Romantic rock-perched sea-girt Tintagel is a magical place that
resonates with Arthurian associations - and the archaeological reality
is no less intriguing than the legend. Investigation of the site began
in the 1930s, when Dr Ralegh Radford uncovered remains of buildings with
significant volumes of eastern Mediterranean and North African pottery
of fifth- to seventh-century date, suggesting a western British site of
iconic importance in the economy of the late Antique and Byzantine
world. The research presented in this book comes from renewed fieldwork
carried out at this promontory site over several seasons between April
1990 and July 1999, using modern archaeological techniques, together
with previously unpublished work from Radford's private archive, along
with that of his architect, J A Wright. This work has demonstrated the
complexity and variability of building forms and associated occupation
at the site and the wide-ranging connections of Tintagel during the
fifth to seventh centuries, as reflected in the extensive ceramic
assemblage, while re-examination of the 'Great Ditch' has established
that this is the largest promontory or hill-top site of its period. A
unique glass assemblage and a stone with a probable imperial inscription
to Honorius - later the object of graffiti from three post-Roman
personages, Paternus, Coliavus and Artognou - serve as dramatic
testimony to the cultural and literary milieu of high-status Dumnonian
society in the post-Roman period.
