Editing Cornwall (section)

===Prehistory, Roman and post-Roman periods===
{{Main|Prehistoric Cornwall}}
{{See also|Dumnonia}}
Humans reoccupied [[Great Britain|Britain]] after the [[Last Glacial Period|last Ice Age]]. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the [[Palaeolithic]] and [[Mesolithic]] periods. It continued to be occupied by [[Neolithic]] and then by [[Bronze Age]] people.

[[Cornish Bronze Age|Cornwall in the Late Bronze Age]] formed part of a maritime trading-networked culture which researchers have dubbed the [[Atlantic Bronze Age]] system, and which extended over most of the areas of present-day Ireland, England, Wales, France, Spain, and Portugal.<ref>{{Cite book |editor= Barry Cunliffe |editor2= John T. Koch |title= Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature|year= 2010|publisher= Oxbow Books and Celtic Studies Publications|isbn= 978-1-84217-410-4|page= 384|url= http://www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/88298//Location/DBBC|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100612212219/http://www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/88298/Location/DBBC|archive-date= 12 June 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last= Cunliffe|first= Barry|title= A Race Apart: Insularity and Connectivity|journal= Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society|volume= 75|year= 2009|pages= 55–64|publisher= The Prehistoric Society|doi= 10.1017/S0079497X00000293|s2cid= 192963510}}</ref>

During the [[British Iron Age]], Cornwall, like all of Britain (modern England, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Man), was inhabited by a [[Celts|Celtic-speaking]] people known as the [[Britons (Celtic people)|Britons]] with distinctive cultural relations to neighbouring [[Brittany]]. The [[Common Brittonic]] spoken at this time eventually developed into several distinct tongues, including [[Cornish language|Cornish]], [[Welsh language|Welsh]], [[Breton language|Breton]], [[Cumbric language|Cumbric]] and [[Pictish language|Pictish]].<ref>Payton (2004), p. 40.</ref>

The first written account of Cornwall comes from the 1st-century BC Sicilian Greek historian [[Diodorus Siculus]], 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 civilized 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 traveling overland for about thirty days, they finally bring their loads on horses to the mouth of the Rhône.<ref>Halliday (1959), p. 51.</ref>}}
[[File:England Celtic tribes - South.svg|thumb|right|Celtic tribes of Southern Britain]]
The identity of these merchants is unknown. It has been theorized that they were [[Phoenicia]]ns, but there is no evidence for this.<ref>Halliday (1959), p. 52.</ref> Professor Timothy Champion, discussing Diodorus Siculus's comments on the tin trade, states that "Diodorus never actually says that the Phoenicians sailed to Cornwall. In fact, he says quite the opposite: the production of Cornish tin was in the hands of the natives of Cornwall, and its transport to the Mediterranean was organized by local merchants, by sea and then overland through France, passing through areas well outside Phoenician control."<ref>{{cite journal|last= Champion|first= Timothy|title= The appropriation of the Phoenicians in British imperial ideology|journal= Nations and Nationalism|volume= 7|issue= 4|pages= 451–65|doi= 10.1111/1469-8219.00027|year= 2001}}</ref> Isotopic evidence suggests that tin ingots found off the coast of [[Haifa]], [[Israel]], may have been from Cornwall.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Berger |first1= Daniel |last2= Soles |first2= Jeffrey |last3= Giumlia-Mair |first3= Alessandra |last4= Brügmann |first4= Gerhard |last5= Galili |first5= Ehud |last6= Lockhoff |first6= Nicole |last7= Pernicka |first7= Ernst |title= Isotope systematics and chemical composition of tin ingots from Mochlos (Crete) and other Late Bronze Age sites in the eastern Mediterranean Sea: An ultimate key to tin provenance? |journal= PLOS ONE | date= 2019 |volume= 14 |issue= 6 |pages= e0218326 |doi= 10.1371/journal.pone.0218326 |pmid= 31242218 |pmc= 6594607 |bibcode= 2019PLoSO..1418326B |doi-access= free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1= Woodyatt |first1= Amy |title= Ancient tin found in Israel has unexpected Cornish links |url= https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/19/uk/cornwall-tin-israel-intl-scli-gbr/index.html |access-date= 16 March 2020 |work= CNN |date= 19 September 2019 |archive-date= 9 January 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200109064059/https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/19/uk/cornwall-tin-israel-intl-scli-gbr/index.html |url-status= live }}</ref> Tin, required for the production of [[bronze]], was a relatively rare and precious commodity in the Bronze Age – hence the interest shown in Devon and Cornwall's tin resources. (For further discussion of tin mining see [[#Economy|the section on the economy below]].)

