Hi Simon -
simon wrote: Regrettably Adomnan's acct of St Columbass is not in the order of importance as Patrick's Confessio and Letter to Coroticus. They are earlier and are of pivotal importance.
Patrick is the only Roman Briton to tell us of his life. He was not Irish. Hence his importance.
Patrick's father was a decurion. Who appointed him? How did he collect the taxes?
Patrick wandered in the wilderness for 28 days after escaping from Ireland not seeing another human.
Where can this have been? Gaul?
Does it reflect the devastation of the post Roman period?
He refers to the Franks being pagans.
All good questions for the free floating Patrick materials.
Now with Columba, we have an interlocking set of materials,
all concerning interactions with major leaders.
Those leaders include the church leaders of the early christian establishments in Ireland.
If we work through the later Columba materials,
then we have a much better frame work for analyzing the earlier Patrick materials.
While Patrick gets multiple study centers,
Columba gets...
simon wrote: Read what Patrick says, and what Pelagian materials?
Patrick and Gildas and Adomnan are not Pelagians.
This is very important.
What materials?
Whatever Roman Catholic Church materials are available.
Whatever their personal beliefs and religious practices,
we may be certain the all of them interacted with Pelagians,
and those materials will likely throw light on the much earlier Druids,
if we can but understand them.
simon wrote: Not sure what is meant by "problem" with Anglo saxon gold artifacts. There is no problem.
Analysis has been done. It is thought gold coins are the main source.
I prefer "It is" to "It is thought".
That new Spanish Lab is the bee's knees -
laser samples, well below human perception, with definitive isotopic analysis .
Aside from the gold sources, which may have also included earlier Irish gold,
you have the questions of the compositions and sources of the inlays and enamels
of that extra-ordinarily beautiful bling.
The problem with the "Anglo Saxon" gold is the recurring Pict motifs, along with the Coptic Interlace.
Along with no earlier artifacts in the raiders tribal lands either on the Continent or in the northern peninsulas.
Where was/were the workshop(s)?
That is the question.
And my working hypothesis is that it/they was/were
located in the Ayr/Girvan area.
simon wrote: Britain is a very small place. There are no lost goldmines here. There is no Lassiter's lost reef or secret Maori gold strikes.
If you are interested in that sort of thing I have been told there is a gold reef in Fiordland which gets covered at high tide. The person who told me came from the South Island and his grandfather had rescued the explorer who found it, sadly he died before revealing much more.
You're looking at gold, have you ever considered meteorites?
Say Native American meteorites?
I have (after all I did write a book named "Man and Impact in the Americas")
and much of what I know I do not share, due to the greed of a few people -
whose love has become lust.
simon wrote: It is thought that some of these objects are not plunder but tribute or payment.
They were not made in Scotland, they are hack silver brought from some where else.
They could be the pay of returning mercenaries, payment to keep the frontier quiet.
This was standard throughout the Empire.
I was referring to hoards of the sea raiders found at their homes on continental Europe, not the Scottish hoards.
For some reason the other Pict capital, the one around Glasgow, that of the Cruit,
is ignored in all of this, and the analysis of the Gododin/Ventureiones capital at Edinburgh is extended there.
Which assumption is not in any agreement with any of our text sources,
and likely to be demonstrably wrong.
simon wrote: Sorry but to suggest Scotland has no scholars since WW1 is insulting and prejudicial.
Scotland has some fine archaeologists at least as good as Ohio.
While Ohio has many fine archaeologists,
a few of those working with the Ohio Historical Society are world class atrocious,
and any general comparison of those working in Scotland with them
is thus both very insulting and very prejudicial.
I'm sure Scotland has many very good archaeologists -
it simply the south West of Scotland, which I was referring to.
My impression is that those working there died in the trenched of World War I.
simon wrote: Who these locals are one cannot comment but if they are interfering with Pictish monuments they are breaking the law.
Christ!
The major Shawnee/Cherokee ancestral complex located at Lancaster now lies under the new Walmart there!
I was nor speaking about deliberate vandalsim,
simply destruction by natural forces,
and the lack of that database of recordings,
and the lack of recovery and conservation of the Pict Stelae.
simon wrote: Why on earth would you think only Christians traded with Gaul. Have you not heard of Sutton Hoo?
I saw a Sutton Hoo exhibit in San Francisco when I was 10 years old. Most impressive!
But there is nothing equivalent to that Gaul E pottery that I am aware of.