The
Following is taken from a book called 'And did those feet' written by Michael
Goldsworthy. The book discovers the real location of Avalon as predicted by the
prophet Melkin.
Melkin says that the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea will be found
on a bifucated line 0ne hundred and four nautical miles from the stone circle
of Avebury. The line is bifurcated with the St. Michael ley line at 13 degrees
precisely as Melkin had predicted.
The Perlesvaus offers us a
description of the position of the Island of Avalon and it does not fit a
description of Glastonbury but rather a coastal location now known as Burgh
island that used to have a monastery on it back in the time that Melkin wrote
his prophecy and also wrote the original Grail book.
L'auteur du Haut Livre
du Graal affirme même que son texte est copié d'un manuscrit latin qui a été
trouvé en l’Isle d’Avalon en une sainte
meson de religion qui siét au chief des Mares Aventurex, la oli rois Artuz e la
roïne gisent
‘The
author of the High Book of the Grail even claims that his text is copied from a
Latin manuscript which was found in the Isle of Avalon in a house of holy
religion which sits at the head of hazardous tides where King Arthur and Queen
Guenievre lie. according to the witnesses of good and religious men that are
there, that have the whole story thereof, true from the beginning even to the
end.'
If
we accept the holy house is a monastery which we will show existed in the last
chapter and we take Mares as meaning marée which translates as tide or tidal
waters then take Aventurex as aventuré which in old French has the same meaning
as hasardé, hasardeux, we surely are looking at Burgh Island surrounded by
tidal waters as the Island of Avalon that used to have a monastery on it.
You can find the whole story of how Glastonbury has
misrepresented itself and the Glastonbury tor as being synonymous with the Isle
of Avalon by Clicking on the following links
Figure 56 showing the Bifurcation point or the two forked line of Melkin’s prophecy which bisects inside the Avebury stone circle. The line which Melkin has sent us to find is 104 nautical miles away from Avebury and runs right through St. Michael’s hill just as Father William Good had instructed us as to where Joseph of Arimathea was ‘carefully hidden’. The angle at which the bifurcation toward mons-acutus or Montacute bisects the Saint Michael ley line is 13 degress as Melkin had let us know.
Melkin who was the
original Author of the Grail stories in Latin gave the Troubadours their
material in what was called the Grail book and it is for this reason we have
the Grail legends which speak of the same subjects that Glastonbury legends
also relate.
Joseph of Arimathea
buried Jesus in what came to be known as the Grail Ark in an Island that had
been famed for selling tin in the Ancient world. This Island was then known as
the Island of Ictis but it is called the Island of Sarras in the Grail stories
because of its connection to the line of Judah that established the Island
through his son Zarah. Even though some of the Grail stories that emanated from
France mention the Island of Avaron in the west, Melkin (who originated these
stories) also established the Glastonbury legends of Avalon by his Prophecy.
However once the prophecy is understood and the geometric instructions are
followed it turns out that the Island of Avalon is the same as the Island of
Ictis described by Pytheas which is Burgh Island in Devon on the south coast of
England.
The newly discovered Island of Avalon also known as the Island of Sarras in the Arthurian grail cycle.
Establishing connections between the Grail material in Britain and the romances emanating from France. Finding the answer to why Melkin’s Prophecy and the Grail romances both refer to Joseph and why the wattle church becomes a focal point for the proof of Glastonbury’s association with Joseph.
John of
Breynton was Abbot of Glastonbury from 1334 to 1342, and John of Glastonbury's
Cronica suggests that he proactively advanced the standing of the Abbey and opposed moves by the Abbey of
Wells to dominate over them. Breynton was the Abbot in charge of the Abbey archives while
Glastonbury was enjoying a new resurgence of interest in Joseph of Arimathea,
due mostly, to the proliferation of the Romance stories. These stories at the
same time had revitalized much interest in Arthur, which the monks previously
and miraculously had found on the grounds of the Abbey about 150 years before
hand.
The next
abbot Walter de Monington took over in 1342 AD and he was known to have kept the
Abbey in profit, and continued during his time to carry out building projects
on the estate grounds to improve its status and establish its ecclesiastical
precedence. John of Glastonbury's
Cronica was finished just as Monington arrived at the Abbey as Abbot. It was due to the amalgamation of all the
prior sources of John of Glastonbury's Cronica, much of the content revolving
around Joseph of Arimathea's mission to Glastonbury, that in 1345 they applied
for a Royal permit, to search Glastonbury grounds to unearth the body of Joseph
of Arimathea. By this time the Glastonbury monks had begun to believe their own
propaganda but Joseph was not found.
From when the
next Abbot Chinnock arrived on the scene in 1375, until 1420 big changes happened
at Glastonbury. In 1382 Chinnock
restored the ruined chapel in the cemetery and re-dedicated it to St. Michael
and St Joseph of Arimathea, also adorning the Abbey with excerpts from John of
Glastonbury's Cronica in the main church encouraging those who came into the
Abbey to read of the legend. Anything
that promoted the Abbey by associating it still further with Joseph of
Arimathea was acceptable. The end result
of all this self-promotion of Glastonbury Abbey was at last, to be independent
of the See of Wells, and through their illustrious associations with Arthur and
Joseph, the Abbey continued to gain primacy, wealth, and pilgrims.
This is the real Island of Avalon, the ancient Isle of Ictis where Joseph of Arimathea conducted his mercantile business in the tin trade.
