--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Smith"
<mytoyneighborhood@...> wrote:
>
> Hi, I found this in my Grandma's 1933 elementary school
> textbook "Foreign Lands and Peoples" (California State Series).
> page 50 reads:
>
> "A block of tin tells a tale. A few years ago some men were
> digging a foundation for a building in a city on the south coast of
> England. The earth was very soft, so they dug down and down to
find
> a firm foundation. After going down for many feet, they came to
> something that seemed like a floor of strong oak planks. It was
the
> deck of an old ship. The place where the city stood had once been
a
> harbor. The ship had sunk in the harbor, and the harbor had been
> filled by mud brought by streams. The men cut through the deck of
> the sunken ship and found that the ship was still loaded with
blocks
> of tin.
> The writing on the blocks of tin in the old ship buried beneath
> the English city showed that it was a Phoenician ship."
>
> Does anyone know any further information about this find? Is there
> any linguistic evidence for possible Phoenician loanwords in
> Brittonic to add support to this?
>
> -Michael
**********
The mysterious Tin Isles - Casiterides could have been England or
nearby, but also, and much more probably, could have been farther
south. As far as I know, there is zero archeological or linguistic
evidence for Phoenician presence in England. It was generally
accepted in the 19th century, and appears to be a thriving belief in
the nuttier fringes of the Web (Atlantis, did Jesus visit England?,
etc.). An interesting statement is:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/nana/200
1/00000007/00000004/art00027
The appropriation of the Phoenicians in British imperial ideology
The Phoenicians played ambivalent roles in Western historical
imagination. One such role was as a valued predecessor and prototype
for the industrial and maritime enterprise of nineteenth-century
imperial Britain. Explicit parallels were drawn in historical
representations and more popular culture. It was widely believed that
the Phoenicians had been present in Britain, especially in Cornwall,
despite a lack of convincing historical evidence, and much importance
was placed on supposed archaeological evidence. Ideological tensions
arose from the need to reconcile ancient and modern Britain, and from
the Semitic origin of the Phoenicians. This example shows the power of
archaeological objects to provide material support for national and
imperial constructions of the past.
I would say your Grandmother's schoolbook shows what wishful
thinking can lead to.
Dan Milton