CULTURE: King Arthur's Round Table Site Discovered

A group of thrilled historians claim to have discovered the site of King Arthur's storied "Round Table" at an ancient Roman amphitheater in Chester, England. But the discovery is a further indication that the "Round Table" was not a mere piece of furniture, but a massive wooden and stone structure that could seat some 1,000 people. The historians believe that noblemen of Camelot sat in the front row of the circular meeting place, with lower ranked subjects on stone benches in an outer circle.

“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," Camelot historian Chris Gidlow tells the Daily Telegraph. The Chester amphitheater was only recently discovered, and includes an execution stone and wooden memorial to Christian martyrs, a spot described by the monk Gildas, who wrote the earliest account of King Arthur's life and linked the site to the Round Table. "That's the clincher," said Gidlow. "The discovery of the shrine within the amphitheater means that Chester was the site of Arthur’s court and his legendary Round Table.”