The Abbey at
last, through its own propaganda, had freed itself from the pressures of royal
taxes, interference from other Bishops and neighbouring landlords by its
saintly supremacy, and its immoderate claim to an array of holy relics, that
had been uncovered since the disinterring of Arthur's grave. Realistically,
over this period of time, the chroniclers of Glastonbury Abbey had set out to
increase the prestige of their own monastic order and this was mainly
established by erroneous “proofs” of their past associations. In 1497 William Whyche wrote a continuation
of John's Cronica and since John of Glastonbury very rarely wrote in his own
words but mostly extracted from other sources, it is probably from this that
some of the misrepresentations to Melkin’s prophecy really happened, if indeed
they had not happened earlier. We know
that John of Glastonbury recorded faithfully what others had said, without too
much interpretation, but we do not know if we have any other source for the
prophecy and that other chroniclers did not use John as their source. It would
seem by William Whyche’s lection, his later interpretation in his own words, that
much of the errors of interpretation and interpolation from Melkin’s prophecy
became even more exacerbated. In effect the Abbey chroniclers by degree,
changed the purport of Melkin’s prophecy but what we cannot be certain about is
whether it was Melkin’s intention that later generations were to be misled into
thinking that Avalon was Glastonbury.
After
Chinnock died, Richard Bere 1492-1524, built a shrine to Joseph and established
the coat of arms of Glastonbury; using Evelak’s shield as an associative emblem,
which became Joseph’s shield, which
depicted a green knotted cross with Golden jug like beer vessels on each side
of the cross on the shield with drops of blood dripping down. This even further established the association
of Joseph of Arimathea with Glastonbury, as it now became their heraldic shield
and confirmed the Abbey's relationship with Melkin’s prophecy in that these
jugs were synonymous with the ‘duo fassula’.
King Arthur's re-interred burial site as shown at Glastonbury but King Arthur is in fact buried in the Island of Avalon, the present day Burgh Island. It was there that he came to find a miracle after his fatal wound with Mordred because he knew who Isle was buried within the Island.
Basically
John's entire Cronica is put together extracting verbatim from other sources,
but wherever possible Glastonbury’s tentative connections with Arthur and
Joseph were portrayed as more substantial than the previous sources. John's main sources for his Cronica were
William of Malmesbury, Ranulph Higdon, Giraldus Cambrensis and Adam of
Domerham. All of his early Glastonbury
regurgitation came from William’s ‘De Antiquitae Glastonie Ecclessie’ which was
written in 1130. It can be seen from
William’s later work, how his ‘Antiquitaes’ was unscrupulously meddled with, by
a considerable number of interpolations by previous scribes from the
Glastonbury institution. Little by
little, and at every turn, over time a false belief was established that Joseph
was buried at Glastonbury.
In William of
Malmesbury’s Gesta Regnum, this later
work just referred to, he says ‘the Britons would have come utterly to
nought but for their new king Ambrosius the sole survivor of the Romans, who
kept the Saxons in check through the notable efforts of warlike Arthur’.
Then he follows
on by saying ‘this is the Arthur, concerning whom
the idle tales of the Britons rave wildly even today; a man certainly worthy to
be celebrated not in foolish dreams of deceitful fables but in truthful
history’; John of
Glastonbury seeing things in a completely different light, promoted Arthur as
being an integral part of Glastonbury's history.
It was Adam
of Dommerham writing before John who gave the account of the annexation of
Glastonbury Abbey to the See of Wells by Bishop Savaric and told of the
visitation to Glastonbury in 1278, of Edward I, when the tomb of Arthur was opened
for the second time and his bones were reinterred to the high altar. John of
Glastonbury used many sources when on the trail of Joseph of Arimathea, and gave
quotes from the gospel of Nicodemus, the Vulgate cycle of the Arthurian
romances, which included Robert de Boron's Merlin, Lancelot, Le Mort d’Arthur, Le
Queste del Saint Grail, the Estoire and of course from Melkin. It is from the Estoire that John tells us of
Joseph's release from prison and of his arrival in Britain and the gift of ‘Ynis
witrin’ from Arviragus and of his building of the wattled church 31 years after
the crucifixion. One can see with all the various sources that provided the
Joseph and Arthur material from which John drew; that it was bound to throw up
conflicting information. It becomes muddled though when he himself had a hidden
agenda. What few people realise is that much of this information had been
revealed by the Book of the Grail and had been embellished and corrupted by the
Grail writers in France, but the initial source for that book had been Melkin.
The real reason that much of this distorted information had arrived in Glastonbury
was due to a previous Abbot, Henry Blois and we will see what a large part he
played in this saga shortly.
John of
Glastonbury also used as source material Giraldus Cambrensis who wrote two
books ‘ De Principis Instructione’ c.
1193-9 and his ‘Speculum Ecclesiae’
of c. 1217 both from which, John sourced his material. It was from Giraldus’s first book that we
hear of the original discovery in 1191 of Arthur's body, but then in his second
book 20 years later, he wrote a different version when he dates the incident to
the reign of Henry II, but the king had died in 1189. In Giraldus’s first book he tells of King
Arthur having had a special devotion to St. Mary of Glastonbury, of whose
church he was a generous patron and whose image he painted on his shield and
kissed its feet in the hour of battle, as was quoted above, but prior to this
time, there was no connection between Arthur and the church at Glastonbury.
When Giraldus
talks of Arthur's body he says ‘fanciful tales were told and that his body
was carried off by spirits to remote regions, and was not subject to death but
one day would return’. He also goes on to say ‘in our times
it was discovered buried deep in the earth in a hollow oak between the two
stone pyramids in the cemetery of Glastonbury’
and then goes
on to quote the other version of Arthur’s burial with Guinevere. Giraldus says ’two thirds of the sepulchre
contained the bones of the King. The
remainder, those of his wife, were at his feet with a yellow lock of the
Queen's hair that turned to dust when touched by a monk’. He then adds credibility for the find by saying that, the
brethren had become aware of the tomb’s location ‘from writings, which they
possessed and other information was gleaned from letters carved on the pyramids
and then again through visions and revelations made to some of their
order. But most of all, it was King
Henry, who had plainly told them the whole matter as he had heard it from an
ancient historical poet of the Britons’. Giraldus is trying to infer that it connects King Henry
with Melkin and thereby Melkin’s prophecy (which relates to Joseph only), but
by the inference now associates Arthur. However it should not go un-noticed
that Henry was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine and as we shall see, she and her
family were the owners of the Book of the Grail.
