KANOVIUM - The Fort Name - ‘The Place Of Reeds’
© Kanovium Project
What the name Kanovium means has long since interested me, it obviously derives from the name of the nearby river the Conwy,
or to the native population and Romans (as the Romans always retained original place and river names) the Kan or the Gan or the Con. Naming a fort after a river is common Roman practice, forts are often situated by a river for obvious reasons such as transport. The ‘kan’ has survived into modern times in the forms of town names Conwy and Deganwy, and coincidentally the name of Conwy still serves as the name for the local county. First a local myth has to be dispensed
with, I have heard many times that Conwy means ‘the mighty one’ as with most local myths at least ones featuring the Romans, it is wrong, I have done some research into what the fort name means, and indeed the river, consulting
an expert of Roman Britain W.G Putnam, Bill is an actual contributor to M.G. Jarrett's The Roman Frontier In Wales second edition 1969, Bill cites his work about Dorset as his proudest achievements, Discover Dorset - The Romans, Discover Dorset - The Prehistoric Age and his thoughts were very gratefully received indeed
I had an opportunity to read a book by Guy De La Bedoyere, A Handbook To Hadrian’s Wall, what interested me was that he translated many of the Latin fort names into modern English, many of the results were quite
surprising, for instance Housesteads - Vercovicium or ‘The Place Of Able Fighters’, Aballava - Maryport means ‘The Apple Orchard’ Chesters - Cilurnum, - ‘The Dark Pool’. This made me wonder what ‘Kanovium’ meant, a contact suggested his friend Bill Putnam would be the man to ask on
the meaning of the name, and happy to be of assistance, he told me that though the translation was difficult, it was ‘The Place Of Reeds’, this right away discounting the local myth theory, nothing to do with ‘mighty one’ simply, it was as mundane as reeds. Kano or cano in the ancient British language which would have been a mixture of Latin and Celtic means reeds. This mixture of the languages is re-enforced by David Braund Ruling Roman Britain, Routledge 1996, in regard to Latin legends on British coins, and I quote
‘Presumably, those who minted the coins assumed that members of the royal elite, at least could read the legends; limited archaeological evidence suggests that in early Britain it was not
only foreigners who could cope with a little Latin.’
Then what of the ‘ovium’? The translation for this, suprisingly isn’t known, nor is the ‘ium’ in Segontium, the name segont derives
again from the nearby river Seiont or Saint in English, but the end suffix cannot be interpreted. It is considered that it actually means ‘the place’ ‘the place of’ So Kanovium translates to ‘the place of reeds’ or
a reedy place.
Braund’s book also raised another interesting point, which in my thinking just may allude the river being thought of in local Welsh as ‘the mighty one’ it seems this Latin/Celtic crossover is difficult
even for language experts to entangle, as indeed today a fluent Welsh speaker may have difficulty in understanding the meaning of an old Welsh word, it may well be Welsh but the meaning has long since lost any significance, for
instance a Welsh friend had absolutely no idea what ‘Bryn y Gefeiliau meant, it means ‘the hill of smithies, but the Gefeiliau word is so uncommon today that the average Welsh speaker would not encounter it. Therefore
studies of old languages are not easy for the novice like me to understand, but Braund’s book raise this one point -
Some British rulers, such as Eppilus, Verica, and Cunobelinus added the Latin title for king ‘rex’ to
their coin titles. While other rulers such as Prasutacus of the Iceni while still attempting to proclaim their ultimate authority in Roman terms chose to use the Celtic derivation of rex ‘RICON’ Therefore if
rex/ricon means king is it not plausible that is represented by the CON part of the title? And king could easy be substituted for ‘the mighty one’ I have no idea if this use of ricon is correct, but surely three similar
letters in sequence must represent the same word?
