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<< Our Photo Pages >> Calleva Atrebatum - Ancient Village or Settlement in England in Hampshire

Submitted by Coldrum on Wednesday, 06 September 2023  Page Views: 24388

Multi-periodSite Name: Calleva Atrebatum Alternative Name: Silchester Roman Walled Town
Country: England County: Hampshire Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Silchester
Map Ref: SU638623
Latitude: 51.356200N  Longitude: 1.085146W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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SolarMegalith visited on 6th Aug 2010 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 5

graemefield visited on 1st Aug 2010 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 5 Access: 4

custer visited - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Small amphi theatre on other side of road great place for a picnic. Walls still clearly visible.

Andy B davidmorgan myf have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2.33 Ambience: 4 Access: 4.33

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by SolarMegalith : Western part of the city walls of Calleva Atrebatum (photo taken on August 2010). (Vote or comment on this photo)
Roman walled town near Silchester in Hampshire. Annual digs take place here. It is now also believed to have been an iron age city of up to 10000 people, the oldest and largest in Britain, built on a regular grid pattern which were previously thought to have arrived with the Romans.

The evidence suggests Silchester never regained its wealth and power after the Roman invasion, and may have been burned to the ground and rebuilt in the Boudiccan rebellion of 60AD.

Roman Britain web site

Note: Historic Walking Tours at Silchester Roman City Walls, Saturday 9th Sept 2023
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Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by davidmorgan : Andy B, SolarMegalith and h_fenton. Hamish explaining the mysteries of kite aerial photography. (4 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by Andy B : Overhead view of the dig in Silchester - taken 13th August. This first image was taken from about 60 or 70 metres altitude, directly overhead. Then a second image was taken from a different position and stitched together to create a flat overhead picture. Image copyright Gunter Pibernik / www.asandp.co.uk (Vote or comment on this photo)

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by davidmorgan : The north gate. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by Andy B : Oblique overhead view of the dig in Silchester showing the cherry picker in action - taken 13th August 2012 Image copyright Gunter Pibernik / www.asandp.co.uk (4 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by davidmorgan : Hamish launching his kite-cam. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by custer : Old calleva walls next to church. Not what you expect to come across down this country lane.

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by SolarMegalith : Northern gate of Calleva Atrebatum, which was originally linked with Southern Gate with a road (photo taken on August 2010).

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by SolarMegalith : The amphitheatre located NE from the Roman town. Calleva Atrebatum was abandoned in 5th century AC and never re-occupied (photo taken on March 2011).

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by custer : Calleva Ampitheatre on opposite side of road, lovely nestled into trees

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by SolarMegalith : Roman walls surrounding the area of the town - the best preserved Roman city walls in Britain (photo taken on August 2010).

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by Andy B : The 2012 Silchester dig in full swing. Photo copyright Amanda Clarke

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by SolarMegalith : Northern gate of Calleva Atrebatum - view from the east (photo taken on March 2011).

Calleva Atrebatum
Calleva Atrebatum submitted by davidmorgan : The city walls at the south gate.

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"Calleva Atrebatum" | Login/Create an Account | 15 News and Comments
  
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Historic Walking Tours at Silchester Roman City Walls, Saturday 9th Sept 2023 by Andy B on Wednesday, 06 September 2023
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Historic Walking Tours at Silchester Roman City Walls & Amphitheatre

Stepping into the Roman footsteps, learn about how the archaeological investigations have brought history to life and how the city walls history has taught us about life as a Roman and more!

