Tuesday, August 9, 2016

On Tintagel in the News.....

Dr. Goskar wrote to the EMF email list the following on this subject:

However, Tintagel has also been the subject of controversy concerning England Heritage's approach to reinterpreting the site well before this dig started. I have been observing developments and writing about them, e.g.:


In addition a network of fellow medievalists, led by Dr Leonie Hicks and I, have made a formal representation to English Heritage about their own use of Dark Ages - a term they have adopted anew for some unfathomable reason. 

We wrote an open letter to EH and are in ongoing discussions with them. This is good news because initially we faced a stone wall of defence on the matter. See:


My particular concern as both a medievalist and a heritage professional working in a Cornish context is that Tintagel is being marketed and the site used as a cash cow to generate the millions they need to sustain their new organisation. Tintagel is the 5th most visited historic site in the country and even though the Arthurian connections are so deeply tenuous, and the early medieval Cornish history so compelling, the pop Arthuriana wins out and the post-Roman Cornish history of this extraordinary site is pretty much hidden away.

Without wishing to over-burden you with extra reading, you can see more about my chronicling of this controversy on my blog:http://tehmina.goskar.com/

I'd welcome any comments you have.

I am also looking for examples of other mis-representations of medieval sites/collections so if you have any examples I'd be pleased to hear about them.


Dr Tehmina Goskar, MA AMA

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