South Cadbury Castle Hillfort : The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map: External Links: Image: South Cadbury Castle submitted by PaulH South Cadbury hill fort, near Sparkford in Somerset has a long history of occupation. Apart from its stunning setting, its main claim to fame is the evidence that it was reoccupied in the period after the Roman withdrawal. It has been suggested that it is the historical basis for the legend of Arthur's Camelot; indeed it is very close to the village of Queen Camel, whose name is apparently derived from "Camelot". The Web Site of the South Cadbury Environs Project is here . The earliest evidence from excavations is of a Neolithic occupation before 3000 BC. This was followed by bronze age and unfortified iron age occupations. Between 500 and 200 BC the hill top was fortified, when the ramparts that are still spectacular were added. They enclose a site of 8 hectares. There is possible evidence of a temple from this time as well as a smithy and a number of house foundations. As with other hill forts in southern England there is evidence that the Romans attacked it.

There are finds of Roman military equipment and the foundations of a Roman military building within the fort itself. Now for the most interesting bit. Around 470 AD the innermost rampart was refortified using recycled Roman stone, on top of which a wooden walkway was added. A sturdy wooden gatehouse was included through which passed a 3m wide cobbled road. Within the ramparts a timber "feasting hall" was built; in this hall were found large numbers of sherds of Mediterranean pottery - signs of a high status site where someone or a group were able to afford costly foreign imports. It could well represent the capital of the Dumnonian Kings, which took over from the then deserted Roman regional capital of Ilchester. In this way it is similar to the Deiran site of Yeavering Bell in Northumberland. In both places local Britons reoccupied the most spectacular local hillfort in the immediate post-Roman era. For an article on Yeavering Bell watch this space... It has been suggested that the name Cadbury comes from "Cado's fort". Cado was a 6th century AD Dumnonian King.

The location of South Cadbury is certainly plausible as a base for the chieftain (Arthur ?) who lead the Britons to victory over the advancing Saxons at "Mons Badonis". The location of this battle is unknown, but place name evidence certainly suggests a halt in the westward tide of Saxon settlements being established. If memory serves this boundary was in the middle of Wiltshire. The pause in Saxon settlement was for 50 years or so, and corresponds to the time of South Cadbury's post Roman occupation. For more on this period of history see David Nash Ford's website . South Cadbury probably went out of use in the 7th century. Access is not particularly easy as the approach along a footpath from beside South Cadbury church is still very steep (car park is a little further down the road on the opposite side to the church). Ten minutes stiff climb is amply rewarded by one of the most beautiful views in England. Most hill forts are magnificent but rather bleak in their setting; on a fine day in high summer South Cadbury seems more like an upwardly projecting part of the garden of Eden. In almost every direction you look lush fields are broken into a patchwork by small woods and coppices.

The slopes of the fort have been softened over the years by the mature trees that now cling on to the hillsides with spectacular effect. Only as you approach the summit do you emerge from the blanket of tree cover to explore the ramparts and enjoy the spectacular vistas. A lovely place for a picnic. Note: Hillforts in the west of Britain Symposium, Saturday 6 October. See also links to Clas Merdin: Tales from the Enchanted Island You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page To see the most up to date information please register for a free account . South Cadbury Castle submitted by PaulH South Cadbury Hill fort, Somerset. ST628252 The ramparts Scanned photo from c1995 South Cadbury Castle submitted by PaulH South Cadbury Hill fort, Somerset. ST628252 "A small piece of Eden". Scanned photo from c1995 South Cadbury Castle submitted by caradoc68 My favourite hillfort and one of South Somerset hidden gems.

South Cadbury Castle submitted by RichardTabor Cadbury Castle from Hicknoll Slait (Mary Claridge) South Cadbury Castle submitted by RichardTabor Site in Somerset: Photo of Cadbury Castle from south south east by Jim Eastaugh South Cadbury Castle submitted by caradoc68 South Cadbury, Cadbury Castle South Cadbury Castle submitted by VixianaWessex Ella Grace wanders, and wonders why we have driven for hours to see a castle that's not even there. South Cadbury Castle submitted by DrewParsons View from the top of the hill fort across the ditch to the surrounding countryside. A lovely site photographed during a visit in October 2004. South Cadbury Castle submitted by RichardTabor Cadbury Castle: The hillfort and landscapes by Richard Tabor (Tempus) South Cadbury Castle submitted by Arjessa Entrance to South Cadbury Castle ruins, (Camelot). South Cadbury Castle submitted by PaulH South Cadbury Hill fort, Somerset. ST628252 Looking East. Scanned photo from c1995 Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor. Nearby sites listing.

In the following links * = Image available 282m NE 57° King Arthur's Well * Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST630253) 2.7km SE 156° St Andrew's Well (Corton Denham) * Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST635225) 7.3km W 285° Wimble Toot * Round Barrow(s) (ST56052800) 9.1km E 74° Shad Well * Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST711289) 9.4km E 75° Wincanton and District Museum * Museum (ST7149528680) 10.4km E 80° Physic Well (Wincanton) Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST728279) 11.0km W 261° Ilchester Museum Museum (ST521226) 11.3km NE 42° Patwell * Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST6843434863) 

12.9km E 83° St Barbara's Well * Holy Well or Sacred Spring 14.8km W 292° New Ditch * Ancient Village or Settlement (ST504332) 14.8km SE 139° Holy Well (Holwell) * Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST699121) 14.8km S 200° St Andrew (Yetminster) Ancient Cross (ST59421066) 15.1km NW 337° Glastonbury Stone Circle * Modern Stone Circle / Monolith (ST590397) 15.4km SW 232° Holy Well (West Coker) * Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST52951325) 15.8km NW 309° Ponter's Ball Dyke Ancient Village or Settlement (ST533377) 15.8km E 75° Egbert's Stone Standing Stone (Menhir) (ST774312) 16.0km N 21° Small

 Down Barrows * Barrow Cemetery (ST666406) 16.0km E 75° Bourton Monolith * Standing Stone (Menhir) (ST7757731221) 16.0km W 287° Dundon Hill * Hillfort (ST484322) 16.1km NE 23° Evercreech 14-15 Bowl Barrows * Round Barrow(s) (ST67094063) 16.2km SW 213° Closworth Cursus Cursus (ST56581008) Large multivallate hillfort and associated earthworks at South Cadbury - 1011980| Historic England Large multivallate hillfort and associated earthworks at South Cadbury List Entry Summary This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance.

This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Name: Large multivallate hillfort and associated earthworks at South Cadbury List entry Number: 1011980 The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority. County: Somerset National Park: Not applicable to this List entry. Grade: Not applicable to this List entry. Date first scheduled: 03-Mar-1922 Date of most recent amendment: 26-Jul-1995 Legacy System Information The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system. Legacy System: RSM UID: 22904 Asset Groupings This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information. List entry Description Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. Reasons for Designation Large multivallate hillforts are defined as fortified enclosures of between 5ha and 85ha in area, located on hills and defined by two or more lines of concentric earthworks set at intervals of up to 15m.

