92-627: The Dumnonii or Dumnones were a British tribe who inhabited Dumnonia , the area now known as Cornwall and Devon (and some areas of present-day Dorset and Somerset ) in the further parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Iron Age up to the early Saxon period. They were bordered to the east by the Durotriges tribe. William Camden , in his 1607 edition of Britannia , describes Cornwall and Devon as being two parts of
184-560: A "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain". There was much less migration into Britain during the subsequent Iron Age, so it is more likely that Celtic reached Britain before then. Barry Cunliffe suggests that a branch of Celtic was already being spoken in Britain and that the Bronze Age migration introduced the Brittonic branch. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , which
276-518: A bard . The medieval Welsh form of Latin Britanni was Brython (singular and plural). Brython was introduced into English usage by John Rhys in 1884 as a term unambiguously referring to the P-Celtic speakers of Great Britain, to complement Goidel ; hence the adjective Brythonic refers to the group of languages. " Brittonic languages " is a more recent coinage (first attested in 1923 according to
368-619: A distinct Brittonic culture and language. Britonia in Spanish Galicia seems to have disappeared by 900 AD. Wales and Brittany remained independent for a considerable time, however, with Brittany united with France in 1532, and Wales united with England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 in the mid 16th century during the rule of the Tudors (Y Tuduriaid), who were themselves of Welsh heritage on
460-408: A few. " The suggestion that he was using maps is bolstered by phrases such as "next to" which occur frequently, and at one point he states: " where that same Britain is seen to be narrowest from Ocean to Ocean. " Richmond and Crawford were the first to argue that rather than being random, the named places are often clustered around a central point, or spread out along a single road. For most of England,
552-499: A peak during the 3rd century AD. The Sub-Roman or Post-Roman history of Dumnonia comes from a variety of sources and is considered exceedingly difficult to interpret given that historical fact, legend and confused pseudo-history are compounded by a variety of sources in Middle Welsh and Latin . The main sources available for discussion of this period include Gildas 's De Excidio Britanniae and Nennius 's Historia Brittonum ,
644-549: A profound genetic impact. Ravenna Cosmography The Ravenna Cosmography ( Latin : Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia , lit. "The Cosmography of the Unknown Ravennese ") is a list of place-names covering the world from India to Ireland , compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around 700 AD. Textual evidence indicates that the author frequently used maps as his source. There are three extant copies of
736-635: A similar name but with no known links were the Fir Domnann of Connacht . The Roman name of the town of Exeter , Isca Dumnoniorum ("Isca of the Dumnonii"), contains the root *iska- "water" for "Water of the Dumnonii". The Latin name suggests that the city was already an oppidum , or walled town, on the banks on the River Exe before the foundation of the Roman city, in about AD 50. The Dumnonii gave their name to
828-452: A stop. A small number of the words have been abbreviated. The Paris manuscript also uses two columns, capitalisation and stops, but has many more abbreviations than either of the other two. The text is divided into sections by paragraph marks. The Basle manuscript only has a single column, and is more difficult to read than the others. It has more abbreviations than the Vatican copy, but fewer than
920-600: A sub-kingdom of Calchwynedd may have clung on in the Chilterns for a time. Novant , which occupied Galloway and Carrick, was soon subsumed by fellow Brittonic-Pictish polities by 700 AD. Aeron , which encompassed modern Ayrshire , was conquered by the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria by 700 AD. Some Brittonic kingdoms were able to successfully resist these incursions: Rheged (encompassing much of modern Northumberland and County Durham and areas of southern Scotland and
1012-659: Is also the name of another people from lowland Scotland, although there are no known links between the two populations. The people of Dumnonia spoke a Southwestern Brythonic dialect of Celtic similar to the forerunner of more recent Cornish and Breton . Irish immigrants, the Déisi , are evidenced by the Ogham -inscribed stones they have left behind, confirmed and supplemented by toponymical studies. The stones are sometimes inscribed in Latin , sometimes in both scripts. Tristram Risdon suggested
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#17328439476371104-784: Is likely that tin trade with the Mediterranean was later on under the control of the Veneti . Britain was one of the places proposed for the Cassiterides , that is Tin Islands. Tin working continued throughout Roman occupation although it appears that output declined because of new supplies brought in from the deposits discovered in Iberia (Spain and Portugal). However, when these supplies diminished, production in Dumnonia increased and appears to have reached
