Colchester, Fortress of the War God

Abstract

It is a beautiful, populous, and pleasant place, extended on the brow of an hill from west to east, and surrounded with walls, and adorned with fifteen churches… In the middle of the city, stands a castle ready to drop with age… William Camden 1586 (Britannia, 4th edn, 1772, p 356) May I venture, sir, to take this opportunity of calling the attention of the town Council of Colchester to the general state of the more important ancient remains which render your town so attractive to the antiquary and to the historian? some of them, for instance, the town Walls and the Castle, might be increased in interest by excavations judiciously conducted. A small grant of money, placed under the control of one or two of the many active and intelligent antiquarians of the locality, would but be productive of discoveries, which, while they would especially gratify the archaeologist, would doubtless be advantageous to the town at large, and increase its prosperity. Charles roach smith (Gentleman's Magazine, January 1854, pp 70-1) Contents List of illustrations (figures and tables) xii Foreword xv Acknowledgements xvii Abbreviations xviii Summary xix Résumé xx Zusammenfassung xxi introduction xxii 1 the history of archaeology in colchester 1 the antiquarians and collectors 1 the excavators 5 the Colchester Archaeological trust 6 2 geology and the deposit model 9 solid Geology 9 Drift Geology 9 the Colchester Deposit Model 10 Introduction 10 Character of archaeological deposits in Colchester 11 sequence and nature of the deposits 11 Preservation of finds 13 Archaeological deposits 14 results of the modelling 14 3 prehistoric colchester 19 Introduction 19 Past work 22 the finds evidence 22 the archaeological evidence 25 Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic 25 the Bronze Age 26 the early and middle Iron Age 29 the current state of knowledge 30 Preservation 30 Importance 30 Potential for future research 31 xi CoNteNts 12 post-medieval colchester, 1540-1700 Introduction and historical framework Past work the nature of the evidence summary of finds assemblages the archaeological evidence the urban plan the impact of the Dissolution Public buildings and other works the hythe the town wall, town gates and castle Domestic and commercial architecture standing buildings excavated buildings Brick and tile Manufacturing and trade the cloth industry the Civil War Agriculture the current state of knowledge Preservation Importance Potential for future research 13 post-1700 colchester Introduction and historical framework Assessment of importance and potential appendices Gazetteer of prehistoric monuments, elements and finds from the study area Gazetteer of late Iron Age monuments, elements and finds from the study area Gazetteer of roman monuments, elements and finds from the study area Gazetteer of early saxon monuments, elements and finds from the study area Gazetteer of late saxon monuments, elements and finds from the study area Gazetteer of medieval monuments, elements and finds from the study area Gazetteer of the significant late medi...

Farming practice, ecological temporality, and urban communities at a late Iron Age oppidum

“…Recently, the agricultural practices evident at the territorial oppidum at Chichester have been emphasized, on the basis of the presence of mid and late Iron Age farmsteads and field systems within the area of the Chichester entrenchments (Garland, 2017: 209). At Camulodunum , excavations and aerial survey have demonstrated a mixed agricultural landscape in the area around The Gosbecks (Gascoyne et al., 2013: 47–52). Whilst some of the agricultural practices evidenced at Silchester can be considered as novel in the context of Iron Age Britain (Lodwick, 2017a), evidence from other oppida in Britain does at least show that a re-consideration of agriculture indicates that crop and animal-based to farming was a part of daily life at many of these settlements.…”

Estimating the ‘Missing’ Houses of Silchester

“…post-Boudiccan period(Gascoyne and Radford 2013); 5) Carlisle and Bath, data from the Defended Small Towns of Roman Britain dataset (M Fulford et al 2018)(McWhirr 1986;Holbrook 1998).…”