WHERE WAS UTHER/ILLTUD - AND ARTHUR - BURIED?

Durocornovium (Sparey-Green, 1985)

Much as it would be nice to lay claim to Glastonbury as the site of Arthur's grave, the location has always been a dubious one.  The main problem with an Arthur heralding from the old Dobunni territory - and, more specifically, from the vicinity of Durocornovium in Wiltshire - is that by the very early 7th century, at least, Glastonbury lay within Dumnonia.   I discussed this fact in the following piece:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-glastonbury-grave-of-arthur.html

Avalon, alas, is most likely a fiction.  I showed how an Avalon-like name exists where Geoffrey of Monmouth has Arthur die at Camlan (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-avalon-of-geoffrey-of-monmouth.html), and was able to demonstrate another 'Avalon' by the Carvedras ('Fort of Modred') sites in extreme southern Cornwall (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-new-candidate-for-arthur-and-medrauts.html).  An early attempt by Richmond and Crawford to emend the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY's name for the Lydney shrine in Gloucestershire as *Nemetabala, 'the sacred grove of the apple trees', has been found wanting (see https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-3433-1/dissemination/AAseries5/AA530typeset/archael530-049-breeze.pdf).  Even the fabled ash tree that bore apples at the mouth of the Wye has been adequated accounted for by the presence there of a rare domestic service tree, whose leaves resembled those of an ash and which grew crab apple-like fruit (see http://www.wondersofbritain.org/wonder8/index.html and associated notes).

If I am right about Camerton being the best place for Arthur's Camlan (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2023/01/cam-brook-in-somerset-as-better.html), and this was a border battle between descendents of the Dobunni and descendents of the Durotriges (or Dumonians?), then taking Arthur well south across the Mendips to Glastonbury doesn't make a lot of sense.  

A better tact to take when looking for where Arthur might have been buried would be to instead search for the grave site of his father, Illtud/Uther.  

Now, according to the Life of St. Illtud, he went to Dol in Brittany and died there.  But this is almost certainly an error for the Dol- place-names in Dolgellau, Gwynedd, where we find Llanelltyd, the 'Church of Illtud."  

The neolithic tombs assigned to Illtud near Defynnog (a place-name which may preserve an eponym of the Dobunni; see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/10/how-welsh-tradition-confirms-that.html) in Brycheiniog are due to another Illtud church (Llanhamlach) in the vicinity.

Geoffrey of Monmouth says that Uther was buried at Stonehenge, of course.  Unfortunately, this doesn't work for a Dobunni-centric ruler or war-chieftain.  Dobunni lands do not seem to have extended farther to the southeast than the River Kennet in Wiltshire.

Where does this leave us?

Well, if the 'Llydaw' Illtud returned to is the same one he left, then we are talking about Liddington Castle/Badbury (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2023/01/illtuds-father-bicanus-and-his-llydaw.html)!

If so, might we extrapolate that Arthur, once he perished at Camerton, was taken home to Durocornovium for burial also?  

It is important to remember that the Romans could name settlements they established on their road system for the earlier forts or oppidum that the settlements had, essentially, replaced.  For example, Badbury Rings in Dorset was known as Vindocladia, 'the white ditches' (due to the chalk there), and the settlement at the road-junction derived its name from the fort.  Similar examples can be found all over the Celtic world.  One that just popped into my mind is the town of Trimontium in Lowland Scotland, named for the nearby triple Eildon Hills.

Rivet and Smith mention, under their discussion of Durocornovium, that "excavation has not revealed an early Roman fort [at Wanborough], and the nearest major Iron Age settlement is at Liddington Castle, 3.5 miles to the south."  I have wondered about the 'horn' in the -cornovium name being a reference to the raised land that runs from the south up to Liddington Castle (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2023/01/arthur-of-cornwall-or-arthur-of.html). Thus it may be that the non-English name of Badbury/Liddington was composed at least in part of the -cornovium element.  

And any cemetery for Illtud/Uther and Arthur should perhaps be sought in the settlement, not at the neighboring hillfort.