Arthur Bulleid (1862–1951) was a British antiquarian, known for the excavation of

Glastonbury Lake Village Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, situated on a crannog or man made island in the Somerset Levels, near Godney, some north west of Glastonbury in the southwestern English county of Somerset. It has been designated as a schedul ...

and

Meare Lake Village Meare Lake Village is the site of an Iron Age settlement on the Somerset Levels at Meare, Somerset, England. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Description In prehistoric times there were two villages situated within the now-drained Meare Pool ...

. He was born in

Glastonbury Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbur ...

, the sixth son of John Bulleid, the mayor and founder of the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society, and his wife Christina. He became a medical student but was interested in local history and archaeology. In 1900 he was married to Anna Elanor Austin. They lived at Dymboro, a house in Midsomer Norton built for them as a wedding present from Anna's father, and had six children. In his twenties he heard about the discovery of lake villages in Switzerland and suspected that similar

Iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

settlements may exist on the

Somerset Levels The Somerset Levels are a coastal plain and wetland area of Somerset, England, running south from the Mendips to the Blackdown Hills. The Somerset Levels have an area of about and are bisected by the Polden Hills; the areas to the south a ...

. He spent his summers searching for them and in 1892 identified a promising field at

Godney Godney is a village and civil parish near Glastonbury on the River Sheppey on the Somerset Levels in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. History Near the village are the sites of the Iron Age Glastonbury Lake Village, and the now drained ...

and began to excavate it. He gave up his medical studies to concentrate on the site which became known as

, digging during the summer and describing and cataloging his finds during the winter. In 1898 he stopped the excavation and completed his medical studies before restarting the dig in 1904 with Harold St George Gray. He later went on to excavate, with Gray, another similar site the

. His work is commemorated in the Glastonbury Lake Village Museum at

The Tribunal, Glastonbury The Tribunal in Glastonbury, Somerset, England, was built in the 15th century as a merchant's house. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The history of the building is not well documented, although the majority of the present ...

. Bulleid died in 1951 and is buried in the cemetery, Wells Road, Glastonbury.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulleid, Arthur People from Glastonbury English antiquarians 1862 births 1951 deaths