The 2001 Season
Silchester 2001 Round Up |
|
The close of our fifth season saw the end of a total of 30 weeks of excavation on
insula IX. With our efforts up to the start of this year focussed on the late Roman
occupation of the insula, it was exciting for the first time to have begun to gain
significant insights into its early Roman history.
There are two main strands to the story:
Along the street frontages evidence is beginning to emerge of 2nd century occupation
and structures, notably beneath late Roman Buildings 1 and 5, but also in the north-east
corner at the street intersection.
In the case of House 1, the building which dominates our excavation area and which
shares a completely different orientation to that of the street grid, excavation has
begun to confirm its complicated history and early origins. This season we learned
much more about its development and its chronology.
|
Discussion
While at this stage of the project are conclusions must necessarily be tentative,
we can be clear about the rapid development of 'House 1' from its origins in the
mid 1st century or earlier, its first transformation into two fine, stone-built
town houses in the later first century, then its demolition and further transformation
into an aisled 'work hall' in the early second century. This is an extraordinary
precocious development of town housing in Britain which at the same time, through their
orientation, recalls that of the streets beneath the basilica, and is rooted in the Iron
Age origins of the town. That layout is confirmed in stone at a time when one might have
expected the influence of the Roman north-south/east-west street grid to have been
reflected in a common building orientation. The shaping of the insula may account
for the rapid demise of the town houses and their replacement with the aisled 'work hall'.
Two of its flanking streets are principal thoroughfares of the town and the results
from this season point to the presence of buildings and occupation along the north-south
street pressing close to the position of House 1 in the second century. As the
nature of the occupation of the insula became more commercial in character it was decided
to remove the town houses and, perhaps, rebuild them in a more congenial location within
the town. The removal of walls and their partial robbing point to the value of the
flint which had to be brought into the town from the chalk to the south. The hypothesis
that the second transformation of 'House 1' into an aisled 'work hall' coincides with
the establishment of the insula and the streets remains to be tested against obtaining
good objective evidence for the date of the streets. This will be one of our objectives
for 2002.
With the confirmation of an early date for 'House 1' we can probably assume a similar
age for other stone buildings within the town sharing the same orientation, some of
which lie close to 'House 1' in insula IX. Such buildings are not just confined within
the area of the late Iron Age 'Inner Earthwork', but can be found throughout the walled
area. This points to a remarkable and precocious city development quite without parallel
in Britain. As the city of the Atrebates until the expulsion of Verica it is likely
that Calleva resumed that role with the Roman conquest and the installation of Cogidubnus
as client king. For the first time through our work in insula IX we are beginning to
get an insight into the nature of the client king's city and the persistence of traditions
as reflected in the orientation of 'House 1' in its stone phase in the late 1st and early
2nd century. Just as understanding the history of the development of the streets will
help establish a framework for the development of the insula, so the exploration of the
context of 'House 1' will help us to paint in the nature of the life of this precocious
city in the 1st century.
Michael Fulford
September 2001
|
|