Bill Putnams illuminates the difficulty in interpreting this language crossover in the following, words for reeds Greek - Kanna, Celtic - Kano (use of Celtic spelling is
made difficult by the fact the Celts wrote nothing down so we are unsure of their spelling) and Latin - Canna, or in prose - Harundo. These words are all broadly similar and the reason for this is they all derive from a
common ancestral language. Celtic has affinities with Greek, hence the ‘K’ in Kanovium, which as is written on the Llanfairfechan milestone must be the correct use of the name above Canovium. Below I reproduce a
discussion from Rivet, and Bill Putnam thinks despite of him going with Conovium, the deliberate use of K on the stone RIB 2265 definitely renders the fort name Kanovium.
From: The Place names of Roman Britain, ALF Rivet, Colin Smith Batsford, 1979
CANOVIUM
Sources
Inscription: RIB 2265: a milestone of the fifth year of Hadrian, A.D 120-21 A KANOVIO MP VIII’ 8 miles from KANOVIO, Antonine Itinerary (iter XI) CONOVIO, Ravenna Cosmography CANUBIO.
Derivation. The
milestone gives certainty of the correct form. The first o of the Antonine It’s form is a scribal assimilation to the stressed o, while Ravenna misreads o as u and has the common Vulgar Latin confusion of the b/v
Jackson in LHEB 38 and 379 seems disposed to take the Antonine Con form with some seriousness, perhaps in view of the development to Welsh Conwy, but rectifies this in his treatment of the name in Britannia, 1 (1970)
‘The Welsh Conwy, the river Conwy on which Caerhun stands, must be from *Canouio, presumably from *cano-’’reed’’ plus * ouio-suffix. Compare Canonium, and for this suffix Combretovium, Cornovii, *Leucovia, Matovium,
Vinovia. As often, the name of the river is the basis of that of a settlement on its banks.
The Internet is a great medium for exchanging information, and often this website has readers seeking more in depth information or answers to specific questions, this can be one of the most rewarding aspects of designing a website. In regard to the origin of the name a reader contacted me, who was well advanced in language research, so in this case it was this website that benefited as knowledge possessed was far greater than mine, Kimberly Salisbury was happy for me to publish the information, which can be read below, I would like to thank Kimberly, as it certainly opens up more thought on the meaning of the Conwy name. I quote -
‘Years ago, I
began a quest for learning the origins of the name Canning, which I was sure must be discoverable. Alas, (or perhaps this was a blessing,) it was not straightforward.
In the process, I collected nearly 7,000
verbatim dictionary definitions of words that begin with the sound of K-vowel-N, from numerous languages around the world. I entered them into a spreadsheet program, and sorted them thoroughly, from the ground up, into
macro-meaning groups. I am confident that I have found all of the major concepts in the world that are called by the sound of KVN, and that I have a generally clear picture of where that sound derived from: ancient
firemaking rituals, probably the original rituals of half a million years ago.
Every KVN macro-meaning group is something that would have featured very largely at such rituals: Leaders titles (would've been
the firemakers); Rods (the rod of the firemaking tool); Grooves (the notched piece of wood the wooden rod was rubbed in); Fire and Brightness; To and Fro Motion (the action of the firemaker, and of procreation, for which this
ritual was enacted); Chanting (certainly accompanied the ritual, as evidenced by the enlargement of the nerve to the tongue coinciding with the global expansion of firemaking); Congregating (people convened for the ritual);
Heightened Emotions (self-explanatory); and the Jupiterian-sized group, the Power of Generation (which the ritual was thought to embody and augment --- "Kan" in each of its manifestations was thought to embody
universal life-creation).