1196-526: Is located Legio II Augusta 17°30 52°45. —Ptolemy, Geography II.ii. As well as Isca Dumnoniorum, Ptolemy 's 2nd century Geography names three other towns: The Ravenna Cosmography includes the last two names (in slightly different forms, as "Tamaris" and "Uxelis"), and adds several more names which may be settlements in the territory. These include: Other Romano-British sites in Dumnonia include: New settlements continued to be built throughout
1288-558: Is the origin of the interpretation of Dumnonii as "deep valley dwellers" from his understanding of the Welsh of his time. The modern Welsh term is Dyfnaint . John Rhŷs later theorized that the tribal name was derived from the name of a goddess, Domnu , probably meaning "the goddess of the deep". The proto-Celtic root *dubno- or *dumno- meaning "the deep" or "the earth" (or alternatively meaning "dark" or "gloomy") appears in personal names such as Dumnorix and Dubnovellaunus . Another group with
1380-715: The Annales Cambriae , Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , William of Malmesbury 's Gesta Regum Anglorum and De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae , along with texts from the Black Book of Carmarthen and the Red Book of Hergest , and Bede 's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum as well as "The Descent of the Men of the North" ( Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd , in Peniarth MS 45 and elsewhere) and
1472-653: The Book of Baglan . Britons (historical) The Britons ( * Pritanī , Latin : Britanni , Welsh : Brythoniaid ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons , were the indigenous Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages , at which point they diverged into the Welsh , Cornish , and Bretons (among others). They spoke Common Brittonic ,
1564-624: The Oxford English Dictionary ). In the early Middle Ages , following the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain , the Anglo-Saxons called all Britons Bryttas or Wealas (Welsh), while they continued to be called Britanni or Brittones in Medieval Latin . From the 11th century, they are more often referred to separately as the Welsh , Cumbrians , Cornish , and Bretons , as they had separate political histories from then. From
1656-521: The British Isles , particularly Welsh people , suggesting genetic continuity between Iron Age Britain and Roman Britain, and partial genetic continuity between Roman Britain and modern Britain. On the other hand, they were genetically substantially different from the examined Anglo-Saxon individual and modern English populations of the area, suggesting that the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain left
1748-463: The Brittonic languages in the ancient and medieval periods, "from the first evidence of such speech in the pre-Roman Iron Age , until the central Middle Ages ". The earliest known reference to the inhabitants of Britain was made by Pytheas , a Greek geographer who made a voyage of exploration around the British Isles between 330 and 320 BC. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during
1840-570: The Channel Islands . There they set up their own small kingdoms and the Breton language developed from Brittonic Insular Celtic rather than Gaulish or Frankish . A further Brittonic colony, Britonia , was also set up at this time in Gallaecia in northwestern Spain . Many of the old Brittonic kingdoms began to disappear in the centuries after the Anglo-Saxon and Scottish Gaelic invasions; Parts of
1932-657: The Farne Islands fell to the Anglo-Saxons in 559 AD and Deira became an Anglo-Saxon kingdom after this point. Caer Went had officially disappeared by 575 AD becoming the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia . Gwent was only partly conquered; its capital Caer Gloui ( Gloucester ) was taken by the Anglo-Saxons in 577 AD, handing Gloucestershire and Wiltshire to the invaders, while the westernmost part remained in Brittonic hands, and continued to exist in modern Wales. Caer Lundein , encompassing London , St. Albans and parts of
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#17328439476372024-586: The Home Counties , fell from Brittonic hands by 600 AD, and Bryneich, which existed in modern Northumbria and County Durham with its capital of Din Guardi (modern Bamburgh ) and which included Ynys Metcaut ( Lindisfarne ), had fallen by 605 AD becoming Anglo-Saxon Bernicia. Caer Celemion (in modern Hampshire and Berkshire) had fallen by 610 AD. Elmet, a large kingdom that covered much of modern Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire and likely had its capital at modern Leeds,
2116-794: The Old English of the Anglo-Saxons, and Scottish Gaelic , although this was likely a gradual process in many areas. Similarly, the Brittonic colony of Britonia in northwestern Spain appears to have disappeared soon after 900 AD. The kingdom of Ystrad Clud (Strathclyde) was a large and powerful Brittonic kingdom of the Hen Ogledd (the 'Old North') which endured until the end of the 11th century, successfully resisting Anglo-Saxon, Gaelic Scots and later also Viking attacks. At its peak it encompassed modern Strathclyde, Dumbartonshire , Cumbria , Stirlingshire , Lanarkshire , Ayrshire , Dumfries and Galloway , Argyll and Bute , and parts of North Yorkshire ,
