This video "Crossing Time" explains the Isle of the Dead. Courtesy BBC Kent.

 

Claudius Ptolemaeus, the famous cartographer and geographer from the 1st - 2nd Century, believed that Thanet could well have been the mysterious "Isle of the Dead".  Greek legend has it that Britain itself was the home to the dead and souls were rowed across the sea in unmanned boats in the middle of the night, returning before dawn. This place was called "ynys Thanatos".


Old map of Thanet.


Thanet: The Isle of Death??

 There are many explanations for the name "Thanet".

The name "Tenet" was listed in the Domesday book of 1086, whereas in the 18th century classical dictionary of John Lemprise it is states "Tane'tus, a small island of Albion. Ptolemy calls it Tolianis. It is now Thanet."

The word Tanatus may come from the Celtic work "teine", meaning "fire" or "bonfire" and "arth" meaning "height" and would make Thanet the Bright Island. It could well be that a lighthouse or beacon was situated on Telegraph Hill, west of Manston, one of the highest points on the island. There isn't any evidence of this on the ground, and it may have been that there were several beacons arranged along the coast.

According to Greek legend Britain itself was the home to the dead, and that the bodies were rowed across the sea in un-manned boats in the middle of the night and returned empty before dawn. This mysterious place was called "Ynys Thanatos" - the Isle of the Dead.



Arnold Bocklin painting "Isle Of The Dead" 1883


The tale has inspired the painter Bocklin, who painted his "Isle of the Dead" in 1883. He produced several versions of the painting, all of which depict an oarsman and a figure, dressed in white, crossing towards the island in a small boat which also contains a coffin.

Sergei Rachmaminov wrote a symphonic poem in 1909 on the same theme which uses an uneven rhythm to portray the boat going through the moving water.

The fact that Thanet has more Bronze age burial mounds than anywhere else in Britain which could have been seen right out to sea, and the Isle and already had the name Tane'tus may be just a coincidence. Or is it????


Thanet Burial Grounds