Contents Why Insula IX? Victorian Excavation Methodology Late and Post-Roman Archaeology Early Roman Archaeology Late Iron Age Archaeology Objectives for 2003

Insula IX

Why Insula IX?
The choice of Insula IX was determined by a number of factors. Recent aerial photography and geophysical survey work had shown that more buildings existed here than had been originally identified by the Victorian excavators in 1893. There were also apparently ‘blank’ areas devoid of buildings, where neither the excavation of 1893 nor subsequent aerial prospection had revealed structural remains. Excavating nearly one-third of Insula IX, in the heart of the Roman town, could offer the opportunity to see if these 'blank' areas contained timber buildings, as well as providing vital new information about earlier buildings, or phases of buildings, and the Iron Age origins of the town. In addition to one town house which, unusually, lies diagonally across the Insula, this part of the Roman town was also thought to contain shops and workshop properties fronting on to the main north-south street. The possibility also existed that excavation could provide new information about why Silchester, unlike comparable Roman cities such as London, Winchester and Chichester, never re-emerged as a town in the later Anglo-Saxon period. 

Interim Reports are available on each season of the excavation so far - 1997 excavation, the 1998 excavation and the 1999 excavation . A brief summary of the findings is given below.
 

Victorian excavation methodology: The full extent of the Victorian excavation has now been established.  Both the trial trenching of 1893 and the subsequent area excavations of buildings have been fully explored.  The three wells identified by the Victorians have been re-excavated. A  photograph of the Victorian trenches is shown below.

The Victorian Excavations

Late and post-Roman archaeology:

Following the abandonment and robbing in the mid-to-late third century of the large, aisled town house which lies at some 45 degrees to the Roman street grid, the insula was divided into a number of rectangular plots occupied by buildings fronting onto the streets.  The plots behind the buildings are defined by rows of post-holes or pits.  At least five buildings occupied the frontage of the north-south street with occupation continuing down to the end of the fourth or into the early fifth century. These buildings ranged from substantial stone-built two-storeyed constructions located towards the southern end of the street, to timber framed buildings of post-built construction at the northern junction with the east-west street. 
A large hearth with abundant traces of iron-forging residues is associated with the property on the street corner. Traces of a possible cupellation hearth were found cutting the floor make-up at the north-east end of the destroyed diagonal house, suggesting that precious metalworking was also being carried out in this part of the town.

Behind the buildings the plots contained wells and rubbish pits which have produced evidence not only for late Roman diet, but also for various commercial activities such as the slaughtering of animals for meat products. Deliberate burial of whole pots and entire animal skeletons, in particular dogs, in many of these pits and wells may be evidence for Late Roman ritual activity. Amongst these late Roman features lies the shallow well from which was recovered in 1893 the stone with the inscription in ogham, a form of Celtic writing. Recovery of wood from the very bottom of this well has produced two radiocarbon dates, the later of which is 1630+/- 45BP, which gives a calibrated date of AD 360-530 at 68% confidence, or 320-540 at 97% confidence. 
 
 

Pit alignments

Early Roman The diagonal town house now has a mid-to-late third century terminus ante quem for its abandonment and robbing.  Limited excavation of this building reveals a complex history which goes back at least to the turn of the first and second century AD. The orientation of the building invites a connection with two further buildings beyond the area currently under excavation suggesting a very large town house occupying perhaps two thirds of the block. These buildings share the orientation of the late Iron Age streets discovered beneath the basilica in 1980-6 and this invites the possibility of their having originated before the Roman conquest.

Photograph of the diagonal town house from the south-west

Late Iron Age
One of the wells excavated in 1893 close to the east-west street at the north end of the excavation appears on re-excavation to have originated in the late Iron Age.

Objectives for 2003
It is intended that we will further clarify the 2nd century AD occupation of the site, as well as taking the opportunity of beginning to understand the layout of the 1st century early Roman town. There will be a continued emphasis on the early Roman (mid 1st century AD - early 3rd century AD) occupation of the site and the recording and removal of the extensive layer of silt in the south-east quarter of the excavation will reveal the remains of at least two 1st/2nd century AD structures on a similar alignment to House 1. Gradually the layout of the early Roman town of Silchester is emerging. There will be the excavation of two further 2nd century AD wells on the eastern half of the excavation and the recording and examination of the two 1st century AD stone buildings on the site of House 1. In 2003, we will begin to clarify and reveal the 2nd century AD occupation along the east-west street frontage and continue to excavate the street surfaces.

To find out about the 2002 season in Insula IX of Silchester, please go to our Silchester 2002 page which was updated weekly during the excavation season. 

Contents