The Quest at Glastonbury Abbey

Glastonbury Abbey holds a special place in popular culture; the site possesses a long history embellished with a rich mythology and inspired esotericism that brought the Somerset town to the spiritual centre of the New Age. It is very easy to become entangled in this mystical web and struggle to see the slim threads of truth at Glastonbury.

It is claimed that this is the site of the earliest Christian Church in Britain, founded by Joseph of Arimathea and the reputed burial place of the legendary King Arthur. But, alas, it seems science can shatter any myth and here archaeology has failed to find evidence to support the claims of the Abbey's Medieval monks.

Eight different directors have lead thirty six seasons of archaeological investigations between 1904 and 1979 but little in the way of archaeological reports has been documented from these 20th century excavations.

The Glastonbury Abbey Archaeological Archive Project, a joint venture by the University of Reading and Glastonbury Abbey, has revisited the archaeological archives and artefact collections of Glastonbury Abbey and came to the conclusion that the myths surrounding the abbey were made up by the monks to make Glastonbury one of the richest monasteries in the country.

In 1125 William of Malmesbury completed “De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie” after Abbot Henry of Blois had invited him to write the history of the Abbey. William pronounced it was indeed the oldest church he knew and repeated the Glastonbury claim that the first church on the site was established by missionaries in AD 166, or possibly even earlier, dating back to the time of Christ’s apostles, although he seemed to doubt this assertion himself and did not mention Joseph of Arimathea. William also failed to connect Arthur's grave with Glastonbury; in his history of the English kings he stated that “Arthur's grave is nowhere seen”.

Later versions of William's work were considerably altered by the Abbey monks to add foundation to the Glastonbury Legend. In the 14th century John of Glastonbury wrote his chronicle (Cronica Sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesie) of the Abbey history continuing the work of Adam of Damerham and drawing heavily on William's book. It is in John's Cronica that the 'Prophecy of Melkin' appears for the first time, claiming that Joseph of Arimathea sleeps in the Isle of Avalon.

The Project team of 31 experts assert that the medieval monks deliberately designed the layout of the rebuilding in the 12th century to emphasise the ‘earliest church’ story, supplementing the Glastonbury Legend, and providing the abbey with a mystical feel; these myths appear to have clouded the judgement of the twentieth century archaeologists.

The Project re-examined the work of Ralegh Radford who excavated the Abbey site in the 1950s and 1960s and proclaimed to have discovered the site of King Arthur’s grave, as exhumed by the monks in 1191.

Radford had used Medieval sources such as Gerald of Wales: The Discovery of the Tomb of King Arthur, from 'Liber de Principis Instructione' (On the Instruction of Princes) c. 1223, to locate Arthur's grave:

“Although legends had fabricated something fantastical about his demise (that he had not suffered death, and was conveyed, as if by a spirit, to a distant place), his body was discovered at Glastonbury, in our own times, hidden very deep in the earth in an oak-hollow, between two stone pyramids that were erected long ago in that holy place. The tomb was sealed up with astonishing tokens, like some sort of miracle. The body was then conveyed into the church with honor, and properly committed to a marble tomb. A lead cross was placed under the stone, not above as is usual in our times, but instead fastened to the underside. I have seen this cross, and have traced the engraved letters — not visible and facing outward, but rather turned inwardly toward the stone. It read: 'Here lies entombed King Arthur, with Guenevere his second wife, on the Isle of Avalon'.” [The Camelot Project ]

Project leader Roberta Gilchrist states that the monks were desperate for funds for restoration works following the devastating fire of 1184; “The monks also deliberately designed the rebuilt church to look older in order to demonstrate its ancient heritage and pre-eminent place in monastic history, using archaic architecture style and reused material to emphasise the Abbey's mythical feel. This swelled pilgrim numbers and the Abbey's coffers.”

The strategy paid off; by the end of the Middle Ages, Glastonbury Abbey was the second richest monastery in England.

The following posts will look at the work at Glastonbury carried out by the foremost archaeologists in the history of the Abbey excavations; Frederick Bligh Bond and CA Ralegh Radford in their respective searches for King Arthur's Tomb.



Copyright © 2018 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk

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