Romano-British elite enjoyed Mediterranean wines

Excavations at a Dark Age palace at Tintagel in Cornwall have shed further light on the fine dining tastes of the Romano-British aristocracy.

The dig at Tintagel this summer. Photo credit: Emiliy Whitfield-Wicks

Earlier this summer, a team from the Cornwall Archaeological Unit (CAU) working on behalf of English Heritage in what is to be a five year project, uncovered the remains of what were once “substantial” buildings dating from the 5^th to 6^th centuries AD.

Much earlier (but only partial) investigations of the site in the 1930s led archaeologists to conclude a monastery had once stood there but it seems more likely it was a palace of some description – an argument put forward since the 1980s.

During their dig the team discovered structures up to 11 metres long, with walls a metre thick and with carefully laid flagstone floors; all of which suggest that the Tintagel site was an important centre of the Romano-British kingdom of Dumnonia – if not the seat of royal power itself.

The archaeologists also uncovered 150 shards of pottery and glassware, which shows quite how well the nobles of this ‘Dark Age’ society ate and drank.

There was fine glassware from Spain and Merovingian France and Phocaean red slip pottery from western Turkey. Storage vessels coming from around the Aegean would suggest that wine and olive oil from the area was being imported and consumed in not insubstantial quantities in this northern corner of the former Roman Empire – although it is also conceivable these British elites were enjoying wines and oils from France, Spain and Italy as well.

Speaking to the drinks business, Jacqueline Nowakowski the CAU’s principal archaeologist, pointed out that the discovery of such wares in Northern Europe was not unusual but that they had, nonetheless, added more flavour to what we know of the palace life of the Romano-British.

Importantly, these items also suggest that despite the departure of the legions in 410AD and subsequent encroachment of Saxon invaders, the trade links between the Romano-British and other former Roman colonies right across the Mediterranean, even the now Constantinople-based empire itself, were not entirely severed.

The empire’s last gasp in the 6^th century when the famous general Belisarius reconquered Italy and parts of southern Spain at the behest of the emperor Justinian may also have aided in the continuation of trade between Romano-British kingdoms such as Dumnonia and the rump of the Roman empire; with the British trading tin in exchange for wine and olive oil, pottery and glassware.

The archaeological team will return to Tintagel next summer in the hope of uncovering even more of the palace. While this small sliver of findings suggests much, as Nowakowski admitted: “There’s still a huge amount we don’t know about the site.”

The kingdom of Dumnonia was just one of several Romano-British kingdoms which rose up in the 5th century after the withdrawal of the last Roman legions. Their petty in-fighting led to the hiring of Saxon mercenaries who then turned on their employers and set up kingdoms of their own, spreading further westwards over following centuries and gradually forcing the Romano-Britons into pockets around the south-west and north-west of England and Wales.

Through this history is often woven the narrative of King Arthur who, according to legend, was born at Tintagel and who, in the early 6th century, is said to have led the fight against the Saxon invaders.

Arthur of course may never have existed – at least as one man – and the excavations have (so far) found no evidence to support any of the myths surrounding him. Nonetheless, the dig clearly shows that an important Romano-British settlement existed at Tintagel at the time he is reputed to have lived and died. Could it be that this palace was the very one the chroniclers and fabulists had in mind when they compiled their stories of Arthur for the great romances of the Middle Ages?