Click on the links below to see how these events transpired
http://isleofavallon.blogspot.co.uk #3
The connection between Avalon and the fabled Island of Ictis.
Leaving our
geometrical construct for the moment, it is necessary to concentrate our
enquiry on another location of which there is no trace in the modern world. Researchers
over the last 2000 years have tried to find the location of the fabled ‘Island
of Ictis’. There has been much written
and incredible ingenuity used by scholars and commentators alike, to fit facts
as they see them, to agree with their own preference for the location of
Ictis. It would appear that for all this
effort in the modern era, no one has definitively managed to locate it. The
references about Ictis came from many different sources, Greek and Roman over a
period of approximately 400 years, but recent commentators have not been able
to see the pertinent facts that were related, in perspective.
This search
for the Island of Ictis originated due to a Greek named Pytheas, who made a
journey by sea, circa 325 BC and wrote a Chronicle of his voyage, which no
longer exists. He mentioned the island in his journals and left quite specific
references to it, the most pertinent being that it dried out at low tide and
was located in southern England; hence its permanent association with St
Michael’s Mount, just south of Marazion in Cornwall. It is because of Pytheas’s notoriety and the
fact that his original writings no longer exist, that over time, references
from other ancient chroniclers that mention his journey and his description of
the island and its environs have become garbled, some of the chroniclers simply
disbelieving much that he related.
Pytheas was
an astronomer and a geographer, who also was the first Greek to visit and write
about the Atlantic coast of Europe and the British Isles. It is a shame that his main work, which was
called ‘On the Ocean’ is no longer extant, but we know something of his travels
through the other Greek historian called Polybius, who lived around 200
BC. Timaeus even mentions Ictis before
Polybius while other ancient writers who mention Pytheas’s voyage are
Posidonius, Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, who all wrote before the birth of
Jesus. Strabo relates that
Dicaearchus who died about 285BC did not trust the stories of Pytheas but we
shall see his mistrust was not fair.
Diodorus is seen
to be quoting from Posidonius, while Pliny, who was writing circa 50 AD is
quoting from Timaeus (contemporaneous with Pytheas) and not from any Pythean
source. Pliny was referring to Pytheas’s voyage from Timaeus probably 300 years
after Timeas had originally written what is a second hand record.
It is evident
that over the period of four hundred years when these Greek and Roman
historians were recounting Pytheas’s exploits, mostly second or third hand, an
inaccurate account has been passed down about an island that traded tin with a
name called ‘Ictis’ that existed in southern Britain. The effect has been like that of Chinese
whispers around a single dinner table without the added difficulty of
translating Greek into Latin and we can witness how different the message from
the first to the last may be distorted. Pytheas’s voyage was intended partly as
a commercial venture looking for opportunities in trade with his own city
Marseille and the other part scientific.
He was long before Galileo, in attempting to assert that the earth was
round and this proof was known by the ancient world. This proof could only be arrived at by taking
sightings of the sun at different latitudes and as Pytheas proceeded North he
observed the change in the length of daylight and he observes “the midnight sun,”
confirming he went far up to what he called Thule, which presumably is confirmed by later chroniclers as Iceland.
There is
mention of a passages that he made, said to be six days long and this could be
one going north to Scotland but many commentators think that he only went up
the eastern side of Britain but this would deny his having described the shape
of Britain as triangular. The lost interpretation of the six days could even be
an account of the journey to reach southern England from Marseille. Some ancient writers seem to give it as a
quote from the ‘Britains’ about the distance to travel to Ictis to procure tin.
The ‘six days inwards’ (introrsus) related by Timæus,
and quoted by Pliny, says, that this Mictis or Ictis, “was six
days sail inwards from Britain” and given as a direction supposedly by the Britons to Pytheas on his
arrival in Belerion, has led most Ictis investigators astray and was obviously
related out of context, as much of the other information has been. Pliny’s quotation of Timaeus ’six
days sail inland from Britain, there is an island called Mictis in which white
lead is found, and to this island the Britons come in boats of Osier covered
with sewn hides’ could be a confusion of the six days in which it would take to
get from Lands’ end to northern Scotland averaging 70-90 miles a day if indeed
Pytheas went up the western side of Britain. It could even be the passage of
time from Scotland to Thule. Diodorus’ quotation of Posidonius who travelled in
Britain around 80BC describes the metal workers of Belerion carrying their tin
to a certain Island called Ictis which acted as
a great trading post for merchants. This quote coupled with the fact that the Isle of Wight's
Latin name ‘Vectis’ being similar to ‘Ictis’, has also led to more confusion as
much trade was known to take place from this area. Some commentators have assumed the Six days
Inwards can be applied to the journey along the Southern coast from where
Pytheas initially made contact with the inhabitants of the Southern tip of
Belerion, all the way to Thanet in Kent, another possible candidate for Ictis,
as Kent is mentioned in his Journal.
Pytheas
probably did not explore much of the mainland of Thule but gives an account of
sea ice. We do not know from Thule where he bore southward for the return
voyage but again
this could be another confusion as they sailed south for six days and nights before they reached the shores of Britain.
We
hear little from subsequent commentators about Pytheas’s return along the eastern
shore of Britain as far as Kent but his expedition returned successfully by the
Channel and the Bay of Biscay, back to the mouth of the Gironde.
Pytheas as a ships
navigator had mastered the use of the "Gnomon," an instrument similar
to the hexante or Sextant as it is known today. This instrument was used by
Phoenician and Greek navigators since very early times and Pytheas used it to calculate
the latitude of Massalia, which he found to be 43' 11' N, almost matching the exact
figure of 43' 18'N for where Marseilles lies today. It was a committee of merchants from
Marseilles that engaged the services of Pytheas to undergoe his voyage of
discovery. He was a renowned mathematician of that city, who was already famous
for his measurement of the declination of the ecliptic, and for the calculation
of the latitude of that city, by a method which he had recently invented of
comparing the height of the gnomon or pillar with
the length of the solstitial shadow. Many of the ancient writers disbelieved
Pytheas’ account of his journey and the distances involved and much
interpolation, interpretation and rationalisation of subsequent writers has
meant that we are now no longer sure of what has been related accurately.
