Welsh Journals

REVIEWS BRITAIN AND THE WESTERN SEAWAYS. In the series 'Ancient Peoples and Places'. By E. G. Bowen. Thames and Hudson, 1972. Pp. 196, pis. 61, figs. 17, maps 27, table 1. £ 3.50. The difference between this book and others in the same series is made clear in the preface: it is not about the civilisation of a specific ancient people, but about a general theme, how sea communications have affected the story of man in Western Britain. In other words, it treats of the sea as a highway for people, goods and ideas, and not as a barrier to communication. It is something of a tour de force to trace this theme forward from 8,000 B.C. The Mesolithic peoples are claimed as the first known users of the western sea-routes; the itinerant Breton onion sellers of today are shown as participants in the same tradition in their visits to Western Britain and Ireland. The first four chapters are concerned with prehistoric times. The titles avoid the hackneyed phrases of prehistory: 'In the Beginning', 'Neolithic Argonauts', 'Copper, Gold and Tin' and 'An Escape to the North'. The mysterious wording of the last heading refers to the Early Iron Age, when the peoples of Gaul, and later of Britain, were forced northwards and westwards by the expansion of the Roman Empire. The three following chapters are devoted to the proto-historic period-the Dark Ages or Early Christian period: 'The Saints and the Seaways', 'The Seaways in Reverse' and 'The Pilgrims' Way'. The second alludes to the Vikings coming from the North, a reversal of many previous folk move- ments. This period has long been a special field of Professor Bowen, and it is not surprising that it receives disproportionate honours in this book. The eighth and final chapter, 'Aftermath', is a miscellany of reflections on the main theme from the Dark Ages onwards. There are predictably references to portolan charts, to Viking voyages in the North Atlantic and to the legend of Prince Madoc's discovery of America. Surprisingly enough, there is no discussion of the role of the western seaways in the survival of Britain in two world wars. The importance of maritime matters in early history, though once neglected by investigators, has for some decades been widely recognised, particularly as a result of the work by Peake, Fleure, Fox and Lethbridge, and more recently by Dr. Margaret Davies, as well as by Professor Bowen himself. There is less need today to convince scholars of the importance of the sea. They would no doubt equally welcome a similar treatment of the eastern seaways of Britain. Fundamental to the whole thesis is the interpretation of the distribution map, a selective map of certain objects or features believed to be contemporaneous. The data is stationary at the time of recording. The interpreter is responsible for inferences about movement. He can assert