2208-767: The Scottish Borders ) survived well into the 8th century AD, before the eastern part peacefully joined with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia – Northumberland by 730 AD, and the west was taken over by the fellow Britons of Ystrad Clud . Similarly, the kingdom of Gododdin , which appears to have had its court at Din Eidyn (modern Edinburgh ) and encompassed parts of modern Northumbria , County Durham , Lothian and Clackmannanshire , endured until approximately 775 AD before being divided by fellow Brittonic Picts, Gaelic Scots and Anglo-Saxons. The Kingdom of Cait , covering modern Caithness , Sutherland , Orkney , and Shetland ,
2300-540: The sub-Roman period a Brythonic kingdom called Dumnonia emerged, covering the entire peninsula, although it is believed by some to have effectively been a collection of sub-kingdoms. A kingdom of Domnonée (and of Cornouaille alongside) was established in the province of Armorica directly across the English Channel , and has apparent links with the British population, suggesting an ancient connection of peoples along
2392-886: The 11th century, Brittonic-speaking populations had split into distinct groups: the Welsh in Wales, the Cornish in Cornwall, the Bretons in Brittany, the Cumbrians of the Hen Ogledd ("Old North") in southern Scotland and northern England, and the remnants of the Pictish people in northern Scotland. Common Brittonic developed into the distinct Brittonic languages: Welsh , Cumbric , Cornish and Breton . In Celtic studies , 'Britons' refers to native speakers of
2484-508: The 1st century AD, creating the province of Britannia . The Romans invaded northern Britain , but the Britons and Caledonians in the north remained unconquered and Hadrian's Wall became the edge of the empire. A Romano-British culture emerged, mainly in the southeast, and British Latin coexisted with Brittonic. It is unclear what relationship the Britons had with the Picts , who lived outside of
2576-479: The 20th century. Celtic Britain was made up of many territories controlled by Brittonic tribes . They are generally believed to have dwelt throughout the whole island of Great Britain , at least as far north as the Clyde – Forth isthmus . The territory north of this was largely inhabited by the Picts ; little direct evidence has been left of the Pictish language , but place names and Pictish personal names recorded in
2668-480: The 2nd century AD and the 4th century AD during the period of Roman Britain . Six of these individuals were identified as native Britons. The six examined native Britons all carried types of the paternal R1b1a2a1a and carried the maternal haplogroups H6a1a , H1bs , J1c3e2 , H2 , H6a1b2 and J1b1a1 . The indigenous Britons of Roman Britain were genetically closely related to the earlier Iron Age female Briton, and displayed close genetic links to modern Celts of
2760-400: The 3rd century, remarks: "This turbid strait also divides the island Silura from the shore which is held by the Dumnonii, a British tribe. The men of this island even now preserve an old custom: they do not use coins. They give and accept, obtaining the necessities of life by exchange rather than by money. They reverence gods, and the men and women equally declare knowledge of the future." In
2852-536: The Ancient British seem to have had generally similar cultural practices to the Celtic cultures nearest to them on the continent. There are significant differences in artistic styles, and the greatest period of what is known as the "Insular La Tène" style, surviving mostly in metalwork, was in the century or so before the Roman conquest, and perhaps the decades after it. The carnyx , a trumpet with an animal-headed bell,
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2944-569: The Basle edition. Parts of the text, notably that covering Britain, have been published by others, including Richmond and Crawford in 1949, but their document showed little regard for which of the manuscripts provided the information. However, it contained photographs of the relevant sections from all three manuscripts, which enabled Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews to reconstruct the text from scratch in 2013 (revised in 2020) for his reassessment of its importance for British geography. The work by Schnetz covered
3036-551: The British Isles after arriving from the continent in the 7th century BC. The language eventually began to diverge; some linguists have grouped subsequent developments as Western and Southwestern Brittonic languages . Western Brittonic developed into Welsh in Wales and the Cumbric language in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain (modern northern England and southern Scotland), while
3128-409: The Brittonic state of Kernow . The Channel Islands (colonised by Britons in the 5th century) came under attack from Norse and Danish Viking attack in the early 9th century AD, and by the end of that century had been conquered by Viking invaders. The Kingdom of Ce , which encompassed modern Marr , Banff , Buchan , Fife , and much of Aberdeenshire , disappeared soon after 900 AD. Fortriu ,
