Where are the tin miners in Cecilia Holland's "Pillar of the Sky" from?

Hi!

Cecilia Holland's Pillar of the Sky is set in the stone/bronze age; technology is traveling slowly through England at that time.

Early in the book the protagonist is kidnapped and enslaved by an exiled metallurgist who dreams of sailing back to his own lands and leaving the savages of England far behind.

I can not figure out from the book where the miner is supposed to come from. Is he Scandinavian, Phoenician, Greek, Etruscan? If the weather is fair, it is nine days sailing.

Is there anyone else familiar with the book who might have a clue or just a suggestion of where else I might ask? Or do you think the story just too improbable for that period?

Thanks in advance,

I’m not familiar with the book, so I’ve no idea how literally the author expects you to take it, but the received wisdom seems to be that Roman-era ships could sail at around 4 knots with favourable winds. Presumably bronze-age ships would be smaller and slower. Cornwall to Gibraltar would take you more than 9 days, at that rate, especially if you had to stay within sight of land. The Baltic might have been within reach, just about.

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/TAPA/82/Speed_under_Sail_of_Anci...