Responce to Comment to Post 2,660 BC to 2,400 BC

  History With RCS: Gerry Art's Commenet to post 2,660 BC to 2,400 BC in reference to metal work of the period.

Blog URL: https://historyrcs.blogspot.com

                For some reason the comment section of the post is not allowing me to resopond. So, I will tell I can about the metal work of that period. The post centers on 2,500 BC which marks the a high point of the the Bronze Age of most of Europe, much of North Africa, and nearly all of the Near East. That is much of Europe, the Mediterranean and beyond was enjoying the Bronze Age, which to some has seemed a golden age. 
    

                I am pleased to be able to say that during this period Ireland was one of the most productive miners of gold and the producer of of some of the finest gold work. Someof the gold work which marked Ireland of this period were the following: Lunulea, aform of collar; torcs, a kind of neck piece which bent firmly around the neck, they were strickingly handsome; gorgets, they were a sort of chest piece or breast piece and often the most beautiful and intricket of these items. It may have been used to hold articles of dress in place. Rings and a large number of other items were also produced in gold.

                I am speaking of Bronze Age Gold work. But much fine gold work in an early age when much copper was mined and worked well before the Bronze Age. 

                I seem to be forming my remarks here almost entirely around Ireland, but a Bronze Age was occuring around much of the world.

                It has been said that there was a Bronze age in Ireland from 2500 BC to 500 BC. I believe that there is now importnat evidence of important Bronze work being done in Ireland by 2,700 BC. I am also frairly sure that an Iron Age had already begun in Ireland 600 BC.

            Let me include that the Bronze Age in Ireland and Beyond was preceded by the neolithic period, which we might call the New Stone Age. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age. I traumatic change in much of the world.

                In the neolithic period gold and were both already mined and worked in Ireland. Fine work was produced in small quantities. Silver and lead were probably also mined and worked in small quantities.

                It seems that I had Ireland on the mind when I began this piece.

                Ireland entered the Bronze Age as a major miner and worker of Gold. In that Bronze Age a variety of bronzes were founded. Nearly all of them were an alloy mostly of copper but always with a portion of tin. I do not recall the usual proportions just now. How- ever there was bronze produced using arsnic in the place of tin. The tin was used to make the copper stronger, more resistant, and harder than copper. It also turned out to be a sort of stainless copper with the look of gold!

                Tin was both mined in Ireland and imported to Ireland. A sort of metal alchemy was begun which employed mercury, lead, arsnic, silver, gold and other elements. The mining, smelting and working of tin and copper to make bronze was a sopnisticated process. 

                The Iron age in Ireland as in Europe, North Africa, the Near East and beyond was begun by a new people who proved to be many. These people knew horses well. They knew the processes of mininng, smelting and workinging iron. They made iron swords which cut through bronze weapons. They dominated Bronze Age people nearly everywhere. They were able to dominate cultures which were in many ways superior to theirs. At times they recognized this. They brought a new language, they brought it to Ireland and it became the mother of all the laguage spoken there for over two thousand years. It is the Gaelic which is still spoken in parts of Ireland. English is the dominate language on the Island today. English too is born of that Iron Age language.

                So, what are the Bronze age metals: gold, silver, copper, lead, arsnic, mercury, tin, and certainly more known by some. Bronze, a metal alloy made by man, and still one of the most beautiful and useful metals made by man and one of the least toxic if not made with arsnic. The alloy named an Age. We have much more to learn of the Bronze Age.

            Thank you for your comment Gerry Art.

                                                                                            rcs.

                

                

Snake War: A short version

History With RCS: The people of the United States have warred a lot (as have other peoples). American Indians: Northern Paiute,Bannock, Western Shoshone.

     

            They seemed to have been easily led to it. During their Civil War(1861 to 1865)they found time and resources to drive a lot of Indians off their lands. At the end of that Civil War they began to "pacify" Indians from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Coast.

By 1850 powerful and influential men  from around the world became interested in the American West. We might blame that on the Fortyniners and gold fever. The name, California became a sort of magnet which drew men from from east of the the Mississippi and the Pacific coast. That same magnet drew men around the Horn and through the Straights of Magellan: some crossed the Pacific ocean from the Far East to get to California. That magnet drew men and their capital and during the Civil War and drew them even more strongly after that war of Americans against Americans.

            In 1864 the Snake War began and then continued until 1868. Their were other U.S. wars (from about 1861 to 1868) during this same time. There were: Texas-Indian wars, a Colorado war, Apache wars, California Indian wars, and a Cheyenne Campaign! Many were sure that "good Indians were dead Indians." Indians were to put their heads down, in a dirty corner of what had once been their America the Beautiful, or die.

Historians called the Snake War an irregular war which Americans fought against the Northern Paiute, the Bannock,
and the Western Shoshone. Some of that fighting was done along the Snake river. When historians used the word "irregular" they were being diplomatic. This war took place in what became the states of Oregon, Nevada, California, and Idaho. The U.S. Won.

