Editing Dumnonii (section)

==Industries==
Apart from fishing and agriculture, the main economic resource of the Dumnonii was [[tin mining]]. The area of Dumnonia had been mined since ancient times, and the tin was exported from the ancient trading port of [[Ictis]] ([[St Michael's Mount]]).<ref name=RBOD /> Tin extraction (mainly by streaming) had existed here from the early [[Bronze Age]] around the 22nd century BC. West Cornwall, around [[Mount's Bay]], was traditionally thought to have been visited by metal traders from the eastern [[Mediterranean]]<ref>Hawkins, Christopher (1811) ''Observations on the Tin Trade of the Ancients in Cornwall''. London: J. J. Stockdale</ref>

During the first millennium BC trade became more organised, first with the [[Phoenicians]], who settled Gades ([[Cadiz]]) around 1100 BC, and later with the [[Greeks]], who had settled Massilia ([[Marseille]]) and Narbo ([[Narbonne]]) around 600 BC. Smelted Cornish tin was collected at [[Ictis]] whence it was conveyed across the Bay of Biscay to the mouth of the [[Loire]] and then to Gades via the [[Loire]] and [[Rhone]] valleys. It went then through the Mediterranean Sea in ships to Gades.

During the period c. 500-450 BC, the tin deposits seem to have become more important, and fortified settlements appear such as at [[Chun Castle]] and [[Kenidjack Castle]], to protect both the tin smelters and mines.<ref name="trevithick-society.org.uk">[http://www.trevithick-society.org.uk/industry/cornish_history.htm Cornish History.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090812235920/http://www.trevithick-society.org.uk/industry/cornish_history.htm |date=2009-08-12 }} [[Trevithick Society]].</ref>

The earliest account of Cornish [[tin mining]] was written by [[Pytheas]] of Massilia late in the 4th century BC after his circumnavigation of the British Isles. Underground mining was described in this account, although it cannot be determined when it had started. [[Pytheas]]'s account was noted later by other writers including [[Pliny the Elder]] and [[Diodorus Siculus]].<ref name="trevithick-society.org.uk"/>

It is likely that tin trade with the [[Mediterranean]] was later on under the control of the [[Veneti (Gaul)|Veneti]].<ref>Champion, Timothy "The Appropriation of the Phoenicians in British Imperial Ideology" in: ''Nations and Nationalism'', Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 451-65, October 2001</ref> [[Prehistoric Britain|Britain]] was one of the places proposed for the ''[[Cassiterides]]'', that is Tin Islands. Tin working continued throughout [[Roman Empire|Roman]] occupation although it appears that output declined because of new supplies brought in from the deposits discovered in [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]] (Spain and Portugal). However, when these supplies diminished, production in [[Dumnonia]] increased and appears to have reached a peak during the 3rd century AD.<ref name="trevithick-society.org.uk"/>