Russell and Carol - hayle and hearty

I've long been interested in the presence and absence of the Romans in Cornwall.  It seems very clear that they didn't occupy Cornwall in the same way as they did the rest of the country, though there are Roman finds and Roman sites - the one which first piqued my interest was the alleged Roman burial ground at Newtrain Bay next to Trevone. Since moving down near Hayle I've also been intrigued with Ventonleague which seems to have an obvious Roman connection.

Today I came across Margary roads in the reporting of a track believed to have been Roman but now identified as Iron Age

What the Romans didn't do for us | Science | The Guardian

16 Mar 2011 ... The route had long been known as a lost Roman road, named Margary No 64 after the man who first mapped what everyone assumed to be the ...
www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/.../roman-road-made-by-britons - Cached

Britannia Superior: Why Roman roads may not be quite as Roman as ...

15 Mar 2011 ... The discovery of a metalled and cambered road dated to the first century BC in Shropshire has raised the possibility that iron age Britons ...
www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/.../britannia-roman-roads-iron-ag

which got me wondering.

In the course of some Googling I came across Keith Briggs amazing maps

As part of my work on software to create maps specifically for illustrating documents on place-names, I have made these experimental maps of Roman roads in England. The maps are all automatically generated by computer programs, so may not be as visually pleasing as some human-generated maps. In particular, it is hard to write a program to place labels in optimal positions.

All this work of course depends on a precise database of the route of these roads. I have started with a database maintained as part of the National Monument Record by English Heritage, and made some corrections and updates of my own. Please note that these maps are intended as experiments in computer mapping, and are not to be regarded as authoritative. Decisions on what is a Roman road and what is not need to be made by people with expertise in archeology, history etc., and this is entirely another field to mine.

This webpage contains maps of Roman roads in England only, similar to figures in I. Margary's book Roman roads in Britain (3rd edition, 1973, John Baker, London). Roads in red, with X numbers, are additional to Margary and are generally more doubtful. At the moment I do not have precise documentation on these. I know this is unscientific, but my priorities are to get the computer graphics right first.

Which in turn led me to Margary 492b which appears to follow a lot of the line of the old A30 (I've long been interested in how old that is too - there are parts of the old road which feel very ancient indeed so it's interesting to discover that they may be!

This in turn led to:

The Roman Map of Britain Defining the Boundaries
return to main cosmography
    In areas where Roman roads are known, the recognized sites are on Roman roads. In some areas, such as western Cornwall we are probably dealing with Romanized native trackways akin to Margary 492b.

R&C no.	Comments	Quadrant
1-28 28 entries	The first entries are generally acknowledged to be somewhere in Cornwall. The westernmost portion is the obvious, but not certain, starting point. Tamaris (5) is certainly on the River Tamar and in theory near an east-west boundary. Scadu namorum (16) is certainly Exeter and presumably in the quadrant that precedes Quadrant 3.. Next are six entries (17-22) which do not appear to be in the immediate vicinity of Exeter. Then follows Iterum iuxta super scriptam civitatem Scadoniorum est civitas quae dicitur. This tells us that what follows is close by the above-named Scadoniorum Isca Dumnoniorum,. It does not tell us their tribal affiliation. Moriduno (23) is traditionally regarded as being the same as that found in the Tabula Peutingeriana and AI 's Iter xv. Moriduno (23) is by virtue of its name a 'sea fort', but which coast it is on is debatable, as is the traditional equation. The Dumnonii-Durotriges border is generally defined by the course of the rivers Parrett and Axe. Lindinis (26) is certainly in the territory of the Durotriges and Ilchester is near the border. Tedertis (25) appears to be a corrupted Pedretis which is easily tied to Ham Hill southwest of Ilchester. If  the border of the Dumnonii is being defined, it is done with cities of the neighboring Durotriges. Ilchester and Ham Hill are midway between the coasts, so the entries preceding and following them could define the remaining extent of the border.      These entries could conceivably represent as many as four quadrants. Much depends on how accurately the area was surveyed. If the main road for the western peninsula (Margary 492b) was a Romanized trackway, then it seems less likely that it was given the same degree of attention as new roads. Ptolemy's map would certainly allow for at least four quadrants, two degrees wide and one degree deep. Whether or not that many quadrants were inventoried is unknown. [see Order in the South-West]	1 and 2

