Fulford Michael, Corney Mark. Silchester: Excavations on the Defences 1974-1980

Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1984. — 307 p. — (Britannia Monograph Series 5).The first part of this report is concerned with the excavation of various elements of the defences ofRoman Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum); Part 11 describes the finds from the excavation, and the third part reports on a field survey of the extra-mural territory of the Roman city. The town wall _ is in the Guardianship of the Secretary of State and, during the course of clearance work and consolidation, certain archaeological excavation became necessary. This was carried out by the writer on behalf of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments. The first excavation was completed in 1974 and was concerned with a section of the earthen rampart behind the town wall near the South Gate. This was followed in 1975-6 by the re-excavation of the South and the South-east Gates. In 1978 trial excavations were initiated at the south-west angle of the town wall and across the defensive ditches near to the South-east Gate. This work was funded by the Department of the Environment with assistance from the Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, whose students performed most of the work each season. The most recent excavation reported on here was carried out in 1980 in advance of the construction of a swimming-pool in the farmyard of Manor Farm which lies inside the walls close to the parish church on the eastern side of the city. This rescue excavation was funded by the Hampshire County Council. The total budget for all the excavations was £5000. The Department of the Environment also funded two research assistants Qoanna Bacon and Mark Corney) for a total of nine months. The second aspect of this monograph (reported in both Parts I and Ill) concerns the extent of the Roman suburbs beyond the walls. During 1977 and 1978 the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments reviewed the scheduling arrangements for the town and its immediate environment. Since scarely any archaeological work had been done outside the walls it was imperative to attempt to define the extent of extra-mural settlement in order to arrive at a sensible scheduling policy. It was in this context that one of us (M. F.) was asked to investigate the course of the 'Outer Earthwork' which had generally been regarded as a former boundary of town in the later first and second centuries. At the same time it was essential to combine this with a systematic collection of surface material and with analysis of the aerial coverage. A survey of the extra-mural region had already been started (M. C.) and this was intensified in order to provide as much coverage as was practicable. The results of this field survey are presented in Part Ill.