<i>First a wudd, and syne a sea</i>: postglacial coastal change of Scotland recalled in ancient stories

Nunn, Patrick D.

doi:10.1080/14702541.2022.2110610

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 54 publications

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“…Examples of the survival of folktales associated with environmental phenomena in Britain relate to the submergence and emergence of coastal areas in Scotland. They have been dated by comparison with coastal, glacial-isostatic adjustment models to at least 2107-to 8695-years BP for submergence stories and between 674-and 7120-years BP for the emergence stories (Nunn, 2022). However, Holme I and II were unknown for four millennia prior to 1998, consequently there is no associated folklore but 'the absence of ethnohistory of prehistoric sites does not preclude learning something about intent.'…”

Section: Folklorementioning

confidence: 99%

Holme I (Seahenge) and Holme II: ritual responses to climate change in Early Bronze Age Britain

Nance

2024

GeoJournal

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Holme I and II were contemporary, adjacent Early Bronze Age (EBA) oak-timber enclosures exposed intertidally at Holme-next-the-sea, Norfolk, England, in 1998. Holme I enclosed a central upturned tree-stump, its function and intent unknown. Holme II is thought a mortuary structure. Both are proposed here best explained as independent ritual responses to reverse a period of severe climate deterioration recorded before 2049 BC when their timbers were felled. Holme I is thought erected on the summer-solstice, when the cuckoo traditionally stopped singing, departing to the ‘Otherworld’. It replicated the cuckoo’s supposed overwintering quarters: a tree-hole or the ‘bowers of the Otherworld’ represented by the tree-stump, remembered in folklore as ‘penning-the-cuckoo’ where a cuckoo is confined to keep singing and maintain summer. The cuckoo symbolised male-fertility being associated with several Indo-European goddesses of fertility that deified Venus - one previously identified in EBA Britain. Some mortal consorts of these goddesses appear to have been ritually sacrificed at Samhain. Holme II may be an enclosure for the body of one such ‘sacral king’. These hypotheses are considered, using abductive reasoning, as ‘inferences to the best explanations’ from the available evidence. They are supported with environmental data, astronomic and biological evidence, regional folklore, toponymy, and an ethnographic analogy with indigenous Late Iron Age practices that indirect evidence indicates were undertaken in EBA Britain. Cultural and religious continuity is supported by textual sources, the material record and ancient DNA (aDNA) studies.

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Section: Folklorementioning

confidence: 99%

Holme I (Seahenge) and Holme II: ritual responses to climate change in Early Bronze Age Britain

Nance

2024

GeoJournal

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‘Braiding Knowledge’ about the peopling of the River Murray (Rinta) in South Australia: Ancestral narratives, geomorphological interpretations and archaeological evidence

Roberts,

Westell,

Fairhead

et al. 2023

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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The selective geography of volcanism in oral traditions

Franks,

Nunn,

McCallum

2024

Quat. res.

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Oral traditions describing details of ancient volcanic eruptions and their effects survive throughout the inhabited world. Many such eruptions, especially those having catastrophic environmental and societal consequences, proved sufficiently memorable to form the basis of enduring oral traditions. Using global databases, we identified 2306 such eruptions from 477 inhabited locations that occurred before the start of the Common Era (CE) and are therefore likely to have been the subject of oral traditions. Of these, we selected 20 events (‘remembered’ Holocene eruptions) for which there are extant oral (-derived) traditions that demonstrate how such traditions can reveal details of past volcanism that often are undetectable by retrodictive geoscientific enquiry. We also selected 20 events (‘forgotten’ Holocene eruptions) about which no oral traditions are known and discuss the possible reasons for this. Such oral traditions, while often challenging for conventionally trained geoscientists to interpret, are valuable yet largely overlooked sources of information about the nature and effects of Holocene volcanism that can usefully complement geoscientific enquiry. In particular, we identified locations where memories of such volcanism appear ‘forgotten’ in the hope that scientists might focus their attention on revealing, identifying, and analyzing local traditions.

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First a wudd, and syne a sea: postglacial coastal change of Scotland recalled in ancient stories

Cited by 6 publications

References 54 publications

Holme I (Seahenge) and Holme II: ritual responses to climate change in Early Bronze Age Britain

Holme I (Seahenge) and Holme II: ritual responses to climate change in Early Bronze Age Britain

‘Braiding Knowledge’ about the peopling of the River Murray (Rinta) in South Australia: Ancestral narratives, geomorphological interpretations and archaeological evidence

The selective geography of volcanism in oral traditions

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