They date to the Iron Age period, most having been constructed and used between the sixth century BC and the mid-first century AD. They are generally regarded as centres of permanent occupation, defended in response to increasing warfare, a reflection of the power struggle between competing elites. Earthworks usually consist of a rampart and ditch, although some only have ramparts. Access to the interior is generally provided by two entrances although examples with one and more than two have been noted. These may comprise a single gap in the rampart, inturned or offset ramparts, oblique approaches, guardrooms or outworks. Internal features generally include evidence for intensive occupation, often in the form of oval or circular houses. These display variations in size and are often clustered, for example, along streets. Four- and six-post structures, interpreted as raised granaries, also occur widely while a few sites appear to contain evidence for temples. Other features associated with settlement include platforms, paved areas, pits, gullies, fencelines, hearths and ovens. Additional evidence, in the form of artefacts, suggests that industrial activity such as bronze- and iron-working as well as pottery manufacture occurred on many sites.

Large multivallate hillforts are rare with around 50 examples recorded nationally. These occur mostly in two concentrations, in Wessex and the Welsh Marches, although scattered examples occur elsewhere. In view of the rarity of large multivallate hillforts and their importance in understanding the nature of social organisation within the Iron Age period, all examples with surviving archaeological potential are believed to be of national importance. The large multivallate hillfort at South Cadbury survives as a well known and outstanding example of its class. It is known from partial excavation to contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the hillfort and to earlier and later use of the hilltop. The monument is one of a small but discrete group of hillforts situated within the area around the Somerset Levels. The area surrounding the hillfort includes a well preserved field system situated on the slopes of the hill. Historical documents and place name evidence suggest that the royal mint established by Ethelred the Unready at Cadanbyrig in AD 1010 is likely to have been in the proximity of South Cadbury. Partial excavation at the site has demonstrated that the hilltop was re-fortified during this period and that it continued to be of considerable strategic importance.

History Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. Details The monument includes a large multivallate hillfort and associated features on and around Cadbury Hill, a dome shaped limestone outcrop, with views to the north, south and west. The hillfort, which is commonly known as Cadbury Castle, is sometimes also referred to as `Cadbury Camelot'. Camelot is, however, a legendary reference to the capital of King Arthur and there is no evidence that the name was equated with Cadbury Hill prior to the 16th century, when the tradition is likely to have been invented. The hillfort, which has a sub-rectangular shaped interior with maximum dimensions of 325m from east to west and 290m from north to south, occupies a total area of just over 7ha. This is known from excavation to contain a variety of features relating to the occupation of the hilltop over an extensive period. Surrounding the hilltop are a set of multiple ramparts which vary from 110m to 75m in total width.

The number of banks and ditches around the periphery varies, although in general there are four banks and three ditches which can have the appearance of terraces at intermittent points around the circuit. On the eastern side only two ramparts now survive, although breaks in slope lower down the hill are likely to represent the remains of the outer ramparts which were later modified into lynchets and have since been partially overlain by hill-wash. Lynchets occur to the north and south of the hillfort and survive to a height of c.0.8m-1.2m. These represent the remains of the field system which developed during the Iron Age and later periods. There are three breaks in the ramparts representing entrances, which occur within the south western, eastern and north eastern areas. It is uncertain whether all are original. The eastern entrance, which is the smallest example, does not lead in the direction of any known medieval settlement, suggesting that it is original. The two larger examples, however, enable access to the hilltop from North Cadbury in the north east and Sutton Montis in the south west; both settlements were recorded by the Domesday Survey and it is likely that these entrances were certainly in use throughout the medieval period.

Partial excavations were first conducted at the site by St George Gray in 1913, when a number of trenches were laid within the area of the south western entrance. A more detailed programme of field investigation was initiated by Leslie Alcock between 1966-70, when approximately 6% of the interior was investigated. Most recently, a detailed plan of the archaeological features has been prepared by the Royal Commission for Historic Monuments (England). These investigations suggest that the site was occupied intermittently over an extended period. The earliest artefacts include over 700 pieces of Mesolithic flintwork, comprising blades, microliths, flakes and cores, recovered from the surface of the hillfort in about 1890. Excavations identified Early Neolithic pits which contained human and animal bones near to the centre of the hilltop. Analysis of the bones produced two radiocarbon dates of 3500 and 3300 BC. Sherds of Windmill Hill type pottery, leaf shaped arrowheads and stone axes from the same period have also been identified. Later Neolithic material, including petit tranchet arrowheads and a large sherd of pottery, have also been recovered.

The evidence from these periods is currently too limited to enable a precise interpretation of the nature of the activity on the hilltop. Early Bronze Age material, including a barbed and tanged arrowhead, an early cast bronze axe and a pit containing pottery and bones, has also been identified. During the Later Bronze Age, occupation of the hilltop involved the construction of structures associated with ovens. Current evidence suggests that this evidence represents a farming community with a pastoral based economy. Material from this period includes Deverel-Rimbury type pottery, a fragment of a bucket base, spearheads and socketed knives. There was no evidence for the construction of any defences on the hilltop at this time. The earliest Iron Age occupation of the hilltop has been dated to around 700 BC and is reflected in the presence of ceramic jars and two bronze razors. The hilltop was first enclosed by a single rampart between c.600-400 BC and finds of fine bowls and finger ornamented jars from this period have been made. Between 400-200 BC the rampart is known to have been rebuilt at least twice and several round structures are confirmed within the interior.

From c.200-100 BC the outer banks were added to the ramparts and a wider range of pottery including decorated material was introduced. Iron currency bars and a variety of metal work was also present. During the Roman period it is uncertain to what purpose the hillfort was put. It may have been largely unoccupied for a time, although excavations have revealed traces of a structure which has been interpreted as a porched shrine. Finds of Roman masonry and material such as tesserae within the later defences also suggest that there were some Roman structures within the interior. The occupation of the hillfort continued during the fifth and sixth centuries AD and this is reflected in the presence of Gaulish pottery, red bowls imported from the Mediterranean, two iron knives and a silver buckle. A timber built structure with dimensions of 19m by 10m has been dated to this period and interpreted as an early medieval feasting hall. In about AD 1010, Ethelred the Unready is known to have set up a new mint at `Cadanbyrig'.

