Silchester and the Study of Romano-British Urbanism

📖 The Scoop

The Iron Age and Roman town at Silchester (Hampshire, UK) has been the subject of intensive new, field-led research since the 1970s, which is shedding important fresh light on the development and character of the town, with a major excavation and publication programme continuing with the Town Life Project centred on Insula IX. The illustrated papers collected in this volume contribute to a social and economic history of the town, essential steps towards a characterisation of urbanism in Roman Britain. Following an introduction by the editor, the majority of the 14 contributions re-assess and contextualise aspects of, first, the material culture of the town, viz: iron smelting at Silchester between the late Iron Age and the 5th century AD (J. R. L. Allen); a characterisation of the small finds assemblage from Insula IX (N. Crummy); a reassessment of the Silchester pump (Stein); an overview of pottery supply to Silchester and its hinterland (Timby); building and the Silchester tile industry (Warry). Second, a group of papers reassesses aspects of the biological remains of the town in a wider context, viz: a review of the Romano-British dog (K. Clark); animals in the economy and culture of the town in the wider context of Roman Britain (Ingrem); the place of Silchester in archaeobotany (Robinson); and fuel consumption in the late Roman town in its landscape context (Veal). Further contributions consider the origins of Calleva in the late Iron Age (Cunliffe); how interpretations of the town have changed since the later 16th century (Hingley); the building of the later Roman town wall (J. R. L. Allen); the evidence for foreigners and locals in the town (Eckardt); and a multi-stranded, sociological overview of change over time in a residential insula (Fulford).

Genre: History / Ancient / Rome (fancy, right?)