By Jeremy A. Kaplan (FOXNews.com)
King Arthur, Lancelot, and the other knights of the Round Table are more than mere stories. In fact, one British historian has found precisely where that famous table once sat –and what exactly it was.
King Arthur and his knights, depicted in a medieval painting sitting around the famous Round Table. Modern historians claim the Round Table may have been located in a Roman amphitheater in the present-day city of Chester.
Illustration from Wikimedia Commons
According to Camelot historian Chris Gidlow, the famous table was no table at all.
He claims the circular interior of a former Roman amphitheater in Chester, England, was where the knights convened, and will reveal all the details of his discoveries in “King Arthur’s Round Table Revealed,” which airs on The History Channel July 19.
Gidlow said Arthur would have reinforced the building’s 40-foot walls to create an imposing and well-fortified base. The king’s regional noblemen would have sat in the central arena’s front row, with lower-ranked subjects in the outer stone benches.
Arthur has been the subject of much historical debate, but many scholars believe him to have been a 5th or 6th Century leader. The legend links him to 12 major battles fought over 40 years–and one of his principal victories was said to have been at Chester.
Researchers say the recent discovery at the amphitheater of an execution stone and a wooden memorial to Christian martyrs suggests the missing city that was the seat of Arthur’s court is Chester.
“The first accounts of the Round Table show that it was nothing like a dining table but was a venue for upwards of 1,000 people at a time,” said Gidlow.
“In the 6th Century, a monk named Gildas, who wrote the earliest account of Arthur’s life, referred both to the City of the Legions and to a martyr’s shrine within it,” he explained. “That’s the clincher. The discovery of the shrine within the amphitheater means that Chester was the site of Arthur’s court–and his legendary Round Table.”
Jeremy A. Kaplan is science and technology editor at FoxNews.com. A ”frequent author and a technology nut,” Jeremy worked previously at Ziff Davis Media, where he was executive editor of PC Magazine, launched several magazines, and co-hosted the Fastest Geek competition. He founded the GoodCleanTech blog, which was nominated for a 2007 Weblog award, a MIN Best of the Web award, and a finalist for a Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award.