THE PROBLEM OF A SOUTHERN ARTHUR FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Something I always looked at when considering possible Southern Arthur candidates was the archaeology. Yes, at one time or the other I tried finding the Arthurian battles either in the Midlands or the Southwest or a combination of both.  Indeed, I spilt a lot of ink in trying to make the Arthurian battles conform to the Gewissei battles of the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE.  I was never entirely successful, and failed to come up with what I thought to be a convincing argument for confining Arthur's military sphere to the South.  The most sensible approach would restrict Arthur "the Dumnonian's" battles to a line drawn roughly between Gloucester and Southhampton.  But such a theater disallows the placement of most of the Arthurian battles as found in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM and the ANNALES CAMBRIAE.  The few that can be put in that region display gross chronological problems.

I have pasted below some pages from Higham which nicely demonstrate the approximate border region of Anglo-Saxon held territory and that of the beleaguered Britons.  As my readers will immediately notice, by the time of Arthur's death (c. 537, according to the Welsh Annals) Saxon settlement was considerably well advanced.  If we wish to place Arthur in the South, we must restrict his martial activity to the western portions of the Southwest or the western parts of the Welsh Marches.  

On the other hand, the North was held quite a while longer.  And, indeed, we know it was still being defended under Urien and his son, a generation of more after Arthur's time.  There also remains a strong appeal to seeing in the name Arthur a relic of the Roman period Artorius, and we know of a fairly famous Roman officer of that name - Lucius Artorius Castus - who served as prefect of the Sixth Legion at York and (allowing for the reading of ARMENIOS on his memorial stone) led British troops in the campaign against Armenia.  

We can also place all the Arthurian battles in the North, and without having to go through creative contortions when it comes to toponomastics. We also get a wonderful geographical arrangement of the battles in the North, showing a clear frontier zone running up and down the old Roman Dere Street in northern England and southern Scotland.  Camboglanna/Camlan/Castlesteads Roman fort is in the same river valley as the sub-Roman/early Medieval royal hall at Banna/Birdoswald, and an "Avalon" Roman fort exists at Aballava/Avalana/Burgh-By-Sands only a few miles to the west.  Just to the east of Birdoswald is the Roman fort of Carvoran, which housed a Dalmatian garrison in the late period, and where a woman from Salona was buried.  The same Salona were Artorii related to L. Artorius Castus were present, and the same Salona not far from the Pitunium where L. Artorius Castus had an estate and was buried.

Birdoswald also would appear to be the birthplace of St. Patrick (see 

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/banna-as-home-of-st-patrick-repost.html).

The Irthing River of Birdoswald and Castlesteads may owe its name to a Cumbric word meaning 'Little Bear' 

(https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/details.xhtml?recordId=3213440&recordType=Journal), and the inhabitants of the valley may have been the *Artenses or "Bear-people" whose name is preserved in that of an eponymous chieftain Arthwys found in the Welsh genealogies. The Welsh saw their own word for bear, 'arth', in the name Arthur. 

Birdoswald was garrisoned for centuries by a Dacian unit.  We know the Dacians had a special affinity for the draco standard, and I have discussed this fact before in connection with Uther Pendragon and his draco and dragon-comet.  The Dacians occupied chiefly what is modern Romania, and in Romanian folklore meteors and comets were seen as dragons.  

And there is the possibility that the Dacian god Zalmoxis was a bear-deity (an idea proposed by Rhys Carpenter, and now being revisited in a future publication by Dr. Strechie Madalina of the University of Craiova).

I will conclude this brief post by providing a link to Dr. Ken Dark's opinion on the significance of post-Roman activity in northern England and Hadrian's Wall.  For those who wish to read more on Birdoswald, I have a ton of information on that subject posted on my blog, including archaeological reports by the leading excavator there, Dr. Tony Wilmott.  I urge interested parties to find and read those, as the case for someone like Arthur at Birdoswald is quite compelling. 

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2022/07/dr-ken-dark-on-hadrians-wall-in-sub.html