Archaeologists excavate a 5,000-year-old tomb linked to King Arthur for the first time

Archaeologists from the Universities of Manchester and Cardiff have begun an excavation at a 5,000-year-old tomb that has been believed for centuries to be linked to the legendary King Arthur.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
06 July 2022 Wednesday 12:05
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Archaeologists excavate a 5,000-year-old tomb linked to King Arthur for the first time

Archaeologists from the Universities of Manchester and Cardiff have begun an excavation at a 5,000-year-old tomb that has been believed for centuries to be linked to the legendary King Arthur. The objective is to be able to clarify some of the mysteries that surround the enigmatic site of Herefordshire (England).

Arthur's Stone, dating from the Neolithic period, around 3,700 BC, stands on a lonely hill outside the village of Dorstone, facing the Black Mountains of south-east Wales. It is a burial with a Neolithic chamber that has never been investigated before. English Heritage, which manages the site, said similar examples have been found in the same region containing incomplete skeletal remains of several people, along with flint flakes, arrowheads and pottery.

Today only the large stones of the inner chamber of Arthur's Stone remain on view, which is set in a mound of earth and stones whose original size and shape remain a mystery. The chamber is made up of nine standing stones, with a huge angular rock at the top estimated to weigh over 25 tons.

This is not the first historical monument linked to King Arthur. Legend has it that the mythical warrior, ruler of Camelot, faced a giant in this place in Herefordshire who, at the moment of falling mortally wounded, collided with his elbows against one of the monoliths.

More recently, medievalist and writer C.S. Lewis would have been inspired by the area to create part of his fictional world of Narnia. Arthur's Stone would have served as an example to create the stone table on which Aslan is sacrificed in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".

"This is one of the most important Stone Age monuments in the country, and this dig provides a truly rare and exciting opportunity for members of the public to come and see archaeologists in action," said Ginny Slade, English Heritage volunteer manager.

Experts and amateurs are working side by side to remove the grass from the surface and thus expose and record particularly sensitive archaeological remains. Researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Cardiff were already working in 2021 on the southern area of ​​the monument.

Until then it was assumed that Arthur's Stone was located within a wedge-shaped stone barrow, similar to those found in the Cotswolds and South Wales. But professors Julian Thomas and Keith Ray, who will also lead this campaign, discovered that the monument originally extended to the southwest, and may have taken the form of a stacked turf mound supported by a palisade of upright posts.

The imposing tomb is furthermore linked to the nearby "halls of the dead" discovered in 2013. The initial mound points towards the nearby hilltop of Dorstone Hill. However, the last avenue of poles, along with the two stone chambers and vertical rock, line the far horizon with the gap between Skirrid and Garway Hill to the southeast.

"The different orientations of the two construction phases are significant because our excavations at Dorstone Hill in 2011-19 revealed three long mounds similar in construction to the one now known to represent the first stage of Arthur's Stone," Professor Thomas said.

"Each of these three grassy mounds had been built on the footprint of a large wooden building that had been deliberately set on fire. Therefore, this tomb has now been identified as being closely related to these nearby 'halls of the dead' ”, he concludes.