Silchester in Hampshire has its origins as Calleva, a centre of the Iron Age Atrebates tribe from the late 1st century BC. After the Roman conquest of AD 43 it became the large and important town of Calleva Atrebatum. Unlike most Roman towns, it was never reoccupied or built over after it was abandoned in the 6th or 7th century, so archaeological investigations have given an unusually complete picture of its development.
Saturday 9 September: 10:30am & 1:30pm

Pre-booking: Preferred at
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walking-tours-at-silchester-roman-city-wallsamphitheatre-multiple-times-tickets-690264548847?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Max 25 people per tour/session. 2 hours 30 minutes roughly Dogs on leads are welcome but please be aware that the paths around the site take you through land grazed by cattle. Sensible & Comfy footwear is advised and please not that if recent wet weather, there will also be puddles along the pathways. Contact for the day:

freetoenter.sites@english-heritage.org.uk
www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/silchester-roman-city-walls-and-amphitheatre/

There is a charged car park at Silchester Roman Town in Wall Lane, RG7 2HP, managed by Hampshire County Council. The walls are a few minutes' walk from the car park and the Amphitheatre a 10-minute walk. Meet the volunteer by the Heritage Open Day banner in the car park.
www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/historic-walking-tours-at-silchester-roman-city-walls-amphitheatre
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Re: Silchester-minted Caratacus Coin may fetch £30,000 by AngieLake on Saturday, 24 October 2020
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News here on finding very rare coin:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8874885/Iron-Age-coin-depicting-warlord-Caratacus-set-fetch-30-000-auction.html
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Silchester Iron Age finds reveal secrets of pre-Roman Britain by Andy B on Thursday, 02 August 2012
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A single olive stone unearthed at the ancient town of Silchester is among the extraordinary finds that are leading archaeologists to rewrite British history.

By the gap in a hedge bordering the entrance off a muddy lane in Hampshire, the young diggers on one of the most fascinating archaeological sites in Britain have made a herb garden: four small square plots. The sudden blast of sunshine after months of heavy rain has brought everything into bloom, and there's a heady scent of curry plant and dill, marigold and mint.

Many of the plant seeds are familiar from Roman sites across Britain, as the invaders brought the flavours and the medical remedies of the Mediterranean to their wind-blasted and sodden new territory, but there is something extraordinary about the seeds from the abandoned Iron Age and Roman town of Silchester.

The excavation run every summer by Dr Amanda Clarke and Professor Michael Fulford of the archaeology department at Reading University, using hundreds of volunteer students, amateurs and professionals, now in its 15th season, is rewriting British history.

The banal seeds are astonishing because many came from a level dating to a century before the Romans. More evidence is emerging every day, and it is clear that from around 50BC the Iron Age Atrebates tribe, whose name survived in the Latin Calleva Atrebatum, the wooded place of the Atrebates, enjoyed a lifestyle that would have been completely familiar to the Romans when they arrived in AD43.

More in the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/31/silchester-iron-age-roman-britain

with thanks to Coldrum for the link
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The enigma of Silchester’s Ogham stone by Andy B on Saturday, 14 July 2012
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If you had been standing on the edge of a particular trench in Silchester on one day in 1893 and gazing down into the partially excavated shallow well associated with Insula IX (a house oddly angled at 45o to the Roman city road grid), you would have been lucky enough to see a very odd stone emerging some five or six feet down.

Further excavations would eventually reveal the stone, which was thrown in, upside down, possibly to “kill” or ritually close the well. The stone has two strange sets of markings running vertically up one side, both with a line through the middle. Secondly, under the stone and crushed by it, was a pewter flagon. No other objects of interest were brought up at the time.

And here begins the enigma. The stone’s inscription was in Ogham, an Irish script that spread to Wales, Cornwall and west coast Scotland. Silchester’s Ogham stone was then, and remains today, not only the most easterly Ogham inscription ever found in Britain – but the only one found in England at all! More surprisingly it is one of the very earliest of all Ogham inscriptions, probably dating from the early 400s AD.

More, with a photo of the stone at
http://www.archaeologyinmarlow.org.uk/2011/02/the-enigma-of-silchester%E2%80%99s-ogham-stone/
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Silchester Roman Town Archaeological Dig 2012 Open Days: 21st July and 4th August by Andy B on Saturday, 14 July 2012
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Visitors are welcome to visit the excavation site most days until the 12th of August in 2012. We are open every day except Friday, between 9:30 am and 5 pm.