It is 238
miles from the mouth of the Gironde to Ushant, a leg of the trip that Pytheas
records “as three days away” by Strabo then one days sail to the Belerion
coast. Pytheas was averaging 79.3 miles
a day. The four days, quoted by Diodorus
from the Gironde is indicating he had a quick passage from Ushant, probably
sighting the Lizard first only 89 miles away. It was hereabouts at an
undisclosed landfall, he made his enquiries to the ‘Britons’ about tin. Pytheas
was probably told it was two days further up channel, but Timaeus records that
the Britons, said the Tin would be available six days inwards in an island
which they went to in wicker framed boats covered with hide, these wicker boats
probably only used locally. It is only fifty five miles from the Lizard to
Ictis and if Pytheas did record that the journey in total was six days, Pytheas
most probably sailed along the coast for the last two days stopping overnight
so that he did not miss the island.
Timaeus
recorded Pytheas in Greek, then it was rendered by Pliny the Elder in Latin,
influenced by other previous references that were possibly interpolated nearly
300 years later. This would not accord with the original detail given by
Pytheas. It seems most likely that,
Pytheas’s intention was to give a meaningful reference of six days in total to
the Island of Ictis from the Gironde, detailing “inwards” up channel from his
present location. This seems to be the obvious solution but this six day period
may indeed be in reference to another part of his trip and the context has been
muddled. One can tell that Diodorus is not giving a first-hand account but the
‘we are told’ reference from this next extracted account is most probably
referencing details given by Pytheas: Britain is triangular in
shape, similar to Sicily, but its sides are not equal. This island stretches
obliquely along the coast of Europe, to a point where it is least distant from
the mainland, we are told, is the promontory which men call Cantium,(Kent) and
this is around one hundred stades from the land, at the place where the sea has
its outlet,(The Dover Straits) whereas the second promontory, known as
Belerium, is said to be a voyage of four days from the mainland. Is this the four days from the
Gironde again, just mis-conveyed by later chroniclers in the wrong context?
The shape of
the tin ingots described as ‘Astragali’ in Diodorus’s account seems to have
been confused because vertebrae bone or knucklebone were used as gaming dice
and went by that name. The shape of any discovered tin ingots from Devon and
Cornwall neither resemble cubes or the knucklebone shape. There is little
credibility that can be given to this hypothesis. These moulded convex and bun shaped ingots in different
sizes would fit into wooden framed skin covered boats called coracles. The
obvious shape of the Ingots for various reasons would be bun shaped with no
hard corners. A hemispheroid that would not tear the animal skins of the local
traders that transported the ingots to Ictis in their coracles is the first.
Naturally moulded tin formed in any dried rock pool would be the second reason.
There would be no need to schampher or to soften the flat surface edges of the
convex shape due to ‘surface tension’ of the liquid tin as the mould cooled. By
natural design, flat on one side and convex on the other, seem to be the shape
of the majority of existing examples including the recent find of ingots in the
Erm mouth. This shape would make them ideal to fit between the wooden framing
of any coracle and present a completely flat interior for its occupants,
following the curve of the boat. This would avoid point and weight loading of
any part of the skin. The exterior of
the Astragali would always present to the skin face a surface unlikely to rip
or damage and be kept in place by the surrounding wooden framing. By placing
and packing the Astragali as a removable floor the traders would be spreading
the weight throughout the coracle while at the same time creating ballast at a
low centre of gravity. This would be the optimum means of transport at sea to
avoid the cargo becoming loose during passage.
The shape of the Astragali over time, was probably standardised by popular agreement,
in moulds eroded by rain or river used
by early ‘Tinners’, hence all the different sizes, but the shape for shipping
being the essential element. The third
reason as C.F.C Hawkes points out, can be deduced from Diodorus’s description
of the ingots passage to the mouth of the river Rhone by horse or mule , a
passage of about thirty days ‘on foot’.
The ingots would be better shaped for saddle bags on these pack horses. The
optimum size of the ingots would have evolved by feedback from the pilots of coracles.
It is not even clear whether Pytheas when he refers to coracles is referring to
the traders or the suppliers from the different river mouths transporting their
tin to Ictis along the coast to the central agency. Certainly this would have
been the easiest way to get ingots from areas downstream of the rivers running
from southern Dartmoor. The river Avon however, the effluent from which exits
by the trading post of Ictis is a different story as the Tin came down by cart
from Dartmoor. The shape of the ingots probably evolved from lighting fires
over dried out rock pools conveniently found everywhere next to the river, from
which the Cassiterite was panned by the Bronze Age Tinners and this shape
turned out to be the most practical for early sea transport.
It becomes
evident that Diodorous when he writes, ‘and a peculiar thing occurs
concerning islands near, lying between Europe and Britain. For at high tides, the passage between being
flooded, they appear as islands, but at low tide, the sea recedes and much
space being exposed again dry, they are seen to be peninsulas’; has completely misled those
investigators looking for the fabled island of Ictis.
The word
“near” when referring to neighbouring islands has made it impossible to find a
relative location on the South West coast of Devon and Cornwall. The most
probable explanation of this confusion stems from the fact that, as a passenger,
upon setting out from the French coast in the morning, one would see islands
before dark while passing the Channel Islands, then probably having slept through
the night one would arrive at another island next to the coast. Ictis is a
single Island of Pytheas’ account but was misconstrued by Diodorus and other
chroniclers from eyewitness accounts of traders that obviously were referring
to the Channel Islands and this reference to other islands being ‘near’ is a
later interpolation and misunderstanding of Pytheas’ account. Alternatively, a
passenger not accustomed to navigation, the sea or the speed at which a boat
travels, might lead him to believe those other islands to be in close proximity
to the one at which he has arrived if they travelled through the night.
