Hundreds attend second open day in Silchester

About 1,000 people visited Silchester's Roman town on Saturday (August 6) for an open day

THE SECOND open day in two months at Silchester's Roman town attracted a further 1,000 visitors on Saturday (August 6), to a site where recent ancient finds include a bolt from a Roman catapult.

The University of Reading's department of archaeology has overseen digs on the site since 1997 and spokeswoman for the department, Amanda Clarke, said the second open day this year had proved a similar success to the first, held on July 23, and which also attracted almost 1,000 people.

“We held site tours, and offered various childrens' activities, as well as stalls from Reading museum and a demonstration by a Roman blacksmith,” she said.

The 15th season of excavations in a block called Insula IX, a central part of the Roman town, Calleva Atrebatum, has involved a team of over 100 participants, overseen by the university's professor Michael Fulford,

Working on archaeology relating to the Iron Age occupation of the site, and the earliest Roman settlement, somewhere between 40 and 60AD, their work has involved uncovering the limits of a number of clay-floored wooden buildings, each with a central hearth, or fireplace.

“We are currently speculating that these small wooden buildings may have been military buildings, constructed by the army on arrival at Silchester sometime after 43AD. Several military type finds, including a balister bolt from a Roman catapult, support this idea,” said Ms Clarke.

The team is also in the process of uncovering Iron Age buildings - including a large rectangular building, possibly once the home of a local chieftain.

Excavation of rubbish pits and wells, she continued, suggested that the native Atrebates tribe at Silchester had extensive contacts with the continent prior to the arrival of the Romans:

“As well as rough-made local pottery vessels we have also found imported cups from Italy and platters from France. The evidence from wells suggest that the inhabitants of Iron Age Calleva also had quite an exotic diet which included coriander and dill.”

Work at the site, she added, had confirmed that from the 1st century BC onwards, Silchester had been receptive to ideas and influences from the continent, resulting in a hybrid mix of building styles.

A field school at the site runs until August 14, visitors welcome from 10am to 4.30pm every day, except Fridays.

For more information, including directions, click on the link below.