his theories. [3] Quinn's response to this is to assert that traditional landlubber methods of scholarship ignore the maritime dimension of Irish history and can fail to recognise the deeper, more intuitive links that may exist between cultures and countries. He also asserts that a close-minded, elitist attitude among academics prevents a more sympathetic appraisal of his work. More controversially, he maintains that critics of his work are guilty of an unconscious racism, or in his own words, of being afraid of the idea that Irish people might have 'a touch of the tar' about them. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guanches</span> Native inhabitants of the Canary Islands

The Guanche were the historic Indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 kilometres (60 mi) west of the North African coast. They spoke the Guanche language. Believed to have been related to Berber languages of North Africa, it became extinct in the 17th century after the islands were colonized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bell Beaker culture</span> Archaeological culture, 2800–1800 BC

The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age, arising from around 2800 BC. Bell Beaker culture lasted in Britain from c. 2450 BC, with the appearance of single burial graves, until as late as 1800 BC, but in continental Europe only until 2300 BC, when it was succeeded by the Unetice culture. The culture was widely dispersed throughout Western Europe, being present in many regions of Iberia and stretching eastward to the Danubian plains, and northward to the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and was also present in the islands of Sardinia and Sicily and some coastal areas in north-western Africa. The Bell Beaker phenomenon shows substantial regional variation, and a study from 2018 found that it was associated with genetically diverse populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic Europe</span> Geographical region of Europe

Atlantic Europe is a geographical term for the western portion of Europe which borders the Atlantic Ocean. The term may refer to the idea of Atlantic Europe as a cultural unit and/or as a biogeographical region.

Bryan Clifford Sykes was a British geneticist and science writer who was a Fellow of Wolfson College and Emeritus Professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford.

The Mediterranean race is an obsolete racial classification of humans based on a now-disproven theory of biological race. According to writers of the late 19th to mid-20th centuries it was a sub-race of the Caucasian race. According to various definitions, it was said to be prevalent in the Mediterranean Basin and areas near the Mediterranean and Black Sea, especially in Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, North Africa, most of West Asia, the Middle East or Near East; western Central Asia, parts of South Asia, and parts of the Horn of Africa. To a lesser extent, certain populations of people in Ireland, western parts of Great Britain, and Southern Germany, despite living far from the Mediterranean, were thought to have some minority Mediterranean elements in their population, such as Bavaria, Wales, and Cornwall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardium pottery</span> Archaeological culture

Cardium pottery or Cardial ware is a Neolithic decorative style that gets its name from the imprinting of the clay with the heart-shaped shell of the Corculum cardissa, a member of the cockle family Cardiidae. These forms of pottery are in turn used to define the Neolithic culture which produced and spread them, commonly called the "Cardial culture".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Blench</span> British linguist, ethnomusicologist and anthropologist

Roger Marsh Blench is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and works as a consultant.

Haplogroup V is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. The clade is believed to have originated over 14,000 years ago in Southern Europe.

Bob Quinn is an Irish filmmaker, writer and photographer who directed Poitín (1978), the first feature film entirely in the Irish language. His documentary work includes Atlantean, a series of four documentaries about the origins of the Irish people. Quinn has a history of protesting the commercialisation of television, resigning from RTÉ in 1969 on that basis and resigning from the RTÉ Authority in 1999 to protest toy advertising. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Film Institute in 2001 and is a member of the Aosdána.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canary Islands in pre-colonial times</span> History prior to Spanish colonization in the fifteenth century

The Canary Islands have been known since antiquity. Until the Spanish colonization between 1402 and 1496, the Canaries were populated by an indigenous population, whose origin was Amazigh from North Africa.

