Paleo-Magellanians

Ancient people of Mu

History

Introduction

The people commonly known as Paleo-Magellanians constitute the oldest layer of inhabitants of Mu. The earliest peoples arrived some time before around twenty thousand years before present. This date marks only the treshold of the best known and least controversial archeological findings. The earliest estimate range as far back as fourty thousand years. Sometime inbetween the first people arrived on Mu. Archeological findings are disparate in location and time and give only few indices on the identity and origin of these very first peoples.

Origins

The Paleo-Magellanian people are a heterogenous group and are defined by belonging to no other group. They are no united linguistic grouping not a genetical one. Also their origin is likely not a single migration from a single starting point. Some people likely came from the north, much like the later ancestors of the Cipanguans they migrated south and spread over both continents. Other people came from the southwest. Yet the entire topic of a pre-austronesian migration from Melanesia onwards is still controversial. The question of when and how remain unanswered. Some indications of this connection are the obvious phenotypical resemblance of Paleo-Magellanians with native Australians and Papuans. Recent genetic studies also show a relation with the native peoples of New-Guinea. Yet other groups of Paleo-Magellanians also bear affiliations towards the native peoples of Amazonia and the southernmost parts of South America.

Languages

The Paleo-Magellanians speak languages of various families. Both the internal and external classification is contested. As of now they are considered to consist of several, most likely unrelated language families. External relations have been proposed but none proven so far. While the entire group has been proposed to be part of the Indopacific language family of Joseph Greenberg, only a few languages in southern Cipangu were part of more serious proposals towards a relation to the Trans-Newguinean languages.
Internally their relations are also unclear. At the moment at least seven linguistic grouping can be identified, which are proposed to be related. Not all of them are related though and they have to be considered geographic grouping above anything else. These grouping are Western Central-Cipangu, the languages north and south of the Lago de Páscoa. The languages of the Cloud Forests, the aboriginal language in the mountains of eastern Nueva Tlaxcalla. All of these in Cipangu. On Magellania there are the inhabitants of the northern rainforests along the Bili Rivers. The people of the Great Magellanian Desert, the peoples of the Magellanian Cordilleras and the vestige population in Bilao. These groups are both family, Sprachbünde and isolates. The vestige language of Nueva Tlaxcalla is an isolate. The languages along the Bili river are most likely a coherent family. Most diverse are the languages of the Cloud Forests and the Cordilleras. The reason is their disparate locality and dispersal troughout small isolated valleys surrounded by mountains and dense jungles.

Lifestyle

The Paleo-Magellanian peoples are overall small concerning the size of their populations. They are widely dispersed in more or less marginalised regions of Mu. Due to their overall small number and their disadvantaged lifestyle, the Paleo-Magellanians look at an uncertain future. Most smaller groups have over time assimilated to Austronesians and Cipanguans. Most Paleo-Magellanian languages, except for a few larger ones and those most isolated ones, are endangered.

The Agricultural Question

At the time of european arrival and beyond, Paleo-Magellanians lived mostly as foragers, Hunter-Gatherers and Horticulturalists. They lived in small scale villages not exceeding more than a thousand inhabitants. There are no large cities, no states and no empires, which were dominated by people of Paleo-Magellanian descend. Everywhere where they lived, they lived outside of the state-level organisation. The other inhabitants of Mu, aswell as european explorers concluded that they lived in a state of nature comparable to the aborigines of Australia and the most primitive of indian tribes. At best they were comparable to the more primitive peoples of Melanesia.
Archeological discoveries of exceedingly ancient date have changed this image over the last decades. Several archeological sites have been excavated, which show profound developments made by Paleo-Magellanian peoples. Among them are the Moemoea Culture and the Kjukjuliena Culture. On Cipangu the Nabulian Culture is likely of Paleo-Magellanian affiliation. Another pictures arises. One in which Paleo-Magellanians created their own cradle of agriculture. While there are no indications of ancient urban societies of Paleo-Magellanian origin, these people were capable of erecting monolithic sites and founding the first agricultural societies on Mu.

Related Locations

• Cipangu
• Magellania
• Mu