Giraldus
continues on to say ‘how's that deep down, 16 feet below the ground’, should
they dig, ‘they would find a body not in a marble tomb but in a hollow oak’. The reference here to a marble tomb was in
fact drawing attention to an association with the well-known prophecy intonating
‘unlike Joseph’s tomb of marble’. The word ’Marmore’ for marble from Melkin’s
prophecy has a completely different meaning as the reader will be made aware,
when we investigate the prophecy more deeply. The reason Giraldus offers for the secrecy of
this tomb and the fact that it was buried so deep, was apparently a desire to
hide the body from Arthur’s old enemies the Saxons. The rational reason for having to discover a
body at such depths is most probably a gambit by the monks, covering the fact
that previous searches for Joseph in the same place, had never uncovered
Arthur.
Then again it
was Giraldus, who established Avalon with Glastonbury for posterity by saying
‘Glastonia was anciently called ‘Insula Avalonia’, for it is an island
surrounded by marshes; wherefore in the British language it is named ‘Inis
Avalon’, that is to say Island of Apples.
Then he relates that Morganis, who was ruler of these parts and who was
allied to King Arthur by blood carried him there after the battle of ‘Kemale’
for the healing of his wounds and now the island is called ‘Glastonia’. He also relates that the island had been
called in the British tongue ‘Inis Gutrin’ which is ‘Insula Vitrea’ which the
Saxons who came after, changed its name to ‘Glastingburi’ because ‘Glas’ in
their language is the same as ‘vitrum’ and ‘buri’ is like ‘castrum’, so
rendering, Glastonbury.
Giraldus adding further evidence to
substantiate the Glastonbury claim, then goes on to relate that King Arthur’s
bones were of ‘enormous size and his shinbone came some distance above the knee
of the tallest man in this place his head was prodigiously large and it had 10
wounds or more, all of which had healed up except one, which seemed to indicate
Arthur’s death blow.
The date
given by Ralph of Coggeshall, who wrote at the same time as Giraldus’ first
account for the unearthing of King Arthur’s bones was 1191. Ralph writes that they were found when a
grave was being dug for a monk who had specially desired to be buried between
the two pyramids. He also gives an
alternative inscription on the leaden cross not mentioning Queen Guinevere. Since
the Guinevere connection is only found in both of Giraldus’ accounts, it seems
that he is the most guilty of Glastonbury's self-promotion and for setting its
history records conveniently on course to be the location of both Arthur and
Joseph of Arimathea's burial ground. As
startling as it is, that three Glastonbury chroniclers Ralph of Coggeshall,
Giraldus and Leland all attest to having had the lead cross discovered with
Arthur in their possession, all three of them were unable to agree exactly what
was written on it.
Not only were
there three different renditions of what was written on the cross unearthed
with Arthur, one with Guinevere: ‘cum
wenneveria uxore sua secunda’, but there was another which came from Leyland, a
witness who stated that he held the cross in his hand circa 1540 and actually
measured it. There are later
chroniclers who give a completely different translation: ‘hic jacet
gloriosissimus Rex Britonum Arturus’ (here
lies the renowned British king Arthur) that it makes one wonder what the cross,
which the monks had obviously fabricated themselves, actually had written upon
it. It is very difficult to understand
what advantage Giraldus found in introducing Guinevere, for he quotes the
epitaph twice; except to fit in with more recent accounts of Arthur emanating
through the romances. In the first quote, having ‘cum wenneveria uxore sua secunda’
coming before ‘in insula Avallonia’ and in the second place after it. Giraldus specifically says that he had read
the quotes from the cross, so we will never understand why, having gone to the
trouble to fabricate the cross in the first place, the Glastonbury chroniclers
couldn't sing from the same hymn sheet.
It actually makes little difference what was written on the cross, for
its sole purpose was to establish Glastonbury as Avalon.
The Island of Avallon that is established by Melkin's Prophecy. Melkin's geometrical and geographical instructions point to Burgh island rather than as it has been mistakenly thought of in the past, to be located at Glastonbury tor.
This era 1190, to 1230 when the Grail legends became prevalent, was the time when it became a necessity for Glastonbury to find a solution to its problem. To maintain its independence and ecclesiastical standing, its status and primacy, it had to be three things; the burial place of Joseph, the burial place of Arthur, and the Island of Avalon. As long as it could maintain to the world that these things were true it would always remain a sacred place. It was due to the proliferation of the Grail romances and their connection with Joseph and Arthur that at this time it shone a light on Avalon. After Geoffrey’s book had reached popular consciousness stating that Arthur was buried in the Isle of Avalon; it was necessary for Glastonbury to produce King Arthur. The discovery of Arthur in the Abbey cemetery in 1191 established that Glastonbury was the Island of Avalon. The obvious inference was that Joseph was also buried there. This really was a quick transmutation, because as it has been pointed out already, when William of Malmesbury looked through Glastonbury's records in 1120 and from the time when Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his history of the Kings of Britain in 1135, neither of them up to that date had ever associated Avalon, with Glastonbury.
As we have covered already, William of
Malmesbury asserting that King Arthur’s burial place was unknown. As William wrote a comprehensive history of Glastonbury ‘De antiquitae
Glatoniensis ecclesie’ around 1130 which related many legends in connection
with the Abbey, but made no mention of either Arthur's grave or a connection of
Glastonbury to the name Avalon, it becomes plain that Glastonbury is not
Avalon.
