The (Dixie) Chicks have created a beautiful powerful song. Here's
the short video (about 4 minutes 30 seconds).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwBjF_VVFvE
--
Mark Hathaway
Friday, June 26, 2020
Friday, June 12, 2020
Pytheas in Britain
I watched a video about an archaeological dig in western Britain and it discussed a site thought to be a source for the King Arthur legend. It was an extremely rich site and the people who lived there in the 500 AD time period were very wealthy. Why? There was an important tin mine nearby, one which even the Romans had used.
watchJoJo on YouTube.com:
Here are a few related links which discuss the place and history
The Sun newspaper: Lost Roman Mine Road in Cornwall
Wikipedia: Mining in Cornwall and Devon
Archaeology.org: Scientists Trace Origins of Bronze Age Tin
Then, after watching a video about the history of the Germanic people, I saw mention of a Greek explorer (based in Massalia or modern day Marseilles, France) who had traveled to the north of the Germanic area, to the North Sea and even the Arctic North Pole (perhaps). His writings are lost and all that remain are the writings of other people who quote him. His name was Pytheas and he explored around 325 BC.
Reading the Wikipedia page about Pytheas I stumbled upon something rather amazing.
/begin-quote
Diodorus did not mention Pytheas by name. The association is made as follows:[6] Pliny reported that "Timaeus says there is an island named Mictis … where tin is found, and to which the Britons cross."[7] Diodorus said that tin was brought to the island of Ictis, where there was an emporium. The last link was supplied by Strabo, who said that an emporium on the island of Corbulo in the mouth of the river Loire was associated with the Britain of Pytheas by Polybius.[8]
Assuming that Ictis, Mictis and Corbulo are the same, Diodorus appears
to have read Timaeus, who must have read Pytheas, whom Polybius also
read.
/end-quote
For visual reference, here is a picture of southern Britain and France, with the Loire river marked.
Apparently Pytheas had come across a trading center on the island of Ictis (or Iktis or Iktin or Mictis) related to a tin mine. This coincidence is stunning for me. I wasn't looking for any association between Britain (Cornwall really), tin, and Germanic history.
In this quote the island of Ictis is named and is a link to another Wikipedia page.
/begin-quote
Ictis, or Iktin, is or was an island described as a tin trading centre in the Bibliotheca historica of the Sicilian-Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the first century BC.
/end-quote
The article says there is doubt about the precise location of Ictis, but that it was an island, while the archaeological dig at Tintagel is on the British mainland. Perhaps there was a trading site on an island, but it might have been a site along the coast. The dates of these writings are vastly different (325 BC and 100 BC).
There is excellent detail in these Wikipedia pages.
It's not only today's events which are interesting. Here's a true historical curiosity worth some study.
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