3220-684: The Cornish-Britains 'Dewnan', and by the Welsh Britains 'Duffneint' [sic], that is, 'low valleys', for that the people dwell for the most part beneath in Vales; by the English Saxons [it is known as] 'Deven-schire', whereof grew the Latin name 'Devonia', and by that contraction which the vulgar people useth, 'Denshire'. Camden had learnt some Welsh during the course of his studies and it would appear that he
3312-630: The Cosmography. The Vatican Library holds a 14th-century copy, there is a 13th-century copy in Paris at the Bibliothèque Nationale , and the library at Basle University has another 14th-century copy. The Vatican copy was used as the source for the first publication of the manuscript in 1688 by Porcheron. The German scholar Joseph Schnetz published the text in 1940, basing it on the Vatican and Paris editions, which he believed to be more reliable than
3404-507: The English county of Devon , and their name is represented in Britain's two extant Brythonic languages as Dewnans in Cornish and Dyfnaint in Welsh . Amédée Thierry ( Histoire des Gaulois , 1828), one of the inventors of the historic race of Gauls, could confidently equate them with the Cornish ("les Cornouailles"). Victorian historians often referred to the tribe as the Damnonii , which
3496-517: The Iron Age individuals were markedly different from later Anglo-Saxon samples, who were closely related to Danes and Dutch people . Martiano et al. (2016) examined the remains of a female Iron Age Briton buried at Melton between 210 BC and 40 AD. She was found to be carrying the maternal haplogroup U2e1e . The study also examined seven males buried in Driffield Terrace near York between
3588-691: The Isles of Scilly and Brittany are Brittonic, and Brittonic family and personal names remain common. During the 19th century, many Welsh farmers migrated to Patagonia in Argentina , forming a community called Y Wladfa , which today consists of over 1,500 Welsh speakers. In addition, a Brittonic legacy remains in England, Scotland and Galicia in Spain, in the form of often large numbers of Brittonic place and geographical names. Examples of geographical Brittonic names survive in
3680-411: The Paris copy. There is some evidence that the author has tried to correct or clarify words which were not clear in the original, and there are no stops to separate the place names in the lists, but there are underlined headings to divide up the sections. As an indication of the problems of dealing with the text, there are a total of 315 names in the section covering Britain. All three manuscripts agree on
3772-627: The Roman Empire invaded Britain. The British tribes opposed the Roman legions for many decades, but by 84 AD the Romans had decisively conquered southern Britain and had pushed into Brittonic areas of what would later become northern England and southern Scotland. During the same period, Belgic tribes from the Gallic-Germanic borderlands settled in southern Britain. Caesar asserts the Belgae had first crossed
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3864-520: The Roman period, including sites at Chysauster and Trevelgue Head . The style is native in form with no Romanised features. Near Padstow , a site of some importance that was inhabited from the late Bronze/early Iron Age to the mid 6th century now lies buried under the sands on the opposite side of the Camel estuary near St. Enodoc's Church, and may have been a western coastal equivalent of a Saxon Shore Fort . Byzantine and African pottery has been discovered at
3956-415: The Southwestern dialect became Cornish in Cornwall and South West England and Breton in Armorica. Pictish is now generally accepted to descend from Common Brittonic, rather than being a separate Celtic language. Welsh and Breton survive today; Cumbric and Pictish became extinct in the 12th century. Cornish had become extinct by the 19th century but has been the subject of language revitalization since
4048-502: The ancestor of the modern Brittonic languages . The earliest written evidence for the Britons is from Greco-Roman writers and dates to the Iron Age. Ancient Britain was made up of many tribes and kingdoms, associated with various hillforts . The Britons followed an Ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids . Some of the southern tribes had strong links with mainland Europe, especially Gaul and Belgica , and minted their own coins . The Roman Empire conquered most of Britain in
4140-434: The ancestry of subsequent Iron Age people in this area, but not in northern Britain. The "evidence suggests that rather than a violent invasion or a single migratory event, the genetic structure of the population changed through sustained contacts between mainland Britain and Europe over several centuries, such as the movement of traders, intermarriage, and small-scale movements of family groups". The authors describe this as