This is generally considered to have been at South Cadbury and excavations have demonstrated that a mortared wall was constructed around the perimeter of the hillfort at this time, suggesting that the site was of some strategic importance. Many of the artefacts recovered from the site are now held at Taunton Museum. Excluded from the scheduling are all fence posts, gates and walls relating to the field boundaries, although the underlying ground is included. MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. Selected Sources Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 174-5 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 176 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 177 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 176 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot..

excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 178 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 177 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 178 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 113-4 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 70-71 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 112 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 197 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot..

excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 195 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 195 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 195 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 198 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot.. excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 200 Alcock, L, By South Cadbury is that Camelot..

excavations at Cadbury Castle, (1972), 198 Riley, H, South Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury, Somerset a new earthwork survey, (1993), 4 Riley, H, South Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury, Somerset a new earthwork survey, (1993), 1 Riley, H, South Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury, Somerset a new earthwork survey, (1993), 4 Riley, H, South Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury, Somerset a new earthwork survey, (1993), 2 Riley, H, South Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury, Somerset a new earthwork survey, (1993), 1 Riley, H, South Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury, Somerset a new earthwork survey, (1993), 3 Other Detail development of site AD 200-100, Detail early IA occupation, Mention excavations by St George Gray, Mention mint at Cadanbyrig, Mention of finds held at Taunton, Name of the site, National Grid Reference: ST 62816 25133 Map © Crown

 Copyright and database right 2017.

All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100024900. © British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2017. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006. Use of this data is subject to Terms and Conditions . The above map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. For a copy of the full scale map, please see the attached PDF - 1011980 .pdf The PDF will be generated from our live systems and may take a few minutes to download depending on how busy our servers are. We apologise for this delay. This copy shows the entry on 17-Jan-2017 at 05:40:07. End of official listing Clas Merdin: Tales from the Enchanted Island: Camelot Abandoned Why was South Cadbury Hillfort deserted Camelot The remains of a large ancient hillfort can be found on a steep, isolated hill of limestone and sandstone at South Cadbury, in Somerset.

Known as Cadbury Castle, the hillfort is 500 feet above sea-level, the summit providing panoramic views across central Somerset, including the Tor at Glastonbury some 11 miles distant to the North West. The hillfort has a massive four line defence of bank-and-ditch enclosing a defended area of l8 acres, rising to a long, level central plateau. A break in the ditches at the south-west above the village of Sutton Montis indicates the original gateway. This vast Iron Age hillfort was completely refortified in the Arthurian period, c.500 AD, which has led to claims that it is the site of King Arthur's court at Camelot. Such a prominent site no doubt was the stronghold of a powerful Dark Age warlord but medieval British sources made- no mention of Camelot; writing in the early 12th century Geoffrey of Monmouth placed King Arthur's court at Caerleon in South East Wales and fails to mention Camelot at all. Similarly, the Welsh Triads do not mention Camelot but place Arthur's court at Celliwig, Cornwall.

Indeed, Camelot is first mentioned by the French poet Chretien de Troyes in the romance called Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart, written in the late 12th century. Camelot appears to have been a product of medieval French Arthurian romance, but the French authors always placed the location of Arthur's court in Britain. In 1469 Sir Thomas Malory completed "Le Morte d'Arthur" while in London's Newgate Prison. Malory's work is the definitive English Arthurian romance and brings together many earlier French and Welsh tradtitions. Malory placed Camelot at Winchester were today the Round Table can be seen hanging in the Grand Hall. Malory's opus was printed by William Caxton in 1485 who named the work after the last book Morte Darthur although Mallory had originally named it "The Whole Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table".

In his preface Caxton placed Arthur's court in Wales, seemingly following Geoffrey of Monmouth and disagreeing with Malory: “And yet of record remayne in wytnesse of hym in wales in the toune of Camelot the grete stones & meruayllous werkys of yron lyeng vnder the grounde”. There is some speculation that Camelot was derived from the Romano-British word 'Camelodunum'. However, the name 'Cadbury' is generally considered to be an Anglo-Brythonic hybrid from the Welsh “cad” = battle + English “bury” = fortification, stronghold = 'Battle-Fort'. Others have suggested a derivation from the personal name Cado, a Dumnonian King, recorded as having a stronghold at Din-Draithou (Dunster), in which case Cadbury could simply mean “Cado's fort”. Arthur features in several 'Saints Lives' in which he is often at odds with the holy men, often depicted as somewhat of a petty tyrant, in a similar vein to the Arthur of the Welsh Triads which seem to be based on a tradition independent of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae.

In one such account Cado (Cadwy) features along with Arthur in a well known incident in the Life of Saint Carannog (Vita Carantoci), an early 6th century West Country Abbot, who is credited with founding Llangrannog, Ceredigion, Wales and credited with establishing St Carantoc's Church at Crantock, Cornwall. The Vita, composed in the early 12th century in Cemis, Pembrokeshire, tells how Carannog arrives in Arthur's realm in search of a marvellous altar which he set adrift in order to see where he should go and preach. On arriving at the banks of the River Willett he meets both Cadwy and Arthur. Arthur promises to help the saint if he will render harmless a serpent that is devastating his lands. Carannog succeeds with prayer were Arthur has failed with force. Arthur then presents him with the altar that he had tried to use as a table but everything he put on it was thrown off at once.

In his notes on the county of Somerset in 1542, John Leland, Antiquarian to King Henry VIII, relates a tradition equating Arthur's court at Camelot with the ancient hillfort of Cadbury Castle. The term "Camallate" was used by Leland, thus identifying "South Cadbyri" as Camelot: "At the very south end of the church of South-Cadbyri standeth Camallate, sometime a famous town or castle. . .The people can tell nothing there but that they have heard Arthur much resorted to Camalat." Not far away from the Cadbury site are the old villages of Queen Camel and West Camel which some believe influenced Leland when making reference to 'Camallate'. And of course we find the River Camel in Cornwall, where Geoffrey located Camlann. Camelot - Cadbury First inhabited in the Early Neolithic before 3000 BC and again in the Late Neolithic around 2000 BC, characteristic finds of flints and pottery but no evidence of any structures from this early period were uncovered. There followed a long period of abandonment with no indications of activity until the 8th or 7th century BC.

By the 5th century BC, the community had expanded to to the status of a large village fortified with a rampart and ditch at the head of the steepest slope. By the time of the Roman conquest the defensive earthworks had increased to four massive banks and ditches, the top rampart some thirty feet high, containing a shrine and an armourer's workshop complete with domestic buildings. From the archaeological evidence it seems the ramparts were not stormed by the Romans at the time of the invasion in 43 AD but survived until c.70 AD when the inhabitants were slaughtered and the defences partially dismantled. [1] Deep plough soil on the fourth rampart has been interpreted as indications of cultivation for the first two centuries of Roman rule. In the late 3rd and early 4th centuries renewed activity was marked by finds of pottery and coins, the latest of which being from the reign of Honorius dated 393 – 402 AD, indicating activity into the early 5th century. Within the rampart enclosure the site of a possible Romano-British temple was identified, prompting speculation that it was a site of pilgrimage.