It is highly
probable that Diodorous is relating directly from Pytheas the detail concerning
the island drying out, but then inserts his own information narrated to him
from one of the overland traders who might have made the voyage to Ictis or
even heard of an account or seen the Channel Islands. Diodorus as a Greek Sicilian from Mediterranean
waters is already struggling with the concept of ‘tides’ and in his narration he
deems the whole notion as “peculiar”. So
having made this error and misunderstood that Ictis is situated “near” other
islands, these other islands then in the same ‘peculiar tide’, become plural peninsulas’
in the narrative. To find such a location on the British South West promontory
‘near Britain’ would be impossible. However one might view the confusion of the plurality of Islands,
we know that Pytheas is talking of a singular Island called Ictis to which
wagons cross over when the tide recedes.
Mount Batten
in Plymouth, a peninsula just off Cattwater, has been posited as a possible
contender for Ictis, but it doesn't dry out at low tide and it could never have
been kept secret as Strabo relates and one can see geologically it has never
been separated by tidal flow or insular, to fit with Pytheas’ description. The source of the Plym is at Plymhead, on the high open moorland of
Dartmoor and the river from Higher Hartor to Cadover
Bridge which has the greatest concentrated evidence of early settlement
including burial mounds and Bronze Age hut circles would possibly put Mount
Batten as a contender for Ictis if indeed it had dried out at low tide to where
carts could cross, as related by in the original description by Pytheas.
Pytheas correctly estimated the circumference
of Great Britain as 4000 miles and also knew the distance that he had sailed
from Marseille to be 1050 instead of the actual distance of 1120, so he was
accurate in his own estimations and figures. His account would have been
without error because he experienced it, unlike later second hand accounts,
some of which were written by chroniclers that thought his exploits and
observations not credible and actively set out to discredit him.
It would seem
that the Belerion mentioned by Pytheas is most likely defined as the southern
promontory of Great Britain probably commencing with Salcombe in South Devon,
stretching all the way down to Lands’ End. This ‘promontory’ can clearly be
seen on a map geographically as adhering to Pytheas’ description but more rationally
we can understand his definition as the start of the south west peninsula or
‘promontory’ as a description derived by
a Navigator. There is also the fact that the name of Belerion tends to suggest
the area defined by a people and that same area would then latterly become known
as Dumnonia which included both Devon and Cornwall. By Pytheas’ understanding,
he was explaining the area south of Salcombe and describing Belerion as such,
being defined by a people ‘the natives of this promontory area’ more than the
norm, being ’friendly to strangers’; a trait still evident in the modern era.
Just west of
the entrance into Salcombe estuary, about 2.5 miles west of ‘Bolt tail’, there
lies a small island called Burgh Island which fits Pytheas’s description
exactly. Bolt head and Bolt tail being easily recognisable from miles out to
sea with its prominent plateau like formation, would make landfall at Ictis for
any early trader relatively simple ‘eyeball navigation’. If one considers that,
to navigate in these tidal currents that relentlessly flow, (sometimes in
opposing directions on the outskirts of the channel on the same tide), it makes
navigation hazardous. Once having passed the Channel Islands on a trip from the
French coast or from a departure point further west, the navigator is open to
the vagaries of the current and weather. The first
compasses were made of lodestone, a naturally-magnetized ore of iron. Ancient
people found that if a lodestone was suspended so it could turn freely, it
would always point in the same direction toward the magnetic pole. These were
later adapted as compasses made of iron needles, magnetized by stroking them
with a lodestone. It is highly probable
that the early navigators that were plying their trade in tin, even before
Pytheas made his voyage, used these lodestones to locate the escarpment of Bolt
head and Bolt Tail. There is an old mine at the base of Bolt head known as
Easton’s mine in which Mundic is found (an oxidisation of pyrites) while the
unfortunate miner had hoped to find Copper. The mine consists of Iron Pyrites
crystals in Mica Schist. These lodes of Pyrites crystals are found throughout
the whole cliff and there are several well documented accounts of Ship’s
compasses being ‘swung off’ by the mass of Iron rich lodes found in the
headland. The Captain of the Herzogin Cecilie fell foul of this phenomena by
hitting the Ham stone, while the ancients may have used this to their advantage
in conjunction with a swinging lodestone.
Pytheas was
one of the first people to give a report of Stonehenge while he visited the
British Isles and took measurements of the Sun’s declination in Britain at
different points in the year to further his astronomical studies. He was also probably one of the first Greeks
to give an account of the tidal activity which he had learnt (from the
Britons), was caused by the moon, the tide of course being virtually
non-existent in Mediterranean waters.
This was 1800 years before Galileo was taken to task in asserting that
the world was round. Galileo
was denounced at the Roman Inquisition in 1615 AD by the Catholic Church, which
condemned heliocentrism (the idea that the world was a globe) as ‘false and contrary
to Scripture’. This does seem quite
extraordinary when the Sun and Moon are obviously round and this knowledge had
existed for nearly two thousand years.
Some of the
ancient writers like Diodorus do not even mention Pytheas by name, but refer to
his comments alone. Pliny, who is using Timaeus as a source says, “there is an
island named Mictis where tin is found, and to which the Britains cross”. He uses the word ‘proveniat’ which commentators
have assumed as meaning that Tin was actually mined at Ictis but the real
meaning is ‘provend’ as a supplier which
matches the concept of ‘Emporium’ which many translators have misunderstood the
reasoning behind this choice of word.
All very misleading, since there was no tin mined at the island, just
stored there, as the reader will become aware shortly. The ‘crossing’, mentioned by most chroniclers
is in reference to the sandbar or causeway, Pliny who obviously never went to
the island, implying a large stretch of land to be crossed.
