Gervase and the Moon in June

On 25th June 1178 five monks from Canterbury witnessed a curious astronomical event1:

“In this year, on the Sunday before the Feast of St John the Baptist, after sunset when the moon had first become visible a marvellous phenomenon was witnessed by some five or more men who were sitting there facing the moon. Now there was a bright new moo, and as usual in that phase its horns were tilted toward the east; and suddenly the upper horn split in two. From the midpoint of the division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals, and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the moon which was below writhed, as it were, in anxiety, and, to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the moon throbbed like a wounded snake.”

The account can be found in the chronicles of Gervase of Canterbury, a medieval monk considered a reliable historian.

This extraordinary event was largely forgotten until 800 years later when, in 1976, the geologist Jack Hartung suggested Gervase had recorded a rare eye-witness account of the five monks who had seen an impact on the Moon's surface by a large meteor. The periodic bombardment of the Moon is a fate it has suffered regularly over its 4 billion year long history as attested by the many craters across its surface, but few of these impacts have been actually witnessed.

Hartung argued that evidence of the impact could be seen on the north eastern edge of the moon in a crater named after the 17th century Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno. Hartung suggested the flame the monks saw was incandescent gases, or sunlight reflecting on dust emitted from the crater. He argued that such a crater would be at least 7 miles across, possess bright rays extending for at least 70 miles formed by debris thrown out at impact, and be situated between 30 and 60 degrees North, 75 and 105 degrees East. The crater would be very near the edge of the Moon, or just on the far side. The Giordano Bruno crater happens to lie within these co-ordinates, 13 miles in diameter and notable for its brightness and the rays extending several hundred miles from it.2

The Giordano Bruno crater

Lunar astronomers Callame and Mulholland claim the event would have been sufficiently visible to justify the description of the eye-witness accounts recorded by Gervase. The astronomers also detected evidence of a small vibration in the orbit of the Moon. The Moon rotates in such a way that the face is always pointing at Earth, but with small oscillations, giving it a slight wobble about its polar axis. This slight wobble is not visible to the naked eye but has been detected by astronomers firing a laser beam at reflectors left on the Moon's surface by Apollo astronauts. When the laser is fired the arrival of the returning light beam is timed. Over the years thousands of laser beams have been fired at the Moon providing sufficient data to detect a 15 metre oscillation of the lunar surface about its polar axis over three years. This vibration,  Callame and Mulholland argue, can only be explained as the result of a significant recent impact of such a magnitude to have formed the Giordano Bruno crater. It is estimated that this vibration would die out over a period 20,000 year, or so.3

From studies of impact cratering it is possible to estimate the energy released at impact to have created the crater; the Giordano Bruno would have required around 100,000 megatons. By comparison, on 30th June 1908 a meteor is thought to have burst in mid-air at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometres over Tunguska, Siberia. The detonation felled around 80 million trees over an area of over 2,000 square kilometres and would have been capable of destroying a large city if impacting on a populous area. Early estimates considered the energy release equivalent to 10–15 megatons, about 1,000 times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.4

In 1975 seismometers left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts detected the impact of a huge swarm of boulders. The bombardment started on June 22, which suggests the Taurids were responsible for the onslaught.

Today many astronomers argue that the Giordano Bruno crater was created more than a million years ago but accept the wobble of the Moon's polar axis is the result of an interstellar impact. However, astronomers have argued that an impact of such magnitude to form the Giordano Bruno crater would have ejected more than 10 million tons of lunar debris, much of which, inevitably, should have rained down into the Earth’s atmosphere causing spectacular meteor storms lasting for many days after the impact. Yet, there are no reports of such an event in 1178.

Current thinking is that the monks probably observed a meteor exploding in the Earth's upper atmosphere travelling head-on toward them along the sight-line of one horn of the crescent Moon. The meteor would have exploded when it entered the upper atmosphere, creating the “hot coals and sparks”, obscuring the crescent with a dark smoke trail. Atmospheric turbulence would account for the “writhing snake” effect.

A head-on meteor in the Earth’s atmosphere would only align with the horn of the Moon over a small area of the Earth’s surface giving a localised perspective which may explain why only the five monks witnessed the impact and apparently no one else. Astronomer Duncan Steele has suggested that the meteor could have originated from the Beta Taurid meteor shower. This is a trail of debris from Comet Encke, which the Earth crosses every June. Clube and Napier, explain that, “the significant feature is not collision with comets themselves, but with their debris”.

Whether the astronomical event that the monks witnessed was the creation of the Giordano Bruno crater or a meteor exploding in the upper atmosphere, like the Tunguska event, it underlines the fact that the planets of the inner solar system are prone to periodic bombardment by space debris from comet trails with catastrophic consequences; such an event seems to have occurred during the Dark Ages.

