Medieval map of Britain might reveal proof of mythological islands

A pale medieval map of Britain might reveal proof of “lengthy misplaced” islands detailed in Welsh mythology, a brand new research finds. 

Researchers found the “lacking” islands after analyzing the 650-year-old Gough map, which is now housed within the Bodleian Library on the College of Oxford. Within the space now often known as Cardigan Bay, in Wales, the map reveals two islands that not exist, research co-researchers Simon Haslett and Davis Willis wrote in a research printed within the June concern of the journal Atlantic Geoscience (opens in new tab). 

It is seemingly that the islands existed within the 14th century, when a cartographer created the map, and have been the stays of a a lot bigger land identified in Welsh mythology as “Cantre’r Gwaelod” or “Maes Gwyddno.” As a result of erosion, this land was finally swallowed up by the ocean over a interval of centuries, in line with mythology, the researchers wrote within the research.

Nonetheless, whereas some researchers assume the Gough map (which can be viewed online here (opens in new tab)) could also be strong proof of those mythological islands, not everybody agrees with the workforce’s findings. 

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Misplaced land?

In line with Welsh mythology, the drowned land of Cantre’r Gwaelod had a ruler earlier than the ocean washed it away.

“In current [in the last few centuries] folklore, Gwyddno is introduced because the ruler of Cantre’r Gwaelod and the inundation is the results of the negligence of the drunken gatekeeper, Seithiennin,” Haslett, an honorary professor of science and engineering at Swansea College in Wales, and Willis, the Jesus professor of Celtic at College of Oxford’s Jesus School, wrote within the paper. 

The duo additionally investigated different early sources for mentions of Cantre’r Gwaelod and located that the traditional author Ptolemy (lived circa A.D. 100 to 170 in Roman Egypt) wrote coordinates in his “Geographia” that recommend that the shoreline of Cardigan Bay was farther west than it’s positioned now, Haslett and Willis famous within the article. In essence, Ptolemy’s description means that the Welsh shoreline has eroded considerably over the millennia.

“Ptolemy offered a coordinate that implies the mouth of the River Ystwyth lay additional westward than it’s as we speak and, whether it is appropriate, then one would possibly count on the river to have flowed throughout a panorama that lay to the west of the current shoreline,” Haslett advised Stay Science in an electronic mail.

The workforce additionally famous that the erosion of the shoreline of Cardigan Bay continues as we speak, with shore sediments being smooth sufficient that the ocean can steadily erode them.

The sixth-century British monk Gildas famous the unrelenting sea in his Latin sermon “On the Smash and Conquest of Britain.” On this sermon, Gildas described how folks residing close to Cardigan Bay have been caught between an invading power and an unruly sea.

“The barbarians drive us to the ocean; the ocean throws us again on the barbarians: thus two modes of loss of life await us, we’re both slain or drowned,” Gildas wrote, describing the plight of these caught within the battle. Haslett and Willis stated this writing might document a time when a pure catastrophe, comparable to a storm surge or tsunami, worsened the erosion drawback and brought about a large quantity of land to abruptly flood.

Analysis is ongoing, and extra proof of this misplaced land could also be discovered sooner or later. “We’re planning to undertake geographical surveys alongside the current shoreline of Cardigan Bay to see if additional proof into the post-glacial evolution of the shoreline is perhaps collected,” Haslett stated.

Are the islands the mythological Welsh land?

Stay Science contacted a number of consultants not affiliated with the analysis to get their ideas on the research. Whereas a number of the students have been supportive of the findings, others have been skeptical. 

Catherine Delano-Smith, a senior analysis fellow on the College of London’s Institute of Historic Analysis, stated the Gough map was a poor supply for locating misplaced islands in Cardigan Bay. “The Gough Map can’t be used to ‘show’ the existence of ‘misplaced’ islands,” Delano-Smith advised Stay Science in an electronic mail. The truth is, the map signifies that whoever created it had a poor information of the geography of Wales, as “Cardigan Bay isn’t proven in any respect,” Delano-Smith stated. 

That is not the cartographer’s solely mistake. The Gough map reveals quite a lot of islands off Britain, however they’re inaccurate. “Solely a notional collection of islands is given, represented as tough circles and ellipses of disproportionate measurement arbitrarily distributed throughout the coasts of Britain,” Delano-Smith stated.

Whereas Delano-Smith did not utterly rule out the chance that the 2 islands the researchers consult with symbolize misplaced islands off Wales, she was skeptical. “The Gough Map has no place in a geomorphological dialogue of post-glacial coastal evolution,” Delano-Smith stated. 

Different students have been extra optimistic in regards to the accuracy of the outcomes. “With regard to the research of ‘misplaced’ islands in Cardigan Bay, I completely assume it’s appropriate,” Patrick Nunn, a geography professor on the College of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, advised Stay Science in an electronic mail. Nunn stated that, in his e book “The Edge of Memory: Ancient Stories, Oral Tradition and the Post-Glacial World (opens in new tab)” (Bloomsbury, 2018), he estimated the tales about Cantre’r Gwaelod date again not less than 9,000 years. 

Roland Gehrels, a professor and head of the Division of Atmosphere and Geography on the College of York within the U.Okay., was cautiously optimistic in regards to the finds. “I might say that [the] findings of the paper are correct,” Gehrels advised Stay Science in an electronic mail. However he doubted {that a} tsunami occurred round 1,500 years in the past, saying that one thing like a storm surge would extra seemingly clarify the occasions recorded by Gildas.

Initially printed on Stay Science.