Visitors may view the excavation from two raised walkways (with ramp access), and both display panels and student tours help visitors understand the archaeology and the history it reveals. Activity sheets are available for children, as well as the popular 'dig pit' and finds handling.

Group visits are welcomed, preferably by arrangement.

Open Days

Date : Sat 21st July and Sat 4th August 2012

Time : 10:00 to 15:00

Location : Silchester Roman Town

Contact : For more information including general dig opening times, please visit:
http://www.reading.ac.uk/silchester

Join staff and students of the University of Reading's Department of Archaeology as they undertake the next stage of the ongoing excavation of Silchester Roman town, Hampshire.

Now in its sixteenth year, the dig has uncovered some amazing finds that have helped archaeologists to unlock the history of what is thought to be the oldest town in England.

The days are open to all, with no booking required, and offer a range of activities including expert tours, talks, and demonstrations, and specially for children; a mini dig, dressing up and opportunities to handle some of the exciting objects that have been unearthed. Refreshments are on sale.

Admissions and activities are free.

Part of the Festival of British Archaeology 2012
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Into the Iron Age: 15 Years of the Silchester Roman Town Excavation project by Andy B on Saturday, 14 July 2012
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Amanda Clarke, Field Director at Silchester and Research Fellow at Reading University, gave a talk Archaeology in Marlow in Jan 2012, providing an excellent overview of this major excavation project.

Amanda explained the importance of the ‘Insula IX Town Life’ project, an excavation of a small part of the large Roman town at Silchester, which is situated between Reading and Basingstoke. The Society of Antiquaries had first excavated the site between 1890 and 1909 using local labour. The current project is using the latest techniques to trace the site’s development from its origins before the Roman Conquest to its abandonment in the fifth or sixth century A.D.

Under the Roman town of Silchester there also lies an Iron Age settlement which was known as Calleva, the centre of the Atrebates tribe. There are thought to be links with the ‘Age of Kngs’ in the late 1st century BC and early 1st century AD and three of these kings, Tincomarus, Eppillus and Verica, may have had Calleva as their base. In 1893, the Victorian excavators had found a stone with an Ogham inscription (See the AiM Feb 2011 Newsletter). Calleva already had strong trade links with the Continent and political allegiances to Rome before the Conquest. While Roman Silchester is laid out with the typical N-S, W-E alignment, underlying this is the more diagonal Iron Age alignment which is based on the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset.

It appears that Calleva was a well-organised Iron Age town. The earliest feature is a late 1st century BC Iron Age ditch. Finds in the ditch could be military and might point to Caesar’s invasion. There is also a large rectangular Iron Age building, not the traditional round house, which has a dog buried in one corner.

Read more at
http://www.archaeologyinmarlow.org.uk/2012/05/into-the-iron-age-15-years-of-the-silchester-roman-town-excavation-project/

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2012 Silchester Dig Diary by Andy B on Saturday, 14 July 2012
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Amanda Clarke writes: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Week 2 have come and gone in a swirl of sunshine and showers. Today, Wednesday, we had hail. I was giving a site tour to a walking group and we had to take shelter for 10 minutes as spit-sized hail stones fell all around.

But the best news is…..despite the wet, we are managing to excavate. The site is actually very workable, and the damp conditions mean that the archaeology is exceptionally visible.

On the Iron Age western half, the teams have been working hard to reveal features below the garden soil and cut into natural. It is hard work – but rewarding. For me, the best part of the last 3 days has been the fact that we have managed to get our entire team of 100+ onto the excavation, come rain or shine – mostly rain and not a lot of shine. That is progress indeed.

