09-29-2021, 07:37 AM
Deryk, I looked up the details of Godmanchester because you said the fort had been destroyed which made me assume that some new evidence had been recently found. It hasn't. Plus, the comment immediately made me question Tacitus' "the barbarians ... passed by the fortresses with military garrisons" - was this incorrect, what else might be wrong with his account? However, Godmanchester fort was not destroyed in the rebellion and so the veracity of Tacitus' account remains as it was.
Silchester - Prof. Fulford et. al. have been busy at Silchester in recent years, including this year, re-excavating the Victorian excavations on Insula 3, the temples and the Roman baths. Reports on the work at https://research.reading.ac.uk/silchester/interim/; the Facebook site (available from the preceding URL) has a number of films, including the 2021 season.
The question of whether Silchester was attacked by the rebels is still open - unresolved. Undoubtedly something odd was happening during the period.
1) Insula 9: burning and wells infilled with high-status building material;
2) Neronian baths: the first civic baths, c. AD 55-65, their early demolition, possibly unfinished. Replacement baths, about 20/25 years later, on a larger footprint;
3) Three temples are aligned approximately north-south, those to north and south flanking the considerably larger, central temple, still the largest of its kind in Roman Britain. The evidence of the pottery and stamped tile gives a Neronian terminus post quem for the start of construction, perhaps with completion in the early 70s. The temple occupied the site of a possible predecessor of Claudio-Neronian date;
4) Insula 3: Common to most sections was a lens of burnt material about 0.05m thick, approximate date around the mid-to-late 1st century AD. This recalls the evidence of burning found across the excavated area in Insula 9 and associated with the end of the Claudio-Neronian (AD 43-70) occupation and of the burning down of the contemporary courtyard-building on the site of the forum basilica.
I've created the above list from the interim reports at the URL above.
We have to hope that the excavations will continue in some form and that an answer to the oddities of the mid-to-late 1st C. will be found.
Regards, Steve Kaye.
Silchester - Prof. Fulford et. al. have been busy at Silchester in recent years, including this year, re-excavating the Victorian excavations on Insula 3, the temples and the Roman baths. Reports on the work at https://research.reading.ac.uk/silchester/interim/; the Facebook site (available from the preceding URL) has a number of films, including the 2021 season.
The question of whether Silchester was attacked by the rebels is still open - unresolved. Undoubtedly something odd was happening during the period.
1) Insula 9: burning and wells infilled with high-status building material;
2) Neronian baths: the first civic baths, c. AD 55-65, their early demolition, possibly unfinished. Replacement baths, about 20/25 years later, on a larger footprint;
3) Three temples are aligned approximately north-south, those to north and south flanking the considerably larger, central temple, still the largest of its kind in Roman Britain. The evidence of the pottery and stamped tile gives a Neronian terminus post quem for the start of construction, perhaps with completion in the early 70s. The temple occupied the site of a possible predecessor of Claudio-Neronian date;
4) Insula 3: Common to most sections was a lens of burnt material about 0.05m thick, approximate date around the mid-to-late 1st century AD. This recalls the evidence of burning found across the excavated area in Insula 9 and associated with the end of the Claudio-Neronian (AD 43-70) occupation and of the burning down of the contemporary courtyard-building on the site of the forum basilica.
I've created the above list from the interim reports at the URL above.
We have to hope that the excavations will continue in some form and that an answer to the oddities of the mid-to-late 1st C. will be found.
Regards, Steve Kaye.