Diodorus
writes also that tin is brought to the island of Ictis, where there is an
Emporium, literally being translated as a ‘marketplace or agency’ and this is
the definition which defines the role of Ictis.
Polybius was probably a source to Strabo for
some details concerning Ictis and Strabo relates that an Emporium on the Island
of Corbulo at the mouth of the river Loire was associated with the Island of
Ictis, so here again the real picture is made more difficult to Identify Ictis.
Strabo also infers that Ictis, and Corbulo are different names for the same
island, so there is much confusion as the Chinese whisper effect has confused
its location. Possibly Strabo never saw a copy of Pytheas and sourced most of
his material from Polybius. Diodorus on the other hand seems to have read Timaeus,
who must have read Pytheas’ original, which Polybius seems to have read also.
It would appear that Strabo did not read Pytheas first hand, or he would not
have referred to Polybius and is probably accountable for most of the Chinese
whispers effect.
However, with
the many garbled references let us stick to the account in Diodorus’s
‘Bibliotheca Historica’ for the moment and see what he has to say in the
following passage relating to the Island of Ictis and the British tin trade;
“We shall give an account of the British institutions,
and other peculiar features, when we come to Cæsar’s expedition undertaken
against them, but we will now discuss of the tin produced there. The inhabitants
who dwell near the promontory of Britain, known as Belerium, are remarkably
hospitable; and, from their intercourse with other peoples merchants, they are
civilized in their mode of life. These people prepare the tin, in an ingenious
way, quarrying the ground from which it is produced, and which, though rocky,
has fissures containing ore; and having extracted the supply of ore, they cleanse
and purify it, and when they have melted it into tin ingots, they carry it to a
certain island, which lies off Britain, and is called Ictis. For at the ebbings
of the tide, the space between this island and the mainland is left dry and then
they can convey the tin in large
quantities over to the island on their wagons. A peculiar circumstance happens with regard to the neighbouring islands,
which lie between Europe and Britain, for at flood tide, the intermediate space
being filled up, they appear as islands; but at ebb tide, the sea recedes, and
leaves a large extent of dry land, and at that time, they look like peninsulas.
Hence the merchants buy the tin from the natives, on
Ictis and carry it over into Gaul (Galatia); and in the
end after travelling through Gaul on foot about a thirty days journey, they
bring their wares on horses to the mouth of the river Rhone.”
Pliny calls
the island, Mictis, mictim or mictin which indicates that he has translated
directly from Timeas, changing the case ending from the Greek at different
times but he was struggling to make the distinction between
Cassiteris and Ictis because he actually
writes “INSULAM MICTIM,”. Other
writers such as Suetonius have actually referred to the island as Vectis, which
has obviously led to confusion with the Isle of Wight which was known in the
Roman world as Vectis and used to be pronounced ‘ouectis’ which obviously
sounds similar to Ictis.
Diodorus’
comments on the neighbouring islands, which lie between “Europe and Britain,” cannot
be a first-hand account but a muddle of more than one account. It would appear taking
into account archaeological evidence of early tin production that one would
need to look for an island somewhere between Salcombe and Lands’ End that dries
out at low tide and becomes a peninsula. As an investigator we should ignore the
information about Ictis having been surrounded by other islands close by, as
there is no such location near a tidal Island peninsula. We should account it
as later misunderstanding of a muddled confusion from a second or third hand
account concerning the Channel Islands.
Other considerations to achieve a practical location for the islands
whereabouts should consider navigational ease or constraints and overland transportation;
for by Pytheas’ account, these were large consignments of tin being moved. It
would appear therefore, that the story as a whole has become a confused
interpretation over the years comprised of rationalisations and interpolations.
The other islands mentioned will have been mixed up with the Channel Islands,
which some traders (that will have provided testimony), will no doubt have used
as a potential stopping point on their journey from the French coast, to wait
for fairer winds or merely bypassed them, before entering or setting out from that
part of the coast. Diodorus relates that
Ictis was dry at low water and “the natives conveyed to it wagons, in which were
large quantities of tin”. This and the fact that the Island is connected by a
causeway at low tide, across which these wagons convey the tin are the
essential facts relayed by Pytheas himself. Later interpolation from the
various accounts since Pytheas’ original, have thus far muddied the waters and
made it difficult to identify the pertinent facts.
The fact that
large quantities of tin at this stage in 350BC and more specifically before that, was produced in
Devon can be seen archeologically. It makes little practical sense to think
that the Isle of Wight or Hengistbury point or Thanet is even a viable candidate
for the island of Ictis. Ictis
researchers should consider the large quantities mentioned and the heavy
transport loads involved from Dartmoor as far as the Isle of Wight over 100
miles away. This would in effect be
analogous to conveying vast riches in a pony and trap through the countryside
on a regular basis. The problem with all
the previous possible candidates for the Island of Ictis is that scholars or researchers
have always used information selectively to support their
own views on the location. It is known that tin mining had first started in between the Erm and
Avon estuary in the early British Bronze Age.
There is ample archaeological evidence to show that tin streaming
existed high up on the moors behind South Brent at Shipley Bridge on the Avon,
at least to 1600BC and probably beyond.
Old style tin
streaming between these two rivers was the main industry in pre historic times,
due to the geological formation of a river on each side of a central granite
escarpment. Tin is smelted from ‘cassiterite’, a mineral found in
hydrothermal veins in granite, which is what had been separated by constant
erosion from the Quartz, Mica and Feldspar that constitute the Granite.
This area just north of the South Hams is where we find the earliest
beginnings of what was to become a global supplier of tin to the ancient world. The
methods employed to extract tin from Dartmoor followed a progression from
streaming through open cast mining to much later underground mining. Within ten
miles from Ictis there are extensive archaeological remains of these three
phases of the industry, and sites still exist that show the stages of
processing that were necessary to convert the ore to tin metal. The ordnance
survey map provides a snapshot showing the evolution from the early Bronze Age
through to the 1300’s AD. The once very extensive alluvial deposits of tin ore,
which were the first deposits to be mined in the two rivers, which once existed
in lodes, that have been eroded leaving the steep sided valleys; evidence the
vast quantity of ore that originally existed on the valley floor. The first
occupants, just panning the river beds due to cassiterite’s specific gravity,
would have sourced it all the way down the Erm and Avon Valleys.