Lots more at
http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/silchesterdig/
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Re: 'Britain's first pre-Roman planned town' found near Reading by Andy B on Friday, 23 September 2011
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This year's dig shown in BBC Digging for Britain 2011, with Alice Roberts
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01539xm
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'Britain's first pre-Roman planned town' found near Reading by Andy B on Monday, 22 August 2011
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Archaeologists believe they have found the first pre-Roman planned town discovered in Britain.

It has been unearthed beneath the Roman town of Silchester or Calleva Atrebatum near modern Reading.

The Romans are often credited with bringing civilisation to Britain - including town planning.

But excavations have shown evidence of an Iron Age town built on a grid and signs inhabitants had access to imported wine and olive oil.

Prof Mike Fulford, an archaeologist at the University of Reading, said the people of Iron Age Silchester appear to have adopted an urbanised 'Roman' way of living, long before the Romans arrived.

"It is very remarkable to find this evidence of a planned Iron Age layout before the arrival of the Romans and the development of a planned, Roman town," he said.

"Indeed, it would be hard to see a significant difference between the lifestyles of the inhabitants of the Iron Age town and of its Roman successor in the 1st Century AD."

He said they seem to have been drinking wine and using olive oil and a fermented fish sauce called garum in their cooking, all imported from abroad.

Silchester is famous for the most complete Roman town walls in Britain.

After the Roman invasion, the town was used by its military, and there is evidence that Roman buildings were very swiftly built on top of Iron Age structures.

Prof Fulford believes that shortly before this, the town may have been taken over by the British Iron Age chieftain Caratacus - a leader of the Catuvellauni tribe - as his stronghold.

The evidence comes from coins minted by Caratacus in the area.

"Both their tight distribution in central southern England and their style point to Calleva as being the source of Caratacus' coins," he said.

Caratacus was a hero of the British resistance to Roman rule. He famously took on the invading Roman army at the Battle of Medway and after his capture was taken to Rome where he appeared so fearless that the Emperor Claudius was moved to spare his life.

As for the fate of the Roman town, a scorched layer within the archaeology suggests that it was actually burnt to the ground, and seems to have been abandoned for about 20 years.

It is possible that this destruction was carried out by the Queen of the Iceni tribe, Boudicca, or at least at the time of her anti-Roman rebellion in 60 - 61 AD.

It is known from the Annals of Tacitus that Boudicca and her army laid waste to the Roman towns of Colchester (Camulodunum), London (Londinium) and St Albans (Verulamium), but could Silchester have been a fourth, previously unknown Roman settlement to fall victim to Boudicca's rebellion?

If these theories are correct, then within a single generation Silchester went through a period of turbulent evolution from a prosperous and sophisticated Iron Age town, to being under direct Roman army control to being burned to the ground and deserted.

Prof Mike Fulford will be talking to Dr Alice Roberts in the latest series of Digging For Britain on BBC Two in September.

Article with photo: BBC News Science & Environment
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14555449

By Louise Ord Assistant Producer, Digging for Britain

with thanks to mikeaitch
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Relic of Harpocrates, the god of secrecy and silence, found at Silchester by davidmorgan on Saturday, 31 July 2010
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From motist:

A battered and corroded thumb-sized piece of bronze has turned out to be a unique find, the earliest representation of an Egyptian deity from any site in Britain – and appropriately, after almost 2,000 years hidden in the ground, it is Harpocrates, the god of secrecy and silence.

The little figure was found at Silchester, site of an abandoned Roman city in Hampshire, in last summer's excavation, but his identity was only revealed in months of careful conservation work. His Greek and Roman designation as Harpocrates, the god of spymasters, is actually a transcription error.

