The shadows know latitudes!
The roses are read knowing longitudes!
And so
what is above is below!
Chapter 1:
WHAT: Rocks of Ages
Ages past became known as the Stone Age, the Copper (Chalcolithic) Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. There were reasons why these ages were so defined. Civilizations matured based on how their cultures utilized metal rocks to sustain their dominance. There was a progression from stones to copper, to bronze (an alloy of copper and tin), and then to iron.
The rock hunters noticed that rocks had different colors, and, when crushed, the rocks either turned to dust or were able to be consolidated into metals to be shaped into objects. The distinctive rocks became known as metals or crystals and were usually found in freshwater streams and rivers, which flowed down from hills and mountains. Following the streams led to the source, seams, rifts, and ridges of quartz-bearing metals. Some were below ground, and some led into the mountains. Rock hunters followed the rock (metal) trails.
The rock hunters found it easy to pick up the quartz rocks, but great effort had to be expended to dig and crush the quartz rocks. It was easier to travel to new locations where the picking was easier or where worker “slaves” could do the mining and crushing.
The Stone Age: 5000 to 4000 BCE
The rocks found during the Stone Age became known as stones, metals, or gemstones. The common understanding of the Stone Age was that these cultures were highly primitive. To the contrary, these societies developed skills that were—and still are—truly amazing. For example, skilled stonemasons knew the following:
Some stones were harder than other stones.
Some stones could be used to cut and crush other stones.
Smaller stone chips would float on water. Most stones would sink in water.
Stones on wood planks or on reeds tied together would not sink and could be moved more easily than carrying them.
Stone basins could be formed for processing grains and metals.
Stone structures of massive weight and precision could be built.
Stones could be used on floating objects (called boats) for anchors and ballasts for stability.
Stones could be carved with symbols.
Stones were easier to carve than metals.
Stones would have shadows with different shadow lengths, depending on the position of the sun. Taller stones had longer shadows.
Stone circles were built for calendars and navigation purposes.
Figure 1-1: Stone circles: Nubian, c. 4800 BCE and Carrowmore, Ireland, 4000 BCE
Stone circles and other mounds of stones at Carrowmore, in the northwest corner of Ireland, have been carbon-dated to c. 5500 BCE. The Nubian stone circle has shadows that measure the winter solstice and that determine the sun-shadow latitude for this location to be twenty degrees north, which translates to an actual latitude of 16° north.
Stones became more than stones. They became rocks containing metals. Symbols were then created to represent the different kinds of metals being discovered.
Figure 1-2: Quartz rocks containing gold, tin, silver, lead and copper
Pure copper in center
The golden rocks became known as gold (see Figure 1-2a).
There are three sources of gold, other than dissolved gold in the oceans: 1) alluvial gold, freestanding nuggets, usually in riverbeds, which were easy to gather; 2) gold in quartz, the largest source, which required crushing the quartz to recover the gold; and 3) gold in copper mines, which required mining and refining. Gold became precious and highly desirable by the ancient kingdoms. The Nile River dynasties had the golden land of Nubia. Ireland had gold as one of its key symbols. Was there a connection?
The Egyptian name for gold is nub, with the following symbol:
This symbol represents a basin with the metal sinking to the basin’s bottom, with water slurry flowing over the edge. The refining of gold, as shown in the above symbol and described in Chapter 4, was developed during the Stone Age. Gold was much desired and was usually found in the freshwater streams leading to the oceans. The reason for following the sun was, actually, to follow the gold trail.
Gold was found as the mining explorations went west from the Nile River, particularly to the Western European countries of Spain, Portugal, and Brittany. Gold was found in many locations in Ireland (see Figure 1-3).
Figure 1-3: Ireland map showing gold locations, Reference 61
The northwest corner of Ireland was blessed with significant gold deposits. The northwest region of Ireland was also the region with the largest number of megalithic stones in Ireland.
The Stone Age societies in the Nile region and Ireland had customers and suppliers for gold. Gold processing occurred in both regions during the Stone Age. Gold was highly desirable and became a symbol of power and royalty, resulting in gold becoming a fixation for all subsequent dynasties. This has not changed in six thousand years. Is gold the reason why invaders came to Ireland and left key symbols on the stones of Ireland?
The Copper (Chalcolithic) Age: 4000 to 3000 BCE
Some shiny golden rocks became known as copper (see Figure 1-2e). This copper nugget—97 percent copper, 3 percent silver from Isle Royale, Northern Michigan—is an example of the purest copper in the world. I was fortunate to find this copper nugget in an antique shop in Southport, North Carolina.
The initial exploration for gold and copper in the Nile River region was done in the mountain ranges between the Nile River Valley and the Red Sea. Figure 1-4 shows a map of this region and the various metal locations. The region became known as Nubia, the land of gold.
Figure 1-4: Map of Nile Valley showing gold and copper locations, Reference 61
The Copper Age cultures matured such that the cultures were dependent on gold and copper for their dominance and survival. Copper was more abundant, providing more objects to be formed. The cultures expanded their dominance by finding new sources for gold and copper. This expansion required an increase in their seafaring capabilities.
