Megalithic shipping and trade routes

[macausland]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GDVg8wcXHk

A very interesting video on druids in Britain and connections with other areas especially the middle east by Edmund Marriage.

[Boreades]

Having friends in Norway, and an interest in pre-Roman history, and wine, this story grabbed my interest.

Nordic "grog," expansion of wine trade, discovered in ancient Scandinavia

From northwest Denmark, circa 1500–1300 BC, to the Swedish island of Gotland as late as the first century AD, Nordic peoples were imbibing an alcoholic "grog" or extreme hybrid beverage rich in local ingredients, including honey, bog cranberry, lingonberry, bog myrtle, yarrow, juniper, birch tree resin, and cereals including wheat, barley and/or rye—and sometimes, grape wine imported from southern or central Europe ... (with) evidence for the importation of grape wine from southern or central Europe as early as 1100 BC, demonstrating both the social and cultural prestige attached to wine, and the presence of an active trading network across Europe—more than 3,000 years ago.

Frustratingly, it doesn't suggest how the wine got there from southern or central Europe. TME folk might have suggestions. Could one be a pre-Roman "Baltic trade route"? Would it have been shipped via the Danube, or via the Med and Western Atlantic? Or both?

Ref: http://phys.org/news/2014-01-evidence-n ... navia.html

[hvered]

Any mention of an observation post at a church on a hill should grab our attention.

For example: Carn Brea, St Just.
The most western hill in Cornwall. We are told that Chapel Carn Brea was ... the home of holy men or monks (and) a manuscript from 1396 kept at the County Records Office, Truro records the ′beaconage′ received from fishermen for burning an ′ecclesiastical light′, normally a brazier or fire basket.

How old was that tradition? Have we mentioned "beaconage" before? It certainly seems relevant to any discussion of ancient trade routes and how they navigated. As a subject in its own right, it seems elusive. I think we should start shining a light on it (sic).

Carn Brea seems to be the original 'tor enclosure', a term coined by archaeologists to describe Neolithic, er, tor enclosures, and gave rise to a school of thought that proposed a Portugal/ Brittany/ Cornwall/ Irish Sea economic nexus. All of which seem to indicate a 'megalithic empire' except the archaeologists separated Cornwall from the rest of England on the basis presumably that these goings-on didn't fit in with the Wessex hillfort view of Neolithic Britain (farming with a bit of hunting-and-gathering).

A system of trade networks with centres of exchange at places like Carn Brea seems reasonable except it would be handier to have such centres in more accessible locations... on the coast, an offshore island or a short way inland perhaps. And then there's Brentor, another conical hill with a chapel and a beacon tradition, and is also a 'tor enclosure' but it's in Devon, not Cornwall; in fact there are several so-called tor enclosures on Dartmoor.

[macausland]

Some time ago I posted a reference to an early coat of arms of the MacLeods, stolen from the MacNeacails along with lands etc. This showed beacons on a hillside. It has been suggested that the MacNeacails were hereditary keepers of the beacons in the far north west of Scotland. They ruled over Lewis, Skye, and the north west mainland.

This would have given a very large area to control and maintain navigation beacons. The question must be 'why so far north'? Who was going to sail in that area. Most of the land is of course to be found further south so we could imagine that that would have been where most interest would have been focussed.

I would suggest that there were boats coming from the north. Possibly from the Shetlands and Orkney but also from Norway. We know that Orkney pottery had been found at Stonehenge so it's quite possible whoever took it there sailed around the coast.

We know that Norwegians in the shape of Vikings sailed all over Ireland and Britain as well as down into the Med to North Africa, Italy and places further east. I would suggest they already knew about these sailing/trade routes and had for a long time.

When we think of Doggerland which stretched quite far north and the lower sea levels it must have been relatively easy for early people to merely follow the coastline from east to west.



This image from Altafjord in northern Norway shows how large and sophisticated their boats were about four thousand years ago.

I would suggest that the Norwegians were also connected to an early trade network.

Regarding enclosures, the rock engravings show deer being herded into a large fenced enclosure. Perhaps it could just be that similar problems lead to similar solutions but it may be that as groups of hunters spread with the end of the ice age they carried on doing what they had always done and had found worked.




This site contains more information on these early art works.

http://donsmaps.com/norge.html

And this one

http://per-storemyr.net/2012/10/07/the- ... rn-norway/

[Boreades]

... the MacNeacails were hereditary keepers of the beacons in the far north west of Scotland. They ruled over Lewis, Skye, and the north west mainland. This would have given a very large area to control and maintain navigation beacons.

A very good find! The "Celtic Saints" franchise (navigation schools, hermits, pilots and beaconage) streched from Brittany to Iona, but (it seems) no further. Why no further? (Suggestions welcome) With a valuable trade network at stake, it makes sense that there must have been another group handling the operations to the north.

