Silchester Roman remains revealing more secrets

Silchester Roman remains are again revealing some their secrets this summer as the University of Reading Archeology department continues its 18 years of digging this iconic Roman town which is also known in latin as 'Calleva Atrebatum'.

UOR diggers at this summers Silchester excavation
 in Insula III [Credit: Chris Forsey]

The centre of this years dig is in an area just west of the centre of the walled city called Insula III.

Speaking to the Chronicle dig leader Professor Mike Fulford said:”Our first aim is to try to understand what the Victorian excavations found and we are well on the way to that in Insula III”.

“There are traces of 4th century buildings and their foundations plus a large hearth with evidence of burning which we will analyse later.We also have a good range of finds and following up on the 2013/14 dig it seems that a town house nearby may have extended further than we thought.”

Additional finds include a decorated piece of Samian Ware which depicts a lion and a roof tile which has an imprint of a dog's paw.

A Lion is depicted on this piece of decorated Samian Ware pottery 
found at this summers Silchester dig [Credit: Chris Forsey]

But for the first time an area 1km north-west of the dig is being explored where an Iron Age hill fort adjacent to Pond farm is being excavated,this pre-dates the Roman town by many hundreds of years.

Over five dig seasons since 2008 many Iron Age buildings have been found in Silchester including one over 50 metres in length-which is the largest ever to be discovered in the UK.

The Romans occupied Silchester in around AD45 having taken over from the local Atrebate tribe and the site is one of the best preserved examples of an ancient walled city in Great Britain.

Source: Newbury & Thatcham Chronicle [September 11, 2015]