In the first four centuries AD, during the time of [[Roman Britain|Roman dominance in Britain]], Cornwall was rather remote from the main centres of Romanization – the nearest being [[Isca Dumnoniorum]], modern-day [[Exeter]]. However, the Roman road system extended into Cornwall with four significant Roman sites based on forts:<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Parcero-Oubina |first1=Cesar |last2=Smart |first2=Chris |last3=Fonte |first3=João |date=2023-07-25 |title=Remote Sensing and GIS Modelling of Roman Roads in South West Britain |journal=Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=62–78 |doi=10.5334/jcaa.109 |issn=2514-8362 |doi-access=free |hdl=10261/338676 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Tregear near [[Nanstallon]] was discovered in the early 1970s, two others were found at [[Restormel Castle]], Lostwithiel in 2007, and a third fort near [[Calstock]] was also discovered early in 2007. In addition, a Roman-style villa was found at [[Illogan|Magor Farm]], Illogan in 1935. [[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Geographike Hyphegesis]]'' mentions four towns controlled by the [[Dumnonii]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=ToposText |url=https://topostext.org/work/209#2.3.13 |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=topostext.org}}</ref> three of which may have been in Cornwall.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fitzpatrick-Matthews |first=Keith |date=2022-01-01 |title=Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography: a Reassessment |url=https://www.academia.edu/4175080 |website=Academia.edu}}</ref> However, after 410 AD, Cornwall appears to have reverted to rule by Romano-Celtic chieftains of the [[Cornovii (Cornwall)|Cornovii]] tribe as part of the Brittonic kingdom of [[Dumnonia]] (which also included present-day Devonshire and the Scilly Isles), including the territory of one [[Mark of Cornwall|Marcus Cunomorus]], with at least one significant power base at [[Tintagel]] in the early 6th century.

King [[Mark of Cornwall]] is a semi-historical figure known from Welsh literature, from the [[Matter of Britain]], and, in particular, from the later Norman-Breton medieval romance of [[Tristan and Iseult|Tristan and Yseult]], where he appears as a close relative of [[King Arthur]], himself usually considered to be born of the Cornish people in folklore traditions derived from [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s 12th-century ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]''.

Archaeology supports ecclesiastical, literary and legendary evidence for some relative economic stability and close cultural ties between the [[Sub-Roman Britain|sub-Roman]] [[Westcountry]], South Wales, Brittany, the Channel Islands, and Ireland through the fifth and sixth centuries.<ref>{{cite web
|url= http://www.archaeology.co.uk/specials/the-timeline-of-britain/tintagel.htm
|title= AD 500 – Tintagel
|publisher= Archaeology.co.uk
|date= 24 May 2007
|access-date= 24 November 2013
|archive-date= 14 November 2013
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131114234506/http://www.archaeology.co.uk/specials/the-timeline-of-britain/tintagel.htm
|url-status= live
}}</ref> In Cornwall, the arrival of Celtic saints such as [[Nectan of Hartland|Nectan]], Paul Aurelian, [[Saint Petroc|Petroc]], [[Saint Piran|Piran]], [[Samson of Dol|Samson]] and numerous others reinforced the preexisting Roman Christianity.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Orme |first=Nicholas |title=Unity & Variety: A History of the Church in Devon & Cornwall |publisher=[[University of Exeter]] |year=1991 |isbn=0859893553 |pages=1–22}}</ref>