4232-463: The author failing to understand his sources, or not appreciating the purpose for which they were written. His original sources may have been of poor quality, resulting in many curious-looking names appearing in the lists. Equally, there are some obvious omissions, although the author was not attempting to produce a complete list of places, as his introduction states: " In that Britain we read that there were many civitates and forts, of which we wish to name
4324-401: The channel as raiders, only later establishing themselves on the island. 122 AD, the Romans fortified the northern border with Hadrian's Wall , which spanned what is now Northern England . In 142 AD, Roman forces pushed north again and began construction of the Antonine Wall , which ran between the Forth–Clyde isthmus, but they retreated back to Hadrian's Wall after only twenty years. Although
4416-445: The continuance of a Brythonic dialect in the South Hams , Devon, as late as the 14th century, in addition to its use in Cornwall. Ptolemy 's 2nd century Geography places the Dumnonii to the west of the Durotriges . The name purocoronavium that appears in the Ravenna Cosmography implies the existence of a sub-tribe called the Cornavii or Cornovii, perhaps the ancestors of the Cornish people . Gaius Iulius Solinus , probably in
4508-447: The early Bronze Age around the 22nd century BC. West Cornwall, around Mount's Bay , was traditionally thought to have been visited by metal traders from the eastern Mediterranean During the first millennium BC trade became more organised, first with the Phoenicians , who settled Gades ( Cadiz ) around 1100 BC, and later with the Greeks , who had settled Massilia ( Marseilles ) and Narbo ( Narbonne ) around 600 BC. Smelted Cornish tin
4600-554: The early 16th century, and especially after the Acts of Union 1707 , the terms British and Briton could be applied to all inhabitants of the Kingdom of Great Britain , including the English , Scottish , and some Irish , or the subjects of the British Empire generally. The Britons spoke an Insular Celtic language known as Common Brittonic . Brittonic was spoken throughout the island of Britain (in modern terms, England, Wales, and Scotland). According to early medieval historical tradition, such as The Dream of Macsen Wledig ,
4692-399: The empire in northern Britain, however, most scholars today accept the fact that the Pictish language was closely related to Common Brittonic. Following the end of Roman rule in Britain during the 5th century, Anglo-Saxon settlement of eastern and southern Britain began. The culture and language of the Britons fragmented, and much of their territory gradually became Anglo-Saxon , while
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#17328439476374784-482: The first millennium BC, reaching Britain towards the end of this period. In 2021, a major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain during the Bronze Age , over a 500-year period from 1,300 BC to 800 BC. The migrants were "genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France" and had higher levels of Early European Farmers ancestry. From 1000 to 875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain, making up around half
4876-452: The first millennium BC. More recently, John Koch and Barry Cunliffe have challenged that with their 'Celtic from the West' theory, which has the Celtic languages developing as a maritime trade language in the Atlantic Bronze Age cultural zone before it spread eastward. Alternatively, Patrick Sims-Williams criticizes both of these hypotheses to propose 'Celtic from the Centre', which suggests Celtic originated in Gaul and spread during
4968-584: The following centuries make frequent reference to them. The ancient Greeks called the people of Britain the Pretanoí or Bretanoí . Pliny 's Natural History (77 AD) says the older name for the island was Albion , and Avienius calls it insula Albionum , "island of the Albions". The name could have reached Pytheas from the Gauls . The Latin name for the Britons was Britanni . The P-Celtic ethnonym has been reconstructed as * Pritanī , from Common Celtic * kʷritu , which became Old Irish cruth and Old Welsh pryd . This likely means "people of
5060-427: The formerly Brittonic ruled territory in Britain, and the language and culture of the native Britons was thereafter gradually replaced in those regions, remaining only in Wales, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Brittany , and for a time in parts of Cumbria, Strathclyde, and eastern Galloway. Cornwall (Kernow, Dumnonia ) had certainly been largely absorbed by England by the 1050s to early 1100s, although it retained
5152-418: The forms", and could be linked to the Latin name Picti (the Picts ), which is usually explained as meaning "painted people". The Old Welsh name for the Picts was Prydyn . Linguist Kim McCone suggests the name became restricted to inhabitants of the far north after Cymry displaced it as the name for the Welsh and Cumbrians . The Welsh prydydd , "maker of forms", was also a term for the highest grade of
5244-563: The isolated enclosed farmsteads known locally as rounds . These seem to have survived the Roman abandonment of Britain, but were subsequently replaced, in the 6th and 7th centuries, by the unenclosed farms taking the Brythonic toponymic tre- . As in most other Brythonic areas, Iron Age hill forts , such as Hembury Castle , were refortified for the use of chieftains or kings. Other high-status settlements such as Tintagel seem to have been reconstructed during this period. Post-Roman imported pottery has been excavated from many sites across