Occupation recommenced in around 470 AD as evidenced by class A, B and D pottery sherds. [2] This pottery was of a type also found at Tintagel, indicating that someone of high status who could import luxury goods had resided there. This led to the formation of the Camelot Research Committee, co-founded by Geoffrey Ashe and C A Ralegh Radford, which carried out large-scale excavations of South Cadbury hillfort in 1966 - 70 under the direction of Leslie Alcock. In 1967 the excavations soon revealed that the fort had indeed been re-fortified in post-Roman times, the classic Arthurian period. Alcock found evidence for a wall which had been built in the 500's AD and the ramparts were strengthened with large quantities of dressed masonry from derelict Roman buildings and mounted by raised wooden walkways. The remains of a large timber feasting hall, 63 feet by 34, were discovered at the centre of the site, set in a commanding position on the high part of the plateau called 'Arthur's Palace'. It has been dated to the 5th/6th centuries from pottery finds.

[3] The remains of a massive gatehouse dating from the same period was found at the south-west entrance. Trenches through the bank revealed a cross-section with layers one above another showing how the rampart had been rebuilt at various times throughout the centuries. During the Arthurian period it had been substantially rebuilt; at the top of the earthwork was a dry stone wall 16 feet thick. Holes indicated where ancient timber posts had rotted marked where massive posts had upheld a breastwork on the outside, protecting sentries on the wall. Wooden beams had run across this binding the structure together and supporting a platform, and probably wooden watch towers. A silver Germanic ring was uncovered indicating the defensive earthworks were repaired around 550 AD. The gate was refortified around this time, possibly in response to westward aggression of Wessex who was pushing its borders further into Somerset as part of a general wave of expansionist activity by the English kingdom from the mid sixth century onwards. [4] The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records English advances in the area: 577.

This year Cuthwin and Ceawlin fought with the Britons, and slew three kings, Commail, and Condida, and Farinmail, on the spot that is called Derham, and took from them three cities, Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath. The hill fort at South Cadbury was then abandoned and appears to have gone out of use in the early 7th century. Alcock asserts that occupation had come to an end before 600 AD. Why? The Wasteland Was the hillfort stormed by advancing Anglo-Saxons? There is no archaeological evidence that shows there was any destruction or an invasion at the site of South Cadbury at the beginning of the 6th century – it simply seems to have gone out of use. This assumption is based on archaeological evidence (or lack of); the absence of the imported class E pottery ware. We have noted above the presence of class A and B pottery ware. Class A dates to between 400-500 AD and included bowls ‘with a cross or other motif’ whilst class B pottery ware dates to between 500-600 AD and comprised of amphorae which held both oil and wine.

Both A and B pottery consists of both native and imported pottery from the eastern Mediterranean. Class E pottery ware is dated between 600-700 AD and consists of native grass-marked ware and imported grey-ware originating from the Rhineland. Tintagel and Congresbury display the same pottery ware pattern as South Cadbury; absence of Class E. Tintagel has well known Arthurian associations and no doubt trade links with Cadbury. This absence of Class E pottery ware indicates that Tintagel was probably deserted the same time as Cadbury. The evidence indicates that Tintagel lost its economic supremacy in south-west Britain and consequently disappeared from the archaeological record until the 12th century. This is due in part to changing trade patterns possibly as a result of political changes in the Mediterranean area at the time. Consequently, communities reliant on Tintagel for trade, namely, but not only, Cadbury Castle and Congresbury, effectively vanished at the same time. Imports increased along the south eastern coast, and merchants may have found these areas provided better trade than the western peoples, whose main exchange seems to have shifted to the Bristol region.

[5] A recent article by Sue Carter [6] suggests the reason was famine. Carter states that the Catholic Encyclopaedia records an entry under the information relating to St. John the Almsgiver, 550-616 AD, indicating there was a shortage of wheat in Britain. In addition, Carter cites how “the 5th century was a century of woes – raiding, wars, plagues, peasant revolts”, contributing to a fall in population, especially male. The cessation of imported goods and the result of local crop failure would be disastrous for a population of people with no centralised authority. Carter continues that research into the Somerset Levels area has shown that “a growth of raised deposits ceased after a change in the climate and a reduction in the annual rainfall in about 400AD.” Carter concludes that “Famine may be plausible and would certainly explain the abandonment of a site, or several, where no military action or raiding is visible in the archaeological record.

It certainly would explain why people just moved away from an area and left no trace.” Climate Change Michael E Jones pioneered the theory that abrupt climate change played a major role in ending Roman rule in the 5th century, using various evidence, such as pollen records, peat layers and tree rings, to support his idea that Britain’s climate suddenly got cooler and wetter around 450. Jones proposes that around 400 AD, the weather in Britain became wetter and colder, a deterioration that intensified after 450 AD. He suggests that by the late Roman period, there may have been as much as a 10% increase in rainfall. Together with deforestation and expanded agriculture and grazing, the heavier rains would have caused flooding and aggravated soil erosion, leaching it of its nutrients and fertility. Annual average temperature also dropped during this time, perhaps as much as 2.5 degrees F (1.5° C), which would have lowered the elevation at which grains could grow by 650 feet and shortened the growing season by almost one whole month.

Although the literary evidence is meagre, we do find references in some Dark Age sources such as the Annales Cambriae which record plague at this time probably as a result of the deteriorating conditions: 537 - The battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut fell: and there was plague in Britain and Ireland. 547 - The great death [plague] in which Maelgwn, king of Gwynedd died. Thus they say 'The long sleep of Maelgwn in the court of Rhos'. Then was the yellow plague. Certainly, this is the impression conveyed by Gildas, who records an oral tradition of invasion, famine, plague and a break down in society during the mid 5th century. The result was human disaster leaving the Britons vulnerable; "an environmental crisis," Jones adds, "Less grain could be grown. Famine struck, the Romans left and the Saxons invaded." [7] The Catastrophe that Preceded the Dark Ages What could have caused such a drastic change in climate?

According to Professor Mike Baillie of Queen's University in Belfast, something catastrophic occurred on Earth 1,500 years ago that may have led to the Dark Ages and coincided with the end of the Roman Empire and the death of King Arthur. Baillie suggests it could have been a bombardment of cometary debris or the eruption of a super volcano, but whatever it was, evidence can be found in the chronology of tree rings from around the world. This global environmental event occurred around 540 AD and recorded in the tree ring chronologies which date back thousands of years, and indicate something quite extraordinary occurred around the time of King Arthur's death, the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Dark Ages. An important part of the Arthurian Mythos is the Grail legend which contains the concept of a wasteland where no crops grow and the land is infertile; something which certainly could be explained by an environmental catastrophe. Significantly, continental Grail romances always set their story in Britain. The cometary impacts or volcanic eruptions filled the atmosphere with dust and debris; a long winter began. Crops failed, and there was famine.

