Megalithic shipping and trade routes

[Boreades]

[hvered]

[Rocky]

The Hyères islands were also named "Stoechades", meaning the "rows".

The Frioul islands in front of Marseilles (Massilia) were apparently named after Julius Caesar In 49 BC, Julius Caesar, besieging Marseilles, established its fleet between the two principal islands. The name of Fretum Julii (literally "the strait of Julius"), from where drift the name of "the Frioul", ends up extending to the unit..

But there is a region called Frioul (Friuli in Italian) in north-east Italy, administered by the Venetians and others, a region on the Adriatic coast that was continually occupied and divided. It was part of the so-called Julian March and eventually was granted autonomy after WWII.

[Boreades]

Those Huyeres islands look like they would have been excellent waypoints on a Greek trade route to & from Marseille / Massalia

[Boreades]

Perhaps a little off-topic, but our French cousins really do know how to celebrate their maritime history. Not with imprisoned disintegrating relics like the Cutty Sark, but with brand-new sea-going replicas, built from oak in the traditional style.

See the building of Hermione:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoOd1w0NjWI

http://www.hermione.com/en/home/

The video is quite wonderful, when you think that 2,000 years earlier the Veneti were building ships in a similar way in the same part of the world.

[Penny]

[Boreades]

Mrs Boreades has enjoyed all this island-hopping, and has been inspired to buy me a copy of a Yachtsman's Cruising Guide for SW Scotland. I will take that as a hint of where she'd like to go sailing sometime soon. I'm hoping to read that and find a few more megalithic trade links.

[Stuart]

[Boreades]

[Iona]

British islanders used curraghs to transport goods and people to and from the mainland until modern ferries took over. Visiting yachtsmen use dinghies to go ashore where there are no safe harbours.

Back in Megalithic times curraghs were also used for longer sea journeys (I think Tim Severin's curragh expedition from Ireland to Newfoundland has already been mentioned) and look reassuringly solid if the reconstruction is accurate