Trade Secrets

[macausland]

Various writing systems have been invented in different parts of the world.

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

Along with writing comes the destruction of writing.

Apparently St Patrick burned books in Ireland, Spanish priests burned the books of the Maya and Aztecs, the Chinese burned the books of Confucius and buried the scholars alive. Caesar and later the moslems burned the library of Alexandria. Then there's Hitler, Stalin and just about every jumped up dictator you could care to mention.

Writing is risky as is memorising history and knowledge as the druids of Anglesey discovered.

Buddhists have the best of both worlds. They have books and they memorise them through chanting etc.

[macausland]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjG8kEh0lKo

Here's another one by Tsarion.

It's well worth watching. It's very long with breaks in between different sections.

There be dragons and serpents here.

Also ufos and aliens but basically he is tackling mythology and there is a lot of very useful information whatever we may think of some of his ideas.

[Mick Harper]

Extract Sixty-Two

Place name evidence is strong throughout the British Isles. As one paper puts it

…. has researched the mammal- and reptile-related place names … and concludes that only animals that represent major food or fur resources feature strongly … From the many raven-related place-names below [400 are detailed] deriving from the different cultural traditions characterising Britain we can discern that this bird must once have been of great significance to our ancestors.

But of what significance? The crow, the raven, the corvidae in general, simply have no great present significance to man. They are not food birds, they do not stand guard, they have no known utility, they are not even great pests. Despite being notably ugly, and of course literally raucous, these unprepossessing birds turn up over and over again as birds-of-omen, of divinity, in fairy stories, with their strange human-like qualities.

With four hundred places referring to the raven alone – crow and rook names are also legion – there must be some reason for their nomenclature and cultural ubiquity. And presumably that reason must also be of great ubiquity. The widespread employment of corvids by the Megalithics for their transportation requirements would appear to marry things up nicely.

[hvered]

I once attended a 'Geography' evening class to get an 'O' level.

I left after the teacher told the class that proof that the British isles were covered with ice except for the south of England could be seen by the 'fact' that there were no standing stones or stone circles in the north.

I'm reading a book by Mike Parker, a self-proclaimed map-addict, which states there are no roads in Scotland because the Romans didn't get there. Yet he immediately contradicts himself as according to him the 'backbone' of Britain is Ermine Street, linking London and Edinburgh. [He doesn't make the same claim about Ireland where the Romans were equally absent though as the book's about Britain he's not obliged to include Ireland.]

By the way the BBC site has an article detailing how they think that the large stones in the Forbidden City in Beijing were transported 47 miles from the quarry on special roads covered in ice. They were dragged along by teams of men hauling them with ropes.

Mike Parker says Ermine Street was named for some obscure tribe living in and around Royston (roughly half-way), reminiscent of Icknield Way which we were taught was named for the Iceni tribe. It may have been the 'ice line' which has probably been discussed by someone somewhere; the only references to ice I've come across are in connection with arguments about how Stonehenge was built.

Pulling stones on ropes across ice would be feasible using sledges. On the AEL site sledges were proposed as the first boats. Certainly for 'ice dwellers' creating a distinction between land and sea seems rather arbitrary.

[Mick Harper]

Extract Sixty-Three

So far we have traced in some detail the routes between the tin zone and north-west France and, in rather less detail, the routes between the tin zone and the western coast line of Europe down to the entrance to the Mediterranean. In doing so we have put together a sort of wish-list of Megalithic features. But of course that entails risk. Wish-lists tend to expand rather quicker than the objects actually available.

The more we look the more Megalithic features we find, the more Megalithic features we find the easier it is to identify the next Megalithic feature, which provides us with more Megalithic features and so on. So, when trying to identify the more nebulous Megalithic routes around the British Isles, it should be firmly borne in mind that the trawl is out. We shall be more inclusive than exclusive.

If we go back to our very first tell-tale characteristic, the tidal island, what can we conclude? That all tidal islands are Megalithic? One would clearly have to say not, except that even this seemingly banal assumption is not necessarily true. There is a possibility that every tidal island around Britain is Megalithic. Or virtually so.

It will be recalled that this quest started from the observation that there are three tidal islands on the south coast of Britain – Burrow Island, Burgh Island and St Michael’s Mount. Two of them turned out to be thoroughly Megalithic but Burrow Island, the one without the causeway, did not.

Did not… Since then we have put Portsmouth Harbour, at the head of which stands Burrow Island, in the Megalithic frame though with the greatest tenuousness. So is Burrow Island Megalithic? Let us start with the name. Actually, it has two names and that is in itself somewhat Megalithic. The next tidal island along, Burgh Island, also has two names – Burgh Island and Michael’s Island. Burrow Island’s alternative is Rat Island.

[spiral]

Extract Sixty-Two

Place name evidence is strong throughout the British Isles. As one paper puts it

…. these unprepossessing birds turn up over and over again as birds-of-omen, of divinity, in fairy stories, with their strange human-like qualities.

Like humans they are intelligent opportunistic feeders. Enough said.

[macausland]

'So is Burrow Island Megalithic? Let us start with the name. Actually, it has two names and that is in itself somewhat Megalithic. The next tidal island along, Burgh Island, also has two names – Burgh Island and Michael’s Island. Burrow Island’s alternative is Rat Island.'

Burgh and Burrow are alterhatives for Borough. And in Dwelly we get Broch, Borg and Brugh, all of which mean fortified tower.

Interestingly another 'fairy' type habitation is 'Rath' which Dwelly gives as 'ancient fortress, ancient Royal seat, cleared swathe of land, also 'raft' and 'good fortune'.

[hvered]

Rath. That's good, macausland. 'Rath Island' makes a lot of sense.

[Mick Harper]

Extract Sixty-Four

Coincidentally or not, there is another and highly Megalithic Rat Island:



It forms the northern extension of Hugh Town on St Mary’s in the Scilly Islands. Here there is the triple-lock of Rat Island being a near (previously?) tidal island, it guarding the larger near (previously?) tidal island of Hugh Town and the whole forming the main harbour of the Scilly Islands, the westernmost point of Britain.

Rat Island in the Scillies has lost its status as an island but at least retains its name. The reason given for Rat Island changing its name to Burrow Island is that it is now part of the Borough of Portsmouth and not Gosport to which it is closer. This is an explanation that gets the horse and the cart somewhat confused since it rather more likely that Portsmouth is a borough because of Burrow Island!

The reason this island and St Michael’s Island along the coast have their alternate names is because they are ‘burgh’ islands, a burgh being a very ancient name for a trading post. Burghs eventually became a Europe-wide phenomenon (and an entire branch of the place-name industry in its own right) but for our purposes it is enough to observe that whenever a burgh derivation comes up in an offshore island context, the hand of Megalithia is sure to be found.

Here for instance is Burry Holmes in the Gower Peninsula, Wales



which has all the characteristics of being not merely a Megalithic causewayed tidal island but to be wholly artificial. The flat top and the trailing islands would seem to indicate that it was either built from the ground up or has been strenuously resculpted. It has the usual mixture of pre-historic settlement evidence and a medieval monastery but not enough local resources have been deployed to say more.

[spiral]

The reason this island and St Michael’s Island along the coast have their alternate names is because they are ‘burgh’ islands, a burgh being a very ancient name for a trading post. Burghs eventually became a Europe-wide phenomenon (and an entire branch of the place-name industry in its own right) but for our purposes it is enough to observe that whenever a burgh derivation comes up in an offshore island context, the hand of Megalithia is sure to be found.

Cracking.

Briton.

British.