So it would
seem that between the dates of 1135 and 1191, the plan was hatched to produce
Arthur probably taking place due to necessity straight after the Abbey fire. The contemporary authors of the time of the discovery
gave different reasons for Arthur suddenly being disinterred. Giraldus in his ‘de Instructione Principis’
written in 1193, relates that King Henry had been informed by the Welsh Bard
that Arthur’s body would be found in this exact location 16 feet beneath the
ground. However, Ralph of Coggeshall writing a few years after the disinterment
says that Arthur's grave was found haphazardly as a grave was being prepared
for one of the monks of the Abbey, who had asked to be buried between the two
pyramids that existed just outside the Abbey. Both of these writers seemed to be relating
inconsequential narrative, but one wonders why it was so essential to proffer a
reason for having uncovered Arthur’s bones, and like so many polemicists, they
are seen to be entrapped in their own guile.
Where there
is a connection there is often a grain of truth. In 1152 Eleanor became engaged
to Henry II who became King in 1154. Eleanor had a strong connection to
Melkin’s Book of the Grail as we shall cover shortly and since no one knew at
this stage where Avalon was, it seems likely that the Queen having come from
France had informed King Henry of the ‘Matter of Britain’. King Henry died in
1189 two years before Arthur’s supposed unearthing. The only place in England
to have a Joseph tradition was Glastonbury. Eleanor knew both Arthur and Joseph
were buried in Avalon, so are Henry and Eleanor with their proprietary knowledge
responsible for emboldening the Monks to make the connection between their
tradition of Joseph and that of the emergent King Arthur from the Grail stories,
both buried in Avalon. Joseph could not be produced for reasons given already,
so the monks duly uncover Arthur out of necessity, requiring funds from
pilgrims to rebuild.
Arthur’s body
was never discovered and as we shall reveal shortly, it is still buried in the
Island of Avalon. Even though, in all
probability, Joseph had in fact established the first church at Glastonbury,
the real reason for the inventions propagated by Glastonbury, were due to the
fact that in 1184, the Abbey had been burnt down. The ancient manuscripts that would have
provided Glastonbury with evidence of its illustrious past had been burnt along
with other books Melkin had written that remained in Britain. One however, the ‘Book of the Grail’ had left
for France in the Saxon era after the death of Arthur; the historical content
of which was slowly filtering back into Britain but it was now transformed and
barely recognisable as the same Joseph heritage that Glastonbury had possessed
before the fire. The version was now mixed with arcane ancient knowledge
derived from the Jerusalem temple that had been intermingled with historical
accounts of Jesus, Joseph and the illustrious bloodline that followed. This was
all accomplished by troubadours who were not aware of the substance of the
source from which they composed their tales . These troubadours encouraged and
commissioned by French and English courtiers, most of whom at this time were
either Templars or were connected to them. There was no TV or novels and the
troubadours were light entertainment.
This Grail
material concerning Joseph as it filtered into Britain must have trivialised
what the ‘Glastonbury institution’ had previously viewed as their monopoly, by
virtue of possessing the wattle church.
By association with the wattle church and Joseph, they needed an
overnight sensation to re-establish themselves as the only serious location to
have direct historical associations with Joseph. The ploy worked and the discovery of Arthur’s
body, accompanied by the Leaden Cross found with it, not only spelled out the
location it was found in but was immediately accepted as genuine. The
Glastonbury institution gained enormously from this promotion and from that
date forward Arthur and Glastonbury were inextricably linked.
Establishing Joseph’s connection with
Glastonbury however, remained a little more elusive. It was through William of Malmesbury who tells
us how St. Joseph was sent over by St Philip, and how a
king of Britain, whom he gives no name, gave Joseph and his companions the
island called ‘Ynyswitryn’, where, by admonition of the Archangel Gabriel
appearing to him in a vision, he built a chapel which he dedicated to the
Virgin. After which two other kings, whom again he does not name, gave the twelve holy men the ‘Twelve Hides’ of
Glastonbury. It was through William relating that St. Philip had sent Joseph of Arimathea to
proselytise the British that Glastonbury had written precedent and this was
only by way of an ‘ut ferunt’ meaning
‘as is reported’. So after William had
casually alluded to Joseph, it was not until St Patrick's Charter was
fortuitously found in 1220 in the chapel at the top of the tor that Joseph's
name was concretely linked to Glastonbury.
It seems apparent that this was in fact a fabrication of a non-existent
document, supposedly burnt in the fire, which had been fortuitously duplicated
and therefore saved for posterity. For every monastic order, church or Abbey, it
was essential to have as its head a patron saint, and Joseph was Glastonbury's,
by a long-standing tradition not able to be substantiated except by a now fired
wattle church. After the first fire, the
re-establishment or firming up of Joseph’s connection with Glastonbury came mainly
through John of Glastonbury's Cronica, which was written in 1340 and this as we
have seen, consolidated all the previous chroniclers to concur that Glastonbury
was the Isle of Avalon.
Geoffrey of
Monmouth established the Welsh Arthurian tradition and Merlin prophecies which
may have come from Melkin originally, while England had an already established Joseph
tradition based upon the source of Melkin's manuscripts and especially latterly
through the massaging of the prophecy of Melkin. Arthur was king of Dumnonia,
the Belerion of Pytheas that nowadays constitutes most of Devon and Cornwall,
as is attested in the Life of Gildas related by Caradoc of Llancarvan. He states that the King of Somerset had
carried off King Arthur's wife, Guinevere, so that King Arthur brought up the
whole forces of Cornwall and Devon to affect her release.
It is not
known how widely Melkin’s works had permeated into other monasteries before the
dissolution but for the most part it seems there had been a suppression of his
work in Saxon times. Melkin's manuscripts or even fragments of them, could
still have existed before the dissolution, at the Abbey, as is attested, however the material extrapolated from them
is scantly recorded but some of Melkin’s work must have been a source for
Geoffrey of Monmouth. Melkin arrived in
popular consciousness at the production of John of Glastonbury's Cronica
quoting directly from the book of Melkin.