I would suggest that there were boats coming from the north. Possibly from the Shetlands and Orkney but also from Norway.

I would agree. Apart from fish, Orkney and especially Scara Brae had bugger all in the way of natural resources to support a resident population. But as a trade and communication hub, on the route between the Western Isles and Norway, it was in a strategically vital position. All the Western Isles and Orkney offer a series of stepping stones for shorter voyages with relatively sheltered harbours available. Reindeer meat from Norway would be a very good trade.

We know that Orkney pottery had been found at Stonehenge

Sounds very plausible, but at the same time, strange! Refs? Orkney as we know it now is a barren windswept place with barely a tree on the whole island for a dog to pee on. Has it alway been like that? Otherwise I'm wondering what Orkney potters used for fuel to fire the pottery kilns. Peat?

[macausland]

Here's Neil Oliver on the beeb walking about recent excavations of a complex built on Orkney before Stonehenge. Orkney is famous of course for its stone circles and other stone age artifacts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys-JGCPvD1E

The Japanese subtitles may be helpful if you are learning Japanese.

There was apparently a very large population in the area so it couldn't have been all that windswept and barren.

Here's an article on the Orkney 'cathedral'.

http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/20 ... ic-orkney/

Here's a very useful site from Orkney itself detailing all aspects of the dig with plenty of pictures and diary dates etc.

http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/

And another one.

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=17401

I can't find a link to the pottery find. All I seem to pick up are sites advertising pottery. However this article mentions it.

http://blog.stonehenge-stone-circle.co. ... e-circles/

We do tend to think of the Orkneys as being remote but that reminds me of the time a radio presenter in London had a short interview with a woman from Lewis. One of his remarks was that she was a long way away. She said that far from it she was not a long way at all. Although she thought that he was.

We are often told that the modern world is 'eurocentric' or 'anglocentric' etc. We are also told that civilisation was brought to these barbarian shores from the east. Even the food we eat. From regular programmes on radio 4 it's a wonder anyone survived in Britain until the first ships arrived after thousands of years with famine relief for the natives. They continually tell us that our ancestors were still half naked savages when the Romans arrived to civilise us.

I would say the opposite is true. We tend to be 'south centric'. We are told that all good things come from the south, and we believe it.

As we now know from research built on the back of north sea oil exploration we have a much fuller picture of the extent of land connecting Britain with Europe. It is obvious that those moving north as the ice receded will have occupied whatever land offered the best conditions for living and getting food. This included the northern regions. Even today Norwegians are quite happy living in Norway and seem to have made a very good job of it.

We know that few of us would survive if there ever was a disaster like another ice age. We'd have to start from scratch all over again. I think stone age people were much more resourceful. Few of them would have been office workers or telephone sanitisers. They would have been hunters and whatever else they needed to do to live a decent life. In other words they had skills. We can see this in the drawings of boats in the post above. The designs of these boats, especially the larger ones, is very sophisticated. They are not something knocked together in the garden shed with a few planks and a couple of nails. Perhaps we have been entranced by the vision of coracles and hairy men paddling in circles.

The complexes and standing stones of Orkney point to a sophisticated civilisation which shouldn't have existed because it's in the north and not the south of course. I remember being told by a geography teacher that there were no standing stones in the north of England or Scotland because of the ice age. He was teaching A level students.

To build something like this needs a large skilled labour force. It needs planning and planners and a reason for doing it. It needs suppliers of materials and food. It would be a massive, major project even today. The term 'cathedral' may be anachronistic but there may be some truth in it. It could be that there was a 'priestly' or ruling caste or class that was seen as necessary to the society for whatever reason. In the same way we have an intellectual elite at Oxford and Cambridge, not to mention the Unseen University of renown.

Such a class could live in a wilderness, if it was such, because they would be provided for. As are Oxford dons and similar such creatures.

[Mick Harper]

Surely the point about Orkney/Skara Brae is that it is not 'organic'. The present settlement pattern on Orkney is organic ie families living in family dwellings on reasonably self-sufficient crofts. This is the expected behaviour of people living in conditions not quite fertile enough to sustain the even-more-organic collections of family dwellings we call hamlets or villages.

Clearly, Skara Brae is not a family dwelling. It appears to be made up of identical 'cells' and, since the other notable feature of the Orkneys are the great stone circles, it ought to be the case that the one is related to the other. The best guess would appear to be that Skara Brae (the building) is a university/ research facility/ observatory/ hall of residence for people working on the stone circles.

If this is the case then it is presumably the northerly aspect of the Orkneys that is the attraction. In other words the Megalithics needed a sighting post (or whatever) in northern latitudes to dovetail with the middling ones at Stonehenge/ Avebury or the southern ones at Carnac, Morocco, etc.