Something Nasty in the Dark Ages?
A comet appeared in the sky early in 1066, which many interpreted as a premonition of the Norman conquest of England. The comet appears on the Bayeaux Tapestry, an embroidery depicting the Norman invasion and defeat of the English at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. This happened to be comet Halley, the first periodic comet detected, travelling past Earth once every 76 years or so. Observations of Halley's comet suggest the ancient Greeks observed the comet as long ago as 466 BC.

The Bayeaux Tapestry showing Halley's Comet

Geoffrey of Monmouth was probably aware of the comet recorded on the Bayeaux Tapestry and its implied meaning on the outcome on the Battle of Hastings. He writes of a comet in his History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Brittaniae, c.1136), which foreshadows the reign of Uther. On the way to the battle Uther sees a comet in the shape of a fiery dragon, which Merlin interprets as a sign of Aurelius's imminent death and Uther's glorious future:

“At the appearance of this star, a general fear and amazement seized the people; and even Uther, the king's brother, who was then upon his march with his army into Cambria, [Wales] being not a little terrified at it, was very curious to know of the learned men, what it portended. Among others, he ordered Merlin to be called, who also attended in this expedition to give his advice in the management of the war; and who, being now presented before him, was commanded to discover to him the signification of the star. At this he burst out into tears, and with a loud voice cried out;

“O irreparable loss! O distressed people of Britain! Alas! the illustrious prince is departed! The renowned king of the Britons, Aurelius Ambrosius, is dead! Whose death will prove fatal to us all, unless God be our helper. Make haste, therefore, most noble Uther, make haste to engage the enemy: the victory will be yours, and you shall be king of all Britain. For the star, and the fiery dragon under it, signifies yourself, and the ray extending towards the Gallic coast, portends that you shall have a most potent son, to whose power all those kingdoms shall be subject over which the ray reaches. But the other ray signifies a daughter, whose sons and grandsons shall successively enjoy the kingdom of Britain'.” (BOOK VIII, CHAP. XV)

After winning the battle Geoffrey gives Uther the epithet “Pendragon”. Clearly Geoffrey misinterpreted “Pendragon” as meaning “dragon's head” (from the comet) whereas it literally means “Chief-Dragon” as “chief of warriors”. But, significantly, Geoffrey's tale of Arthur is set in the Dark Ages, so although he may have been inspired by the depiction of Halley's Comet on the Bayeaux Tapestry as an omen to the Battle of Hastings, he is clearly referring to a comet event in the days of the Great Arthur.

Astronomers believe there was an increased risk from bombardment in the period between 400 and 700 AD, the classic Dark Age period. Contemporary chroniclers write of a period of climate change, prolonged winters, decreased temperatures and a persistent dust veil. Gildas, writing around c.540 AD, describes a bleak picture of Britain at this time. Historians have long suspected a downturn in the Britons fortunes played to the invading Anglo Saxon's advantage. It was at this time that refortified post-Roman towns such as Wroxeter (Viroconium) were deserted.

The 5th century historian Zachariah of Mitylene writes of “a great and terrible comet appeared in the sky at evening-time for 100 days” around in around 538-9 AD. The medieval historian Roger of Wendover stated that, “in the year of grace 541 AD, there appeared a comet in Gaul, so vast that the whole sky seemed on fire. In the same year, there dropped real blood from the clouds, and a dreadful mortality ensued.”

Some versions of the Welsh Annals open with the entry for 447 AD - “Days as dark as night”. A hundred years later in 547 The Welsh Annals record “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.” The Irish Annals record “a failure of bread” in 536 and 539 suggesting crop failure owing to climate change. Repeatedly, these events are followed by outbreaks of plague.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records that in the year 538 the sun was eclipsed, fourteen days before the calends of March, from before morning until nine and in 540 the sun was eclipsed on the twelfth day before the calends of July; and the stars showed themselves full nigh half an hour over nine.

The celestial disturbance appears to have continued for some time; later the Welsh Annals record “a star of marvellous brightness was seen shining throughout the whole world” in 676 followed by a great plague in Britain in 682, in which Cadwaladr son of Cadwallon dies. Then in 683 there was plague in Ireland. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle again mirrors the Welsh Annals; in 678 a comet-star appeared in August, and shone every morning, during three months, like a sunbeam. It was around this time that hillforts such as Cadbury were abandoned.

All of these Chronicle accounts concur on the appearance of a comet or celestial disturbances during the period around 400 – 700 AD. This dramatic Dark Age event is linked to climate change, drought and famine around the world. This severe downturn in living conditions left humanity more susceptible to outbreaks plague; the “Justinian Plague” arrived in Constantinople in 542 AD, the first recorded emergence of the Black Death in Europe.

