Milesians

Milesians were named for the land they once occupied, the Anatolian island of Miletus. Miletus is a famous font of philosophy. I've heard it called the birthplace of 'Western' science. Miletus was colonized by settlers from Crete around 1600 BC. Create was a seat of high culture from very early times. By about 600 BC Miletus had become a maritime empire.

When did Milesians arrive in Ireland? Was Ireland ever called the isle beyond the Pillars of Hercules? Were the Pillars of Hercules once part of the gate of Atlas?

It is said that the first Milesians to appear in Ireland were defeated in a conflict with the last of the powerful Tuatha De Danann nobility. However, the Milesians soon had a firm foothold on the island. I suspect that the very name, Ireland, arose from diplomacy between the people of God and the Milesians.

Ertebolle

Considering the following led me to the Ertebolle Culture:
Did Swedish bronze come from Ireland?
The name Danaan has referred to Greeks; probably to Milesian Greeks.
Danann came to Ireland
How and why do Danaan and Danann differ? 
Dana and Danu have referred to water deities.
Danube has the same source.

The Ertebolle Culture was to be found along Baltic shores before the Funnel Beaker Culture. From about 5600 to 4000 BC  they knew  the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and more.

Probably most of their sites are under water now. They lived on the sea. They traveled and  traded far along the shores and inland water ways. What did the Vikings learn from them?
They trapped fish. They fished the deep seas as well as close to shore. They took whales of all kinds, including dolphin. They used whale oil lamps. They took seal. They  hunted large mammals. They used grain and probably made beer. They harvested strawberries, raspberries, beets, and greens.


Their boats included large dugouts with sand hearths. 

They made pottery of a Russian-like type a bit like the Danubian. A people in Russia were good potters 10,000 years ago. Ertebolle woodworking was highly developed and showed a high level of art. They may have mined.


They valued and respected their dogs. Dogs were included in burial sites.


Their use of goosefoot as food or medicine and their use of red ocher in funerary practices makes them seem close to North American Indians.

What was the Ertebolle connection to the Irish Isle?

Before the Tuatha De Dannan ..... or Ladies First

The dates are my best guesses of the moment. The order entails the best guesses of a variety of experts:
8000 BC: Casire
7000 BC: Partholon
6000 BC: Nemed
5000 BC: Fomorian (Sea People)
4000 - 2000 BC: Fir Blog (Invernic)
3000 - 1900 BC Tuatha De Danan
2000 - 1700 BC: Milesians
And they are still stacking up today.


Here I'll say a few words about Casire. Later I hope to say a bit about Partholon. Cessair or Kessir, or Casire is the Lady with whom I will begin. In 10,000 years one may be referred to in more than one way. Kessir convinced her father that they didn't have to despair because they were denied a place on the Ark. And with that beginning she became the leader of the first "Invader" of Ireland before the Biblical flood. She was the daughter of Noah's son and Bith's wife, Birren. Cessair, along with three men: Bith, her father; Ladra, the navigator; and Fintan, the famous. These four along with fifty women sailed for more than seven years. They finally landed on Don na mBarc on Bantry Bay in County Cork. The arrived forty days before The Flood.


Cessair died of a broken heart at Cuil Cearach in Connacht. Who'll tells that story? She is said to be buried on the summit of Knockmaa in Galway. The rest of her companions died in the Flood, accept for Fintan mac Bochra .... but that starts another story. Could you believe that he became a salmon?


The long and curious story I have hinted at above was told and written as an attempt to Christianize legend that pre-dates 'conversion' and has been called a pseudo history by some. The of the story date it between about 2300 and 2200 BC. But, for now I am dating certain of the happenings much earlier. 


Look for Cessair and Fintan stories on-line and at your library. I invite you to tell us here  about the stories you find. Histories and herstories.

This Isn't the Whole Shebang

Writers of some authority have stated that the Tuatha De Danann are a race in Irish mythology. One acceptable translation of Tuatha De Danann is 'people of Danu.' The Tuatha De hav also been called 'people of God' and 'people of the goddess.' The "Labor Gabala Erenn" is a respectable source for things Irish before about 400 BC. It puts the Tuathe De Danann as the fifth of a series of people to settle within the boundaries of the Emerald Isle, the isle beyond the western isle.

It seems that these people of Danu were relatively few in number and high in culture. They found the island to be inhabited by a more numerous people who have been called the Fir Bolg.

Some recent historians have called the Tuath De Danann gods because they have been related to god-like heroes and hero-like gods such as: Badb, Ogma, Lugh, Nuada, Manannan mac Lir, Aegus, Morrigan, the Dagda, Luchta, Creidhen, Goibniu, etc. I think that they were people much like you and yours and me and mine.

The people who were on the Island just before the Tuatha De and those who came just after, saw them as people of special ability and knowledge. Later they came to be associated with Faeries, leprechauns, she, 'people under the hill,' and 'the good neighbors.'

"Tuatha De Danann" was probably used to refer to more than one of the peoples who 'came before.'

I suspect my surname, Sheehan, came to us from others. I think that 'shee' may have been what some called a few of those who came earlier and had retreated quietly to the hills and barrows. I think that '..han' was the plural and that others came to call us Sheehan and that among those others we came to call ourselves Sheehan