5336-496: The largest Brittonic-Pictish kingdom which covered Strathearn , Morayshire and Easter Ross , had fallen by approximately 950 AD to the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba ( Scotland ). Other Pictish kingdoms such as Circinn (in modern Angus and The Mearns ), Fib (modern Fife ), Fidach ( Inverness and Perthshire ), and Ath-Fotla ( Atholl ), had also all fallen by the beginning of the 11th century AD or shortly after. The Brythonic languages in these areas were eventually replaced by
5428-428: The late 2nd century Antonine Itinerary . A legionary bath-house was built inside the fortress sometime between 55 and 60 and underwent renovation shortly afterwards (c. 60-65) but by c. 68 (perhaps even 66) the legion had transferred to a newer fortress at Gloucester . This saw the dismantling of the Isca fortress, and the site was then abandoned. Around AD 75, work on the civitas forum and basilica had commenced on
5520-420: The later Irish annals suggest it was indeed related to the Common Brittonic language . Their Goidelic (Gaelic) name, Cruithne , is cognate with Pritenī . The following is a list of the major Brittonic tribes, in both the Latin and Brittonic languages, as well as their capitals during the Roman period. The La Tène style , which covers British Celtic art , was late arriving in Britain, but after 300 BC
5612-435: The male side. Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isles of Scilly continued to retain a distinct Brittonic culture, identity and language, which they have maintained to the present day. The Welsh and Breton languages remain widely spoken, and the Cornish language , once close to extinction, has experienced a revival since the 20th century. The vast majority of place names and names of geographical features in Wales, Cornwall,
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#17328439476375704-630: The mid 11th century AD when Cornwall was effectively annexed by the English, with the Isles of Scilly following a few years later, although at times Cornish lords appear to have retained sporadic control into the early part of the 12th century AD. Wales remained free from Anglo-Saxon, Gaelic Scots and Viking control, and was divided among varying Brittonic kingdoms, the foremost being Gwynedd (including Clwyd and Anglesey ), Powys , Deheubarth (originally Ceredigion , Seisyllwg and Dyfed ), Gwent , and Morgannwg ( Glamorgan ). These Brittonic-Welsh kingdoms initially included territories further east than
5796-424: The mid-19th century. Archaeological investigations were uncovering sites that had evidence of occupation in the Roman period, and this correlation became important. The Antonine Itinerary and Richard of Cirencester 's de Situ Britanniae were increasingly used to corroborate entries, until Richard's work was found to be an 18th-century hoax by Charles Bertram . The Cosmography remained relatively impenetrable until
5888-426: The mid-20th century. In 1949, Sir Ian Richmond and O G S Crawford published a paper they had originally submitted to Archaeologia , which suggested that the sources for the document had included maps or road books, and that many place names described geographical features. The book was seen as a significant advance in the study both of the document and of Romano-British placenames. Louis Dillemann's work, which
5980-421: The modern borders of Wales; for example, Powys included parts of modern Merseyside , Cheshire and the Wirral and Gwent held parts of modern Herefordshire , Worcestershire , Somerset and Gloucestershire , but had largely been confined to the borders of modern Wales by the beginning of the 12th century. However, by the early 1100s, the Anglo-Saxons and Gaels had become the dominant cultural force in most of
6072-539: The names of rivers, such as the Thames , Clyde , Severn , Tyne , Wye , Exe , Dee , Tamar , Tweed , Avon , Trent , Tambre , Navia , and Forth . Many place names in England and Scotland are of Brittonic rather than Anglo-Saxon or Gaelic origin, such as London , Manchester , Glasgow , Edinburgh , Carlisle , Caithness , Aberdeen , Dundee , Barrow , Exeter , Lincoln , Dumbarton , Brent , Penge , Colchester , Gloucester , Durham , Dover , Kent , Leatherhead , and York . Schiffels et al. (2016) examined
6164-420: The native Britons south of Hadrian's Wall mostly kept their land, they were subject to the Roman governors , whilst the Brittonic-Pictish Britons north of the wall probably remained fully independent and unconquered. The Roman Empire retained control of "Britannia" until its departure about AD 410, although parts of Britain had already effectively shrugged off Roman rule decades earlier. Thirty years or so after
6256-399: The north became subject to a similar settlement by Gaelic -speaking tribes from Ireland. The extent to which this cultural change was accompanied by wholesale population changes is still debated. During this time, Britons migrated to mainland Europe and established significant colonies in Brittany (now part of France), the Channel Islands , and Britonia (now part of Galicia , Spain). By