The legendry
island of Ictis which is called ‘Burgh Island’ today, stands at the mouth of
the Avon River on the opposite shore to the small hamlet of Bantham. The Island of Ictis, first heard of in the chronicles
of the ancient writers, was probably coined from the Greek
ikhthys meaning fish, because up
until recently Burgh Island was renowned for the shoals of pilchards that
congregated naturally around it in Bigbury Bay. It seems that Pytheas referred
to the Island as ikhthys island or
‘fish island’ as it was probably called back then by the locals and then later chroniclers
termed it the Island of Ictis. The shoals of pilchards in the bay were
legendary well into the 18th century, fishing fleets said to have
made catches of 12 million fish in a single day. The pilchards were cured with
salt and were either pressed for oil or shipped by the barrel load to Europe.
It seems extraordinary that the one Island described by Pytheas as Fish Island
and renowned for its huge shoals that sometimes darkened the whole bay, would
not be associated with the Greek word ikhthys,
also being the only tidal island
on the southern promontory as described by Pytheas and especially situated just
10 miles from the huge alluvial tin deposits that existed on southern Dartmoor.
Tin was transported from this small
island over to France from around 1000
BC until around 30 BC, the trade probably seriously interfered with by Julius Caesar's expeditions in 55 and 54 BC.
The recent find of tin ingots at the mouth of the River Erm 2.5 miles
distant, confirms Burgh Island as Ictis and its link with the tin trade. In only one small area near Bantham that has
been recently excavated archaeologically, Amphorae were found and also other
signs of active trade with France and most probably Phoenician traders from an
early era. In another recent discovery
on the Eastern shore at Wash Gully, 300 yards off the coast on the approaches to the Salcombe estuary, divers recently uncovered
259 copper ingots, a bronze leaf sword and 27 tin ingots. The wreck of an old trading vessel
found there, dates from around 900BC and measures 40ft long to approximately
6ft wide and is constructed from timber planks. It is thought to have been powered by a crew
of 15 seamen with paddles, but it seems likely even at this early stage, some
form of ‘windage’ would have been employed in a fair wind.
There is more physical archaeological evidence in this
locale, between the mouth of the river Erm and Salcombe, than anywhere else on
the south coast and by this evidence we can connect Burgh island with the Tin
industry. The Archeological evidence
indicates that there was considerable trade in tin ore being shipped abroad
from an early period. Although the
copper ingots of the Salcombe wreck are said to have come from Europe; it does
not necessarily indicate that the copper was being imported. A craft of this size may have been on a
scouting mission to pick up more ingots from Ictis, having heard of it as a tin
depot from those further along the coast or the tin ingots could have come from
Ictis before it was wrecked.
There is
little evidence to show anywhere on the promontory of Belerion that the actual
smelting of bronze took place to any industrial degree but it is possible that
these copper ingots found off Salcombe, could have been traded with the locals
for the rarer commodity of tin. Although
copper was mined to the south-west of Dartmoor, these mines are of a much later
date than the wreck in question. The ‘Blow Houses’ found up behind the Avon dam
are part of the tin smelting process and were probably only used as such and
not employed to make bronze and these were of a much later date. Those pleasant
people “remarkably hospitable; and, from
their intercourse with foreign merchants, civilized in their mode of life; who inhabited the shores of the South and who
were so used to trade and foreigners, had
occupied themselves, in the streaming and exporting of tin ingots and
not the production of bronze, except on a small scale for their own use.
Strabo relates
the fact that the people who control the Island of Ictis took great pains to
hide the business of the island from Roman vessels seen on that part of the
coast. It
is probable that the early wagoneers who brought the tin down through
Loddiswell to the Island of Ictis for sale, could no longer keep secret their
route down from Dartmoor after the Romans arrived. The important point also related by
Strabo is that Ictis acted as an ‘emporium’, literally meaning market, which
indicates some sort of central agency, trading post or even monopoly from which
the tin was traded. This would make sense
practically, understanding that a trading vessel would not want to wait around
for the tin to be brought down from the various tin streamers upon the moors.
This leads to a natural conclusion that Ictis acted as some sort of vault or
storage area and would concur with the ‘wagon loads’ of Pytheas, so that when
the vessels arrived from abroad, they could expedite their business and if the
winds were fair, return home without a long wait in the anchorage at Bantham.
In the early
days when coracles were used, the pilot of a small trading vessel would take
rest in Bantham behind the duned promontory.
He would sail across to Burgh Island, dry out on the sand at low tide
while loading, securing and making ship shape his cargo of tin ‘Astragali’, to
be floated off at high tide for the return voyage. It would seem also that Pytheas had a sound
vessel and it is quite possible that his reference to coracles only refers to vessels
engaged in the tin trade bringing tin to the Island of Ictis from local river
mouths or even as far as from tin bearing Cornish river beds. Modern construction such as clincker that used
bronze nails was known at the time of Pytheas’s visit, but we can speculate
that most of the cross channel trade in tin would have taken place in vessels built
of wood and animal skins to ensure the vessel remained watertight as a natural
progression from framed coracles.
There is evidence
in France of bronze foundries built upon a long standing trade with Ictis such
as Villedieu-les-Poêles just inland from the Contentin coast
not far from Mont-Saint-Michel. Villedieu-les-Poêles
was established
on a reputation stemming back to pre-Roman times and was one such foundry that
eventually became one of the biggest in France in the medieval era smelting
bronze for church bells across Europe. This trade being established through the
mainland harbours such as those at St.
