Editing History of Cornwall (section)

==Pre-Roman Cornwall==
{{Main|Prehistoric Cornwall}}
{{See also|Dumnonia}}

===Stone Age===
Cornwall was only sporadically occupied during the [[Palaeolithic]], but people returned around 10,000 years ago in the [[Mesolithic]], after the end of the [[Younger Dryas|last ice age]]. There is substantial evidence of occupation by hunter gatherers in this period.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a208/28fba2514993c79a65fa5990f3bd27a89e10.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190228114747/http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a208/28fba2514993c79a65fa5990f3bd27a89e10.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 February 2019|title=The Mesolithic Period in Cornwall|first1=Peter|last1=Berridge|first2=Alison|last2=Roberts|journal=Cornish Archaeology|number=25|year=1986|pages=7–34|s2cid=1366803}}</ref>

The upland areas of Cornwall were the parts first open to settlement as the vegetation required little in the way of clearance: they were perhaps first occupied in [[Neolithic]] times (Palaeolithic remains are almost non-existent in Cornwall). Many [[megalith]]s of this period exist in Cornwall and prehistoric remains in general are more numerous in Cornwall than in any English county except [[Wiltshire]]. The remains are of various kinds and include [[menhir]]s, [[tumulus|barrow]]s and [[hut circle]]s.<ref>Hencken, H. O'Neill (1932) ''The Archaeology of Cornwall and Scilly.'' London: Methuen.</ref><ref>[[Nikolaus Pevsner|Pevsner, Nikolaus]] (1970). ''Cornwall''. "Introduction: Prehistory," pp. 25–29. Penguin Books</ref>

===Bronze Age===
{{Main|Cornish Bronze Age}}

[[Image:Cornwall - Men-an-Tol.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Mên-an-Tol]] ("The holed stone"), an Early Bronze Age monument near [[Madron]], in the far west of Cornwall.]]
Cornwall and neighbouring [[Devon]] had large reserves of [[tin]], which was mined extensively during the [[Bronze Age]] by people associated with the [[Beaker culture]]. Tin is necessary to make [[bronze]] from copper, and by about 1600 BCE the [[West Country]] was experiencing a trade boom driven by the export of tin across Europe. {{Citation needed|date=August 2017}} This prosperity helped feed the skilfully wrought gold ornaments recovered from [[Wessex culture]] sites. Ingots of tin, some recovered from shipwrecks dated to the 12th century BCE off the coast of modern Israel, were analysed isotopically and found to have originated in Cornwall.<ref>{{Cite news|date=16 September 2019|title=Groundbreaking study: Ancient tin ingots found in Israel were mined in England|work=The Times of Israel|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/groundbreaking-study-ancient-tin-ingots-found-in-israel-were-mined-in-england/|access-date=8 January 2022}}</ref>

There is evidence of a relatively large-scale disruption of cultural practices around the 12th century BCE that some scholars think may indicate an invasion or migration into southern Britain.{{Citation needed|date=March 2007}}

===Iron Age===
[[File:The Victoria history of the county of Cornwall (1906) (14591082390).jpg|thumb|A map of camps and earthworks in Cornwall]]
Around 750 BCE the [[Iron Age]] reached Britain, permitting greater scope of agriculture through the use of new iron ploughs and axes. The building of [[hill fort]]s also peaked during the [[British Iron Age]]. During broadly the same time (900 to 500 BCE), Celtic cultures and peoples spread across the British Isles.

During the [[British Iron Age]] Cornwall, like all of Britain south of the [[Firth of Forth]], was inhabited by [[Celts]] known as the [[Britons (Celtic people)|Britons]]. The [[Celtic languages|Celtic language]] spoken at the time, [[Common Brittonic]], eventually developed into several distinct tongues, including [[Cornish language|Cornish]].<ref name="payton">[[Philip Payton]]. (1996). ''Cornwall: A History.'' Fowey: Alexander Associates</ref>

The first account of Cornwall comes from the Sicilian Greek historian [[Diodorus Siculus]] (c. 90 BCE&nbsp;– c. 30 BCE), supposedly quoting or paraphrasing the 4th-century BCE geographer [[Pytheas]], who had sailed to Britain:

