Book & site list

[Boreades]

A date for the TME Diary?

Preliminary Notice of Conference:
‘A Celebration of the Tinworking Landscape of Dartmoor in its European Context - Prehistory to the 20th Century’
Tavistock, Devon, 6-11 May 2016

The tinworking landscape of Dartmoor is arguably the finest in the world for its extent, completeness, chronological range and accessibility. Most of it falls within Dartmoor National Park and much is on open moorland to which there is unrestricted public access. Although always closely connected historically to the Cornish tin industry, Dartmoor’s tinworking landscape is quite distinct, as it lacked the deep tin deposits of its neighbour and also had an abundance of water resources. In the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries Dartmoor tinworking was on a relatively small scale. Consequently, archaeological remains of these and earlier periods (especially AD 1300-1700) are still of outstanding extent and quality.

Historically, the industry generated significant wealth for the county of Devon, being ranked as more important than seafaring in about AD 1600. Much tin was exported to Europe and beyond.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Dartmoor Tinworking Research Group www.dtrg.org.uk and to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage designation of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape www.cornish-mining.org.uk this conference, based in the stannary town and World Heritage Site area of Tavistock, from 6-11 May 2016, will comprise lectures and full day field excursions.

More : http://www.dtrg.org.uk/press.htm

[Mick Harper]

I cannot help noticing that this is all very recent. I suspect only lip service will be paid to the really ancient stuff because that breaks various paradigms eg that Dartmoor is the remains of the tin industry.

[Boreades]

Of orthodox persuasion, but a useful resource on village histories:

http://www.register-of-one-place-studies.org.uk/

[hvered]

A strange piece of Scottishness came up on Coast which was investigating caves and despatched a poet to Bennane Head to find out about the legend of Sawney Bean. He was supposed to have lived in a cave where he killed and ate a thousand or more people in the reign of James VI (I) and may or may not have been invented by Daniel Defoe.

Judging by the cave the tale would appear completely unfounded yet it has a striking Megalithic resonance with hermits and 'pirate' and smuggler folklore especially in view of its position on the northernmost point of Ballantrae Bay. It inspired some fantasy-horror films and a novel, The Master of Ballantrae, by R.L. Stevenson (from a family of great lighthouse engineers).

I wondered about 'Bean', in Gaelic woman/ wife, as there are other stories about rather frightening women associated with caves in fairy tales and local legends such as Black Annis, Mother Ludlum and washers-at-the-ford.

[Boreades]

The legend of Sawney Bean and Bennane Head is curiously close in time and space to Rathlin Island where an alleged wholesale slaughter of innocents took place, in July 1575.

Acting on the instructions of Sir Henry Sidney and the Earl of Essex, Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys took the castle by storm. Drake used two cannons to batter the castle and when the walls gave through, Norreys ordered direct attack on 25 July. The Captain was killed and Constable of the garrison surrendered. Norreys set the terms of surrender: the Constable, his family and one of the hostages were given safe passage and all other defending soldiers were killed, and next morning, 26 July 1575, Norreys' forces hunted the old, sick, very young and women who were hiding in the caves. Despite the surrender, they killed all the 200 defenders and more than 400 civilian men, women and children. The people killed were families of followers of Sorley Boy MacDonnell. Sir Francis Drake was also charged with the task of preventing any Scottish reinforcement vessels reaching the Island.

The entire family of Sorley Boy MacDonnell perished in the massacre. Essex, who ordered the killings, boasted in a letter to Francis Walsingham, the queen's secretary and spymaster, that Sorley Boy MacDonnell watched the massacre from the mainland helplessly and was "like to run mad from sorrow".

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

Not something that enhances the reputation of Sir Francis Drake or the others involved. Could the legend of Sawney Bean be a bit of propaganda aimed at deflecting attention?

[Boreades]

Given the known Draco (and other) family interest in mining in Ireland, the amphibious strike force by John Norreys and Francis Drake could be seen as "business by other means", driving the Scots from Ulster, so that the English could get control of the valuable mining assets, especially the gold.

[Boreades]

W. M. Flinders Petrie

Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, FRS (3 June 1853 – 28 July 1942), commonly known as Flinders Petrie, was an English Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and preservation of artifacts. He held the first chair of Egyptology in the United Kingdom, and excavated many of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt in conjunction with his wife, Hilda Petrie. Some consider his most famous discovery to be that of the Merneptah Stele, an opinion with which Petrie himself concurred. Petrie developed the system of dating layers based on pottery and ceramic findings.

Not just a member of what is now the orthodoxy, but some might say the creator of that orthodoxy.

Strange then that his own work on British History is ignored.

By any one reading the best modern authorities on history, it would hardly be expected that the fullest account that we have of early British history is entirely ignored. While we may see a few, and contemptuous, references to Nennius or Gildas, the name of the so-called Tysilio’s Chronicle is never given, nor is any use made of its record. Yet it is of the highest value, for, as we shall see farther on, the internal evidence shows that it is based on British documents extending back to the first century.

More: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Neglecte ... sh_History

[TisILeclerc]

That's a really fascinating read.

Is that the whole article do you know or are there any other links to the original document.

I may have missed the point but was there a mention of Greek lettering being used at some point? That could help to explain other references to the 'druids' using the Greek alphabet when they wanted to.

I'll have to learn Welsh to have a good read of the original documents mentioned there.

What is most interesting is the taking as granted that the Anglo Saxons were coming to the islands as a matter of course before the Romans were here and forming alliances with the local tribes. That makes sense of everything that people like Gildas were wittering on about.

Connected with that perhaps is the documentary Tony Robinson made of the reconstruction of the Dover boat. Within the programme he mentions how they have found British settlements in France on the coast which they believe were part of a cross channel network.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4OylAKusMw

The programme also mentions Bronze Age trade with France and Switzerland via the Rhine.

[Boreades]

Perhaps this is the answer to my own question :

...he was regarded as an amateur and dilettante by more established Egyptologists...

Having upset one apple cart in his chosen profession (archaeology) he probably upset another one when he started writing articles in British History. Professional jealousies?

[TisILeclerc]

He was also the son of an engineer. Not to be mentioned in polite society. Smacks too much of trade and greasy hands.

Still, the British Museum seems to like him...

'Petrie's methods were revolutionary for his time. He placed great emphasis on the observation of everything found, and the typological study of all objects. He probably made more major discoveries than any other archaeologist, and his vast collection of antiquities is now at the Petrie Museum, London. Petrie published over a thousand books, articles and reviews.'

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/hi ... ers_p.aspx

That's the trouble. Too much looking and not enough time at the club waxing lyrical. He would never have been admitted to the Unseen University. Bet he couldn't even spell Wizard.

I've found a recent translation of the Tysilio manuscript made by William Cooper and on the National CV website. Haven't read it yet but I'm sure it will be well worth it.

http://www.thenationalcv.org.uk/Chronic ... ritons.pdf

And a photostat of Flinders Petrie's original article

http://www.thenationalcv.org.uk/More%20 ... 201917.pdf