Père-sur-Mer, Genets and Avranches and St Malo.
One can assume
therefore that most of the bronze was founded in Europe as copper became more
plentiful from European mines.
It becomes apparent that Ictis acted as the
main tin agent for the western peninsular of England, declining from around 50BC
until its closure, but until that point, miners upon Dartmoor would have found
it very difficult to deliver as demand dictated, without an agency on the shore
to deal with the comings and goings of foreign vessels. There is no question that
the tin was traded with Europe, the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th
century B.C, referring to the tin trade as occurring in the "Isles of the
West" and others said to be Phoenician saying the trade existed long
before that. Biblical records recording the use of tin as far back as the
coming out of Egypt with Moses, Tubal-Cain the instructor of every artificer in
works of brass and Iron, and the building of the first Temple.
As global
demand grew, underground mining proliferated and Ictis’ central agency,
originally determined by geographical convenience; dissolved, as the industry
changed. This island contains what probably can be likened to one of the first
banks to ever exist. As such it would allow the miners to bring their tin down
from the moors when they wished and the foreign traders to purchase their
ingots and up anchor when the wind and tide were in their favour. The production of tin took so much labour that
late in Ictis’ history, with the emerging Roman Empire trying to get their hands
on as much tin as possible, it proved necessary, in its final century of
trading, to conceal the active trade of the island
Strabo relates ‘Now in former times it was the Phoenicians alone who
carried on this commerce for they kept the voyage a secret from everyone else. At one time when the
Romans were closely pursuing a certain Phoenician ship-captain in order that
they too might uncover the tin markets in question, jealously guarding the
secret, the ship-captain drove his ship on purpose off its course into shoal water; and after he had
lured his pursuer into the same ruin, he himself escaped by a piece of wreckage
and received from the State the value of the cargo and what he had lost. Still,
by trying many times, the Romans learned all about the voyage.’
It seems in the end, Ictis was lost and Cornwall in general became
known as the Cassiterides, Diodorus saying “if I am deceived, I would say, with Herodotus, that I am not acquainted
with the Cassiterides.” meaning as a set of Islands, given as ten in number where
tin is produced. This would seem to be a later confusion with the Channel
Islands and outlying rocks.
Posidonius in his account of the
tin-trade, says that metal was dug up ‘among the barbarians beyond Lusitania, and
in the islands called Cassiterides,’ and he
added that it was also found in Britain, and transported to Marseilles.
Pomponius Mela relates that ‘Among the Celtici are several islands, all
called by the single name of Cassiterides, because they abound in tin.’ Strabo,
writing about the year 10 AD, is in no way sure of the location of the
Cassiterides or the islands on the coast of Spain and seems to think the tin-islands are distant to Britain causing confusion with
the Scilly Isles or indicating some knowledge or rumour about the Azores and
says ‘Northwards and opposite to the Artabri are the islands
called the Cassiterides, situated in the high seas, somewhere about the same
latitude as Britain.’ And then goes on to say that ‘The islands are ten in
number’.
Pliny, who was Procurator of Spain writing just after Strabo reverts back to
the old statement, that ‘opposite to Celtiberia are a number of
islands, which the Greeks called Cassiterides, because of their abundance of
tin.’
Ictis
by this time was no longer operational and its Location to the Romans was
unknown. Publius Crassus visited the northern coast of Spain and he was
supposed to have found the way to the Cassiterides, because Strabo says ‘As
soon as he landed there, he saw that the mines were worked at a very slight
depth, and that the natives were peaceable and employing themselves of their
own accord in navigation: so he taught the voyage to all that were willing,
although it was longer than the voyage to Britain. Thus much about Spain, and
the islands lying in front of it.’
What Crassus had found is not certain but if
it were on the British coast by this time the steady migration of tinners
moving south after the closure of Ictis would have been inevitable, so maybe he
witnessed ‘shamelling’ down in Cornwall. Certainly to that part of the
peninsula would have been further than most cross channel routes from France
and he may have assumed Cornwall to be further out into the ocean and
disconnected from Britain especially if having travelled from Spain. Festus Avienus who wrote around 400AD perpetuates
the myth that Islands exist somewhere out in the channel or off southern
Britain by regurgitating the accounts of previous chroniclers: ‘Beneath
this promontory spreads the vast Oestrymnian gulf, in which rise out of the sea
the Oestrymnides islands, scattered with wide intervals, rich in metal of tin
and lead. The people are proud, clever, and active, and all engaged in
incessant cares of commerce. They furrow the wide rough strait, and the ocean abounding
in sea-monsters, with a new species of boat. For they know not how to frame
keels with pine or maple, as others use, nor to construct their curved barks
with fir, but strange to say, they always equip their vessels with skins joined
together, and often traverse the salt sea in a hide of leather. It is two days'
sail from hence to the Sacred Island, as the ancients called it’ and goes on to say, ‘near
to this again is the broad island of Albion.’
Much of this information coming from
chroniclers such as Pliny who believed it to be a fable of the Greeks, that the
tin was fetched from " islands in the Atlantic," and carried there in
the "wicker-boats sewn round with hides."
Polybius
is the authority for letting us know that Ictis and Corbelo were in fact in
later days kept secret from the Romans saying that no one in the city could
tell the Romans anything worth mentioning about the north and also that nothing
could be learned from the merchants of Narbonne, or of the City of
Corbelo,
which was said to have been a flourishing place
in
the age of Pytheas and who Strabo mixes up with Ictis.
Foreigners
were warned of the danger of all attempts to interfere with the Carthaginian
commerce.
