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| Britain |
| Historian May Have Located King Arthur's Camelot And Round Table |
| 2010-07-12 |
| Researchers exploring the legend of Britain's most famous Knight believe his stronghold of Camelot was built on the site of a recently discovered Roman amphitheatre in Chester. Legend has it that his Knights would gather before battle at a round table where they would receive instructions from their King. But rather than it being a piece of furniture, historians believe it would have been a vast wood and stone structure which would have allowed more than 1,000 of his followers to gather. So we can ditch "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" in favor of "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Stone Thingy." Historians believe regional noblemen would have sat in the front row of a circular meeting place, with lower ranked subjects on stone benches grouped around the outside. They claim rather than Camelot being a purpose built castle, it would have been housed in a structure already built and left over by the Romans. Camelot historian Chris Gidlow said: "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. We know that one of Arthur's two main battles was fought at a town referred to as the City of Legions. There were only two places with this title. One was St Albans but the location of the other has remained a mystery." The recent discovery of an amphitheatre with an execution stone and wooden memorial to Christian martyrs, has led researchers to conclude that the other location is Chester. Mr Gidlow said: "In the 6th Century, a monk named Gildas, who wrote the earliest account of Arthur's life, referred to both the City of Legions and to a martyr's shrine within it. That is the clincher. The discovery of the shrine within the amphitheatre means that Chester was the site of Arthur's court and his legendary Round Table." |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #6 Chester is the only medieval walled city with the walls still largely intact left in Britain. Parts of the wall date from the Roman era. Chester city walls |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-07-12 21:07 |
| #5 I think the actual site can be proven to be the studio used by Monty Python (...and the Knights who say "Nic") |
| Posted by: Warthog 2010-07-12 19:13 |
| #4 Last I heard there was no solid proof of anything regarding Arthur and most of this type of stuff is guess work. My own guess is these researchers have a book coming out soon. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2010-07-12 17:41 |
| #3 Shhhhhh! |
| Posted by: mojo 2010-07-12 15:16 |
| #2 It's only a model. |
| Posted by: Mike 2010-07-12 15:15 |
| #1 Fascinating ... in the context of Arthur having been a Romano-British war leader, in the 6th century, just when everything was going pear-shaped. Gildas mentioned Arthur as "Arthur the Soldier" - as a war-leader. Some historians speculate that he commanded a mobile cavalry unit - as his battles were fought all over the place. Chester was a very old city, and IIRC, it was the headquarters of one of the Roman legions stationed in Britain. A rather obscure historian named Beram Saklatvala speculated that the knights named as Arthur's chief knights were actually a sort of shadow Roman government - the governors of the provinces, commanders of the legionary fortresses and the forts guarding the channel ports. Fascinating stuff, working out the hard little historical core to the elaborate medieval legend. |
| Posted by: Sgt.Mom 2010-07-12 14:49 |