If the authorities attribute Kanovium to "reeds" this would not be a mistake. One of the main meanings in the KVN array is "Rod-shaped things", which would
include reeds. And this just might link to a time that reed boats, a la Thor Heyerdahl, were a main form of water travel. However, the name Kanovium certainly would have had another connotation, much more germaine to its
location. Anciently, the masters of the sea trade in metals were the financiers of kings the world over. Bronze depended on rarely-occurring tin, and the sea-masters controlled that, thus controlling metal production during the
Bronze Ages. These metal-trading sea masters were universally known by the KVN prefix, whether itinerant iron traders in Africa (Il Kononi), or ancient Tokyo merchants (the Kenan District), and everyone in between. And
especially the Cannings of Britain. There are many Canning placenames in Britain and many KVN-VN placenames worldwide. These names universally occur at strategic sea bases, protectable harbors often with offshore
islands, with some exceptions where these names are found at huge metal deposits, such as Cananea in northern Mexico, at the location of North America's largest copper mine. There are fewer noted KVN names at the
headwaters of important rivers, but in times past, these would also have been widely known by KVN names, due to the fact that chiefs always occupy the headwaters of the most important tributary of a watershed. These days, these
headwaters KVN names have generally been lost, due to seclusion, while their coastal counterparts stayed active due to trade. Kanovium certainly was such a name.
I think it is very likely that the DeCeangi name, as
spelled, derived from "Of the Ocean". Ocean (German, Okean) derives from the Grooves cluster of KVN meanings; the ocean was the Great River, i.e., the Great Channel, everywhere man went. I also think the
Ceangi gave their name to North America, in the word "Yankee", and in general, in the word "gang" such as would have worked the metals. It is very evident, in North American stone inscriptions and
mini-Stonehenges, that Nordics were mining metals in the Great Lakes region, centuries or millennia BC. (Flat rectangular sheets of copper were known as "dalers" in Scandinavian languages, from which we must
certainly get the dollar).
Kanovium Project question - What do you think of my theory that the Celtic name for 'great King' - RICON has some connection with Kan/Con? as the Welsh people around here reckon Conwy means 'the great
one' do you agree?"
It makes good sense to me that Ricon would be derived from the very same KVN sense as King and all the other KVN noble titles such as Khan, Candace (a title), Konung, Conan/Kanan, and the
like. As for the Ri- part, I cannot comment; I haven't explored the R sound yet. I do know many words that place an S or AS or IS prefix before the KVN; in those cases, the S sound means "great" --- that is in
the dictionary! The world over, wherever you find a very great sea channel, you find an
S-KVN placename, such as Skane in Scandinavia, the strait between Denmark and Sweden from which Scandinavia derives its name; Sequana
at the English Channel, the early name of the Seine River, which certainly must have derived from the English Channel and not vice versa; the god Ascanno engraved in stone near the Straits of Gibraltar; Al Iskandaria at the
mouth of the Nile, from which the western name Alexander must be derived; and in North America, Akancea at the mouth of the Mississippi, from which Arkansas and Kansas take their names; Sekonnet at Rhode Island, which must have
derived from the Long Island channel; and Saguenay at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, leading to the Great Lakes.
The last is really interesting to follow on early maps. All of North America was mapped before the Great
Lakes were found. You can literally see that the explorers were being led astray by the Natives, and were told that the misleading Saguenay River was the passage to the famed inland waters. It does indeed lead to a
very large lake, but it is just a pond compared to the Great Lakes. "The Great Channel? Yes sir! Right this way!"
Can Ri- of Ricon and -wy of Conwy be cognates? It's the sound that
matters, not the spelling. Do R and W sound similar in these words? I remember _The Ra Expeditions_ by Thor Heyerdahl (good reading!). Ra was a great god, of course. If the R sound denotes "royalty"
("roi"), then you have an interesting word there. Do you think maybe Conwy is Ricon, with syllables reversed?
I hesitate to speculate about any word's derivation unless and until a really thorough
sound-meaning collection has been made and sorted out, one such as I've begun with KVN words. Until one sees all the meaning groups manifested by that sound, one cannot claim to know much about the etymology of any word
beginning with that sound.’
See Kimberly’s website thanks again from Kanovium Project
Thanks also to H.J.P Arnold, Bill Putnam, Mark Hassall and Guy de La Bedoyere.