Suggestions that Glastonbury may have been a site of religious importance in
Celtic or pre-Celtic times are referred to as dubious by the historian Ronald
Hutton. In 1955 Ralegh Radford's excavations uncovered Romano-British pottery
at the west end of the nave. The abbey itself was founded by Britons, and it
dates at least to the early 7th century. Later medieval Christian legend
claimed that the abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea in the 1st century.
This fanciful legend is intimately tied to Robert de Boron's version of the
Holy Grail story and to Glastonbury's connection to King Arthur, which dates at
least
