| AD 410 |
2010 marks the 1600th anniversary of the end of Roman Britain in AD 410 - one of the greatest turning points in our history. What was life on the island like at this critical moment? Was it fire and sword, with barbarian raids, peasant risings, tribal warfare? |
| AD 500 - Tintagel |
Has King Arthur been discovered at Tintagel? Tintagel, on the North coast of Cornwall, is famed in legend as the home of King Mark (of Tristan and Isolde fame) and the possible place where King Arthur was conceived. |
| Adventus Saxonum |
The date of the arrival of the first Germanic settlers in Britain is a matter of considerable debate. It is, however, critical, for dating key events between the departure of Roman authority in 410 and the arrival of the Christian mission of St. Augustine in 597. Examples of these events include: Vortigern's rise to power and the length of his reign; his dealings with Ambrosius; the Saxon revolt; the coming of Arthur and Badon itself. This Germanic influx is known historically by the Latin phrase |
| The Age of Arthur - Some Historical and Archaeological Background |
The question "Did Arthur really live?" is often followed with the query "When did Arthur live?" According to the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, Arthur's activities belong to the fifth and/or sixth centuries AD. Most modern advocates of an historical Arthur place him within this period as well. While we may never be presented with historical proof of Arthur's existence, we can learn more about this period in which he may have lived. In recent years, both historians and archaeologists have shed new light on this murky and often overlooked era. |
| A Guide to Arthurian Archaeology |
A brief guide to the various locations which have been connected with the pre-Galfridian Arthurian legend is offered below. The first version of this guide appeared online in 1998; an up-to-date discussion of Badon and its attribution to Arthur can be found in my Concepts of Arthur, Chapters One and Six. The notes on the other locations will continue to be archived at this website in their existing form. Although they are in need of some revision, particularly to take account of recent excavations, it is hoped that they nonetheless continue to provide a useful discussion of the Arthurian associations of these sites. |
| A New interpretation of the 'Artognou' stone, Tintagel |
As fate would have it, it took a disastrous grass fire that raged across the surface of the Tintagel promontory to rekindle the interest of the archaeologists for this famous Dark Ages site. The fire laid bare the remains of many building-foundations, which since the 1970s had been interpreted by Professor Leslie Alcock as –most probably- the remains of an ‘Early Christian’ monastery. |
| Arthuriana Chronology |
This is a timeline of persons, events, and works associated with the Arthurian legends. It includes historical background for such Arthuriana. This is an evolving project, sponsored by the journal Arthuriana . If you would like to contribute information for the Chronology, please contact csnyder@marymount.edu . Contributors are credited at the end of the Chronology. |
| Arthurian Inscription |
A small piece of slate was discovered during excavations on Tintagel Island inscribed with the name |
| Arthurian Timeline |
There is much written testimony about the fifth century in Britain. Some of it is contemporary, but, unfortunately, very little of it is indigenous to Britain. Almost all of it, at least in some points, is contradictory. It seems that the farther in time we move away from the period, the more information we get, but we always wonder how reliable the sources are, and what they are really based on. Any attempt, then, to pin down an exact chronology of the period is a speculative enterprise, at best. Britannia's "Arthurian Timeline" falls into that category, as well. No effort was made to adhere to any traditional dating schemes, except where there is firmly established documentation for them. Nor did we feel it to be incumbent upon us to follow, in every last detail, the viewpoints of the well-known scholars of the period, as their viewpoints are often at variance with one another. |
| Cadbury Castle – King Arthur’s Camelot? |
Cadbury Castle is the best known and most interesting of the reputed sites of Camelot. A hill-fort beside South Cadbury, down a small road which leaves the A303 at Chapel Cross, 1 1/2 miles east of Sparkford. |
| The Camelot Project |
Arthurian texts, images, bibliographies and basic information |
| Centuries of Roman survival in the West |
Until recently, it seemed the end of Roman Britain was swift and sudden. Most archaeologists believed that Romano-British culture, society and economy collapsed almost entirely in the first few decades following the official political and military withdrawal in AD410. However, the discovery of new archaeological and textual evidence over recent years, together with a new synthesis of other material, is leading to the view that the end of Roman Britain should in fact be sought in the late 6th or 7th century, rather than earlier. |
| Early References to a Real Arthur |
A discussion by David Nash Ford |
| The End of Roman Britain |
The decline of Roman control over Britain was a drawn-out affair which took perhaps a quarter of a century to complete, and it created a twilight period in which Roman civilisation gradually dwindled and died away. The seeds were sown in the fourth century decline seen throughout the Western Roman Empire, as barbarian tribes continued to make deeper incursions into Gaul, Hispania, and Italy, and then began to settle. The rot had set in, and with it came rebellion, lost territory, and subsequent losses in vitally-needed manpower and resources. The period ended in a mist of obscure references and hazy recollections which were often only written down generations later. |
| Excerpts from "Concerning the Ruin of Britain" (De Excidio Britanniae) |
