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‘King Arthur’s Hall’ is 4,000 years older than thought
A new investigation of the ancient site known as King Arthur’s Hall on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall has revealed it dates back to the Neolithic Period, 4,000 years older than previously believed. Researchers from the Cornwall Archaeological Unit (CAU) employed Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating to discover that the enclosure was dug approximately 5,000 to 5,500 years ago, making it as old as Stonehenge, not medieval.
The site is a rectangular sunken enclosure 155 feet long and 65 feet wide outlined by an earth and stone embankment. The inner bank is lined with 56 orthostats (standing stones) up to six feet high. Most of the visible ones are leaning or lying down, but there may be more under the surface.
It was long thought to be a medieval animal pound, an enclosure for livestock, and was listed by Historic England as dating to around 1000 A.D., but there was speculation that due to the use of orthostats, its north-south orientation and the presence of other standing stone groupings nearby, at least part of the mound was much older. The rectangular enclosure with embankment and interior standing stones is unique, however. There are no known directly comparable Neolithic examples.
CAU was commissioned to excavate a small investigative trench near the entrance area at the south of the rectangle. Soil samples were taken from the main trench through the bank and organic samples from the exposed stone construction of the bank. The Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating, which measures the time soil was last exposed to light, was used on samples from the soil in the bank and soils underneath it. The OSL results indicate the embankment was dug and built up in the later part of the 4th millennium B.C. Geological analysis of the standing stones found they were local, sourced from within 820 feet of the site.
Test pits dug in other parts of the Hall recovered pollen, seeds, insects, parasite eggs samples for radiocarbon dating. The results found that infilling of the enclosure began about 2,000 – 2,500 years ago, and activities in the marshy interior are indeed medieval, dating to 500 – 1000 years ago, so it may have been used a pound after all, and then later as a reservoir used in tin mining.
It was first documented as “King Arthur’s Hall” in 1584, but there is no specific Arthurian legend connection claimed beyond that he visited there. The association with the legendary king may be a more recent cultural expression of a much older understanding of the site as sacred and important.
Pete Herring, president of the Cornwall Archaeological Society, said: ““The romantic sounding 16th century name King Arthur’s Hall tells us that here is a place regarded by the moorland community as something ancient and unfathomable, like other sites attributed to Arthur. Science has responded to that name’s challenge, providing a very early date of origin, and two other dates, later prehistoric and medieval, when there was activity at the enclosure.
“The monument retains its mystery: there are no Neolithic parallels for a stone-lined sunken and embanked rectangular enclosure, possibly watery. We may presume it was a sacred site, a place for gatherings, for rituals or ceremonies, but perhaps Neolithic people made and used it for very different purposes.
“Its later prehistoric and medieval dates for reuse may relate to two of Cornwall’s great sources of wealth, supporting the sustainable summer grazing of extensive commons, and then serving as a reservoir for water used in tin stream working.”
Historic England has listed the site on its Heritage at Risk Register because it is under threat from vegetation and erosion from visitors. The confirmation of its Neolithic origin will help heritage authorities develop a management plan for its long-term conservation, starting with rebuilding a fence surrounding the monument to prevent erosion from human tourists and the cattle that pasture Bodmin Moor.
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