 

The Roman Map of Britain Ravenna Cosmography - R&C 1-5

  V. 31 In oceano vero occidentale est insula quae dicitur Britania, ubi olim gens Saxonum veniens ab antiqua Saxonia cum principe suo Ansehis modo havitare videtur; quamvis insulam, ut diximus, quidam Grecorum phylosophi quasi [i]micosmin appellaverunt; nam nos tam magnam insulam neque in supra scripto Mari Magno neque in praefato oceano dilatissimo neque in quo praediximus sino oceani legendam nullo modo reperimus.

    In qua Britania plurimas fuisse legimus civitates [et castra] , ex quibus aliquantas designare volumus, id est

R&C	entry	notional form	reference	IDENTIFICATION	Qtr
1	Giano	*Ciano?		Penzance?	W
2	Eltabo	*Eltabo	M	St Erth?	W
3	Elconio	*Elconio	M	Ventonleague?	W
4	Nemetotacio	*Nemetotalio	M	Nanstallon	E
5	Tamaris	*Tamaris	Pt.M	Launceston?	E

The Roman Map of Britain Ciano ? Penzance?

Giano (R&C 1) next

    Being the first of the civitates listed, Giano presents some interesting difficulties. Margary's Roman road 492 [M492a Exeter - North Tawton - Okehampton - Launceston and M492b Launceston - Bodmin - Redruth] runs down the spine of the Cornish peninsula. The modern A30 now represents its general course. Margary makes no further suggestion of its course west of Redruth, but the entries following Giano seem to indicate that it visited two sites on the river Hayle - Eltabo and Elconio. And, consistent with the general path of A30, a fair presumption can be made that M492 continued on to Mounts Bay in the vicinity of Penzance SW4630.
    At first glance the Cosmography's form appears to be a scribal assimilation to It giano 'covered gallery' (L ianus 'a covered passage'). From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome': Ianus - an arch or gate, intended for a passage way. It could be that Giano updates Iano to a more modern form, either by the original author or the Ravennan scribe. If so, the 'covered passage or gallery' might represent a feature of the coast named by Latin-speaking tin-traders. South of Penzance, further down the coast, is the port at Mousehole SW4626, a site of early tin trading. It has a small offshore island known as St Clement's Isle or Mousehole Island, far less prominent than St Michael's Mount opposite Marazion. Mousehole does have one seaward feature, that if not the source of its name, would still be of note to a mariner. A few hundred yards south of the town is a cave in the sea-cliffs that is fifty feet tall and thirty feet wide at its entrance.
    The manuscript offers what may be another Iano at R&C 201, the first site listed after the forts of the Antonine wall.

    Alternatively, if Giano represented a transcriptional error for Ciano, Old Irish cían or chían 'long' might serve as a name of the river at Chyandour SW4731. While not particularly lengthy (a relative term), it could be considered long-enduring, a constant source of water. Perhaps Ciano relates to the river-name Chew (see ERN p. 77 W. cyw 'young of an animal') This coastal place-name next Penzance is regularly translated 'house/cottage on the river'. Chyandour Chiendour 1452.

    Another possibility, the name might be the same as W. ci 'hound, dog', diminutive ci-an.

NTSMR-NA78 Foage Farm; Zennor; Penwith - Romano-British field system SW466275

*A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Samuel Ball Platner. Thomas Ashby. London: Humphrey Milford. Oxford University Press. 1929

LESCUDJACK CASTLE; PENZANCE; PENWITH; CORNWALL; Damaged earthwork remains of an Iron Age univallate hillfort or Iron Age/Romano-British round. SW 4753 3102 NMR_NATINV-423950.

The Roman Map of Britain Eltabo St Erth?