Strabo tells
us of a Phoenician trading vessel whose captain on its return voyage from the “Tin
Isles”, while being followed by a Roman vessel which kept him in sight and
being unable to elude it; duly steered into the shallows, which caused the
sinking of both vessels on a shoal. Now
there would be no point in this deed unless of course he was seen heading to
seaward from the proximity of Ictis and this indicates that he must have been
fully laden because he was on a return journey and therefore probably slower
than normal. If overhauled and captured it would be difficult to explain. If he
were somewhat distant however from the Island and captured, he could say Ictis
was at any location but to be seen heading to seaward departing what looks to
be a Lee shore and in close proximity to an island, would surely have made a
Roman captain suspicious if he had indeed survived to tell the tale or captured
the captain with his cargo.
The captain
of the Phoenician vessel, whose own life was preserved, was rewarded by his
countryman or the agency on the island for managing to maintain the secrecy of
the island which begs the question; was Ictis’ agency or monopoly set up by
merchants from Tyre and Sidon.
It seems very strange that a trading vessel
laden with a cargo of tin ingots, having just left the coast would fall upon
Mary's rocks at the mouth of the Erm estuary. Assuming we have located Ictis,
(as Melkin later confirms), it would seem extraordinary as an explanation for
the find of a cache of ingots, that a boat would set out in foul conditions
after having loaded a cargo, only to fall prey to rocks on the next river mouth
over from where one had just set sail.
A captain could always return to where he knew
was navigable. It seems highly likely
that the boat carrying the wrecked ingots recently discovered at the mouth of
the Erm was the very Phoenician vessel narrated by Strabo, while there was reported
evidence of another wrecked vessel of a similar age that had sunk close by.
Interesting is the fact that it was his countrymen that recompensed him not only
for his vessel but the value of his cargo. This would lead us to believe by
Strabo’s report that this Island was held in such high esteem by the Phoenicians
as a central agency and as such, probably kept secret its whereabouts, to
monopolise the supply of tin to the ancient world. Logically, because of the
cluster of ingots found at the mouth of the Erm with a matching account to
explain their presence in such close proximity to Ictis; it should predispose
the enquirer to consider the reasons for such an unlikely find. It must be that
the Island was trying to remain unexposed to Roman discovery and takeover as
Strabo indicates. This alone should confirm that the identify of Ictis is
synonymous with Burgh Island without the information that Melkin later provides
us with as an unequivocally identification.
It must be understood by the Ictis researcher
that it was the community at Folly Hill just above Bigbury on Sea which
operated Ictis as a storehouse and mart for tin due to its close proximity for
loading while beached, as opposed to there having been a community that has
left archaeological evidence of dwelling on the Island itself.
The
prevailing wind in Bigbury bay is south west most of the time but if one were
heading out into the channel, one would leave Ictis on a starbord tack heading
toward the hill fort on Bolt tail. If no look outs had warned an unsuspecting
captain and one met a Roman vessel heading north west sailing under Bolt Tail, the two vessels would be virtually on top of
each other before they sighted one and
other. Our brave Phonecian captain chose to ‘go about’ and ‘reach’ past Ictis
and lead his pursuer to the mouth of the Erm. For the Roman to follow the
Phonecian onto the rocks would mean that as Strabo related, he was unable to
shake off his pursuer. The Roman captain, immediately on the the Phoenician’s
stern, thinking he was heading into the navigable waters of a river mouth,
would be left no time to take evasive action, sailing off the wind into the
river mouth. In fact he was probably so close having ‘run him down’ across the
bay probably the last thing he saw was the vessel ahead, founder on the rocks
before he heard the bottom of his vessel disintegrate. It seems highly probable that the Phoenician
captain might have thought he would clear the reef while leading his pursuer (with
a deeper draught) onto it. It was a chance he was willing to take and his decision would have been dependant on the tide
at the time of the pursuit but in the interests of protecting the whereabouts
of the then undiscovered ‘Tin Emporium’ he courageously sacrificed his
vessel. The Tin ingots are all that
remain, but they are situated only 2.5 miles away from Ictis. Of course the
only evidence that would remain from such an incident would be the narrative
itself and the cache of tin ingots after a period of approximately 2100 years.
The fact that this story was still circulating at the time Strabo wrote is a
good indication of the degree of fame in which the Phonecian captain was
regarded.
Caesar himself bears witness that the Veniti
at this time who were also engaged in tin export from Ictis in the Roman era ‘were the most powerful seafaring people who
exact tribute from such merchants as sail on that sea’ meaning the channel. The enemy i.e. the Veniti, he says ‘had great advantage over us in their
shipping; the keels of their ships were flatter than ours, consequently more convenient
for the shallows and low tides; their forecastles were very high; their poops
were contrived so as to endure the roughness of the sea; the hull of their
vessels were built of impenetrable oak; the banks for the oars were beams of a
foot square ,fastened at each end, with iron pins an inch thick. Instead of
cables for their anchors they made use of iron chains and had hides for their
sails, either because they wanted linen and were ignorant of its use or what is
more likely, they thought linen sails not strong enough to endure their
boisterous seas and tempestuous winds and to carry vessels of such considerable
burden.
The ease of
access into the small tidal basin of Bantham would have been considerably
easier to navigate in days gone by, before the dam at the head of the River
Avon was constructed. It is plain to see
from a seaward perspective, how small trading vessels having once turned the
corner at the mouth of the Avon, find shelter in a small anchorage and remain
hidden as long as they were not seen entering the harbour.
From seaward,
the approach to the river mouth looks like a ‘lee shore’ which no sailor would
want to approach unless he had prior knowledge of the passage between the waves
leading to a haven behind the spit. From
a seaward perspective, a passing vessel would only see the cliffs in the
background and never assume the tidal river turned tightly to starboard behind
Bantham dunes. Due to the fact that the
entrance is not wide, the entrance is disguised from seaward as a breaking
shoreline at nearly all states of the tide as shown in figure 12, but a clear
entrance is visible in the photograph viewed from the top of the Island of
Ictis.