It seems likely that Geoffrey of Monmouth's British ‘book of great
antiquity’ which he says is his source, could have been one of Melkin's manuscripts
but Geoffrey had flights of fantasy and may have used Melkin’s work for ideas
that eventually metamorphosed Arthur into a consolidated British king.
The only
other reference we have that there was a Book of Melkin, is from John Hardyng’s
English history and he tells us citing Melkin as the source, that Joseph of
Arimathea baptised King Arviragus and that Scotland was named after Scota the
daughter of a Pharaoh, indicating by this new detail that he had seen another
source quoting Melkin or a copy of his book was still extant after the fire. There is no reason to disbelieve Hardyng but
it is interesting to note that Melkin probably understood more about a
connection with Egypt, than is commonly accepted but is related in a muddled
fashion by the Grail romances. Hardyng
also says, as if he were quoting Melkin directly, ‘Galahad created the order of
the knights of Saint Graall, and was made King of Sarras, and that Galahad
would achieve the Grail, and mentions the configuration of the table of the
Knights.
‘Where thenne
he (Galahad) made twelve knightes of the Saint Graal,in full signifycacyon of
the table which Joseph was the founder, at Avalon, as Mewyn (Melkin) made
relacyon; in token of the table refyguracyon, of the brotherhede of Christes
souper and maundie, afore his death,of highest dignytee’.
Not only did Hardyng
introduce previously unrecorded information from Melkin but refers to him
directly in the above text. This does
imply that a book written by Melkin mentioning Avalon apart from Melkin’s
prophecy had survived in Britain because one of his books is said to have been
about Arthur and the round Table. However the very mention of ‘Saint Graal’
means that Hardyng has definitely sourced French material also.
Hardyng
stands out as an independent source and not part of the Glastonbury brotherhood
of polemicists. The only other citation, that is said to come directly from
Melkin, is in Capgrave’s ‘Nova Legenda Angliae,’ where Melkin's original
prophecy is so reduced, (most probably because of the difficulties with its
meaning) that the whole thing could have been précised from John's Cronica. John Hardyng writing a
chronicle, starts the provenance of the English through Brutus the Trojan,
first born of Locrinus and ‘heir to that part of Britain now called England’,
then continuing his chronicle through Arthur to the end of his history. The
interesting thing is that Hardyng comments that he follows the tradition of
“Mewn the Britayn chronicler” thereby confirming that Melkin was a collator who
drew from an ancient source. This tradition which he is following, we must
assume is contrary to that in which Geoffrey of Monmouth has embellished
Arthur’s Welsh and British role as opposed to a more historic southern tradition
and Arthur’s genealogical connection to either Joseph or as we shall cover
shortly, Jesus.
John Leland
relates that he came across fragments of Melkin’s ‘Historiola De Rebus Britannnicis’ in the
Glastonbury library and it is from these fragments that Leland tells us, that
Melkin was the most famous and erudite of British writers, well-respected and
was renowned since great antiquity. It
is implied also by Leland, that Melkin thinks Arthur is buried at Glastonbury. This surely must be Leland's conclusion based
upon the connection of the ‘oratori’ in Melkin’s prophecy because in his
‘Assertio Arturii’, Leland names
Glastonbury as Arthur’s burial place, yet as we know Arthur is buried in Avalon
and Melkin knew this since he has left specific instructions to show us where
it is. Leland who wrote
around 1530 says that the document here quoted is ‘a very treasured possession
in the old Library of the Abbey. He
calls it 'a fragment of history written by ‘Melchinus an Avalonian'. The passage below from his Nova Legenda
Angliae, is from a translation by Skeat and indicates the interest that
Melkin’s prophecy generated and the seriousness with which it was treated was a
reflection of its hidden veracity. It
was taken seriously as a venerated ancient text but no one really understood
what it meant and why it was made so ambiguous.
'The
Isle of Avalon, hungry for the burial of the natives, once adorned, above all
others in the world, by oracular circles ('sperulis vaticinantibus') of
prophecy, will for the future also be furnished with worshippers of the
Highest. Abbadare, mighty in judgement, noblest of natives, with one hundred
and four knights ("milibus" for "militibus") fell asleep
there. Amid whom, Joseph of Marmor, name of "Armathia", found his
perpetual rest. And he lies inside the forked line near the southern angle of
the oratory erected there (of wattles prepared before), over ("super
potentem adorandam virginem") the powerful adorable virgin, by that circle
of thirteen inhabiting the spot. Joseph forsooth, has with him in his tomb two
cruets, white and silvery, filled with the blood and sweat of the prophet
Jesus. When his sepulchre shall be found, it will be seen in future years
complete and undamaged, and it will be open to the whole world. Thenceforth,
neither dew nor rain shall ever fail those who inhabit this most noble island.
Long before the judgement day in Josaphat, these things will be open and
manifested to living people.'
It is evident
from the time Melkin lived (sometime after Arthur’s death) up to the 11th
century, that Melkin had played a big part in perpetuating the Joseph tradition
in English history and had, single-handedly and effectively altered the English
psyche by his occult riddle that gave directions to Joseph's resting place. This
riddle somehow implied or transformed the finding of his tomb into a quest, that
interchangeably became a quest for the Holy Grail. This seems to be rather circuitous because it
was through Melkin’s mention of the ‘duo fassula’ in association with Joseph that we are made to assume a receptacle (or
two) and this eventually become synonymous with the Grail that originated in
France from Melkin. The French Grail
romances perpetuated a connection between Arthur and Joseph that had derived
from Melkin’s Book of the Grail and shows no sign of acknowledgement of the
Glastonbury connection. This is typical of the French vulgate cycle and shows
that Melkin’s intent for his Book of the Grail was to convey historical information
about the arrival of Joseph and the arcane information which arrived with him.
