Megalithic shipping and trade routes

[TisILeclerc]

While the cat's away how about this?



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... l#comments

It would appear that the Irish did have at least two waves of immigration. One old lot from Spain and another one from a vaguely middle east or thereabouts location.

The Mail's own comments are as usual even more confused and confusing. They tell us that the Cornish are just like the Welsh and Scots and in the next sentence they tell us that they are more like the English than the Welsh and Scots.

[Mick Harper]

The reason I am away is because I (and Hatty) are steaming full steam ahead with our book.

[Boreades]

The Daily Mail story is sufficiently vague to give fresh hope and room to manoeuvre for enthusiasts of Irish creation myths.

In Irish legend, the Fir Bolg were in Ireland before the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived. The Fir Bolg in turn were “descended from the Muintir Nemid, an earlier race who abandoned Ireland and settled in different parts of Europe. Those who settle in Greece become the Fir Bolg and eventually return to the now-uninhabited Ireland. After ruling it for some time, they are overthrown by the invading Tuatha Dé Danann; another group descended from the Muintir Nemid.”

So they went all the way to Greece, stayed a while and then came back again?

Who were the Muintir Nemid? The word nemed means "privileged" or "holy" in Old Irish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemed

Coincidentally, as we already know, nemeton was a sacred space of ancient "Celtic" religion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemeton

There are not a great many Nemeton (or Nymet or Nympton) place names in Britain, but the largest concentration of them seems to be in Devon. So perhaps the Muintir Nemid came from Devon, not Greece?

[TisILeclerc]

John Carey has written an informative text regarding what he calls 'synthetic pseudohistory.'

This covers most if not all of the old (or mediaeval) texts. In fact he brings the Church into it towards the end of his discourse. They were up to no good it would appear.

In fact most of the ancient legends seem to be rewritings of previous stuff written by other people.

'The Irish National Origin-Legend: Synthetic Pseudohistory.

http://www.ucc.ie/academic/smg/CDI/PDFs ... hletsI.pdf

[Boreades]

2016 is going to be an exciting year here in ye-olde Wiltshire. It's full-steam ahead for the new high-speed canal route between Oxford and Bath, via Abingdon, Wantage, Swindon and Melksham. This will greatly speed-up the shipping of tourists and trade between the two historic towns. A brand-new Swindon Bypass canal route is being dug.

Interactive map of the route: http://wbct.canalmap.uk/

The new Waitrose store on the south side of Swindon already has its own landing stage, next to the cafe! Sip your espresso while watching the barges steaming past.
http://www.wbct.org.uk/boat-trips/locat ... ding-stage

To make sure this is a proper integrated transport system, there will be an interchange in Mouldon Hill Country Park with the new Mouldon Hill station, being built by the Swindon & Crickland Heritage Railway: http://www.swindon-cricklade-railway.org/mouldon.php (Swindon's Other Railway)

It's just like it was 1810 or 1880 again! (Original opening of canal and railway respectively)

[hvered]

John Carey has written an informative text regarding what he calls 'synthetic pseudohistory.'

This covers most if not all of the old (or mediaeval) texts. In fact he brings the Church into it towards the end of his discourse. They were up to no good it would appear.

In fact most of the ancient legends seem to be rewritings of previous stuff written by other people.

Thanks for the link, TisI... the author however didn't mention that the earliest extant MS of the Lebor Gabála Érenn is c 1160 - 1200 [in the Book of Leinster].

Whether the legends are ancient, or even Irish, is far from certain since he asserts that it's a companion piece to Historia Brittonum, purportedly the work of 'Nennius', which is considered a forgery most likely produced in the late eleventh century i.e. contemporaneous with the Lebor.

Presumably it was necessary to look backwards in order to look forwards in the new Norman era... hence the emphasis on ancientness, no matter how derivative.

[TisILeclerc]

It was also the age of chivalry and all the ritual that went with it. And the discovery of King Arthur's tomb and his round table etc. We have more right to this country than the natives who are just serfs and villeins whereas we are descended from Arthur and his nobility.

Basically we have a set of invaders making themselves legitimate by inventing not only history but all sorts of rites and practices which give them an elevated position in society.

We saw the same in the US with the 'making of the west' and all those 'cowboy' stories and tales of derring do against savages.

These days we have Russian oligarchs and super yachts when they're not buying up London.

[TisILeclerc]

News just in from the Bronze Age.

They've found one of the best preserved Bronze Age settlements in Cambridge that they've ever found. It seems that the buildings were destroyed by fire and then preserved in silt. Food left in cooking pots and all that sort of thing.

What was it? Another tsunami or was it Troy after all and destroyed by Greek horses?



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ca ... e-35280290

Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe to be the "best-preserved Bronze Age dwellings ever found in Britain".

The circular wooden houses, built on stilts, form part of a settlement at Must Farm quarry, in Cambridgeshire, and date to about 1000-800 BC.

A fire destroyed the posts, causing the houses to fall into a river where silt helped preserve the contents.

Pots with meals still inside and clothing have been found at the site.

As usual the Daily Mail has even better pictures.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... mpeii.html

[Boreades]

Good news chaps!

For those that want to get a real feel of what Megalithic Navigation at sea was like, HM Government will actually pay you to go on a course to learn how to do it. The only catch is you have to join the Royal Marines or the Royal Navy first.

The Parliamentary Question was:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether training in celestial navigation is provided for new recruits to the Royal Navy.

The answer, from Penny Mordaunt (MP for Portsmouth North):

Celestial navigational training is only undertaken by Royal Marine recruits in weeks eight and 10 of their training as part of the Royal School of Military Survey lessons. However, celestial navigational training (referred to as Astro(navigational) training within the Service) is taught to Naval Officers as part of targeted career training courses at the Maritime Warfare School at HMS Collingwood. These include: Initial Warfare Officers, the Fleet Navigation Officers Course and in a Specialist Navigation Course (for those officers undertaking specialist training in navigation at Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander rank with a view to navigating larger vessels such as carriers and amphibious assault ships).

[Boreades]

Tuatha Dé Danann (continued)

The Egyptian connection might rise again via Etymology.

Thoth (/ˈθoʊθ/ or /ˈtoʊt/; from Greek Θώθ thṓth, from Egyptian ḏḥwty, .... The Egyptian of ḏḥwty is not fully known, but may be reconstructed as *ḏiḥautī, based on the Ancient Greek borrowing Thōth (Θώθ [tʰɔːtʰ]) or Theut and the fact that it evolved into Sahidic Coptic variously as Thoout, Thōth, Thoot, Thaut, as well as Bohairic Coptic Thōout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth#Etymology