The death of Arthur is commonly dated to this time, right in the middle of this environmental catastrophe. [8] Was this Camelot? For whatever reason, South Cadbury hillfort was deserted, but it is the Arthurian period occupation of the late 5th century that attracted the most interest at the time of Alcock's excavations and to this day South Cadbury hillfort retains its association with Arthur. Alcock himself was rather suspect of the Arthurian associations of the site and he was accused of encouraging publicity that the site was the military base of an ‘Arthur-like’ Dark Age warlord, a dux bellorum, which the popular press quickly proclaimed as the historical Arthur. Scholars such as David Dumville must have been pulling their hair out when Alcock's book “Arthur's Britain” was published in 1971 acknowledging that someone must have done the things credited to Arthur at the time of 5th century occupation of South Cadbury hillfort; Alcock therefore considered he was justified in labelling the period ‘Arthurian’.

Other historians joined rank with Alcock, such as John Morris who published his reconstructed history of sub-Roman Britain, titled “The Age of Arthur”, in 1973 prompting Dumville's scathing literary outburst demanding Arthur be removed from our history books. [9] However, although not well received by archaeologists and historians, these books made a large impact on a more popular readership, capturing the public's imagination. Alcock’s excavations had uncovered a new type of late 5th century site; the heavily fortified British hall. It was soon discovered that the fortified Dark Age hall, was not unique to South Cadbury as there were many more similar fortified halls at other Dark Age hillforts in Britain. This is symbolic of the Arthurian period more than anything else; a battle leader co-ordinating British resistance against advancing barbarians. Alcock had confirmed the Arthurian period did actually exist. Copyright © 2011 Edward Watson See: Arthur's Hunting Path , a Neolithic trackway from Cadbury to Glastonbury Tor.

* Although perhaps a little dated now and written before Alcock's excavations at South Cadbury this classification generally holds good although there have been revisions to the chronology; Class A comprises table-wares in the late Roman tradition, Class B, amphorae and lagenae, containers for wine and oil. Class D, sub-Roman ware. Alcock favoured a Bristol-Channel origin. Class E, of distinct, late-Roman, appearance, source in north-eastern France, from a common source between the Somme and the Rhine, perhaps just inside the area usually known as the Rhineland. Classes A and B were of a east Mediterranean type, wheel made wares introduced late within the 5th century, continued in use to 6th century. It is hard to show any clear case of their importation in the 7th century. Class A,B and D pottery ware came in to Britain through western trade routes, whereas Class E came in from the East, possibly shipped by Frisian merchants. 3. Leslie Alcock, By South Cadbury, is that Camelot? Excavations at Cadbury Castle 1966-70. Thames and Hudson, 1972. 4.

Geoffrey Ashe & Leslie Alcock, Cadbury: Is that Camelot? in The Quest for Arthur's Britain ed. Geoffrey Ashe, 1968. 5. Charles Thomas, Op. Cit. Class A and B was imported directly by sea from the Byzantine world through the Straits of Gibraltar. Alcock has proposed that the Vandal control of the western Mediterranean entrance at the Straits of Gibraltar, in the mid 5th century might be thought to have interrupted, if not disrupted entirely, such a trade. However, as Charles Thomas states, there appears to be no evidence to support this. Thomas adds that the end of the 6th century is indicated by archaeology, which historically, represents the collapse of the Justinian attempt to reconquer the western empire. The merchant ships which had made the long and hazardous voyage with wine and oil from Byzantium to the distant northern islands simply ceased to find it worth-while. 6. Sue Carter, Did Famine Destroy ‘Camelot’? HeritageDaily - Heritage & Archaeology News- 2011. 7. Michael E. Jones, The End of Roman Britain, 1996. 8.

Mike Baillie , Exodus to Arthur; Catastrophic Encounters with Comets, Batsford, 2000. 9. D. Dumville, Sub-Roman Britain: History and Legend, History #62, 1977. * * * Prince Valiant’s England - The Atlantic The Atlantic A few brief shining moments Most Popular Print Text Size OVER dinner one night nearly two decades ago I asked the illustrator Hal Foster why he had decided to set his comic strip Prince Valiant in sixth-century England. Well, he said, he needed King Arthur to figure in the strip, and the earliest historical reference to an actual leader in Britain named Arthur places him in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, roughly a hundred years after the Romans had departed. Foster leaned a little closer, as if to impart a confidence. "It's also the case," he said, "that nobody knows very much about sixth-century England. That gives me a certain freedom." I can appreciate Foster's point.

Shortly after that conversation, with the help of an undergraduate degree in medieval history and much instruction from Foster, I took over the writing of Prince Valiant, teaming up with my father, the illustrator John Cullen Murphy, who had already taken over the drawing. The fact that huge gaps exist in our knowledge of Britain's political history in early medieval times does offer considerable scope for invention. But Foster insisted on accuracy about medieval life to the extent that accuracy is possible, and readers of the strip are quick to hold my father and me to account, writing in a state of dudgeon when they suspect that anachronisms have crept in. I have engaged in spirited and protracted correspondence regarding such things as the ogham alphabet used by the Celtic druids, the technology of anvils, and the origin of the surname Fulda. Both of us do considerable research, mostly in libraries but sometimes also by visiting places that Prince Valiant would have known. Prince Valiant, the son of King Aguar of Thule (a kingdom in what is now Norway) and the husband of Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles (a kingdom somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean), is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table.

His infant granddaughter, Ingrid, will eventually inherit King Arthur's throne. The strip has perhaps a dozen major characters, including the villainous Mordred, and a cast of regulars numbering in the scores. Although the tumultuous saga of Prince Valiant's life has taken him to four continents, roughly half his time is spent in the vicinity of the fabled city of Camelot, the capital of a kingdom that mostly enjoys peace but faces territorial pressure from ever-growing numbers of invading Saxons. I have been to the scene of many of Prince Valiant's adventures, in England and elsewhere, but until recently had never visited the geographic heartland of the Arthurian legends, the county of Somerset. My wife and I recently set out to rectify that situation. Our aim was to spend most of daylight in the sixth century or earlier—that is to say, in an environment that Prince Valiant would have recognized—but to eat, sleep, and otherwise maintain ourselves in the late twentieth century. In many respects a fondness for the Middle Ages depends on keeping them at a distance. SOMERSET, which lies less than two hours by car west of London, is a county that the English themselves have long held in high regard.

In the great expanse of Exmoor it offers some of the brooding bleakness of Devon and Cornwall, but it has large swaths that display a softer, lusher mien. There are many stately homes in Somerset. Nearby there is one of the world's finest little cities, Bath, which was located in Somerset until gerrymandered into a new county called Avon. Bath, about which I'll have more to say later, has been an attraction for people at leisure for more than 2,000 years, and it is a good place to establish headquarters for a time if you intend to visit the Somerset region. My wife and I made it ours. We had a car (a necessity for autonomous day trips), but once arrived at a selected staging area, we relied on the means of transportation that was most prevalent in medieval times: legs. One of the most appealing aspects of England is that the countryside is intricately crisscrossed by what are called public footpaths, routes of access between here and there which have been used since medieval times (or even longer than that) and which property owners must not obstruct.