Canary Islanders, or Canarians, are the people of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of northwest Africa. The distinctive variety of the Spanish language spoken in the region is known as habla canaria or the (dialecto) canario. The Canarians, and their descendants, played a major role during the conquest, colonization, and eventual independence movements of various countries in Latin America. Their ethnic and cultural presence is most palpable in the countries of Uruguay, Venezuela, Cuba and the Dominican Republic as well as the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

The genetic history of the British Isles is the subject of research within the larger field of human population genetics. It has developed in parallel with DNA testing technologies capable of identifying genetic similarities and differences between both modern and ancient populations. The conclusions of population genetics regarding the British Isles in turn draw upon and contribute to the larger field of understanding the history of the human occupation of the area, complementing work in linguistics, archaeology, history and genealogy.

Sean-nós singing is unaccompanied, traditional Irish vocal music usually performed in the Irish language. Sean-nós singing usually involves very long melodic phrases with highly ornamented and melismatic melodic lines, differing greatly from traditional folk singing elsewhere in Ireland, although there is significant regional variation within Ireland. Sean-nós songs cover a range of genres, from love song to lament to lullaby, traditionally with a strong focus on conveying the relevant emotion of the given song. The term sean-nós, which simply means "in the old way", is a vague term that can also refer to various other traditional activities, musical and non-musical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mechta-Afalou</span> Prehistoric North African population

Mechta-Afalou, also known as Mechtoid or Paleo-Berber, are a population that inhabited parts of North Africa during the late Paleolithic and Mesolithic. They are associated with the Iberomaurusian archaeological culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insular Celts</span> Speakers of the Insular Celtic languages in the British Isles and Brittany

The Insular Celts were speakers of the Insular Celtic languages in the British Isles and Brittany. The term is mostly used for the Celtic peoples of the isles up until the early Middle Ages, covering the British–Irish Iron Age, Roman Britain and Sub-Roman Britain. They included the Celtic Britons, the Picts, and the Gaels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetic history of Italy</span>

The genetic history of Italy is greatly influenced by geography and history. The ancestors of Italians were mostly Indo-European speaking peoples and pre-Indo-European speakers. During the Roman empire, the Italian peninsula attracted people from various regions of the Mediterranean basin, including Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Based on DNA analysis, there is evidence of ancient regional genetic substructure and continuity within modern Italy dating to the pre-Roman and Roman periods.

The genetic history of North Africa encompasses the genetic history of the people of North Africa. The most important source of gene flow to North Africa from the Neolithic Era onwards was from Western Asia, while the Sahara desert to the south and the Mediterranean Sea to the North were also important barriers to gene flow from sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Europe in prehistory. However, North Africa is connected to Western Asia via the Isthmus of Suez and the Sinai peninsula, while at the Straits of Gibraltar, North Africa and Europe are separated by only 15 km (9 mi), similarly Malta, Sicily, Canary Islands, Lampedusa and Crete are close to the coasts of North Africa.

E-Z827, also known as E1b1b1b, is a major human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. It is the parent lineage to the E-Z830 and E-V257 subclades, and defines their common phylogeny. The former is predominantly found in the Middle East; the latter is most frequently observed in North Africa, with its E-M81 subclade observed among the ancient Guanche natives of the Canary Islands. E-Z827 is also found at lower frequencies in Europe, and in isolated parts of Southeast Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bimbache</span> Ethnic group

Bimbache or Bimbape is the name given to the inhabitants of El Hierro, who inhabited the island before the Spanish conquest of the Canary Islands that took place between 1402 and 1496. The Bimbache are one of several peoples native to the Canaries, with a genetic and cultural link to the Berber people of North Africa. The Bimbache people shared a common link with other aboriginal peoples of the Canary Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetic studies on Moroccans</span>

Moroccan genetics encompasses the genetic history of the people of Morocco, and the genetic influence of this ancestry on world populations. It has been heavily influenced by geography.

References

  1. ↑ Atlantean – WHO ARE THE IRISH? – "The Atlantean Irish" (NOW REVISED AND REPRINTED), Conemara (official Bob Quinn website)
  2. ↑ Bryan Sykes The Seven Daughters of Eve, pp299-308, London, 2001
  3. ↑ "RSAI - Book Reviews - the Atlantean Irish". Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Really Bob, have we all got a 'touch of the tar' in us?, Cathal MacCarthy, Irish Independent, Sunday September 03 2006

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.