The name Silurian (pronounced Sigh-Lure-Ian) is normally used as the name for a specific geological time period. Please refer to our geological section for further information on geology.
The pioneering British Geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison [1792-1871] chose the term on the basis that the best outcrops of rocks typifying the time period are located in the area once occupied by the Silures tribe who occupied modern day Glamorgan, Wales in ancient Celtic and Roman times.
These are some of Murchison's words on his choice of the name :
" The Roman historians afford no correct account of the geography of this region, but they assure us that the Silures were, of all the nations in south Britain, the most powerful and warlike, impatient of slavery and of great intrepidity. Such was their confidence in their gallant leader, Caradoc who they called Caractacus, so exasperated were they at the saying of the Emperor Claudius that the very name of Silures must be extirpated, that they carried on a stubborn war.... British geologists will therefore not doubt that Siluria is a name entitled to be revived when they are reminded that these struggles of their ancestors took place upon the very hills it is proposed to illustrate under the term Silurian System." .........................
http://www.silurian.com/silurian.htm
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