The footpaths are marked, and there is no shortage of guidebooks to point out interesting routes. We found Nigel Vile's Somerset Rambles to be unerring, and took his suggestions for five-and ten-mile walks almost every day, encountering few people and plentiful traces of ancient times. The countryside is, of course, where antiquity most naturally (if sometimes unobtrusively) survives. On our rambles the low, golden light of late afternoon revealed the furrows of medieval ploughs. Our paths took us down lanes, overgrown and casual in appearance, that the Romans had built as major roads, their unremitting straightness giving them away. We crested hills that had been used as relay stations—a bonfire set on one, and then the next, and then the next—for the transmission of important news. On other hillsides circles of stones fending off purple and yellow gorse marked the locations of prehistoric hearths. Encountering all this was happenstance, but it's the kind of happenstance one can count on. We did make three premeditated forays. One was to Cadbury Castle, a 500-foot-high mound a mile in diameter, during a longer walk through south Somerset.

Forget any preconceived notions of "castle" in thinking about Cadbury: the only thing there now is landscape, although some of it is man-made. The significance of the mound is that it is identified in legend as having been the location of Camelot. Is there anything to this legend? Was there a Camelot? All that archaeologists and historians can say for sure is that Cadbury Castle was the site of an Iron Age hill fort, and that after a period of disuse it was refortified by someone early in the sixth century—Arthur's time. Against this circumstantial evidence may be set the observation of my wife, who, peering from under the hood of a slicker, noted that if it doesn't rain in Camelot until after sundown, as the musical claims, then this must not be the place. Whatever the case, massive earthworks, which would once have been topped by staves and are now softened by vegetation, form rings upon the slopes. Shaping terrain in this fashion required enormous manpower and organization, and Cadbury offers a reminder that even in early medieval times people did not lack technological sophistication.

It also provided an idea for an episode of the comic strip, in which Prince Valiant must oversee the quick construction of just such a fort. Cadbury Castle has a gently domed and grassy summit bounded by a fringe of forest that gives the hill the appearance of a monk's tonsured crown. From the summit one looks across a broad plain, the Somerset Levels. To the northwest is the sugarloaf protuberance known as Glastonbury Tor, which was another of our intended destinations. In Prince Valiant the Levels are depicted as a treacherous bog known as Mucken Mire, which flanks the town of Camelot and King Arthur's Palace of Light on three sides. Bog is indeed what much of this area used to be—such parts of it as weren't under water entirely. Any high ground in the Levels existed essentially as islands, and one could travel from Cadbury Castle to Glastonbury Tor, a distance of some twelve miles, by boat—a fact reflected in Arthurian legends that refer to Glastonbury as the Isle of Avalon. In the later Middle Ages the bog was claimed for agriculture and drained by an intricate network of channels known as rhines.

We climbed Glastonbury Tor, which crests at 520 feet. The winds blew in off the Bristol Channel and were stiff. Below, the rhines sparkled in sunlight. Here and there dark columns of rain appeared to hold up the sky. The tor, topped by a medieval spire, can be seen from all parts of the lowlands, often appearing in one's line of sight unexpectedly, around a bend or over a rise. It is not hard to understand why the place had cultic significance in prehistoric times and acquired legendary associations in medieval ones. Glastonbury Abbey, at the tor's foot, is believed by some to be King Arthur's burial place; that this is in all likelihood untrue detracts not a whit from the haunting character of the place. Today a ruin, Glastonbury was one of the greatest monastic establishments in England, destroyed in 1539 when Henry VIII began suppressing England's monasteries. The abbot was taken to the top of Glastonbury Tor and hanged, drawn, and quartered.

An Anglican minister today walks the grounds in a flowing black cassock, holding a short service on the hour five or six times a day at the grassy site where the main altar once stood. Our third destination was Exmoor National Park. For aesthetic reasons the action in Prince Valiant frequently ranges over moorland: the vegetation is low, the views extend to far horizons, and evidence of prehistoric habitation abounds. Here on the moorlands the bones of the earth sometimes show through; this terrain in ancient times was as a result one of the easier places to go prospecting for various ores—crucial resources, then as now. (And ones worth fighting over? Perhaps after a Saxon incursion? Might that be why Prince Valiant must build a hill fort?) Exmoor is wild but accessible. Anyone who has frequented the visitors' center at a national park in the United States knows how such a place is helpfully set up to accommodate everyone from the most casual tourist to the most experienced outdoorsman.

The visitors' center lying at the approach to Exmoor, in the town of Dunster, is set up the same way, its walls lined with shelves holding several varieties of maps along with books and pamphlets on local history and the natural world nearby. The finest walk of our trip occurred in Exmoor. It took us from a thick deciduous forest, which occupies the ravines that descend from the moorland mountains, up to the summits of the mountains themselves, along a ridge in the direction of some neolithic barrows, down into narrow roads among hedgerows, to a small, medieval church, and finally, for two miles, along an aisle between ancient oaks—a gnarled forest Arthur Rackham might have imagined—which led to where we had started. A short drive brought us to a beach on the Bristol Channel just in time to see a rainbow over the far coast of Wales. Thank you, Nigel Vile. AS for Bath, it is a city that Prince Valiant would have known. It lies on the Fosse Way, the Roman military highway that slashed diagonally across Britain from Topsham in the southwest to Lincoln in the northeast—a road that Prince Valiant uses frequently in the strip.

Prince Valiant would also have known about the hot springs in Bath, which made it a cultic center in pre-Roman times and a resort city after the Romans arrived (they gave it the name Aquae Solis, meaning "Waters of the Sun"). The Fosse Way survives in and around Bath as the A367 motorway. The extensive ruins of the Roman baths, partly restored, occupy a portion of the city center near the medieval abbey, and other Roman relics can be viewed in an adjacent exhibit area. Steam rises from the waters, which come forth from the earth at a rate of 1,170,000 liters a day and at a constant temperature of 116 degrees Fahrenheit. The springs gave Bath its existence and its name, but they do not explain its appeal. Bath is built on several hills, through which the River Avon flows, and most of the city is today Georgian in character, the work largely of the architect John Wood. This is not the brick Georgian architecture that marks the residential squares of London and Dublin but rather the stone Georgian architecture one finds in larger public buildings, here applied to buildings of every kind, block after block.