The Nubians became experts in stonemasonry, astronomy, mathematics, and metal processing. The center of the Nubian culture was near the Isle of Meroe, below the southern cataracts of the Nile River. The Nubians used elephant portage around the cataracts to locations on the Nile near the Aswan Dam area and Elephantine Island. From the location north of the Nile cataracts, riverboat travel took the commodities to the northern customers.
The Nubians, the people of the gold, became the great explorers for gold and copper and developed a skill in boating for the transportation of the metals. Because of the value in gold and copper, weighing and measuring were developed.
Ireland also had copper mines located in places such as Ross Island, Avoca, and the Wicklow Mountains. Across the Irish Channel were the great Orme Mines on the island of Anglesey, Wales. The question is, who were the customers of the Irish copper during the Copper Age? The Copper Age was the age in which the megalithic mounds of Ireland were initially built. The Boyne Valley mounds of Dowth, Knowth, and Newgrange were built around 3200 BCE.
The Bronze Age, 3000 to 1200 BCE
The Bronze Age has been defined by historians as having three stages: the Early, Middle, and the Late Bronze Ages. This relates to the development of cultures using bronze and the eventual role that iron played in replacing bronze. The trade routes for copper were replaced by the trade routes for iron.
The metals of interest during the Bronze Age were copper and tin because bronze is an alloy with 89 percent copper and 11 percent tin. Around 3500 BC or so, some ancient metalworker accidentally melted copper with a little tin and found the alloy metal to be harder than pure copper. This new alloy was what we now call bronze.
During the Bronze Age, the trade routes for copper and tin were developed. The metal trade routes were on the rivers, seas, and oceans. The seafarers became the key enablers and were funded by the expanding cultures requiring metals (rocks) for their dominance.<
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However, gold was also found in copper mines. Tin, lead, and silver were also found embedded in quartz rocks. The seafaring explorers were still driven by gold and copper. In the Bronze Age, gold, copper, tin, silver, and lead were the metals that the expanding cultures desired, and they funded the sailing explorations.
Copper
It is possible and instructive to follow the copper trade routes as cultures navigated to waters unknown. Sailing capabilities existed to enable this exploration. The copper trade route, leaving the Nile Delta, went to Cyprus, which stands for Cuprous, the name of copper. Today, over four million tons of copper slag still exists on the island of Cyprus.
Following the sun, the gold/copper routes went west to the island of Sardinia and then to the great copper, gold, and silver mines of Southern Spain. Further sailing reached Ireland to the copper mines of Ross Island and the Wicklow Mountains and the copper mines of the island of Anglesey, Wales. This was the old southern copper trade route to Ireland and back to the Nile Valley.
What is odd about the copper ores of Ross Island is that unlike most others in the British Isles, they are rich in arsenic. This makes them difficult to smelt (i.e., turn into copper metal), but when the resulting metal is hammered to remove bubbles, it becomes very hard and strong. Because of this property, it is often called arsenic bronze. Sources of arsenic-rich copper ore are relatively rare in Western Europe: the two main locations being Ireland and south and west Iberia. The ore’s hardness after smelting and working, its silvery sheen, and its rarity conspired to make arsenic copper much more precious than ordinary copper. Perhaps because of this it was an important export to both Britain and Europe beyond.
By 2200 BC, the copper trade route was extended to North America, the source of the purest copper in the world.
The time period for copper explorations covers the Copper Age and the Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Ages between 3500 and 1000 BCE. Copper was the key metal that enabled cultural development and exploration. There surely was a bonus that gold was also found in the copper mines. The Bronze Age could not have occurred without the discovery of the tin mines, which, when tin is alloyed with copper, formed bronze.
Tin
Tin is found in cassiterite crystal rocks (see Figure 1-2b), which, when crushed, will yield tin. Cassiterite often accumulates as deposits in alluvial channels because it is harder, heavier, and more chemically resistant than the granite in which it typically forms. The tin deposits are easily visible in riverbanks. It is likely that the earliest deposits were alluvial in nature and were perhaps exploited by the same methods used for panning gold.
Tin is found in only a few select locations in the world. The two major tin locations are found in Cornwall, England, and in China. Recent findings have located a site—a tin mine and an ancient mining village—sixty miles north of the Mediterranean coastal city of Tarsus, Turkey, which could have initiated the bronze alloying process. Ancient sources of tin were rare, and tin usually had to be traded over very long distances to meet the demand for bronze in locations lacking tin deposits. Hence, the need for sea transportation was required.
There is no Egyptian glyph for tin.
Silver
A nugget of silver in quartz is seen in Figure 1-2c. Note that the silver symbol is the gold symbol with a foot, indicating “coming and going.”
Major silver mines were in Spain. Eventually, currencies were switched from gold to gold alloys with silver and then to just silver. Silver can be found in copper and lead mines.
Electrum
The electrum symbol is the gold glyph with a scepter/staff included. Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver with trace amounts of copper and other metals. Gold and silver can be alloyed to form green gold versus refined gold. This may have a coinage application utilizing less gold.
