A brief overview

Silchester was the site of an important Iron Age, which subsequently developed into a Roman town.

Aerial painting of Silchester today © English HeritageWith a defended area of about 32 hectares, Calleva was the centre of the Iron Age kingdom of the Atrebates tribe from the late first century BC. After the Roman conquest in AD 43 the settlement developed into the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum. Covering a slightly larger area (about 40 hectares) and laid out along a distinctive street grid pattern, the town contained a number of public buildings and flourished until the early Anglo-Saxon period.

Among the Roman towns of southern Britain, Calleva Atrebatum is unusual for its late abandonment in the 5th–7th centuries AD. Substantially excavated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and over the last 30 years, Silchester remains one of the best preserved Roman towns in Britain and one of the very few with continuous occupation since the Iron Age.