The stone is yellow gray and universal, and it gives the city a happy consistency, which makes the place a delight even though the buildings seem not to be trying for effect. The scale is also humane. Inviting, sometimes eccentric alleyways lead off the grander streets. Because the city is compact, walking gets one anywhere. Bath is prosperous. It has for three centuries been the West Country outpost of choice, the urbs in rure, for wealthy Londoners; some of the flavor of Bath prior to the Victorian era can be found in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and other novels. The city has a full complement of international stores—The Gap, Laura Ashley, Mondi—but they by no means dominate the many handsome shops of local pedigree. We were thankful for the presence of a Waterstone's bookstore. Bookstores are always a good place to stop when visiting an unfamiliar place; in addition to the obvious resources they offer, they tend to be information clearinghouses for the community as a whole.

The Waterstone's in Bath stocks a complete set of the Landranger series of ordnance-survey maps of Great Britain, which show terrain at a scale of 1:50,000—meaning that a mile on these maps is about an inch and a quarter long. The maps indicate every feature that anyone, even Prince Valiant, could care to know about: tumuli, Roman roads, battle sites, and all the public footpaths (not to mention the more usual things, such as highways, railroads, and towns). A valuable adjunct to the ordnance-survey maps is the book The Medieval Landscape of Somerset, edited by Michael Aston, which explains the forms of ancient land management accounting for various aspects of the county's current appearance. Somerset is laced, for example, with hedgerows, many of which go back to the Middle Ages; one aerial photograph in Aston's book prompted an expedition to find a long stretch of exceedingly narrow fields between Cheddar and Draycott which were laid out by the Saxons. The high quality of the food we ate came as something of a surprise.

The idea that one can base a successful cuisine on unusual combinations of fresh local produce and game may not have reached all of England, but it has reached Bath. The restaurant at the Queensberry Hotel, where we stayed, was persuasive evidence of this, as were a number of other restaurants. (The menus in the windows, carefully describing the sometimes counterintuitive contents of each dish, give such restaurants away immediately.) The Queensberry Hotel, located in what was once the home of the Marquis of Queensberry, offers everything I want from a hotel: it is quiet without being stodgy, elegant but not overdone, and it provides service that is efficient but not overbearing. It also has the advantage of being small—only twenty-two rooms. (The price of a double room ranges from $135 to $225. For more information, write to the Queensberry Hotel, Russel Street, Bath, BA1 2QF, United Kingdom; telephone 011-44-225-447928; or fax 011-44-225-446065.) Designed by John Wood, the Queensberry is of a piece with the city itself.

On the mantel of our fireplace the staff had left copies of Northanger Abbey and a useful old book called The Building of Bath. Our room, No. 10, looked out upon the irregular back upper stories of one of Bath's great adomments, a series of contiguous Georgian dwellings known as the Circus, which encloses a circular park. When he was a lad, Prince Valiant was told by the witch Horrit that he would never know contentment, a prophecy that has been borne out by his subsequent life. I'd write him into Room 10, but I'm afraid he's busy with that fort. Camelot College | Overview | Plexuss.com Camelot College About Camelot College Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world. The stories locate it somewhere in Great Britain and sometimes associate it with real cities, though more usually its precise location is not revealed. Most scholars regard it as being entirely fictional, its geography being perfect for romance writers; Arthurian scholar Norris J.

Lacy commented that "Camelot, located no where in particular, can be anywhere". Nevertheless arguments about the location of the "real Camelot" have occurred since the 15th century and continue to rage today in popular works and for tourism purposes. Early appearances The castle is mentioned for the first time in Chrétien de Troyes' poem "Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart", dating to the 1170s, though it does not appear in all the manuscripts. It is mentioned in passing, and is not described: A un jor d'une Acenssion / Fu venuz de vers Carlion / Li rois Artus et tenu ot / Cort molt riche a Camaalot / Si riche com au jor estut. Upon a certain Ascension Day King Arthur had come from Caerleon, and had held a very magnificent court at Camelot as was fitting on such a day. Nothing in Chrétien's poem suggests the level of importance Camelot would have in later romances. For Chrétien, Arthur's chief court was in Caerleon in Wales; this was the king's primary base in Geoffrey of Monmouth's and subsequent literature.

Chrétien depicts Arthur, like a typical medieval monarch, holding court at a number of cities and castles. It is not until the 13th-century French prose romances, including the Lancelot-Grail and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, that Camelot began to supersede Caerleon, and even then, many descriptive details applied to Camelot derive from Geoffrey's earlier grand depiction of the Welsh town. Most Arthurian romances of this period produced in English or Welsh did not follow this trend; Camelot was referred to infrequently, and usually in translations from French. One exception is , which locates Arthur's court at "Camelot"; however, in Britain, Arthur's court was generally located at Caerleon, or at Carlisle, which is usually identified with the "Carduel" of the French romances. However, in the late 15th century, Thomas Malory created the image of Camelot most familiar to English speakers today in his , a work based mostly on the French romances. He firmly identifies Camelot with Winchester, an identification that remained popular over the centuries, though it was rejected by Malory's own editor, William Caxton, who preferred a Welsh location.

Etymology The name's derivation is uncertain. It has numerous different spellings in medieval French Arthurian romance, including: Camaalot, Camalot, Chamalot, Camehelot (sometimes read as Camchilot), Camaaloth, Caamalot, Camahaloth, Camaelot, Kamaalot, Kamaaloth, Kaamalot, Kamahaloth, Kameloth, Kamaelot, Kamelot, Kaamelot, Cameloth, Camelot, Kamelot, Kaamelot, and Gamalaot. Renowned Arthurian scholar Ernst Brugger suggested that it was a corruption of Camlann, the site of Arthur's final battle in Welsh tradition. Roger Sherman Loomis believed it was derived from Cavalon, a place name that he suggested was a corruption of Avalon (under the influence of the Breton place name Cavallon). He further suggested that Cavalon/Camelot became Arthur's capital due to confusion with Arthur's other traditional court at Carlion (Caer Lleon in Welsh).

Others have suggested a derivation from the Iron Age and Romano-British place name , one of the first capitals of Roman Britain and which would have significance in Romano-British culture. Indeed John Morris, the English historian who specialized in the study of the institutions of the Roman Empire and the history of Sub-Roman Britain, suggested in his book The Age of Arthur that as the descendants of Romanized Britons looked back to a golden age of peace and prosperity under Rome, the name "Camelot" of Arthurian legend may have referred to the capital of Britannia (, modern Colchester) in Roman times. It is unclear, however, where Chrétien would have encountered the name Camulodunum, or why he would render it as Camaalot. Given Chrétien's known tendency to create new stories and characters, being the first to mention the hero Lancelot and his love affair with Queen Guinevere for example, the name might also be entirely invented. Description in the romances The romances depict the city of Camelot as standing along a river, downstream from Astolat. It is surrounded by plains and forests, and its magnificent cathedral, St.

