. . . has not been found, despite recent news to the contrary.
This article states with the very generalized ‘historians believe’ that King Arthur’s round table is actually the ampitheatre in the City of Chester. When the Romans abandoned Britain, they left their forts and roads behind. Many archaeologists believe that in the ensuing chaos, the Britons no longer used the ampitheatres for their original purpose, if they used them at all. As I said in this post of the Romans, “within a generation or two, little trace of them, except for their roads and ruined forts–and their religion, Christianity–remained. Everything had fallen into disrepair. The ‘Saxons’ descended from the east, the Scots from the North, and the Irish from the West, driving the original Britons west, into what is now Wales.”
The Chester ampitheatre was discovered in the 1960’s and is an ongoing project and subject to fifty years of speculation and research. Archaeologists have found evidence of some Dark Age use, as well as a recylcling of it for homes and protection by around 1200 AD:
It might have been King Arthur’s round table, if he had one, but that is not something that they’ve discovered just yet, despite the claims of the ‘Camelot historian’, Chris Gidlow who states: “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.”
As I pointed out here, one of the huge issues, central to the question of whether or not King Arthur existed, was that GILDAS NEVER MENTIONS HIM AT ALL!
The first mention of King Arthur’s round table was in the Roman de Brut by Wace (c. 1155), writing from Normandy and working off Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, which itself is a highly suspect historical document. (see http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/?p=341)
King Arthur might have existed and had a round table. It might even mean the ampitheatre of the City of Chester, but the present evidence has certainly not clinched it.