ON THE 
PH(ENICIAN TIN TRADE IN CORNWALL. 
WITH REMARKS ON THE GREAT IRRUPTION OF THE SEA IN THE 
ELEVENTH CENTURY, SAND HILLOCKS, " RAISED BEACHES," THE 
CAUSEWAY BETWEEN MARAZION AND ST. MICHAELS MOUNT ; AND ON 
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAMES MARAZION, MARKET-JEW, IKTIN, AND 
BRITAIN. 
BY 
RICHARD EDMONDS. 
It has been immemoriallj believed in Cornwall that Moiintsbay 
was, in prehistoric ages, the resort of the Phoenicians for tin ; 
that St. Michael's Mount is the Iktin of Diodorus Siculus; and 
that Jews anciently were connected with the tin trade, and carried 
on tin mines in Cornwall. These facts have lately been questioned 
by writers of eminence, but are now established beyond the reach 
of future scepticism. 
In the ArchcBologia Camhrensis for 1857, while Secretary for 
Cornwall to the Cambrian Archceological Associatio7i , 1 wrote 
several papers on the Antiquities of the LancL's-end District, in 
which I stated that the tin so common in Palestine in the time of 
Moses was not dug from that land, but imported by the Tyrians 
from some remote islands known only to themselves, respecting 
which Herodotus, after acknowledging his ignorance of their situ- 
ation, says " it is nevertheless certain that our tin is brought from 
those extreme regions." ^ These islands I also stated are now 
* Beloe's Translation, i., p. 317. 
c 