Much of this arcane or occult knowledge lodged within the book, clearly went
over the original Grail writers’ heads but we shall see what vestiges of
Historical truths are left, when we look at the Middle English poem called Joseph
of Aramathie the Alliterative poem written supposedly and dated by its meter around 1330 but it’s
content shows it is highly original and unique in that it adheres to what
Melkin knew as fact and should be regarded as a more accurate portrayal of
Josephs arrival in Britain.
Although the
Estoire, the book of the ‘Sanctum Graal’ is cited as a source from which John drew
much of his Joseph material; the early writings at Glastonbury distance
themselves from association with the Graal from France because they seem to be
trivialising what Glastonbury had always assumed was its monopolistic heritage
of Joseph through its church.
Overtime, the
French Grail becomes a vessel from the obvious connection with (vassula) and
the fact that Joseph had purportedly brought both (the vassula and the Grail),
and thus they become inextricably entwined. The Graal in the French version of
Melkin’s work was originally based upon ‘Arcane knowledge’ and the ‘duo fassula’
in Melkin’s English prophecy was understood to hold liquid, but this was only
due to Melkin’s subtlety in constructing his riddle.
The Thirteen degree agle from Avebury stone circle where the line is bifurcated 104 nautical miles from Burgh Island as pinpointed in Melkin's Prophecy.
This
misconception eventually transformed the Graal into a receptacle which
coincided with Helinand’s description as a plate. Melkin’s understanding of the
Gradale and the knowledge he was trying to convey, had to do with processional
stages or the three grades to gnosis which shall be elucidated later. The
processional of the Grail is a misunderstood romanticised version of a divine
plan that was originally conveyed in its Hebrew form by Joseph to Britain. This
accompanied with references to the ‘bleeding spear’ in the French Grail book
and the fact that the vessel purported to hold Jesus’ blood collected from the
spear wound, got mixed up with Jesus’ role in Divine plan which really was the
substance of the French material. The Menorah also being alluded to in the
French material from the original ‘Book of the Grail’, plays a definite
allegorical part in this processional or gradual steps as the Divine plan
unfolds. This arcane knowledge, as relating to the candelabra of the Grail
processional, is confirmed in Zechariah 4.
Most of the
information within Melkin’s manuscripts in the intervening years from his death
to the 11th century had initially been suppressed by the Saxons probably in a
bid to deny national pride and therefore his works were not widely known. It is also probable that those that understood
and had knowledge of these traditions rather than being repressed eventually
found safer haven with their Breton brothers, rather than living under Saxon
rule, hence moving these traditions and original Latin Book of the Grail into
France which eventually triggered the proliferation of the Grail romances.
The Melkin prophecy
as we have seen did not locate Avalon at Glastonbury but a continual polemical
transformation was in progress as is apparent from John's Cronica when he interprets
part of Melkin’s prophecy, he states that ‘Joseph sepultus est et positus in
linea bifurcara iuxta oratorium predictum’. 'Joseph is buried, and positioned in a line that bifurcates
where the oratory was’. It appears that because of John's inference
and reference that the ‘linea bifurcata’ is a dividing line, associated to the
position of the old wattle church; John has for ever more, located Joseph in
Glastonbury. It could have been a
scribal change of the latin word ‘orari’ an adjective meaning ‘of the sea, or sea shore’(where Avalon actually is
located), or even ‘ora tor’ to ‘oratori’ in Melkin’s original text that has prevented Joseph's
resting place from being discovered. It is
possible that the amendment occurred in Melkin’s original to be followed by all
subsequent chroniclers. This cannot be
stated unequivocally, but this would seem to be the case if others who have
borne witness, to having seen Melkin’s manuscript, did not pick up on this
discrepancy. Conversely Melkin played a deliberate ‘double entendre’ on the
words ‘ora’ and ‘tor’ knowing that by association to Joseph’s established
church at Glastonbury, everyone would conclude he was near the ‘oratori’.
This we will
never know as he could never have foreseen the active polemicism that was
carried out by Glastonbury at a much later date. He might have assumed that if
Joseph was never found at Glastonbury someone would keep looking for Avalon
until it was found but he could never have conceived that Glastonbury would
become Avalon.
The fact that the word ‘oratori’ is followed by the word ‘cratibus’, meaning ‘wattled’ would tend to unhinge the supposition that it was not intentional obfuscation, unless of course Melkin had originally written ‘orari crater preparatis’, which would suggest a pre-prepared cave by the sea. We will see just how many scenario’s and permutations there are when we dissect Melkin’s prophecy but it would seem that the inclusion of ‘adorandam virginem’ in addition to ‘oratori’ and ‘cratibus preparatis’; if no scribal changes took place, is a direct attempt by Melkin to perpetuate an association with the wattled church at Glastonbury.
This leads to
the question of how could Melkin know that we would find the St. Michael Ley
line. However, we will deal with this point when disentangling Melkin’s
prophecy shortly. If there had been a scribal
correction, it is compounded in the Lection which prefaces John's Cronica, that
tells of St. David, adding a new chapel at the West of the old wattle church
and at the point where the two chapels joined, ‘a pyramid on the exterior to the
northern part on the outside and the platform (raised step) on the inside in
the South, a straight line divided them, according to certain of the ancients,
St. Joseph lies buried along with a great multitude of saints’.
Relevance for the inclusion of this information was to act as a conduit for
redirecting people's thoughts back to the original triangles and squares that
were associated with the mystery inferred by William of Malmesbury. Plainly,
Joseph being joined by a multitude is a reference to the 104,000 saints which
is how many exegetes translated Melkin’s riddle. It was William who had intonated that the
solving of the geometrical puzzle would reveal Joseph's burial place within the
Abbey grounds. It is because of these
various assertions and possible interpolations that Joseph’s resting place has
remained undiscovered until the present day.
