Posted on 06/11/2019 10:22:25 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Barry Cunliffe tells the story of the ancient Greek seafaring explorer Pytheas, and his epic voyage from Marseilles right the way round Britain, in the fourth century BC.
The Story of Pytheas | Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press) | Published on Sep 19, 2017
re: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3600146/posts?page=16#16
https://theodora.com/encyclopedia/c/cassiterides.html
CASSITERIDES (from the Gr. Kaaaimpos, tin, i.e. “ Tinislands”), in ancient geography the name of islands regarded as being situated somewhere near the west coasts of Europe. Herodotus (430 B.C.) had dimly heard of them. Later writers, Posidonius, Diodorus, Strabo and others, call them smallish islands off (Strabo says, some way off) the north-west coast of Spain, which contained tin mines, or, as Strabo says, tin and lead mines - though a passage in Diodorus derives the name rather from their nearness to the tin districts of north-west Spain. While geographical knowledge of the west was still scanty and the secrets of the tin-trade were still successfully guarded by the seamen of Gades and others who dealt in the metal, the Greeks knew only that tin came to them by sea from the far west, and the idea of tin-producing islands easily arose. Later, when the west was better explored, it was found that tin actually came from two regions, north-west Spain and Cornwall. Neither of these could be called “small islands” or described as off the north-west coast of Spain, and so the Cassiterides were not identified with either by the Greek and Roman geographers. Instead, they became a third, ill-understood source of tin, conceived of as distinct from Spain or Britain. Modern writers have perpetuated the error that the Cassiterides were definite spots, and have made many attempts to identify them. Small islands off the coast of north-west Spain, the headlands of that same coast, the Scillies, Cornwall, the British Isles as a whole, have all in turn been suggested. But none suits the conditions. Neither the Spanish islands nor the Scillies contain tin, at least in serious quantities. Neither Britain nor Spain can be called “small islands off the north-west of Spain.” It seems most probable, therefore, that the name Cassiterides represents the first vague knowledge of the Greeks that tin was found overseas somewhere in or off western Europe.
An unrelated sidebar, perhaps coming soon to an FR topic near you:
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>> “He also correctly observed that the north star is not true north.” <<
Not a particularly difficult task in the tropics, but damn near impossible in the far north since the polar region is not solid earth, but floating ice.
He did a bang-up job. Too bad his entire original isn't known to have survived, but it's amazing that any source that old has.
It would be MUCH more reasonable to suppose that the Faroe Islands or the Shetland Islands are Thule. Unlike Iceland, they’re relatively North of Great Britain. They’re also much more reasonable to reach in six days.
Great article. Thank you.
I blame the Phoenicians. They controlled the tin trade from Western Europe and they would seed false rumours of what lay beyond the pillars of Hercules to deter anyone else from exploring past that point and endangering their monopoly. “Tin islands” sounds like something they came up with to keep people looking in the wrong place.
Pytheas: Ancient Greek Explorer of Britain, the Arctic Circle & Northern Europe...
AND PARTS OF BROOKLYN!!!!
Back when seafaring was an existential danger every single day.
No weather reports. No certainty of when you would reach land. No effective medicines. And no comms.
I commend their shear bravery.
I do as well. But you pretty much described sea travel up until a century or so ago and the sea is still a cruel mistress.
Portuguese fishermen had been fishing the grand Banks by the time of Columbus and it is quite likely that they made landfall. In any event there are accounts of bodies of Eskimos or Inuit Indians being observed by these fishermen.
It appears that the ancient world was remarkably advanced. One wonders what might have happened if Islam had not helped precipitate the dark age?
Hmmm, I guess he didn’t make it to Oak Island.
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It is similar to how some modern atheists refer to themselves as "brights" to imply that if you are not an atheist, you are stupid.
The Dark Ages were also called the
Migration Period. Is history rhyming?
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