6348-423: The ordering of the lists of placenames being haphazard. However, there are more entries in the Cosmography than in the other documents, and so it has been studied more recently. The antiquary Roger Gale , writing in 1709, was the first to attempt to use it as a source for Romano-British place names, but early attempts relied on the similarity between ancient and modern names, and this method was seen to be suspect by
6440-415: The original author claimed to have used works by three others, Athanarid, Heldebald and Marcomir, in the compilation of his own work. Stolte, writing in 1956, argued that the cosmography was finished around 732. The naming of places in Roman Britain has traditionally relied on Ptolemy’s Geography , the Antonine Itinerary and the Peutinger Table , as the Cosmography was seen as full of corruptions, with
6532-416: The post-Roman Celtic speakers of Armorica were colonists from Britain, resulting in the Breton language , a language related to Welsh and identical to Cornish in the early period, and is still used today. Thus, the area today is called Brittany (Br. Breizh , Fr. Bretagne , derived from Britannia ). Common Brittonic developed from the Insular branch of the Proto-Celtic language that developed in
6624-441: The region, and the apparent surge in late 5th century Mediterranean and/or Byzantine imports is yet to be explained satisfactorily. Apart from fishing and agriculture, the main economic resource of the Dumnonii was tin mining . The area of Dumnonia had been mined since ancient times, and the tin was exported from the ancient trading port of Ictis ( St Michael's Mount ). Tin extraction (mainly by streaming) had existed here from
6716-548: The regions of modern East Anglia , East Midlands , North East England , Argyll , and South East England were the first to fall to the Germanic and Gaelic Scots invasions. The kingdom of Ceint (modern Kent) fell in 456 AD. Linnuis (which stood astride modern Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire) was subsumed as early as 500 AD and became the English Kingdom of Lindsey. Regni (essentially modern Sussex and eastern Hampshire )
6808-515: The remains of three Iron Age Britons buried ca. 100 BC. A female buried in Linton, Cambridgeshire carried the maternal haplogroup H1e , while two males buried in Hinxton both carried the paternal haplogroup R1b1a2a1a2 , and the maternal haplogroups K1a1b1b and H1ag1 . Their genetic profile was considered typical for Northwest European populations. Though sharing a common Northwestern European origin,
6900-536: The same 'country' which: was in ancient time inhabited by those Britains whom Solinus called Dunmonii, Ptolomee Damnonii, or (as we find in some other copies) more truly Danmonii. ... . But... the Country of this nation is at this day divided into two parts, known by later names of Cornwall and Denshire [Devonshire] ... The near or hithermore region of the Danmonians that I spake of is now commonly called Denshire, [or] by
6992-502: The site of the former principia and by the late 2nd century the civitas walls had been completed. They were 3 metres thick and 6 metres high and enclosed exactly the same area as the earlier fortress. However, by the late 4th century the civitas was in decline. Next to these [the Durotriges ], but more to the west, are the Dumnoni, whose towns are: Voliba 14°45 52°00 Uxella 15°00 52°45 Tamara 15°00 52°15 Isca, where
7084-626: The site. At Magor Farm in Illogan , near Camborne , an archaeological site has been identified as being a villa . The Dumnonii are thought to have occupied relatively isolated territory in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and possibly part of Dorset . Their cultural connections, as expressed in their ceramics, were with the peninsula of Armorica across the Channel, rather than with the southeast of Britain. They do not seem to have been politically centralised: coins are relatively rare, none of them locally minted, and
7176-427: The spelling of 200 of these. The Basle and Vatican documents agree on the spelling of a further 50, there are 33 more common to the Basle and Paris documents, and 17 more which appear in the Paris and Vatican documents. There are 8 names for which there is no agreement between the three sources, and 7 names missing from the Paris copy where the other two agree. In a paper by Franz Staab, published in 1976, he noted that
7268-460: The structure, distribution and construction of Bronze Age and Iron Age hill forts, Cornish rounds , and defensible farmsteads in the south west point to a number of smaller tribal groups living alongside each other. Dumnonia is noteworthy for its many settlements that have survived from the Romano-British period, but also for its lack of a villa system . Local archaeology has revealed instead
7360-554: The time of the Roman departure, the Germanic -speaking Anglo-Saxons began a migration to the south-eastern coast of Britain, where they began to establish their own kingdoms, and the Gaelic -speaking Scots migrated from Dál nAraidi (modern Northern Ireland ) to the west coast of Scotland and the Isle of Man. At the same time, Britons established themselves in what is now called Brittany and
