Silchester: excavating an Iron Age and Roman town
by Professor Michael Fulford, (University of Reading)
(Roman Society lecture)
Wednesday February 6
Professor Michael Fulford gave a stimulating talk on the history of the excavations of
the Roman Town, Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester). Bringing to our minds how such a
once thriving town can effectively remain as a ghost in the landscape – insulae
visible through crop marks surrounded by a formerly imposing city wall. With the
Victorian excavations finding the enigmatic eagle from the basilica, to Professor
Fulford’s 17 years of excavating it is clear this was a town that had changed radically
through time. With origins in the early Iron Age, possibly founded by Commius in
50BC, and evidence of a complex trade route from the Mediterranean from c. 20BC
of Spanish oil and wine, and tableware from Italy. This leads to the fascinating
possibility of Calleva’s role as the centre of a client kingdom and it becoming a
flourishing Roman town, which is virtually abandoned by the mid 5th Century AD.
The lecture provided more than just archaeological data from years of excavations
by offering a tangible insight into Roman past: the evidence of the continental
import of ‘fashionable’ dogs, to the ever-changing diet of a prosperous trading
community. It provoked questions on the evidence of the military presence and
practical queries of how a site so far from a river gets their water.
Maybe now that uncertainties of Richard III’s final ‘parking’ space seemed to have
been settled maybe the next thought-provoking question should be whether the
‘hall’ in Insula XI was the hub for the Vespasian invasion with Verica leading the
talks?
SJ