Town planning, wine and olive imports, and structured urban life in the Iron Age.
Archeologists have made an amazing discovery. They've found an intelligently built Iron Age town secretly buried beneath Hampshire in England at a place called Silchester. According to the BBC, Professor Mike Fulford of the University of Reading said, “it's very remarkable to find evidence of a planned Iron Age layout before the arrival of the Romans and the development of a Roman town.” The Romans arrived on English shores in 43 AD. Before they landed, Celts of the Iron Age had prospered on these lands. Fulford continued, “indeed it would be hard to see a significant difference between the lifestyles of the inhabitants of the Iron Age town and of its Roman successor in the 1st Century AD.”
The experts believe that the ancient town was a stronghold of Caratacus, who led British resistance to Roman rule. He was eventually captured and taken to Rome. The British rebellion continued under the leadership of the Queen of the Iceni, Boudicca – known to have sacked Colchester, Londinium (London) and St. Albans, but now thought to have also destroyed the Romanised town of Silchester. The BBC report concludes, “if these theories are correct, then within a single generation Silchester went through a period of turbulent evolution from a prosperous and sophisticated Iron Age town to being under direct Roman army control to being burned to the ground and deserted.” Silchester was abandoned for twenty years before being re-inhabited.
The experts believe that the ancient town was a stronghold of Caratacus, who led British resistance to Roman rule. He was eventually captured and taken to Rome. The British rebellion continued under the leadership of the Queen of the Iceni, Boudicca – known to have sacked Colchester, Londinium (London) and St. Albans, but now thought to have also destroyed the Romanised town of Silchester. The BBC report concludes, “if these theories are correct, then within a single generation Silchester went through a period of turbulent evolution from a prosperous and sophisticated Iron Age town to being under direct Roman army control to being burned to the ground and deserted.” Silchester was abandoned for twenty years before being re-inhabited.
Silchester today is a village of just less than a thousand people. A pretty, highly regarded rural retreat, by all acounts, winning 'Hamphire Village of the Year' in 2008 and 'South of England Village of the Year' in 2009.
It now has a far more illustrious past than it could ever have imagined. For, these finds put a lie to the notion that the Romans brought civilisation, prosperity and peaceful tranquility to the warring, ignorant Celtic savages of Ancient Iron Age Britain.
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