Stephen's, is the religious centre for Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. There Arthur and Guinevere are married and there are the tombs of many kings and knights. In a mighty castle stands the Round Table; it is here that Galahad conquers the Siege Perilous, and where the knights see a vision of the Holy Grail and swear to find it. Jousts are held in a meadow outside the city. In the and other works, the castle is eventually destroyed by King Mark of Cornwall after the loss of Arthur at the Battle of Camlann. However maddening to later scholars searching for Camelot's location, its imprecise geography serves the romances well, as Camelot becomes less a literal place than a powerful symbol of Arthur's court and universe. The romancers' versions of Camelot drew on earlier descriptions of Arthur's fabulous court. From Geoffrey's grand description of Caerleon, Camelot gains its impressive architecture, its many churches and the chivalry and courtesy of its inhabitants. Geoffrey's description in turn drew on an already established tradition in Welsh oral tradition of the grandeur of Arthur's court.

The tale Culhwch and Olwen, associated with the Mabinogion and perhaps written in the 11th century, draws a dramatic picture of Arthur's hall and his many powerful warriors who go from there on great adventures, placing it in Celliwig, an uncertain locale in Cornwall. Although the court at Celliwig is the most prominent in remaining early Welsh manuscripts, the various versions of the Welsh Triads agree in giving Arthur multiple courts, one in each of the areas inhabited by the Britons: Cornwall, Wales and the Old North. This perhaps reflects the influence of widespread oral traditions common by 800 which are recorded in various place names and features such as Arthur's Seat indicating Arthur was a hero known and associated with many locations across Brittonic areas of Britain as well as Brittany. Even at this stage Arthur could not be tied to one location. Many other places are listed as a location where Arthur holds court in the later romances, Carlisle and London perhaps being the most prominent. Identifications The romancers' versions of Camelot draw on earlier traditions of Arthur's fabulous court.

The Celliwig of Culhwch and Olwen appears in the Welsh Triads as well; interestingly, this early Welsh material places Wales' greatest leader outside its national boundaries. Geoffrey's description of Caerleon is probably based on his personal familiarity with the town and its impressive Roman ruins; it is less clear that Caerleon was associated with Arthur before Geoffrey. The later French romances make much of "Carduel," a northern city based on the real Carlisle. Malory's identification of Camelot as Winchester was probably partially inspired by the latter city's history. It had been the capital of Wessex under Alfred the Great, and boasted the Winchester Round Table, an artifact constructed in the 13th century but widely believed to be the original by Malory's time. Malory's editor Caxton rejects the association, saying Camelot was in Wales and that its ruins could still be seen; this is a likely reference to the Roman ruins at Caerwent. Malory associated other Arthurian locations with modern places, for instance locating Astolat at Guildford.

In 1542, John Leland reported the locals around Cadbury Castle, formerly known as Camalet, in Somerset considered it to be the original Camelot. This theory, which was repeated by later antiquaries, is bolstered, or may have derived from, Cadbury's proximity to the River Cam and the villages of Queen Camel and West Camel, and remained popular enough to help inspire a large-scale archaeological dig in the 20th century. These excavations, led by archaeologist Leslie Alcock from 1966–70, were titled "Cadbury-Camelot," and won much media attention, even being mentioned in the film of the musical . The dig revealed that the site seems to have been occupied as early as the 4th millennia BC and to have been refortified and occupied by a major British ruler and his warband from c. 470. This early medieval settlement continued until around 580. The works were by far the largest known fortification of the period, double the size of comparative and with Mediterranean artifacts representing extensive trade and Saxon ones showing possible conquest.

The use of the name Camelot and the support of Geoffrey Ashe helped ensure much publicity for the finds, but Alcock himself later grew embarrassed by the supposed Arthurian connection to the site. Following the arguments of David Dumville, Alcock felt the site was too late and too uncertain to be a tenable Camelot. Modern archaeologists follow him in rejecting the name, calling it instead Cadbury Castle hill fort. Despite this, Cadbury remains widely associated with Camelot. There were two towns in Roman Britain named Camulodunum, Colchester in Essex and Slack in West Yorkshire, derived from the Celtic god Camulos, and this has led to the suggestion that they originated the name. However, the Essex Camulodunum was located well within territory usually thought to have been conquered early in the 5th century by Saxons, so it is unlikely to have been the location of any "true" Camelot. The town was definitely known as Colchester as early as the in 917.

Even Colchester Museum argues strongly regarding the historical Arthur: "It would be impossible and inconceivable to link him to the Colchester area, or to Essex more generally", pointing out that the connection between the name Camuloduum and Colchester was unknown till the 18th century. Other places in Britain with names related to "Camel" have also been suggested, such as Camelford in Cornwall, located down the River Camel from where Geoffrey places Camlann, the scene of Arthur's final battle. The area's connections with Camelot and Camlann are merely speculative. Later uses Camelot has become a permanent fixture in interpretations of the Arthurian legend. The symbolism of Camelot so impressed Alfred, Lord Tennyson that he wrote up a prose sketch on the castle as one of his earliest attempts to treat the Arthurian legend. , a novel by Mark Twain in 1889, takes place in Camelot. Recent versions typically retain Camelot's lack of precise location and its status as a symbol of the Arthurian world, though they typically transform the castle itself into romantically lavish visions of a High Middle Ages palace.

It lends its name to the 1960 musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, which is based on T. H. White's literary version of the legend, . The musical was adapted into a 1967 film of the same name, which starred Richard Harris as Arthur, and which featured the Castle of Coca, Segovia as a fittingly opulent Camelot. Some writers of the "realist" strain of modern Arthurian fiction have attempted a more sensible Camelot; inspired by Alcock's Cadbury-Camelot excavation, writers Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mary Stewart, and Catherine Christian place their Camelots in that city and describe it accordingly. Camelot makes only a brief appearance in the 1975 parody Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Having recruited several knights, King Arthur (Graham Chapman) invites them to reside with him at Camelot.

The camera pans to a castle on a hill, then cuts to the knights as each in succession joyfully exclaims, "Camelot!" (Arthur's servant Patsy, played by co-director Terry Gilliam, grumbles, "It's only a model.") Then, after an interior sequence, in which the resident knights sing, "We're Knights of the Round Table" while engaging in madcap antics, the camera cuts back to Arthur, who decides, "On second thought, let's not go there. It's rather a silly place." In American contexts, the word "Camelot" is sometimes used to refer admiringly to the presidency of the John F. Kennedy. The Lerner and Loewe musical was still quite recent at the time and his widow Jacqueline quoted its lines in a 1963 interview following his assassination.

She said the lines "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot" were Kennedy's favorite in the score, adding that "there'll be great Presidents again, but there'll never be another Camelot again… It will never be that way again." Camelot Theme Park was a resort and theme park located in the English county of Lancashire, UK. Kaamelott is a French television series that presents a humorous alternative version of the Arthurian legend. Source Wikipedia

Question: Considered to be a possible location for the fabled Camelot, in which county is Cadbury Castle?
Answer: Somerset