7452-449: The tin smelters and mines. The earliest account of Cornish tin mining was written by Pytheas of Massilia late in the 4th century BC after his circumnavigation of the British Isles. Underground mining was described in this account, although it cannot be determined when it had started. Pytheas 's account was noted later by other writers including Pliny the Elder and Diodorus Siculus . It
7544-561: The western Pennines , and as far as modern Leeds in West Yorkshire . Thus the Kingdom of Strathclyde became the last of the Brittonic kingdoms of the 'old north' to fall in the 1090s when it was effectively divided between England and Scotland. The Britons also retained control of Wales and Kernow (encompassing Cornwall , parts of Devon including Dartmoor , and the Isles of Scilly ) until
7636-521: The western Atlantic seaboard which is also borne out by the modern genetics of Devonian and Cornish populations. The Latin name for Exeter is Isca Dumnoniorum ("Water of the Dumnonii"). This oppidum (a Latin term meaning an important town) on the banks of River Exe certainly existed prior to the foundation of the Roman city in about AD 50. Isca is derived from the Brythonic word for flowing water, which
7728-578: The whole document, and was republished in 1990. In addition to the three main manuscripts, the Vatican Library also holds a document containing excerpts from the Cosmography made by Riccobaldus Ferrariensis, and there is a copy of the Paris manuscript held in Leiden. The surviving texts are quite challenging. They consist of commentary and lists of names. The Vatican manuscript presents the text in two columns, with placenames being capitalised and terminated by
7820-556: Was collected at Ictis whence it was conveyed across the Bay of Biscay to the mouth of the Loire and then to Gades via the Loire and Rhone valleys. It went then through the Mediterranean Sea in ships to Gades. During the period c. 500-450 BC, the tin deposits seem to have become more important, and fortified settlements appear such as at Chun Castle and Kenidjack Castle , to protect both
7912-416: Was conquered by Gaelic Scots in 871 AD. Dumnonia (encompassing Cornwall , Devonshire , and the Isles of Scilly ) was partly conquered during the mid 9th century AD, with most of modern Devonshire being annexed by the Anglo-Saxons, but leaving Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly ( Enesek Syllan ), and for a time part of western Devonshire (including Dartmoor ), still in the hands of the Britons, where they became
8004-416: Was conquered by the Anglo-Saxons in 627 AD. Pengwern , which covered Staffordshire , Shropshire , Herefordshire , and Worcestershire , was largely destroyed in 656 AD, with only its westernmost parts in modern Wales remaining under the control of the Britons, and it is likely that Cynwidion, which had stretched from modern Bedfordshire to Northamptonshire, fell in the same general period as Pengwern, though
8096-523: Was given to the River Exe. The Gaelic term for water is uisce/uisge . This is reflected in the Welsh name for Exeter: Caerwysg meaning "fortified settlement on the river Uisc". Isca Dumnoniorum originated with a settlement that developed around the Roman fortress of the Legio II Augusta and is one of the four poleis (cities) attributed to the tribe by Ptolemy . It is also listed in two routes of
8188-452: Was likely fully conquered by 510 AD. Ynys Weith (Isle of Wight) fell in 530 AD, Caer Colun (essentially modern Essex) by 540 AD. The Gaels arrived on the northwest coast of Britain from Ireland, dispossessed the native Britons, and founded Dal Riata which encompassed modern Argyll , Skye , and Iona between 500 and 560 AD. Deifr (Deira) which encompassed modern-day Teesside, Wearside, Tyneside, Humberside, Lindisfarne ( Medcaut ), and
8280-558: Was originally compiled by the orders of King Alfred the Great in approximately 890, starts with this sentence: "The island Britain is 800 miles long and 200 miles broad. And there are in the island five nations; English, Welsh (or British), Scottish, Pictish, and Latin. The first inhabitants were the Britons, who came from Armenia, and first peopled Britain southward" ("Armenia" is possibly a mistaken transcription of Armorica , an area in northwestern Gaul including modern Brittany ). In 43 AD,
8372-510: Was translated by Professor Colin Smith and published in Archaeologia in 1979, was the first time that the theories of J Schnetz had been summarised for an English-speaking audience, while A. L. F. Rivet and Colin Smith used their study of the document to publish The Place-Names of Roman Britain in the same year. Part of the difficulty with the text is its corruption, which probably results from
8464-463: Was used by Celtic Britons during war and ceremony. There are competing hypotheses for when Celtic peoples, and the Celtic languages, first arrived in Britain, none of which have gained consensus. The traditional view during most of the twentieth century was that Celtic culture grew out of the central European Hallstatt culture , from which the Celts and their languages reached Britain in the second half of
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