            The war began when many small bands of the tribes mentioned above were disturbed by the activities of people of the mining interests and the new road building interests digging in the lands from which those Indians were accustomed to take their sustenance. Significant numbers of those Indians were made "good." Some Indians were able to make a few interlopers "good" too.

            Powerful and influential persons were interested in the undeveloped lands of the U.S. Monied people in California,  on the US. East Coast. and elsewhere were interested in the lead, copper, gold, and silver. They were interested in the prime lands of the Far west of what was becoming the U.S.
The were interested in the resources the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean. They saw an access to a toad to greater wealth.

            There were those who had the the resources to apply pressure where needed to see that the natives of the land did not hinder their plans. California interests brought pressure to bear on' general George Wright, commander of the department of the Pacific, to provide better protection for those building the new roads from from Red Bluff and Chico to Silver City and Boise. "Do something about those Indians," they were demanding. It would take a book to cover all the powerful pressures brought to bear to clear the way to wealth. Still we can stay that much of those pressures had to do with money, wealth, power, and the growing craft of Public Relations, the selling of ideas which move the public.

            In the States, a growing number of strong pressures were being felt by men in positions to act on the will of the men with the power to put effective power on them. Pressures acted on Congressmen, large contractors, railroad men, world wide mining interests: capitalists from the
East Coast, the West Coast, and around our world. There were high hopes and a great deal of pushing and shoving. The people felt these activities. 

            The War consisted mostly of hunting Indians. Volunteers hunted Indians, interested citizens hunted Indians, immigrants hunted Indians, the Army hunted Indians. Some said that the Indians were in the way of destiny.     




                                                by Richard Sheehan



Should I start to think of learning to copyright my work?

I look forward to your comments, questions, additions corrections, criticisms, and praise. 

 

Ancient Mining

  How do miners become alchemists? Suggestive evidence does make one think a bit. We have a lot to learn. We can learn from anyone. Still most of what they say may be poorly thought out. He may be even more poorly educated than we are. 

When DID ancients begin systematically taking metals from the stone? Was it in the Stone Age?

Evidence of block cave mining is certainly old, but the evidence is only of several hundred years. There is much research to be done.



selected by Richard
for Mago Bill

Mago Bill History Notes

 Mago Bill Inspired History Notes

                You may remember Mago Bill as the name of some of my earlier blogs. You may remember that I believed that the given name of my paternal great grandfather was Mago William. While that Mago may have been called Will, he may never been called Bill, but it makes me smile to do so.

                My, somewhat imaginary, Mago Bill has inspired my interest in history and supported my political vision.

                Thoughts of Bill, Mago Bill, lead me to the following. An earlier Mago and the Carthaginians had certainly heard of Atlantis, but that fabled land had been lost for thousands of years before these Phoenicians posted themselves near the Pillars of Hercules. Those pillars may have been called the Pillars of Atlas, or even the gates of Atlas. They certainly guarded the way to the great Atlantic Sea and to the isle beyond the Western Isle.

                The paragraph above leads me to thoughts of many stories, but I will stick to my notes on those who knew the name “Mago” well.

                They were a knowledgeable people whom we might now begin to call Carthaginians. They knew much of trade and navigation. They also knew of mining, metallurgy, the writing of languages, and of defense and attack on land and sea. They were seamen. They that the islands not too far beyond the Pillars not only contained gold, silver, lead, and tin, but also contained men who knew about mining and metal working. They may have known about the little people who could follow the veins of metal deep into the earth. Those Carthaginians knew that men all around their smaller sea valued tin for making their bronze.

                The name and perhaps title of Mago was well known among those Carthaginian Phoenicians. I have found the use of title among them as early as 750 BC. You may find that it was used much earlier. I do find strong evidence that they were carrying on trade with the Western Isles from 500 BC to 400 BC.

                The Magonids were a political dynasty of Carthage room about 550 BC to 340 BC. The dynasty began with Mago I, under whom Carthage became prominent among the Phoenician colonies in the western Mediterranean. Under the Magonids the Carthaginian Empire expanded to include Spain, Sardinia, Libya, and Sicily. Diodorus and Herodotus often better tell us of the doings and happenings of the Magonids more honestly than do the Romans.

                There was a Mago II and then a Mago III who led the Carthaginians. There also seems to have been A Mago who commanded, or navigated for the trading fleet which connected the Western Isles to the Mediterranean. You may know, or have guessed, that the isle beyond the western Isle is the island nation we call Ireland.

                It might have been Mago, that knowledgeable ship-master, who so impressed a Sheehan as to name his or her son Mago. My great, great grandfather called his son Mago William. That is a source of my inspiration to call a blog of mine “Mago Bill.”

                Thank you for reading.

 

                                                                                        RCS

• Mago
• Carthaginians