 |
 |
Dear Anthony, Dear All, It has been suggested that people could walk to Ictis at low tide, not because the Solent was as yet unaffected by slow gradual forebulge sinking, but because Ictis was in fact Mount Batten to the east of Plymouth (Barry Cunliffe, Mount Batten, Plymouth: A Prehistoric and Roman Port (Oxford University Press, 1988). Others favour St. Michael's Mount, and there are ten other proposed locations (I crib from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ictis). The Isle of Wight seems the least plausible of these, because it is so far from the tin mines; besides, what advantage would it have over the mainland as a place to ship from? This assumes either that Vectis and Ictis are two separate words for two separate places, or that the same element was used to coin names for more than one place. Jeremy Harte -----Original Message----- From: The English Place-Name List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anthony Appleyard Sent: 27 September 2014 06:03 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Portchester & Portum Adurni Martin Counihan <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:- > In the root "uern-", "marsh", the u (or v) is a consonant and the vowel is e. > As far as I can see, all the placenames derived from this preserve the vowel as "e". > To get "adurn-" out of it would be quite a stretch. I thought that Celtic "uerno-" meant "alder" (a tree), or "swampy alder forest". If so, this land was salt-free and out of reach of tides when the Celts came. The area round the Isle of Wight, like nearly Holland, has been affected by slow gradual forebulge sinking, and it is possible to believe Diodorus Siculus's report that in his time men could wade to the Isle of Wight at low tide. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Forebulge_sinking https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solent Land could be subsided AND eroded :: as the area sank through the tide range, wave action removed the loose surface soil and subsoil. ******************************************************************** The information contained in this message is confidential and may be legally privileged. The message is intended solely for the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, or reproduction is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by return e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. Visit the Epsom and Ewell Borough Council website at www.epsom-ewell.gov.uk ********************************************************************