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Eblana () is an ancient Irish settlement that appears in the ''
Geographia The ''Geography'' ( grc-gre, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις, ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'',  "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, com ...
'' of Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy), the Greek astronomer and cartographer, around the year 140 AD. It was traditionally believed by scholars to refer to the same site as the modern city of
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
. The 19th-century writer
Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...
used ''Eblana'' as a Latin equivalent for Dublin. However, more recent scholarship favours the north
County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...
seaside village of Loughshinny due to its proximity to Drumanagh, an important trading site with strong links to Roman Britain; it has even been described as a bridgehead of a possible Roman invasion. However, there is no definitive proof to tie Eblana to any location, so its exact identity is still a matter of speculation.


Eblana as Dublin

If the reference to a settlement in Ireland called ''Eblana'' is in fact the earliest reference to Dublin, this would seem to give Dublin a just claim to nearly two thousand years of antiquity, as the settlement must have existed a considerable time before Ptolemy became aware of it.
Eoin MacNeill Eoin MacNeill ( ga, Eoin Mac Néill; born John McNeill; 15 May 1867 – 15 October 1945) was an Irish scholar, Irish language enthusiast, Gaelic revivalist, nationalist and politician who served as Minister for Education from 1922 to 1925, Ce ...
writes that Eblana "cannot be Dublin, for no trace has been found in Irish records or tradition of anything approaching in character to a city on the site occupied by Dublin until the Norsemen fortified themselves here in 841" and speculates that Eblana "is certainly farther north than Dublin, probably on the coast of Louth".Phases of Irish History Early Irish antiquarians, such as Sir John Ware and Walter Harris believed that the name ''Eblana'' in Ptolemy's ''Geographia'' was in fact a corruption of ''Deblana'', itself a version of the Gaelic name ''Dubh Linn'' (Black Pool), from which the modern English language name ''Dublin'' derives. This is not the only instance where Ptolemy truncated the initial letters of place names. For example, instead of ''Pepiacum'', and ''Pepidii'' (in
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
), Ptolemy writes ''Epiacum'' and ''Epidii''; and for ''Dulcinium'' (now
Ulcinj Ulcinj ( cyrl, Улцињ, ; ) is a town on the southern coast of Montenegro and the capital of Ulcinj Municipality. It has an urban population of 10,707 (2011), the majority being Albanians. As one of the oldest settlements in the Adriatic coast ...
, in
Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...
), he writes ''Ulcinium''. There are several problems with this theory: * The earliest Gaelic settlement on the site of Dublin is referred to in local sources as Áth Cliath ("Ford of Hurdles"). ''Duiblinn'' first appears as the name of a Christian ecclesiastical settlement which could not have existed before the 5th century. * Ptolemy's description of Ireland shows no trace of either the Goidelic or Laginian occupations of the country ( T.F. O'Rahilly, pp. 39-42), both of which probably took place some centuries before Ptolemy's time. O'Rahilly (1946) therefore concludes that Ptolemy's description is probably based on data collected in the 4th century BC by the early explorer
Pytheas Pytheas of Massalia (; Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης ''Pythéas ho Massaliōtēs''; Latin: ''Pytheas Massiliensis''; born 350 BC, 320–306 BC) was a Greek geographer, explorer and astronomer from the Greek colony ...
. * The coordinates on Ptolemy's map indicates for Eblana places the settlement in the north of County Dublin, several kilometres from the site of the modern city of Dublin. * Ptolemy's Eblana did not stand on a river. In the ''Geographia'', Eblana sits between the mouths of two rivers: the ''Buvinda'' (i.e. the
River Boyne The River Boyne ( ga, An Bhóinn or ''Abhainn na Bóinne'') is a river in Leinster, Ireland, the course of which is about long. It rises at Trinity Well, Newberry Hall, near Carbury, County Kildare, and flows towards the Northeast through Co ...
) and the ''Oboka''. Because early antiquaries believed that Eblana was Dublin, they identified the ''Oboka'' with the river which enters the sea at
Arklow Arklow (; ; , ) is a town in County Wicklow on the southeast coast of Ireland. The town is overlooked by Ballymoyle Hill. It was founded by the Vikings in the ninth century. Arklow was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 re ...
in
County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered ...
, which they consequently dubbed the Ovoca (now the River Avoca). In fact, Ptolemy's ''Oboka'' seems to be the
River Liffey The River Liffey ( Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the Rive ...
, and his ''Modonnos'' probably represents the Avoca. Eblana, thus, is located somewhere between the mouths of the Boyne and the Liffey.


Eblana as other sites

When Ptolemy wrote the ''Geographia'' there were two significant areas of activity in north County Dublin. One was at the mouth of the river Delvin where two substantial groups of chamber tombs would have been clearly visible from the sea for several thousand years. As noted above, Ptolemy often dropped the initial letters of names and a shift from "Ebhlana" to "Delvin" could be seen as a phonic shift possibility. The second area of international activity was based around the promontory fort of Drumanagh south of present-day Loughshinny, which was probably a trading post but may have been used as a potential bridgehead by Agricola. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that the identity of Ptolemy's ''Eblana'' is yet unknown, and identification with the city of Dublin is at best problematic and highly speculative.


See also

*
History of Dublin The City of Dublin can trace its origin back more than 1,000 years, and for much of this time it has been Ireland's principal city and the cultural, educational and industrial centre of the island. Founding and early history The earliest refer ...
*
Eblana Theatre The Eblana Theatre was situated in the basement of Busáras, Dublin's central bus station, operated by Bus Éireann. A small theatre, seating 225-240 people, it was noted for being without wings and other common aspects of theatrical architectu ...


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eblana Prehistoric Ireland History of County Dublin