Lead with Silver
A nugget of lead with silver is seen in Figure 1-2d. There were major lead mines in the northwest region of Brittany, known as the Egypt of the North. Lead is mentioned because a major source is found in Brittany, the location of the great megalithic sites, dating to 4000 BCE. The seafaring trade routes reached Brittany very early in the Stone Age.
Alloys could now be formed during the Bronze Age, such as bronze (copper plus tin), electrum (gold plus silver), and pewter (lead plus tin).
The purpose of this chapter is to define the rocks—gold, copper, tin, silver, and lead—that were desired by the customers to sustain their dynasties during the Bronze Age. The customers needed to find the rocks and created seafaring capability to retrieve the rocks: gold and copper.
Figure 1-5 shows the major copper regions in Egypt, Europe, and North America during the Copper and Bronze Ages.
Figure 1-5: Copper and gold trade routes: 3200–2500 BCE, author annotations
The Iron Age, 1000 BCE Forward
The Iron Age replaced the Bronze Age as mining and metallurgy improved. It should be noted that as iron replaced bronze, the need to travel to the “far islands” was minimized because the iron mines were closer to the customers. The dangerous sea voyages (e.g., routes going through the Strait of Gibraltar and to North America) could be minimized. This also reflects the Greek and Roman influences on the bronze-related, seafaring trade routes. The supplier locations for copper became isolated because iron was closer to the customers.
Conclusions
Seafarers expanded the gold and copper supply base for the Eastern Mediterranean customers. Early in the Bronze Age, copper came from Cyprus. Later, the southern trade routes would go to Southern Spain and then to Ireland. Eventually, the copper trade route would go to North America. The gold and copper trading routes went to “the far islands at the end of the world.” The Iron Age changed the trade routes.
Metal rocks were found in the streams. Following the streams led to the quartz seams and the mines. Crushing the rocks yielded gold, copper, tin, silver, and lead. Alchemy was the ancient way of turning dust into gold.
The major locations of Irish gold were the same locations of the largest number of megalithic stones in Europe. The locations of the rocks of ages were at the great megalithic sites of Europe. Symbols were carved into stones to aid the seafarers.
Was there a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?
Symbols were created to represent metals. There was a critical need to travel—by the sea—to obtain the metals. It is interesting to note that copper and Venus have the same symbol.
The Nile River Dynasty’s symbol for metal was three dots:
Chapter 2:
WHERE: Somewhere over the Rainbow—Ireland
The basic seafarer’s questions are
Where am I? Garden (of Eden)
Where am I going? Follow the sun and the rainbows to other gardens
Why am I going? Valuable rocks, gold, and copper
How will I get there? Boat
How long will it take? Years
Will I, or someone, return? It depends on the value of the rocks.
Gardens (of Eden)
On longer trips, the seafarer needs to find locations that have food and freshwater. These locations typically are where freshwater rivers flow into the seas. Depending on the length of the trip, gardens may need to be planted. The gardens need seeds, good soil, and freshwater. The gardens have grains and trees with fruit. They need baskets or basins for processing, jars for dry storage, and houses in which to store the fruits and grains.
The seafarer sailed from one harbor location and went to another harbor location where the foods of life must be obtained or grown. The boats carried jars (pottery) with water and food and also seeds for the growing process. If gardens needed to be planted, the sailing travel would be extended by one growing season. Sailing trips would be scheduled with growing seasons understood. For example, sailing to Southern France would require gardens to be planted near the southern harbors of Narbonne. Maybe the French name for a garden, jardin, reflects the use of jars and storage dens as the roots of garde
n.
The seafarer needed to find safe harbors, and the harbors usually were before the river deltas leading into the seas. The safe harbors would then be located close to the fertile land and freshwater. It is interesting to note the Egyptian spiral symbol for a shelter in the reeds, a harbor . A harbor is represented by a spiral. There is a center, an entrance, and a number of spirals. This is an important concept in the decoding of the Irish symbols.
The reed has this symbol , and a reed with a foot on the bottom means coming and going from the reeds. The seafarers, based on rock-hunting explorations, initially sailed from the Nile Delta (see Figure 2-1) and went north and a little east and found Cyprus, the copper island (circle).
Figure 2-1: Nile Valley with the delta, Google Earth
They found safe harbors and planted gardens.
Going west, the seafarer followed the sun, a symbol for gold. The trips were longer, so gardens were planted near the intersections of the freshwater river deltas and oceans. The valuable rocks were easier to find at these intersections and were known as alluvial rocks. Following the rivers and streams led to the actual location of the seams or mines, which were kept secret. Secured storage locations were built in locations that were also kept secret until the transport ships arrived. For security reasons, the storage locations were within a one-day travel from the harbors.
Figure 2-2 is a map of the Mediterranean Sea, showing the intersections of the rivers and oceans.
Figure 2-2: Mediterranean Sea with rivers, Reference 61, www.worldatlas.com
Obviously, cultures developed their gardens (of Eden) close to the intersections. From a seafarer’s perspective, the intersections were dangerous locations for boats because of currents and floods. Therefore, the need for a safe harbor among the reeds was required. The harbors of interest were located where the rivers flowed into the oceans and seas. The harbors were symbolized by a spiral.
A Seafarer's Decoding of the Irish Symbols Page 2