It has long been suspected that around this time Britain was devastated by the effects of a cometary impact, an event occurring in 536 AD which produced a dust veil and cooling effect with global consequences.

Volcano or Comet?
The cause of this catastrophic event in the Dark Ages that resulted in crop failures, summer frosts, drought and famine around the world some 1500 years ago has puzzled historians and scientists alike for years.

Author David Keys argues that evidence from historic sources refer to a persistent dry fog across the Mediterranean, that lasted for 12 to 18 months and caused “a spring without mildness and a summer without heat”.Keys believed that a major volcanic event was to blame and suspected Krakatoa as the culprit.5

The same year Mike Baillie argued that comet symbolism underlies the Arthurian Legend. Baillie developed the science of dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, finding evidence around the world for dramatic effects in trees across the years from 536 to 545 AD. Significantly, Baillie concludes,  a close comet pass coincides precisely with the time the Welsh Annals stated that Arthur perished in the strife of Camlann, 537AD.6

Dallas Abbott, of Columbia University, has recently studied the 536 AD event and the consequent dust veil and combined planetary cooling effect. After taking deep-core samples from Greenland ice that was laid down between 533 and 540 AD, they found evidence of a volcanic eruption in 536 AD but it almost certainly was not of a sufficient magnitude to cause such dramatic climate change.

The Greenland ice cores were also found to contain fossils of tiny tropical marine organisms suggesting this was an extraterrestrial impact in a tropical ocean, throwing them high into the stratosphere, carrying them to the north polar regions. The ice cores also contained large amounts of atmospheric dust from this seven-year period, not all of it originating on Earth but some particles indicative of an extraterrestrial source.

This cometary residue apparent in the ice cores contained deposits of tin, nickel and iron oxide spherules, which Abbott explains, are associated with cometary dust. This alien matter was deposited in Greenland during the Northern Hemisphere spring time, coinciding with the Eta Aquarid meteor shower.

The orbit of comet Halley leaves a trail of debris which the Earth’s crosses every year on two occasions: the Eta Aquariids in early May, and the Orionids in late October. Abbott argues that although the Eta Aquarid dust may be responsible for a cooling period in 533 AD, on its own it cannot explain the global dimming effect of 536-7 AD which cooled global temperatures by as much as 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) for several years; that would require something much more dramatic. Abbott concluded that a piece of the famous Halley's Comet broke away from the main body and impacted on Earth in 536 AD blasting so much dust into the atmosphere that the planet cooled considerably.7

Halley's Comet 1986

Halley's Comet is known to have appeared in Earth's skies in 530 AD and was noted as being astonishingly bright at that time. Irish Annals record “running stars” that were shining for 20 days, and there were many earthquakes. Both China and Byzantium recorded in 530 AD that Halley’s Comet continued to shine for 20 days. The brightness suggests a close pass in which the comet may have broken up as it passed Earth and rounded the sun, ejecting large pieces that fell to Earth and leaving a thicker than normal trail of debris responsible for the dust veil of 536 AD and cooling effect of subsequent years. In 2004 a study estimated that a comet fragment just 2,000 feet (600 metres) wide could have caused the 536 AD event.

Unlike the event recorded by Gervase in 1178, which is doubted as a significant lunar impact by many astronomers today, the 536 AD dust veil and its global consequences is an accepted event; yet few reconstructions of Dark Age History acknowledge the event as a contributory factor in the decline of the Britons.

Halley's Comet's most recent appearance was in 1986. Its next appearance will be in 2061.


Updated 26/06/16
Edited 29/06/16


Copyright © 2016 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/ 


Notes:
1. The date of the event was originally recorded as 18th June on the Julian calendar which converts to 25th June in the modern Gregorian scheme.
2. Victor Clube and Bill Napier, The Cosmic Winter, Basil Blackwell, 1990. pp.159-162.
3. Ibid.
4. Modern estimates claim that the airburst had an energy range from 3 to 5 megatons.
5. David Keys, Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World, Century, 1999.
6. Mike Baillie, Exodus to Arthur, Batsford, 1999.
7. However, observations taken from Halley’s last appearance in 1986 suggest that the Eta Aquarid meteor shower might not originate from Halley’s Comet, but is possibly disturbed by it.

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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

http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/


See: Arthur's Hunting Path, a Neolithic trackway from Cadbury to Glastonbury Tor.

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Notes:
1. Leslie Alcock, Arthur's Britain, Penguin, 1989, (1st edition 1971).
2. Charles Thomas, Imported Pottery in Dark-Age Western Britain.
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.

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