The Bottle culture (11,150 – 750), also known as Coca-Colan culture, is an archaeological culture named after the polyethylene terephthalate drinking vessel used during the North American Neotechnnic Age. Arising from around 11,150 years after the Holocene glacial retreat, and lasting in continental North America until 11,750, it succeeded the Meso-American culture. The culture was widely scattered throughout North America, from Mexico to Alaska.
This period marks a period of cultural contact of North America with Africa, Europe and East Asia, following a prolonged period of relative isolation.
Origins: Mexico circa 11,150, the approximate date of the last known human sacrifice and the earliest Coca-Colan inscription. Because of the sudden change in language, religion and genetics (see below), it seems to be the culture brought by the Afro-European Expansion (11,100 – 500), not a Meso-American culture. From Mexico it spread to the rest of North America.
Genetics: Archaeogenetics studies have shown that the spread of the Bottle culture introduced high levels of European and African ancestry, resulting in a transformation of the local gene pool within a few centuries, to the point of replacement of about 60% of the local Neolithic-derived lineages. By 11,700 North America was roughly 40% Amerindian, 40% European, 10% African, and 10% Asian.
Maize was the base on which the Bottle culture grew, like Meso-America, but it mainly used Mound Builder maize, not Meso-American maize. The major Afro-European addition to the diet was chicken.
Monument: The Mountain of the Four Kings in the centre of North America was completed during the Middle Bottle Period. Their faces are not idealized enough to be gods.
Epigraphy: The Bottle culture left around 13,000 inscriptions, in coin, bottle and stone. Only a small minority of inscriptions are of significant length. Attested from the years 11,200 to 11,700, the relation of Coca-Colan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study. The script is Roman, as are a few dozen loanwords, like “PLURIBUS” and “UNUM” (found on their coins). Beyond that little is known.
Technology: Non-ecosystemic, especially its burning of oil and coal, which slowly melted the ice caps through greenhouse gases. Evidence of nuclear power (nuclear waste) and computers (precision design of some artefacts). Possibly capable of spaceflight: an inscription with the ancient coastline of North America was found on the Moon with both “1969” and “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” – words which also appear on some of their coins.
Bottles: It is unknown why they made bottles out of polyethylene terephthalate, made to outlast everything else they ever made by a million years. Most bottles seemed to have contained only flavoured sugar water. Nor did the bottles seem to be treasured possessions: they never appear in burials, for example.
Collapse: During the Late Bottle Period (11,625 – 750) money disappeared from daily life. So did writing except on bottles, which often had the words “Coca-Cola” or “Pepsi”, words of unknown meaning. The melting ice caps flooded most of their major cities. The increase in flooding may have undermined faith in their religious leaders. By 11,750 the Bottle culture had collapsed, their remaining cities nearly empty.
– Abagond, 16,019.
Source: A take-off on the Wikipedia’s articles on Beaker culture and the Etruscan language and my own post on Cahokia. It is also an exercise to see what might still be knowable about North America in AD 2019 (the year 11,650) some 4,000 years from now if English becomes a lost language. Thus money and writing disappear from the archaeological record in the Late Bottle Period, the period we live in now, because they largely go online – while Coke bottles do not. Coca-Colan is English and Spanish seen as one language.
See also:
- North America: a brief history
- lenses:
- Temple of Linken – archaeological lens, 2,500 years in the future, English not yet a lost language
- Nacirema – anthropological lens
- Anglo Americans – National Geographic lens
- maize
- Meso-America
- Mound Builders
- Afro-European Expansion
- Mount Rushmore
- Coca-Cola
- Apollo 11
- Nathaniel Wyeth – inventor of the plastic Coke bottle
668
Brilliant! I wish you were a film maker.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Classic Abagond thought experiment… I love it! Really highlights how important context is when considering human behavior. Monument of the four kings… priceless!
It’s amazing how much the bottle people were influenced by the extra-terrestrials that also left their markings on the moon as they were visiting our solar system.
LikeLiked by 3 people
@ Open Minded Observer
It’s obvious that the aliens visited Earth. Do you really think ancient humans could have built those computers and skyscrapers?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Okay, this is from a science fiction perspective.
LikeLike
LULZ at Mount Rushmore, Monument of the four kings. 😂
LikeLike
Upside: No more Florida!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What is this supposed to mean Aba? Satire, parody, sarcasm??
LikeLike