Mysterious Burials from King Arthur's Time

By M.P. Pellicer | Eerie.News
​Several graves of British royalty dating back to the dark ages have been found. Originally they were overlooked because they were not lavish enough, and had no grave goods inside. ​

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Ruin of Tintagel fortress off the coast of Cornwall

Julius Caesar invaded southern Britain in 54 B.C. The Romans ended their rule in 410 A.D. This is when the Arthurian legends sprung. 

After the exodus of the Roman legions, the British continued to rule in parts of Scotland, Wales and western England. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded and settled in the east.

Up to 65 graves of British kings and their families have been identified in approximately 20 sites across Wales and west England. These 65 burials were found by archaeologists across England over several decades, but because of their simplicity were not believed to be those of royalty.

According to Ken Dark, professor of archaeology and history at the University of Reading, the Christian British opted for a simple burial, versus the Anglo-Saxon who were pagan and buried their royalty with pomp and grave goods.

The British buried their royals next to common Christians without stone inscriptions to identify them.

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Arthur meets the Lady of the Lake who gives him the sword Excalibur

According to Dark, he believes a real person named Arthur did exist, since the name of "Arthur" became popular among British and Irish royal families at  the time.

Only one British king who ruled during early medieval years has been unearthed in the northwest of Wales. An inscription on the gravestone identified him as Catamanus (Cadfan)  with the word "rex", which is Latin for king.

However it appears that his grave was commemorated because he became a monk.

In contrast nine graves of Anglo-Saxon kings have been found.

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Photograph of the prow of the ship, with Lieutenant Commander Hutchison (left) and Charles Phillips (right) seated just beyond the burial chamber region and Basil Brown standing. (Source - Original photograph by Mercie Keer Lack ARPS © Trustees of the British Museum, digital image © National Trust. )

In 1939, an Anglo-Saxon ship burial was discovered at Sutton Hoo in east England. There were about 18 burial mounds dating to the 7th century A.D. They'd been looted centuries before. The largest mound contained an undisturbed site that contained an 89-foot-ship made of oak, as well as objects crafted from gold, garnet and silver, including a sword and armor.

There is no certainty as to who was buried there, but it's believed Raedwald who ruled East Anglia during the 7th century is a good possibility.

This type of burial was rare and reserved only for those of very high status. This was because of the manpower demanded to build a ship and drag it from the river, and build a structure to encase it. The site was closed on August 25, 1939, and Britain declared war on Germany on September, 3.

According to Dark's studies, British royalty from this era were placed inside Christian cemeteries, and though they were marked as a person of importance, compared to the pagan graves they were very plain. None were marked with inscribed stones.

At Tintagel a fortified peninsula off the coast of Cornwal, long associated with Arthur, there are thought to be five British royal graves. Inside a Christian Cemetery they are covered by a mound of earth (known as "ferta") possibly because they were Irish royal graves.

The British had strong ties to Celtic Ireland since they were of Celtic origin and had similar languages.

​“Before this work, we were completely unaware of the large number of probable royal graves surviving from post-Roman western Britain. Ongoing investigations are likely to help change our understanding of important aspects of this crucial period of British history,” said Professor Dark.

​Source - Independent

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An excavated 'enclosed grave', a possible royal burial, at Plas Gogerddan, Wales (Ken Murphy/Dyfed Archaeological Trust)