Trade Secrets

[spiral]

The Burgh Ictis traders = British

[Boreades]

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

Acording to Julius Caesar:

'The Druids believe that their religion forbids them to commit their teachings to writing, although for most other purposes, such as public and private accounts, the Gauls use the Greek alphabet. But I imagine that this rule was originally establish for other reasons - because they did not want their doctrine to become public property, and in order to prevent their pupils from relying on the written word and neglecting to train their memories.'

The question arises, if Druids of Brittainy could write in Greek (and other Roman accounts say they could speak Greek as well), can we assume the Druids of Britain did the same?

Students of alphabets will know how similar the Greek and Phoenician alphabets are. The implication for pre-Roman trade in North West Europe is that communication with Greek and Phoenician people was systemic if not commonplace.

[Mick Harper]

Extract Sixty-Five

The Bristol Channel is of great Megalithic significance presumably because of the need to bring together the copper of Wales and the tin of Cornwall and Devon. However, the network is much less well preserved than with the Channel Islands so the following is even more impressionistic than usual.

Starting with pure etymology we have Barry Island (= Burry Holm, = Burrow Island, = burgh *). The modern development of the docks (it became the largest coal exporting port in the world at the end of the nineteenth century) cannot quite blot out the presumed Megalithic tidal causewayed island which has the usual mix of Neolithic origins, Bronze Age development and medieval monkery.



Immediately to the west is Sully Island, an extant causewayed tidal island, and which has an interesting parallel to Rat Island in the Scillies. Whether there is any etymological link between Sully and Scilly it is certainly the case that just as Rat Island ‘guards’ St Mary’s, the main port of the Scillies, so Sully Island ‘guards’ the traditional port in this part of South Wales, St Mary’s Well Bay.

The usual Bronze Age archaeology is present on this small and somewhat unpromising islet. It is remarkable that our forefathers with an entire country to live in, with thousands of square miles of perfectly good liveable territory that apparently they couldn’t be bothered to clear of forest, should seek out these absurdly unproductive and hard-to-access but not-very-secure places to develop. It's as if they had another purpose entirely.

* To illustrate some ongoing Anglo-Welsh language shifts, the northern end of Ermine Street (ie Hermes Straight, the north-south equivalent of the east-west Icknield Way/Michael Line) is at Brough (=borough). The old name for the town was Petuaria (=Pedwar, = quarter, Welsh). A 'quarter', as in Latin Quarter, is now the same as 'borough' i.e. a part of a town.

[hvered]

Sully Island is connected to the suggestively named village of Swanbridge. Its harbour, St Mary's Well, is reminiscent of St Mary's Pool, overlooked by the harbour wall that incorporates the Rat Island causeway in the Scillies. It may have been a Venus pool (Mary/mere/mirror?)

The causewayed Rat Island appears to be lozenge-shaped though the island is unlikely to have retained its original structure.

[hvered]

You ain't gonna understand it if you don't play chess.......Or the megalithic role of Jack.

There are jacks (knaves/ jokers) in packs of cards. There were fifty-two counties of England and Wales, apparently a popular motif in packs of 52 cards. By coincidence or not, there are 52 weeks in the year.

[macausland]

hvered
'There are jacks (knaves/ jokers) in packs of cards. There were fifty-two counties of England and Wales, apparently a popular motif in packs of 52 cards. By coincidence or not, there are 52 weeks in the year.'

And I was that soldier.

I think what Spiral is referring to is the name of the Bishop in chess in other languages especially French where it is the 'fou'.

http://www.shakki.net/kerhot/KemTS/nap-pieces.htm

[Mick Harper]

Extract Sixty-Six

But the jewel in the slew of Bristol Channel Megalithiana must surely be Worm’s Head, a tidal island on the Gower Peninsula. Actually not exactly on the Gower Peninsula but occupying the most strategic position possible approaching the Gower Peninsula.



The etymology of Worms Head is thoroughly Megalithic. A worm or orme or dragon is something that turns up constantly in Megalithic places. For example, Orme’s Head or the Great Orme at Llandudno in North Wales, was reputedly the largest copper mine in antiquity; the Michael Line ends at the Norfolk coast between Ormesby St Michael and Ormesby St Margaret.

The actual origin of the association is a bit obscure but the most likely explanation is that finding north in Megalithic times, before the Pole Star and The Plough made things easy, it was necessary to picture a sinuous animal crossing the night sky to find the Draconis (the Dragon) constellation, which was then due north. But whatever the meaning of the name, Worm’s Head has all the physical attributes of a Megalithic tidal island. Here is the shape complete with the trailing islands:

[Boreades]

You ain't gonna understand it if you don't play chess.......Or the megalithic role of Jack.

There are jacks (knaves/ jokers) in packs of cards. There were fifty-two counties of England and Wales, apparently a popular motif in packs of 52 cards. By coincidence or not, there are 52 weeks in the year.

52 is also the number of letters in the English alphabet, if majuscules are distinguished from minuscules.
Which makes me wonder why we have 26 letters in the English alphabet, especially as many alphabets encode astronomical observation (and other measuring methods).

[hvered]

Robert Graves claimed that the thirteen consonants in the Irish Ogham or tree alphabet correlated to the thirteen months of the year.

It seems reasonable to have a system of marking off each month though I'm puzzled why letters should represent tree species, especially in a tree-poor country like Ireland.

[Mick Harper]

Extract Sixty-Seven

Other features of Worms Head that might be Megalithic include Devil's Bridge which is claimed to be natural but such striking features seem to occur so remarkably often in Megalithic settings that perhaps a more agnostic position might be adopted:



There is no Venus Pool on the island but in the position where a Venus Pool ought to be, at the seaward tip, there is instead this, as described by William Camden in the sixteenth century:

Toward the head itself, or that part which is farthest out in the sea, there is a small cleft or crevice in the ground, into which if you throw a handful of dust or sand, it will be blown back again into the air. But if you kneel or lie down, and lay your ears to it, you will then hear distinctly the deep noise of a prodigious large bellows. The reason is obvious; for the reciprocal motion of the sea, under the arch'd and rocky hollow of this headland, or promontory, makes an inspiration and expiration of the air, through the cleft, and that alternately; and consequently the noise, as of a pair of bellows in motion

The purpose and method of such a cave is, as with the Venus Pools, yet to be determined and, in the absence of a viable theory, this also will be assumed by most to be a natural feature. However, an overview of Rhossili Bay, where Worm's Head stands raises an uncomfortable question for the 'it's all natural' school. Leaving aside whether the 'sili' in Rhossili is linked to the previous Sully and Scilly Islands, there is the matter of the incidence of tidal islands.

It will be recalled that these are quite rare, there being presently just three on the entire south coast of Britain. But Rhossili Bay shares with Guernsey the accolade of having two of its very own:



The bay is topped and tailed by Worms Head in the south and Burry Holms in the north, which is either not natural or a clear case of nature playing practical jokes on earnest researchers.