In the decade following Rome’s suppression of the Iceni uprising famously led by Boudica c.AD 60/61, a new town developed within their traditional heartlands in what today is rural Norfolk. Venta Icenorum, as the settlement was known, became Roman East Anglia’s regional capital – relatively small in size, but fully furnished with all the facilities that might be expected, including a gridded street plan, a forum, baths, a pair of temples in the town centre and another extramural example to the north-east, and an amphitheatre to the south. By the late 3rd century, the town had been augmented with defensive walls, and the settlement continued to thrive in the 4th century, witnessing the construction of a major official building on the site of the earlier forum. The post-Roman period saw extensive activity but, by the late 8th century, Venta had become completely eclipsed by the rise of Norwich five miles to the north.
This dramatic change of fortunes has proven an archaeological boon, however: the shift in local focus means that Venta Icenorum belongs to an invaluable handful of regional capitals (together with Wroxeter, Silchester, and much of Verulamium) that were not covered over by medieval or modern urban development. As a result, much of Venta Icenorum’s remains still survive intact and in situ, on the outskirts of Caistor St Edmund – and, for the last 15 years, they have been explored by the Caistor Roman Project. Working in partnership with Professor Will Bowden of the University of Nottingham (who has excavated extensively within the town’s walls; see CA 270), and supported by Giles Emery of Norvic Archaeology, CRP was founded in 2009 to encourage community engagement with archaeology in and around the Roman town. For the last few summers, CA has visited their excavations to hear how understanding of Venta Icenorum and its inhabitants continues to evolve.
Enigmatic activity
Venta Icenorum has traditionally been viewed as a town imposed on the defeated Iceni who (being notoriously archaeologically elusive) are often seen as disappearing from history. Contrary to this pessimistic perception, however, the incorporation of their name into that of the settlement indicates that this people continued to be closely associated with the local landscape, and CRP’s findings also present a much more nuanced view than one of failed rebellion and forced Romanisation. Instead, their excavations are shedding more light on how the Iceni interacted with, and adapted to, a world that was rapidly changing in the late 1st century.
