More information : SX 04968911: Tintagel has been regarded as a prototype monastic establishment but unlike other Cornish pre-Norman monasteries it lacked any religious continuity or tradition. On the basis of Radford's excavations it was assumed that a Celtic missionary, St Juliot, arrived at Tintagel in AD 500 and had built a cell and church, and was responsible for the rise of a monastery. Evidence for the monastery (SX 08 NE 44) has been the cluster of cells or rooms which are unlike known Cornish examples and now thought to represent part of an extensive Medieval settlement with its origins within the post-Roman period (SX 08 NE 46). The chapel (SX 08 NE 45) predates the castle but is unlikely to be contemporary with the monastery. The castle (SX 08 NE 1) is first documented in 1233 and constructed between 1227-1233, with the height of occupation within the late 13th-14th centuries. It appears to have been built as a status symbol, hardly used residentially or defensively, and was used as a state prison during the 14th century. Excavations taken place in the 1980s produced evidence for Romano-British and post-Roman activity at Tintagel. A fire of the island in 1983 revealed a pattern of slate foundations, rectilinear in plan, post Roman pottery was also recovered. Excavations in 1986 located post-Roman occupation outside the ward on the east. No direct evidence for Roman occupation has been recorded although pottery was recovered. Post Roman pottery has been recorded within the vicinity of Site A and B, the Island Ward, and around the Iron Gate. The assemblage contains Mediterranean imports probably representing one ship load the nature of which indicate Tintagel may have been a high status fortified secular settlement. The site appears to be occupied periodically. Excavations in 1990 confirmed the presence of a terrace identified in 1984. Structures located include walls and a hard packed gravel surface associated with local and imported post-Roman pottery. A midden containing post-Roman pottery was also located. (1-8)
It has been suggested that Tintagel was a major Dumnonian royal seat until the 7th century and that its selection for this purpose in the early-mid 5th century had something to do with its status in the Roman period. It is likely to be the Romano-British Durocornovium. The name is contained (in a 7th century compilation- the Ravenna Cosmography) within a route sequence going west from Exeter. As Professors Leo Rivet and Colin Smith have suggested, with the exception of Exeter, all the places named in it must have been minor in Roman times. It is possible that they were derived from some earlier list kept for adminstrative purposes. If a recognised route ended here it would explain why, of the five Roman milestones found in Cornwall, one was discovered in 1889 in the entrance to the churchyard, and a second came from within a mile. The excavated finds include both post-Roman imports, locally made pottery of the 3rd and 4th century, coarse wares and a fourth century Oxfordware bowl. Thomas had noted that Tintagel was the site of a defended-promontory settlement, known in the area as `the fort (duro) of the Cornovii' which became in the later Roman period an administrative post for the enforced gathering of taxes in the long north Cornish farming belt and for other duties ie. customs due to its coastal location. (9)
The site is Scheduled. (10)
Reports on the results of topographical surveys of Tintagel Island (11-12)
Two fragments from a single slate with the outline of an equal-armed cross with splayed arms were found in the chapel. It is thought to be either a grave-marker or an altar frontal. An incised cross has also been found cut into a roof slate. Both appear to be 11th-12th century date by analogy with Welsh examples. (13)
Tintagel Island was surveyed by the RCHME in 1984-5 but the results were not fully published. This survey was enhanced and published as a Historic England Research Report in 2015-16. (14)
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