[hvered]

The discovery of whalebone tools suggests whaling expeditions were carried out, which presumably required large boats and crews? Whatever else was going on, the islands were clearly important stopping off points.

Oxford used to be the centre of England, at least symbolically, and Cambridge is very near the great North Road of Ermine Street -- so it's possible there was an Orkney centre of learning, perhaps devoted to maritime matters rather than academic or religious studies. Skara Brae may have been the local brothel house, complete with doors that could be barred.


[Neil Oliver's doing a series about Australia, so far the 'prehistoric' touches are, probably unintentionally, quite funny, first when he paddled across a bay with an aboriginal fisherman on a raft that couldn't support their weight. Then he was allowed to witness an aboriginal elder in an annual 'ritual' task of touching up cave paintings.]

[Boreades]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GDVg8wcXHk

A very interesting video on druids in Britain and connections with other areas especially the middle east by Edmund Marriage.

Blimey Mac, that http://www.goldenageproject.org.uk has some great material.

I've only got 14 mins into that 1 hr 38 min video, but the keywords so far might strike a chord with TME folk.

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Sidon and Tyre, Phoenician trading cities
was Canaan
exporting timber to Egypt and Mesopotainia 3000BC
Osiris chopped up and floated to Tyre in a box

Towns/cities: Orondis, Oms, Cadesh, Ebla
Rashamara kinship school
Rift Valley (biblical chaos after comet strikes)
Migrations during climate change as far south as South Africa related to Levi family

Sumerians, Cimmerians, Cymrii (Wales)
by sea

Jesus family links to migrants to Britain
Joseph of Arimathea = Crown Prince
Royal families and trade in metals

Nazarene Christians = attempt to restore old order

Romans privatising land, in place of old order of common ownerships

Etruscans = Druids?

The Path of Light, by Rev Morgans
St Paul in Britain
Magdalene Legacy (by Laurance Gardner) = church origins in Britain

Philip Blair, author of God's Credentials?

Quar'an = Book of Ann
Comet strikes destroyed early Bronze Age in Mesopotamia

Canon Blair, Vicar at Truro Cathedral, interest in Bodmin Moor

Pythagoran Society in Sherbourn School in 1984

Loxodrome astronomy in in Gog Magog Hills
26 megalithic miles

Bodmin Moor as astronomical observatory complex
12 stone circles
Evidence of tin ingots from Bigbury Bay 3000BC/1000BC

Cornwall = Rockpiles = Land of the Cairns
90 cairns on ridges
Observational university, 20 yrs of training (Druid system)

Druids described as missionaries from Sidon
Secular pursuit of scientific knowledge

In Ireland,
Tuatha De Danaan = People of the God Anu = Druidic tradition
The men of science were gods, and the layman no gods
Serpent = Wise man or woman
I am a serpent, I am a Druid
(see Moses)
Isle of Mann named after Danaan Mannaham = Mystery school,
powers to transport huge block through the air
ship had no sails or oars.

Annual councils took place in homelands
King of Kings, in council
Julius Caasar says they (druids) adopted the Greek/Phoenician Alphabet

Ogham writing and links to Kharsag (Phoenician letters)

[macausland]

Boreades:

'Frustratingly, it doesn't suggest how the wine got there from southern or central Europe. TME folk might have suggestions. Could one be a pre-Roman "Baltic trade route"? Would it have been shipped via the Danube, or via the Med and Western Atlantic? Or both?'

Vincent Malmstrom of Dartmouth College USA has done extensive research in ancient astronomy in Central America but has also written about European astronomy and standing stones etc.

He claims that there was an ancient link between the Med and Western Europe as far north as Scandinavia by way of western Britain. He points to inscriptions in Norway written in Cretan linear A script as well as Phoenician mines in the Scilly isles and Cornwall.

'... sea contacts between the North of Europe and the Mediterranean that had begun in the Stone Age were still actively in use during the Age of Metal.'

He argues in 'The Callanish Connection' that a group of specialists were responsible for all the megaliths in western Europe sailing from site to site. I would imagine it would have had to have been a large group and a long lasting group. They studied the skies as they sailed north building structures when they found latitudes that offered the best points of view for studying the setting of the moon and sun etc.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~izapa/The%20C ... ection.pdf

This document is a fairly straightforward text with maps.

The following text is more detailed and complex with measurements etc but principally deals with the denial of Swedish experts that sites in Sweden are not iron age sites. He discusses Stonehenge in the document.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~izapa/Mistaken-Identity.pdf

The next document is the most complex and deals with Stonehenge in what he describes as 'Updating a Neolithic Computer. I'm sure it will make sense to those with a good grasp of mathematics. As someone who was traumatised with the changeover from real money and measurements to the plastic stuff we have now I can only post the link and hope it means something.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~izapa/%20Ston ... eprise.pdf