Before moving
on we should quote William of Malmesbury for the respect he confers on the old
wattle church as pertaining to the relevance of the word ‘cratibus’-wattle, which initially confines any search for the Holy
Grail, or Joseph's grave to Glastonbury by its association with the old church:
The
church of which we are speaking, from its antiquity called by the Angles, by
way of distinction, "Ealde Chirche," that is, the "Old
Church," of wattle work, at first, savoured somewhat of heavenly sanctity
even from its very foundation, having breathed it over the whole country;
claiming superior reverence, though the structure was rudimentary. Hence, here
arrived whole tribes of lower orders, thronging every path; here assembled the
opulent divested of their pomp; and it became the crowded residence of the
religious and the literary. For, as we have heard from men of old time, here
Gildas, a historian neither unlearned nor inelegant, to obtain among other
nations, captivated by the sanctity of the place, took up his abode for a
series of years. This church, then, is certainly the oldest I am acquainted
with in England and from its circumstance, derives its name. In it are
preserved the mortal remains of many saints, some of whom, we shall notice in
our progress, nor is any corner of the church destitute of the ashes of the
holy. The very floor, inlaid with polished stone, and the sides of the altar,
and even the altar itself above and beneath are laden with the multitude of
relics.
Moreover
in the pavement may be remarked on every side stones designedly inter-laid in
triangles and squares, and figured with lead, under which if I believe some
sacred mystery to be contained, I do no injustice to religion. The antiquity,
and multitude of its saints, have enhanced the place with so much sanctity,
that at night scarcely anyone presumes to keep vigil there, or during the day
to spit upon its floor: he who is conscious of pollution shudders throughout
their whole frame: no one ever brought hawk or horses within the confines of
the neighbouring cemetery, who did not depart injured either in them or in
himself. Within the memory of man, all persons who, before undergoing the
ordeal of fire or water, there put up their petitions, exulted in their escape,
one only excepted: if any person erected a building in its vicinity, which by
its shade obstructed the light of the church, it forthwith became a ruin. And it
is sufficiently evident that the men of that province had no oath more
frequent, or more sacred, than to swear by the Old Church, fearing the swiftest
vengeance on their perjury in this respect.
The
truth of what I have asserted, if it be dubious, will be supported by testimony
in the book which I have written, on the antiquity of the said church,
according to the series of years."
We should look at an extract
from Dugdale's ‘Monasticon Anglicanum’, who
plainly believes the legend of the arrival in Britain of Joseph of Arimathea, and
who also attests that it was Joseph who built the first church, but he like
other sources are overly keen to stress its construction to match in with
Melkin’s ‘Cratibus’ ."Here St Joseph, who is
considered by the monkish historians as the first abbot, erected, to the honour
of the Virgin Mary, of wreathed twigs, the first Christian oratory in
England."
And again from the same source: The ancient church
of wood or wicker, which legend spoke of as the first temple reared on British
soil to the honour of Christ, was preserved as a hallowed relic, even after a
greater church of stone was built by Dunstan to the east of it. And though not
a fragment of either of those buildings still remains, yet each alike is
represented in the peculiar arrangements of that mighty and now fallen minster.
The wooden church of the Briton is represented by the famous Lady Chapel,
better known as the chapel of Saint Joseph ; the stone church of the West-Saxon
is represented by the vast Abbey church itself. Nowhere else can we see the
works of the conquerors and the works of the conquered thus standing, though
but in a figure, side by side. Wherein is proved by all kinds of testimonies, and authorities, that for
certain, S. Joseph of Aramathia, "with divers other holy Associates, came
into, preached, lived, dyed, and was buryed in Britayne, at the place now called
Glastenbury in Summersetshire."
However John of Glastonbury
waxes lyrical about the old church saying; No other human hands made the church of Glastonbury, but Christ's
disciples founded and built it by angelic doctrine; an unattractive structure,
certainly, but, adorned by God with manifold virtue; the high priest of the
heavens himself, the maker and Redeemer of humankind, our Lord Jesus Christ, in
his true presence dedicated it to himself and his most holy mother. On account of its antiquity the English
called this church, the ‘ealdechirche’, which is ‘the old church’, and it is
quite evident that the men of that region hold no oath more sacred or binding
than one on the Old Church and they shun nothing through fear of punishment for
their crime more than perjury.
Glastonbury originally built of wattles, is first and eldest of all
churches in England. From it the
strength of divine sanctity gave forth its scent from the very outset and
breathed upon the whole land; and though it was made of unsightly material, it
was nevertheless esteemed greatly in worshipful reverence.
The real puzzle here is to
find out whether it was in fact Melkin’s intention for the world to believe (for
a time) that Joseph was buried at Glastonbury or was it later scribal changes
of Melkin’s prophecy just after the fire, followed
by later gradual rationalisation of interpretation, that eradicated any other
location as a possible contender for Joseph’s resting place, not forgetting
that for Melkin, Glastonbury was never synonymous with Avalon. In Archbishop Usher's ‘Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates’ he
provides us a Chinese whispers variant of Melkin’s prophecy, which he says was
found in the margin of Matthew Westminster's ‘Flores Historiarum’ which plainly
shows the prophecy’s evolution:
'Joseph ab Arimathea nobilis decurio in insula Avallonia
cum xi. Sociis suis somnum cepit perpetuum et jacet in meridiano angulo lineae
bifurcate Oratorii Adorandae Virginis. Habit enim secum duo vascula argentea
alba cruore et sudore magni prophetae Jesu perimpleta. et per multum tempus ante diem Judicii ejus corpus
integrum et illibatum reperietur; et erit apertum toti Orbi terranum. Tunc nec
ros nec pluvial habitantibus insulam nobilissimam poterit
deficere’.
