Megalithic shipping and trade routes

[Boreades]

Which begs the question - if there's so much gold in Ireland, what did they want Cornish Gold for? Or maybe they were trading something else into Cornwall and accepting gold in exchange.

Irish trader: Is that all you're offering for our very special Irish goods? We've got loads of gold at home you know.
Cornish trader: How about some pasties then?
Irish trader: Oh no thanks, the gold will have to do.

[Mick Harper]

This is all terrific stuff and I am only sorry to be too obsessed with the Second Dark Age to give close attention. Is there are a map of the 'fourth parallel' and the gold?

[TisILeclerc]

Borry

What did they get in return?
Whisky? Venison? Scottish oats? Haggis?

Edit: Leather as well. A much-underated trading commodity.

Leather would explain why the Leprechauns were shoemakers. If it was them that was getting the leather.

It seems like the Irish preferred not to mine but just buy it in from outside. That would save them a lot of bother and of course in aristocratic society the lads and ladies do like their shiny knuckledusters and whatever else they can ponce about in. They were famous for it.

The Cornish and Welsh were much more Chapel like even then. Preferred singing in the mines or the hillsides rather than cattle raiding. Why steal cattle when you've got all them sheep.

So get rid of the flashy gold stuff that got in the way of tin mining and get a nice pair of shoes for Sunday best in return.

Dr Standish says: “Perhaps what is most interesting is that during this time, compared to Ireland, there appears to be much less gold circulating in Cornwall and southern Britain. This implies gold was leaving the region because those who found it felt it was of more value to trade it in for other ‘desirable’ goods – rather than keep it.”

http://irisharchaeology.ie/2015/06/arch ... d-ireland/

One of the problems with given the Irish all that gold is that when they were sailing into the Med singing battle songs they met up with Romans who admired their jewellery. 'Where did you get that lovely gold from' From the daft Welsh who don't know the value of anything ho ho. Pass the vino across will you?

Next thing the Romans are here and what did they do for Wales?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolaucothi_Gold_Mines

Not quite four degrees but at 39.9498W fairly close.

The Dolaucothi Gold Mines (grid reference SN662403), also known as the Ogofau Gold Mine, are Roman surface and underground mines located in the valley of the River Cothi, near Pumsaint, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The gold mines are located within the Dolaucothi Estate which is now owned by the National Trust.

[Boreades]

The original diggings were stopped by the Duke of Sutherland on account of the damage that was being done to the fishing in the Helmsdale by the silt carried from the diggings.

By chance we were in Cornwall this weekend. Lostwithiel is a place we usually drive straight past, on its bypass. On impulse, M'Lady suggested we stop and explore. The town's main car park beside the A390 is free. Which is a very pleasing change from being fleeced even before you get to the attractions, and one that my Financial Director approved of. The next pleasant surprise was the "Duchy Palace", or the restored remains thereof.

The town guide says:

The name Lostwithiel was documented in the charter of 1189. It is believed to come from the Old Cornish 'Lostgwydeyel' meaning 'the place at the tail of the forest'. Throughout the 14th century Lostwithiel, known as 'The Port of Fawi', was the capital of Cornwall, administering affairs both Cornish and stannary (relating to tin) from the Great Hall until the Stannary Parliament was discontinued in 1752. The Great Hall later became known as the Duchy Palace. During the 14th century the river began to silt up owing to excessive streaming for tin on the moors. It gradually became unnavigable to sea-going ships and Lostwithiel lost its shipping trade to Fowey. Tin and other goods were sent down river in boats of shallower draught.

https://www.lostwithiel.org.uk/see-and-do/history/

If we knew how to tell the signs of silting, we might be closer to a definitive map of the ancient mining sites and their ports, without relying on legends.

Any ideas?

[Boreades]

Is there a map of the 'fourth parallel' and the gold?

There are several good and useful maps in this PDF.

Gold in Britain: past, present and future
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/11831/1/Gold_pro ... ly2010.pdf

See Figure 1 for something like the "fourth parallel". It's not an exact line, more like a broad band that just happens to run north-south up and down the hillier west coast of Britain.

See Figure 8 for a brief mention of the ScotGold Grampian project.
http://www.scotgoldresources.com.au/pro ... n-project/

[Mick Harper]

1. Couldn't see it
2. There is no fig 8

[Boreades]

1. Couldn't see it
2. There is no fig 8

Tut, did you not look at the pdf?
1. I can see it
2. Fig #'s up to 13
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/11831/1/Gold_pro ... ly2010.pdf

[TisILeclerc]

It all runs in a diagonal from the SW to the NE. Almost parallel with the Southern Boundary Fault and the Highland Fault.

Having another look it's actually on the Highland Fault.

Is there any reason for that would you think?

[hvered]

Is there any reason for that would you think?

If there was intensive mining here, the Boundary Fault could be the consequence of human activity?

[hvered]

On the meridian theme, I read that inhabitants of Seaford in East Sussex are known traditionally as 'Seaford-Shags' after the shags [apparently a Sussex term for cormorants] living in the cliffs rather than their sexual mores.

Seaford is on the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head coastline. It is also six degrees off 0°, so especially pleasing to find it's a cormorant hotspot.

The town lies on the coast near Seaford Head, roughly equidistant between the mouths of the River Ouse and the Cuckmere. The Ouse valley was a wide tidal estuary with its mouth nearly closed by a shingle bar, but the tidal mudflats and salt marshes have been "inned" (protected from the tidal river by dykes) to form grassy freshwater marshes (grazing marsh). To the north the town faces the chalk downland of the South Downs, and along the coast to the east are the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs, and Beachy Head. This stretch of coast is notified for its geological and ecological features as Seaford to Beachy Head Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Not so easy though to peel back the underlying structure because of more recent engineering work.

The River Ouse used to run parallel to the shore behind the shingle bar, entering the sea close to Seaford. However, a major storm in the 16th century broke through the bar at its western end, creating a new river mouth close to the village then called Meeching but renamed Newhaven. Part of the former channel of the river remains as a brackish lagoon.

The situation at Seaford almost exactly mirrors the set-up at Chesil Beach, on the 'Jurassic coast', which is about as unnatural as you could wish for.

The town formerly had excellent beaches, which were supplied by longshore drift constantly moving sand along the coast from west to east. However, in the early 20th century a large breakwater was constructed at Newhaven Harbour and the harbour entrance was regularly dredged. These works cut off the supply of fresh sand to the beach. By the 1980s the beach at Seaford had all but vanished, the shoreline becoming steep, narrow and largely composed of small boulders.