The Silchester Town Life Project

The 'Insula IX Town Life' project is a research and training excavation of one part of the large Roman town at Silchester. The purpose of the excavation is to trace the site's development from its origins before the Roman Conquest to its abandonment in the fifth century A.D. This website is designed to provide information on the current work, as well as the previous excavations.

Be sure to check out the news page for the latest updates, or subscribe to our RSS feed.

Navigating The Website

A Guide to Silchester, the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum
The Roman name for Silchester was Calleva Atrebatum which denotes its role as the centre of the territory of the Atrebates, one of the major late Iron Age tribes in southern Britain. Look across the whole site, from pre-Roman times to its abandonment. Explore some of the major buildings of Calleva, through the 19th and early 20th century excavations and a series of reconstruction drawings and archaeological analyses.
Go to the Calleva section...

About the Insula IX 'Town Life' project
This section introduces the 'Town Life' Project - and summarises the first six years of the project 1997-2002. The project is both a training Field School and a research excavation of part of "Insula IX". The Victorian archaeologists conducted large scale excavations of the whole site (see the Guide to Calleva) and drew up a plan of Silchester showing the insulae, or town blocks. The Town Life project studies just one of these blocks, Insula IX, to the north-west of the central Forum Basilica. It represents just a fraction of this extraordinary site.
Go to the Town Life section...

The Field School
The Field School has been run by the University of Reading's Department of Archaeology each year since 1997. This section details what the field school is about, the training and activities it offers, how to apply, and answers any questions you may have about attending the field school.
Go to the Field School section...

Field School Diaries
To see some of the small finds from previous excavations look at the Field Diaries. The finds are listed alongside the week they were found, and there are week-by-week descriptions of the field school excavations. This section gives an overview of the types of small finds that were being uncovered, as well as a broader analysis of the archaeology as features are uncovered and examined.
Go to the Diaries section...

The Victorian Excavation
A section on the late Victorian excavation of Silchester. Insula IX was first excavated in 1893 as part of a twenty-year project by the Society of Antiquaries of London. This section of the website brings the Victorian excavation to life through the analysis of further evidence from the recent University of Reading excavations. It uses an Integrated Archaeological Database to pull together a wealth of information from the excavations. [Please note that work on the Victorian section finished in 2001, and it is no longer updated.]
Go to the Victorian Excavation section...

The Late Roman Period
This part of the site explores the archaeology of the Late Roman period at Silchester. You can search the Integrated Archaeological Database to help tell the story. [Please note that work on the Late Roman section finished in 2005, and it is no longer updated.]
Go to the Late Roman Period section...

Visitor Information
The site at Silchester is well worth a visit, especially during the summer Field School, when special open days and visitor tours interpret the jumble of trenches, holes and digging and help you to understand the current excavation objectives of the Field School. Details can be found in this section on how to get to the site, parking, public transport, disabled access and other information you need to enjoy a visit to Silchester Roman Town.
Go to the Visitor Information Section...

Acknowledgements

The Silchester Town Life Excavation is carried out with the kind permission of Hampshire County Council and the consent of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund