język: Pytheas

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Pytheas of Massalia (; Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης Pythéas ho Massaliōtēs; Latin: Pytheas Massiliensis; born c. 350 BC, fl. c. 320–306 BC) was a Greek geographer, explorer and astronomer from the Greek colony of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France). He made a voyage of exploration to Northern Europe in about 325 BC, but his account of it, known widely in antiquity, has not survived and is now known only through the writings of others. On this voyage, he circumnavigated and visited a considerable part of the British Isles. He was the first known Greek scientific visitor to see and describe the Arctic, polar ice, and the Celtic and Germanic tribes. He is also the first person on re…

Evidence: 52 • authority: 72

The Massaliote Periplus or Massiliote Periplus is a now-lost merchants' handbook, possibly dating from as early as the 6th century BC, describing the sea routes used by traders from Phoenicia and Tartessus in their journeys around Iron Age Europe. Historian Adolf Schulten proposed it as a theoretical reconstruction of a sixth-century BC periplus, or sailing manual, and believed it had been versified in the lines of the Ora Maritima (The Maritime Shores), preserved by the Roman poet Avienus, who wrote down parts of it much later, during the 4th century AD. Schulten dated it to the 6th century BC. It describes an account of a sea voyage from Oestriminis, modern Pointe du Raz, to Greek colony…

Evidence: 35 • authority: 72

Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Great Britain for almost a million years. The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and now destroyed footprints possibly made by Homo antecessor or Homo erectus. The oldest human fossils, around 480,000 years old, are of "Boxgrove Man" (possibly Homo heidelbergensis) from the Boxgrove site in Sussex. Until that time, Britain had been permanently connected to the Continent by a chalk ridge between South East England and northern France called the Weald–Artois Anticline, but during the Anglian Glaciation around 425,000 years ago a megaflood broke through th…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 88

Northern Europe. Copper objects first circulated in Britain and Ireland around 2500 BC, thus beginning a short-lived Chalcolithic that ended with the rapid adoption of tin-bronze metallurgy after 2100 BC. Both islands have numerous sources of copper; however, these orebodies are not evenly distributed, nor were they all accessible to the prehistoric miner. This is part of the explanation why certain regions developed a strong tradition of copper mining that lasted well into the Bronze Age. Ireland has long been regarded as a significant producer of metal in the Bronze Age. This reflects the large quantities of Bronze Age metalwork found in a part of Europe with abundant sources of copper. T…

Evidence: 24 • authority: 72

Himilco (fl. early 5th century BC) was a Carthaginian navigator and explorer, cited by later Greek and Roman authors as one of the earliest explorers from the Mediterranean Sea to reach the northwestern shores of Europe. Himilco's now-lost account, sometimes referred to as the Periplus of the Northern Sea, survives only in brief notices preserved by Pliny the Elder and Avienus. According to these sources, Himilco sailed beyond the Pillars of Heracles (modern Strait of Gibraltar) along the Atlantic seaboard, probably reaching Brittany and possibly the British Isles.

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Iron Age in Great Britain spanned from c. 800 BC until the Roman period in the 1st century AD. It followed the British Bronze Age and was marked by the use of iron for tools and weapons. The Iron Age saw the adoption of some elements of the Hallstatt and La Tène material cultures from mainland Europe, a marked increase in the building of hillforts, and the emergence of brochs in Iron Age Scotland. The British Iron Age excludes prehistoric Ireland, which had its own Iron Age cultures. The protohistory of Britain begins during the late Iron Age. The earliest known account was by Greek geographer Pytheas, (c. 320 BC), who refers to the island as Albion, one of the Pretannikai nesoi (Pretan…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic-speaking people who inhabited city-states in Canaan along the Levantine coast of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily in present-day Lebanon. Their maritime civilization expanded and contracted over time, with its cultural core stretching from Arwad to Mount Carmel. Through trade and colonization, the Phoenicians extended their influence across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to the Maghreb and Iberian Peninsula, leaving behind thousands of inscriptions. The Phoenicians emerged directly from the Bronze Age Canaanites, and their cultural traditions survived the Late Bronze Age collapse, continuing into the Iron Age with little interruption. They referre…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

In Greek mythology, the Hyperboreans (Ancient Greek: ὑπερβόρε(ι)οι, romanized: hyperbóre(i)oi, pronounced [hyperbóre(ː)oi̯]; Latin: Hyperborei) were a mythical people who lived in the far northern part of the known world. Their name appears to derive from the Greek ὑπέρ Βορέᾱ, "beyond Boreas" (the god of the north wind). Some scholars prefer a derivation from ὑπερφέρω (hyperpherō, "to carry over"). Despite their location in an otherwise frigid part of the world, the Hyperboreans were believed to inhabit a sunny, temperate, and divinely blessed land. In many versions of the story, they lived north of the Riphean Mountains, which shielded them from the effects of the cold north wind. The olde…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Thule (, TH(Y)OO-lee; Ancient Greek: Θούλη, romanized: Thúlē; Latin: Thūlē also spelled as Thylē) is the most northerly location (if not Hyperborea) mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. First written of by the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France) in about 320 BC, it was often described by later writers as an island north of Ireland or Britain, despite that Pytheas never explicitly described it as an island. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, Northern Scotland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. Other potential locations are the island of Saaremaa in Estonia, or the Norwegian island of Smøla. In classical and medieval…