The oldest surviving map of Great Britain might present proof of a misplaced land, enshrined in legend for hundreds of years, dubbed the Welsh Atlantis.
For greater than 700 years, tales have been written of the lacking land at Cardigan Bay, which in keeping with the legend of Cantre’r Gwaelod was swallowed by the ocean after the priestess of a fairy properly allowed it to overflow.
Now, two researchers consider they’ve discovered historic proof of two islands as soon as current in that location, on a map of the British Isles thought so far again to the thirteenth century.
The two islands, every roughly 1 / 4 the scale of Anglesey, are depicted on the Gough Map, a doc which has survived from the Middle Ages and is held in Oxford University’s Bodleian library.
According to the map, one of many islands was located between Aberystwyth and Aberdovey, with the opposite nearer to Barmouth within the north.
The discovery was made by Simon Haslett, an honorary professor of bodily geography at Swansea University who went searching for misplaced islands in Cardigan Bay whereas a visiting fellow at Oxford, and David Willis, who’s Jesus Professor of Celtic on the latter college.
“The Gough Map is extraordinarily accurate considering the surveying tools they would have had at their disposal at that time,” Professor Haslett informed the BBC.
“The two islands are clearly marked and may corroborate contemporary accounts of a lost land mentioned in the Black Book of Carmarthen”, a manuscript thought so far again to round 1250 AD, which consultants consider is essential to cementing the story of the misplaced land in Welsh fable.
In addition to the Gough Map, coordinates recorded by Claudius Ptolemy – the 2nd century Roman generally known as the “father of cartography” – point out that the Welsh shoreline at the moment might have been some 8 miles additional west than it’s as we speak, mentioned Prof Haslett.
In findings printed by the journal Atlantic Geoscience, the 2 teachers recommended the islands are prone to be the remnants of a low-lying panorama underlain by tender glacial deposits laid down some 10,000 years in the past over the last Ice Age, which has since been dissected by rivers and truncated by the ocean.
Their research proposes {that a} panorama might as soon as have existed there some 30 metres above present sea ranges, earlier than finally dissecting into islands – the remaining two of which finally disappeared by the sixteenth century.
This clarification might shine a light-weight on among the native folklore surrounding the parable, Prof Haslett recommended – with legends of with the ability to stroll between lands now separated by sea probably a folks reminiscence stemming from rising sea ranges.
“However, legends of sudden inundation, such as in the case Cantre’r Gwaelod, might be more likely to be recalling sea floods and erosion, either by storms or tsunami, that may have forced the population to abandon living along such vulnerable coasts,” he mentioned.
Prof Haslett defined that the erosion of any islands off the Ceredigion coast “would have released boulders that are likely to have contributed to the accumulation of the distinctive stone structures known locally as sarns”.
Dr Juliette Wood, a Welsh folklore knowledgeable at Cardiff University who was not concerned within the analysis, informed the BBC that she believes these sarns might have performed a key position in perpetuating the legend of Cantre’r Gwaelod.
“I’ve seen the sarns myself, and they are incredibly convincing,” Dr Wood mentioned. “You could easily believe that their uniform structure was once part of a lost civilisation, however the catch is that most of these stories don’t come back into fashion until the 18th Century.
“I call it re-enchanting the land, the romanticists amongst the Celtic population want to find meaning and a belief system to make sense of the current hardships.”
Dr Wood added: “Rather than saying that the discovery of the island proves the folklore, I’d say that the proof is coincidental, and that the two truths can exist independently of each other.”
In addition to their potential mythological significance, Prof Haslett recommended that the findings might additionally increase understanding of potential coastal processes within the area, the place he mentioned some cities susceptible to local weather and sea-level change are “likely to result in some of the first climate change refugees in the UK”.
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