'Joseph of Arimathea, the noble decurion, received his
everlasting rest with his eleven associates in the Isle of Avalon. He lies in the
southern angle of the bifurcated line of the Oratorium of the Adorable Virgin.
He has with him the two white vessels of silver which were filled with the
blood and the sweat of the great prophet Jesus. And for a long time before the day of
judgement, his body will be discovered whole and undisturbed; and will be
opened to the whole world. At that time neither dew, nor rain, will lack from
that noble island’.
"Nobilis decurio" is St. Jerome's translation in the Vulgate of St. Mark's
"honourable counsellor" and also Rabanus Maurus 776 – 856AD
the archbishop of Mainz, in 'The Life of St. Mary Magdalene' uses the same
appellation. Many have taken it to mean that he was a member of the Jewish
Sanhedrin. Some commentators assume Joseph was a member of a provincial Roman
Senate as ‘decurions’ are reported as being in charge of mining districts.
The Glastonbury propaganda
machine was able to firmly establish Glastonbury as an island but it could not
by any distortion, render its location by the sea. If Melkin did not write the
words ‘orari’ or ‘ora’ and ‘tor’, the addition of letters to make ‘oratori’
brings the Island of Avalon away from the sea and into the Abbey grounds. Again
an unlikely set of events is set out by John in his Cronica to convince the
sceptical, that Avalon is in Glastonbury:
This Glasteing (a person)
pursued his sow through the territory inland of the Angles near the village called
‘Escebtiorne’ all the way to Wells, and from wells by a trackless and watery
path which is now called the ‘Sugewey’, that is ‘the sow’s way’. He found her suckling her piglets next to the
Old Church on the aforesaid island, beneath a fruit tree; hence it continues
down to our own day that the fruit of that tree are called ‘ealdechirchiness-apple’,
that is ’apples of the old church’. This
Glasteing, then, after he had entered the island, saw that it was rich in all
manner of good things and came to live on it with his whole family. And since at the first, he found apples of
the most precious sort in those parts, he called it the ‘Island of Avalon’ in
his own tongue, that is ‘island of apples’, and he spent his life there and
from his family and progeny, who succeeded him that place was originally
populated. Finally, the Saxons who
conquered it called the land ‘Glastonbury’ in their own tongue, by translation
of the former name, that is ‘Ynswytryn’, for in English or Saxon ‘glas’ means
‘glass’ and ‘bury’ means city.
Now, in Melkin’s prophecy he had mentioned the word
’cratibus’, loosely meaning a hurdle, wattle or interwoven sticks, precisely
the method employed to construct the old wattle church which seems quite a
coincidence as the rest of his clues are telling us to look elsewhere. The reader might note from the references
above that the construction method of the old church suddenly became unduly
highlighted, after the miraculous discovery of Arthur's bones while fiction
upon fictions became embedded
in popular history.
It was from this time, that
it was repeatedly mentioned as part of an intentional confirmation and
reassertion that, the original church dedicated to St. Mary was built from
wattle by St. Joseph. As will be made
apparent in the enquiry shortly, ‘Cratibus Preparatis’, could refer to the
construction of interwoven Ley Lines on the landscape from long ago i.e “pre-pared
interwoveness” or perhaps as part of Melkin’s intention it is to provide a
double entendre with the same words alluding to a prepared bunker by the
sea. It is however the ‘adorandam virginem’
which should convince every investigator that it was Melkin’s intention to have
all eyes looking in Glastonbury; as this spells out the association with the
Old Church, but Melkin is in fact on a different level giving us the most
precise detail of the whole puzzle in these words, which lead us to the
entrance of the underground vault.
Melkin’s
prophecy ultimately is what re-establishes Glastonbury Abbey, but it is through
the prophecy that the British people believed that Joseph's burial site exists
somewhere. The theme perpetuated through
a combination of the Grail Romances and Melkin’s prophecy, that alludes to the
island of Avalon. This, coupled with the mystery of Joseph of Arimathea's
resting place has somehow become a quest or endeavour of occult meaning that
has today entered the psyche of the British people.
Burgh Island in Devon where the Bodies of Joseph of Arimathea and King Arthur are Yet to be Uncovered.
West Mary's Rocks where the Phonecian pilot trying to keep Ictis secreted from the Roman world, ran his boat on the rocks as relayed by Strabo,regarding Pytheas' Island of Ictis.
This is the precise location where the cache of Erm tin Ingots were found which Pytheas called Astragali.
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.
Is this a Freudian slip or is this
the product of a subconscious national Psyche awaiting Zion
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.
Courtesy of
James and Jade
Figure 9
Showing St Michael’s Mount, Marazion, and the rocky foreshore, on which the
foreign trading vessels were supposed to land at all states of the tide.
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.
Figure 10b Showing the white water at the
head of the river Erm caused by West Mary’s rocks which the Phonecian pilot ran
his vessel onto and the proximity of these rocks to the Fabled Island of Ictis
situated in Bigbury Bay.
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 powerfull 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.
The entrance into Bantham can be clearly seen where the Templar treasure ships entered on Christmas day 1307. It was upon this Island that the Templar Treasure was hidden and the St. Michael Churches were erected to mark out the location.
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.
How this relates
to the 2012 Olympic celebrations is maybe a bit more real than the makers of
video link below might have concieved. The committee is said to have designed a
logo that spells out the word Zion. This freak of a coincidence can be seen in
the video link below which some think is a Zionist plot but it is the time that
the correct Avalon will be discovered and will what is to be unveiled there, be
on display as part of the Olympic committee's attempt to compete with the
opening ceremony of the Beijing or Sydney ceremonies.
If the British were to be able to display the Arc of Covnant and the Grail
Ark, there would be no competition.
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