For this
reason and because of the brave acts of one Phonecian captain, Ictis has
remained elusive. If the Romans had discovered it, the modern world would have
known its whereabouts. In the early days
of Ictis, if the weather was foul and the tide ebbing, a small trading vessel
could find sanctuary and dry out on the beach in the lee of the sand causeway
with enough shelter found in the lee of the island itself. When the tide flooded, a small vessel would
ease up to the anchorage in Bantham. In
1864, during the drainage of the marsh around the Buckland stream at Bantham,
it was noticed that cart loads of bone were recovered which confirms a large
camp that was known to exist there in Roman times and indicates that Ictis had
become redundant before the camp was established as later writers would not
still refer to the fabled Island.
Phoenicians
and Veniti alike traded with these friendly people for centuries. It was only due to the longevity of tin
streaming and the expertise that was built up due to this trade over such a
long period that their reputation and pre-eminence continued until the Roman
era. The ‘tinners’ themselves, would
have been content in the knowledge that, through the agency the best price was
realised and the ‘tinners’ did not find it necessary to undercut the value of
their labour by competing with one another.
Bronze age ‘tinners’ started to mine eluvial
deposits for tin as alluvial deposits started to dwindle and this caused a
gradual edging northward over the centuries up to Tavistock, Ashburton and Chagford.
Much of the evidence of the earliest tinners upon southern Dartmoor that
originated on the Avon, and the Erm but later encorporated the river Yealm and some
of the tributaries of the Tamar, Plym and river Dart have had their archaeological
evidence of tin streaming from the early British bronze age removed by
subsequent workings. The Bronze Age axe head found on Mothecombe beach dated to
around 1600BC is evidence of very early tin production for the Erm and Avon
valleys and also adds credence to Ictis’ subsequent establishment.
The western
side of Dartmoor opening up probably after Ictis shut down, as tin from this
side traded out of Sutton harbour. Gradually over a period of 1600 years the
whole industry made a steady progression southwards into Cornwall but certainly
the beginnings of tin were from the rich alluvial grounds on Southern Dartmoor
from which the Ictis trade was born and for which the Island became famed in
the ancient world.
From the
ancient writers, to the modern researcher misinformation about the Island of
Ictis has compounded its elusiveness. One can see how the Cassitterides (the
Tin Isles), from the later Latin chroniclers, was mistaken for an island called
Ictis which exported tin and which was purportedly surrounded by other islands
in close proximity as Diodorus says of these “islands,” (using the
plural,) that “they appear islands” only at “high water” and that when the tide
is out, the intervening space is left dry, and “they are seen to be peninsulas”.
This being reported by the subsequent writers is understandable from a chronicler
who has never seen the French coast, the English coast or tides. It is not difficult to understand how one can
get the detail between islands of the Channel Islands, mixed up with the island
that is the ‘Emporium’ that actually dries out at low tide.
Confused
accounts have prevented researchers from noticing the only island from the
Salcombe estuary down to Lands’ End that would practically fit Pytheas’s
description. It also fits all the practical criteria of easy access to tin from
ancient time, the provision of a safe harbour and seclusion from pirates. The
fact that it dries out at low tide, the one unequivocal clue we had, because
Diodorus found the concept strange and yet still included that detail in his
narrative, is only part of the confirmation. Diodorus at no stage intonated the
Island was to be found in Cornwall but by his definition of the Belerion
promontory, his southern promontory could start at Salcombe. In fact Diodorus
has little idea about Ictis and thinks the Tin Isles are off Spain. Tin also is found in many regions of Iberia, but
not found, however, on the surface of the earth, as certain writers continually
repeat in their histories, but mined out of the ground and smelted in the same way
as silver and gold are. For there are many mines of tin in the country above
Lusitania and on the islets which lie off Iberia out in the ocean and are
called because of that fact the Cassiterides.
Diodorus knows that tin is mined in Spain and like Strabo,
is dubious of Pytheas’ account which implies the collection of alluvial and
elluvial deposits. He also follows this last extract with: And tin is brought
in large quantities also from the island of Britain to the opposite Gaul, where
it is taken by merchants on horses through the interior of Celtica both to the
Massalians and to the city of Narbo, as it is called. By following on with this account he is implying that the
Island of Ictis to which tin was transported, now was to become islands where
the tin came from called the Cassiterides. There simply never were tin
producing Islands. Supporters of the St. Michael’s Mount location
as Ictis also should remember that it is not opposite Gaul as described above,
whereas Burgh Island not only has the confused Channel Islands in close
proximity but also fits the ‘opposite Gaul’ account more accurately. The most
probable explanation for the confusion of the Island to which tin is taken to
and to be traded from by Diodorus’ account, subsequently transmuting into the
Island where tin is mined is simply the fact that traders had purchased tin at
that island emporium. Regardless of the fact that Diodorus from Pytheas’
account records that the wagons conveyed the tin to the Island, traders
accounts recorded by chroniclers would have expressly confirmed that Ictis is
where one obtains tin, not where the tin came from before it was transported
for storage on the island.
From the early bronze age in the south west,
tin was an extremely scarce and valuable commodity due to the amount of labour
that it took to extract from
alluvial ground or river bed deposits before smelting. A large community of Bronze Age tinners
existed in the area around Shipley Bridge where the initial alluvial deposits
would have been plentiful and there is evidence that in the dry summer months
they may have controlled the river flow with a small dam so that working the
river beds was facilitated for short intervals. The dam may well have been used
for fish stock also. It is for this
reason Ictis sprung up at the base of the Avon and Erm rivers evolving into a
trading post or market and then became the equivalent of the local bank vault, storing
tin ingots that had been mined in the area, these very miners hewing out a
storage area within the Island. This
convenience of location, gave easy access for the traders, instant payment for
the ‘tinners’, of the goods brought by the continental traders and the first
major tin monopoly and marketplace for the tinners product.
If you want
to find out more about this Island connection with Judah and Leonardo Da Vinci,
the book can be found in paperback or ebook.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/and-did-those-feet-michael-goldsworthy/1110960654?ean=9781780883007
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