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Roman town of Venta Icenorum site bought for public ownership


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The name of Venta Icenorum, on the river Tas on the outskirts of the modern village of Caistor St Edmund, preserves the memory of one of the few local tribes the Romans had good reason to fear: the Iceni who, led in rebellion by their famous queen, Boudicca, torched the invaders' towns at Colchester and London in AD61. Archaeologists believe the remains of the town are in serious danger from unauthorised metal detecting and intensive agriculture...

 

...read the full article at the Guardian

 

 

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I was reading about Venta Icenorum not long ago. After Boudica's rebellion they had real trouble populating the town, which makes sense after Suetonius Paulinus's vengeful attacks on the Britons following the battle of Watling Street. The town became much more succesful later on, and the walls are very well preserved.

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the walls are very well preserved.

 

Are you perhaps thinking of the other Venta - Venta Silurum? I've been to both, and while I'm prepared to take an archaeologist's word for what the walls of Venta Icenorum used to be, I've also walked the ramparts of the wall at Venta Silurum, and these are remarkable.

 

Here's a link

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/The_Southern_wall_of_the_Roman_city_of_Venta_Silurum_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1162370.jpg

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Hopefully the site will be properly excavated in the near future.

 

I'm sure that if you approached Norfolk Archaeological Trust ofering your time and assistance for the next 40 or 50 years free of charge they would probably bite your hand off as it does take a considerable amount of time and effort to properly excavate even a small part of a 120 acre site which is what they are now the custodians of.

 

They have done two seasons of excavations there recently along with the University of Notingham part of which appeared in a Time Team special back in May but probably haven't scratched the surface of what could be excavated if they had the time, money and other resources necessary. :(

 

A bit more about the site and the purchase is on the Past Horizons site here.

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