Eltabo (R&C 2) next

    Eltabo looks like a compound of El 'Hayle' and L. tabum 'corrupt moisture, matter'. Might tabo be used to describe a stagnant marsh, or one that was viscous? Ekwall saw Hayle as based on *Salia 'salt river', akin to Sc. seileach 'brackish'. Mills translates it as 'estuary'. I suspect Eltabo refers to the Hayle saltings as a locative element for a settlement in the vicinity of Hayle, Cornwall.
    Eltabo bears a strong resemblance to the second element of the tribal name Corieltaui. Given the common b/v confusion, perhaps Eltauo?
    Another possibility is that Eltabo is a misread Elitalio 'Hayle-brow, edge', cf. Nemetotalio and Edrotalia.
    Dilleman wrongly contended that the names beginning in El- were errors for Latin Fl. (fluvius) 'river'. PNRB adopted the position and identified  five British entries as corrupt. One, Eltavori, has since been vindicated by the careful reading of an inscribed tile. The remaining four entries, two towns and two islands, are also just that.
    Thirteenth century spellings are Heyl.

   After further consideration of the probable path of Margary 492, it seems likely that Eltabo is at a crossing of the river Hayle. St Erth SW5534 was an active port as late as the end of the 18th century. Road alignments suggest a crossing point somewhat north of the current bridge. Higher relative sea levels during the early Roman occupation may have forced the Hayle crossing further inland. 
    If he element -tabo has the IE root *tâ- 'to melt, to dissolve, to flow', then here the operative sense may be 'to melt'. The land between St Ives Bay and Mount's Bay was a major center of alluvial tin-mining, and the potential for El-tabo to indicate a smeltery (more likely a stannery) on the Hayle is intriguing.

EHNMR-625728 Roman earthwork, Roman well SW5732 (excavated by a farmer 1756)
ADS Record ID - NMR_NATINV-424959 Earthwork remains of an Iron Age or Roman round covering three acres. SW 5577 3477

The Roman Map of Britain Elconio vicinity of Ventonleague or Lelant Church?

Elconio (R&C 3) next

   After M492's crossing at Eltabo, another encounter with the river Hayle (El-) seems likely in the vicinity of Ventonleague SW5738. Elconio would also be near Connor Downs, recently Conerton and as Conartone 1084. Ekwall doubts that Connor is an old river name, Dour Conor c.1540. The Connor joins the Red River east of Gwithian. Conartone could be the same as Combretouio and Condate meaning 'confluence', in this case a river junction.
    Elconio, as a scribal simplification of Elconnio, offers the possibility of a mis-read original *El-counio ' Hayle-harbor'. Celtic *counos, more often found as *caunos - I, MI cuan 'harbour'; Norse köfn, German hafen, English haven. Ptolemy II 3 14 lists an island off the south-eastern coast of Britain of a very similar name, Counnus.

ADS Record ID - NMR_NATINV-424685
HAYLE; PENWITH; CORNWALL; BIVALLATE HILLFORT, EARTHWORK, ROUND; IRON AGE SW 5564 3713
ADS Record ID - NMR_NATINV-424728
HAYLE; PENWITH; CORNWALL; INHUMATION CEMETERY; IRON AGE SW 5660 3845

    "[T]he graveyard of Lelant parish church may preserve the rectangular outline of a Roman fort well placed to control access to the estuary. " p.17  Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey - Historic characterisation for regeneration - Hayle by Bridget Gillard & Kate Newell 2005 HES REPORT NO. 2005R077 HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SERVICE © Cornwall County Council 2005
    If so, the fort might well have born the name Elcounio 'Hayle Harbour'. Lelant parish church graveyard SW 547 377

Very thought provoking!

Coming full circle I was interested to see a view that Ways were Old Briton and Streets were Roman:

Similar in character to the use of the Latin castra in its anglicised form ceaster is the adoption by the English, again probably in their continental homes, where they were already in contact with Roman civilization, of the Latin (via) strata, "paved way," in the form street, which was applied by them to the great Roman roads which they found in this country, and in course of time to all roads which had been "made up" in something of the Roman fashion, hence Watling Street, Ermine Street and the numerous places with an initial Stret, Strat, Sireat, Street, which lie on the course of old Roman roads. Significantly enough, the one great road which had never been more than a British trackway was always in early times called the Icknield Way and not Icknield Street. The Foss Way is from Latin fossa, "ditch," from the defensive ditch on one or both sides of it, and its corresponding English name "ditch" still survives in Ditchford (Worcs), Ditcheat (Som.), both on the line of the Foss.

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