{{blockquote|The inhabitants of that part of Britain called ''Belerion'' (or Land's End) from their intercourse with foreign merchants, are civilised in their manner of life. They prepare the tin, working very carefully the earth in which it is produced ... Here then the merchants buy the tin from the natives and carry it over to [[Gaul]], and after travelling overland for about thirty days, they finally bring their loads on horses to the mouth of the Rhône.<ref>Halliday, F. E. (1959) ''A History of Cornwall''. London: Duckworth {{ISBN|1-84232-123-4}}, p. 51.</ref>}}

[[Image:England Celtic tribes - South.svg|350px|thumb|A map of [[Iron Age tribes in Britain|Iron Age Celtic tribes of Southern Britain]].]]
[[File:Ogham.Inscriptions.Cornwall.jpg|thumb|350px|A map of inscription stones, with and without [[Ogham inscription]]s.]]
Claims have been made that the [[Phoenicia|Phoenicians]] traded directly with Cornwall for tin. There is no archaeological evidence for this and modern historians have debunked earlier antiquarian constructions of "the Phoenician legacy of Cornwall",<ref>[[#Halliday|Halliday]], p.52.</ref><ref>{{cite book
| last = Kendrick
| first =  Thomas D.
| author-link = T. D. Kendrick
| title = British antiquity
| publisher= Methuen & Co.
| location = London
| year= 1950
| id= BNBNo.b5007301}} pp. 107, 132</ref><ref>{{cite book
| last = Penhallurick
| first =  Roger D.
| title = Tin in antiquity: its mining and trade throughout the ancient world with particular reference to Cornwall
| publisher= The Institute of Metals
| location = London
| year= 1986
| isbn= 0-904357-81-3}} pp.123–131 (Chapter 21 "The Phoenician myth")</ref><ref>{{cite book
| last = Gerrard
| first =  Sandy
| title = The early British tin industry
| publisher= Tempus Publishing
| location = Stroud, Glos
| year= 2000
| isbn=0-7524-1452-6}} p. 21.</ref> including belief that the Phoenicians even settled Cornwall.

===Toponymy===
By the time that Classical written sources appear, Cornwall was inhabited by tribes speaking [[Celtic languages]]. The ancient Greeks and Romans used the name ''Belerion'' or ''Bolerium'' for the south-west tip of the island of Britain, but the late-Roman source for the [[Ravenna Cosmography]] (compiled about 700 CE) introduces a place-name ''Puro coronavis'', the first part of which seems to be a misspelling of ''Duro'' (meaning Fort). This appears to indicate that the tribe of the [[Cornovii (Cornwall)|Cornovii]], known from earlier Roman sources as inhabitants of an area centred on modern Shropshire, had by about the 5th century established a power-base in the south-west (perhaps at [[Tintagel]]).<ref>Cornwall Guide [http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/history/ancient/ Ancient History page].</ref>

The tribal name is therefore likely to be the origin of ''Kernow'' or later ''Curnow'' used for Cornwall in the Cornish language. [[John Morris (historian)|John Morris]] suggested that a contingent of the Shropshire Cornovii was sent to South West Britain at the end of the Roman era, to rule the land there and keep out the invading Irish, but this theory was dismissed by Professor [[Philip Payton]] in his book ''Cornwall: A History''.<ref name="payton"/> Given the geographical separation between the three tribes known as Cornovii–the third being found in modern-day [[Caithness]]– and the absence of any known connection, the Cornish Cornovii are generally assumed to compose a completely separate tribe. While their name may derive from their inhabitation of a peninsula, the absence of a peninsula in the other two cases has led to the postulation of a derivation from these tribes' worship of a "horned god."<ref name=T>Todd, Malcolm (1987). The South West to AD 1000. A Regional History of England. Longman. pp. 203, 217. {{ISBN|0-582-49274-2}}.</ref>

The English name, Cornwall, comes from the Celtic name, to which the [[Old English]] word ''Wealas'' "foreigner" is added.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=8994 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311164902/http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=8994 |archive-date=11 March 2014 |date=6 August 2009 |title=Overview of Cornish History|publisher=[[Cornwall County Council]] |access-date=12 September 2013}}</ref>

In pre-Roman times, Cornwall was part of the kingdom of [[Dumnonia]], and was later known to the Anglo-Saxons as "''West'' Wales", to distinguish it from "North Wales" (modern-day Wales).<ref>{{cite book|last=Deacon|first=Bernard|title=A Concise History of Cornwall|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oOUWAQAAIAAJ|year=2007|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=978-0-7083-2032-7|page=4}}</ref>