"In Egyptian mythology the figure is known as Horus, the child of Isis and Osiris," said Professor Mike Fulford of the University of Reading, director of the Silchester excavation. "He is often shown with his finger in his mouth, a gesture that in Egypt represented the hieroglyph for his name, but was misinterpreted by the Greeks and Romans, resulting in his adoption as the god of silence and secrecy."

more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jul/16/egyptian-god-relic-identified-silchester
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Street View by coldrum on Saturday, 27 March 2010
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Silchester Audio Tour by Andy B on Saturday, 13 February 2010
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You can download a short audio tour for Silchester City Walls. It is designed to be played on an iPod, mobile phone or mp3 player so that you can listen to the guide as you walk around the site.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/silchester-roman-city-walls-and-amphitheatre/audio/
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Iron age town found at Roman site by coldrum on Thursday, 16 July 2009
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Archaeologists from Berkshire say they have discovered evidence of an Iron Age town underneath the remains of a Roman settlement in north Hampshire.

The University of Reading's Archaeology Department has been excavating at the Silchester Roman site, Calleva Atrebatum, since 1997.

Now the team believe they have found evidence of one of Britain's earliest Iron Age towns with a planned layout.

A street-grid was found to have been in place before the Romans came in AD 43.

Archaeologists have also discovered evidence of widespread burning at the site.

Town burnt down

They believe this, along with other finds, suggests the site could have been destroyed at the hands of queen Boudicca, who in AD 60/61 led a major uprising against the occupying Roman forces.

Professor Michael Fulford, director of the Silchester Town Life Project, said: "After 12 summers of excavation we have reached down to the 1st Century AD and are beginning to see the first signs of what we believe to be the Iron Age and earliest Roman town.

"The discovery of the underlying Iron Age settlement is extremely exciting.

"While there are traces of settlement beneath Roman Verulamium (today's St Albans) and Canterbury and close to the site of Roman Colchester, none of these resembles the evidence that we have here at Calleva of a planned town."

The completely new street grid implemented later by the Romans could have been a "thumbs down on the British arrangement", he said.

Prof Fulford added: "We now have evidence that the town was burnt down sometime after AD 50 and before AD 80.

"The possibility that this was at the hands of Boudicca when leading the largest British uprising during the Roman occupation is hugely significant. It was not thought the revolt passed this way."

Visitors can watch the excavation in progress at the site every day except Fridays, until 9 August.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8151385.stm
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Silchester on youtube by graemefield on Friday, 03 July 2009
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Students dig Iron Age by coldrum on Wednesday, 01 July 2009
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TROWELS are at the ready for an annual dig that will uncover new information about an Iron Age settlement.

The annual Silchester dig on the site of Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, near Silchester, begins on Monday for six weeks, until August 9.

The dig is organised by the Field School at Reading University’s Department of Archaeology as a research and training excavation which this year will involve about 70 first year archaeology students and 200 other people learning the ropes of excavation.

The site is of a first century BC Roman town which sits on top of an Iron Age town from the first century AD.

Amanda Clarke, director of the Field School, said: “It’s exciting. We are finishing work on the Roman level and we have peeled our way back and are just beginning to see some of the Iron Age town’s streets and buildings – it’s one of the few excavations that allows us a good look at an Iron Age town.”

She added that the most exciting find last year was an Iron Age well at the bottom of which were four pots placed as ritual offerings.

Ms Clarke said: “This year, we are hoping to find out if Iron Age buildings had round houses, were they made of wood, what did they look like and what their town layout was. Were they planned, were there street grids?”

She added: “We get an enormous amount of information and it’s one of the biggest digs in the country at the moment.”

Coinciding with this year’s dig is the Festival of British Archaeology – to promote sites of archaeological and historical interest through events and activities – which runs between July 18 and August 2.

At Silchester this will include tours, displays of artefacts and scientific techniques and activities for younger visitors.

There are also two Saturday open days during the dig, on July 18 and August 1, on which attractions include tours, talks, displays, demonstrations, a gladiatorial display in the amphitheatre, and a series of lunchtime talks held at 1pm in St Mary’s Church, Church Lane, Silchester, on certain days.

http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/gazettenews/4462689.Students_dig_Iron_Age/
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