In "De Excidio Britanniae", St. Gildas (sometimes called "The Wise"), a 6th century British monk, denounced in the most aggressive language possible, the terrible wickedness of his times. He is the only substantial source which survives from the time of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain, and the best source prior to the much more impressive work of the Venerable Bede (who completed his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" almost 200 years later, in 731). |
| Gazetteer of Sub-Roman Britain |
"The darkest of the Dark Ages" might be an apt description of the fifth and sixth centuries in Britain, a time commonly referred to as the sub-Roman period. Not dark in the sense that this era lacked character or achievement: there are certainly enough real (St Patrick) and legendary (Arthur and Merlin) associations to attract modern interests. Anyone who has investigated the history of the period behind these figures, however, soon discovers the exasperating dearth of contemporary written records. Further study only leads to historical agnosticism, and indeed it may be that we will never be able to write a narrative hitory of sub-Roman Britain. |
| The Historicity and Historicisation of Arthur |
Below can be found the review article ‘The Historicity and Historicisation of Arthur’, the first version of which appeared online in 1998. An up-to-date expansion, development and revision of all the material found here is contained in my Concepts of Arthur, particularly Chapter One. As such, this article will no longer be updated. It will, however, continue to be archived at this website, given its long independent existence and the fact that it is itself cited in various publications, such as N.J. Higham's King Arthur, Myth-Making and History (Routledge, 2002), N.J. Lacy (ed.) The History of Arthurian Scholarship (Boydell, 2006) and G. Anderson's King Arthur in Antiquity (Routledge, 2004). |
| King Arthur in Early Welsh Literature |
Excerpts from Various Welsh Poems and Verses |
| The life and times of Ambrosius Aurelianus |
This paper argues that Ambrosius Aurelianus was a more important figure than Arthur in fifth/sixth-century Britain. The life of Ambrosius elucidates the continuity of Roman Britain beyond the formal end of the Roman period in 410 and the rise of kingship in the former diocese during the fifth-century. |
| London's Last Roman |
The remains of what experts believe was one of the last Romans to have lived in London formed the centre-piece of an exhibition which opened in May 2007. Visitors to the Museum of London were able to see the headless skeleton of a man, thought to be in his late thirties or early forties, laid in a limestone coffin. It was found last year when a £36m building project was undertaken at St Martins-in-the-Field, in Central London. Curators said the man's death dated back to about AD 410. |
| Notitia Dignitatum |
The Notitia Dignitatum is an official listing of all ancient Roman civil and military posts. It survives as a 1551 copy of the now-missing original and is the major source of information on the administrative organization of the late Roman Empire. From William Fairley, Notitia Dignitatum or Register of Dignitaries, in Translations and Reprints from Original Sources of European History, Vol. VI:4 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, n.d.). Pagination preserved in this etext. |
| Recent Work at Tintagel |
Tintagel in Cornwall is a site of acknowledged international archaeological significance. Known chiefly for long-range contacts with the ~'Iediterranean world in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., it also has a regional imponance as a major post-Roman 'citadel' ofthe Dumnonian rulers ofthe lime. Additionally, it is popularly associated with the heroic figure ofArthur. Following academic fe-assessment of this high-profile site in the IgBos, a project of survey and excavation has been undertaken under the overall direction of Professor Chris Morris of the University ofClasgow. This has recovered remarkable archaeological evidence shedding further light on the status, role and importance of this famous sileo A smallicam ofarchacologisLS returned to Tintagcl Castle inJune 199B to undertake smallscale work. The site examined was a relatively sheltered, artificially terraced area below the crags on the eastern side of the site, first excavated in the 19305. The excavation examined an area outside buildings probably dating from the 5th-6th centuries A.I). These investigations can be claimed to have been the most dramatic since work began in 1990. |
| Speculations on the Cornish Links in the Arthurian Legend |
Attempts to establish a historically credible King Arthur have, in fact, done little to aid the historical case for the 'Dark Age' leader. This can be seen most obviously within Morris' 1973 work, The Age of Arthur. Although undoubtedly a labour of love such gross misrepresentation and uncritical use of sources offers little insight either into the period as a whole or the alleged life of this most enigmatic of British heroes. Indeed even more scholarly approaches such as Alcock's Arthurian Britain fail to engage with early Medieval history by attempting to correlate later propagandist literature with historical reality. |
| Sub-Roman Britain – an introduction |
"Sub-Roman Britain" is a label applied by specialists to Britannia in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Geographically, Britannia is that territory south of the Forth-Clyde line that was part of the Roman Empire from AD 43 to 410. Gaining their independence from Rome, the sub-Roman Britons created a culture that was a unique hybrid of Roman, native "Celtic," and Christian elements. These first two centuries of the Early Middle Ages also gave birth to medieval kingdoms that would become England, Scotland, and Wales. Vibrant yet enigmatic, the sub-Roman period came to an end with the expansion of the Anglo-Saxons westward in the late sixth century and the establishment of a Roman ecclesiastical mission in Kent in 597. |
| Vortigern Studies |
Vortigern Studies is an initiative based in the Netherlands, dedicated to the study of the period between the Roman occupation of Britain and the Early Middle Ages. For more on this, see About Vortigern Studies. |
