Silchester dig hints at a larger Iron Age town

From the Times Online:

Renewed excavations at the Roman city of Silchester, near Basingstoke, have shown that the grid-planned Iron Age town discovered last year was much larger than initially thought.

Silchester, known as Calleva Atrebatum in Roman times, seems to have been at its largest and most densely populated before its destruction by fire in the later 1st century AD, possibly in the rebellion of Boadicea.

“Not only is there evidence of closely packed timber buildings . . . within our excavation trench, but there is also a great number of wells, greater than in any subsequent period,” said Professor Michael Fulford, of the University of Reading. “Indeed the total number of wells which predate the destruction is greater than the total number thereafter for the rest of the life of the town within our excavation trench.

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