Novantae

The Novantae were a Celtic tribe in the late 2nd century in the region that is now Galloway and Carrick in southwestern Scotland. Except in Ptolemy's " Geographia " they are not mentioned in any historical work.

Excavations in Rispain camp near Whithorn in southern Scotland disclose a fortified farmhouse, which was inhabited from 100 to 200 AD. This finding shows that the people in the region were knowledgeable at the time of Agriculture.

Their ethnic and cultural affiliation is controversial because Britannic, piktisch, gaelic, or combinations thereof will be accepted. However, the region has a history that has known all three cultures at different times and there is not enough knowledge to exclude one of them.

Ptolemy

The only reliable historical evidence of Novantae is their mention in Ptolemy " Geographike Hyphegesis " where their home country and their cities are mentioned. They are to be found in any other source.

They stand out so far from the other described by Ptolemy stems from, as that their settlement area is accurately known. Ptolemy called namely, the name still important landscape features. So was the " Peninsula of Novantae " as Rhins of Galloway ( a hammerhead- shaped peninsula on the southwest coast of Scotland ) and the " Cape of Novantae " as Mull of Galloway ( the southern tip of the peninsula ) are identified. After Ptolemy were called their cities " Locopibium " and " Rerigonium ". However, since it was at the time in the region, no cities in the sense that he has presumably related to Duns or royal courts.

Roman Rule

The earliest reliable knowledge about the region of Galloway and Carrick during the time in which the Novantae lived there, mediates the archaeological exploration of Roman Britain. The only military base of the Roman army was a small fort at Gatehouse of Fleet in the southeastern part of the territory of Novantae. The Roman archaeological finds are portable, as if they had been carried into the region. The lack of evidence of a Roman presence contrasts the many legacies of the indigenous population and development priorities. The Rispain camp near Whithorn was formerly thought to be a Roman settlement. Today it is known that there is a fortified farmhouse, which has been farmed before and during the Roman rule of the natives.

Tacitus writes in his report on the campaigns of Gnaeus Julius Agricola ( governor 78-84 ) anything specific about the tribes that have lived at the time in Scotland. He says that Agricola built in 79 forts in the territories of the British, after the dissatisfaction was dissolved by the British by force and diplomacy. 80 AD he marched to the Firth of Tay and fought the resident tribes. He came back only 81, in the time before he tightened his win in the conquered territory.

In the heartland of Novantae no forts were built like the Damnonii Votadini and what it is possible that these strains a friendly relationship with the Romans were wont, for example, an alliance. There is at least no evidence that the Romans had ever waged war against one of the strains.

Contrary to Ptolemy

Long time it was accepted on the south coast of Scotland Ptolemy localization of Selgover City Trimontium. This changed when the researchers William Roy (1726-1790) so they moved much further in the near Newstead and east. Roy tried to follow a route from De Situ Britanniae (1757 ), a fictional description of the tribes and places of Britain. In his work, Military Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain (1790), he writes that the laying of Trimontium have made the itinerary logical. Roy did not change the settlement area of Selgovae in southern Scotland, choosing instead to strike Trimontium another tribe from De Situ Britanniae.

As De Situ Britanniae was exposed as a forgery in 1845, retained some historians with its localization Trimontium. Some historians gave the city even to the Selgover back by laying their territory in the vicinity Trimontiums. Since the Novantae were neighbors of Selgovae loud Ptolemy, her domination room was massively expanded, while Galloway retained as the homeland.

Consequently, it is an "error correction " the only reliable historical source ( Ptolemy ) maintained that was only made ​​for the purpose to make a fictitious route in De Situ Britanniae appear logical. This source is even further " improved " in which you move the Selgovae far from their only known area off and to compensate the territory of Novantae extends over a large area.

While Roy's historiographical work is largely ignored because he unknowingly relies on a fake source, his maps and drawings will continue to be appreciated.

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