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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.
As our previous articles on the project (in CA 344, 356, 380, 393, and 406) have reported, CRP volunteers have revealed new clues as to why the town was founded where it was, and have uncovered illuminating evidence of pre-Roman activity in the area, including hints that Venta Icenorum’s extra-mural temple may have been built over an existing Iron Age cult site. Last year, the team moved away from the temple field and began new excavations in the grounds of the nearby Caistor Hall by Brasteds hotel, which also lies within the unscheduled area north-east of the settlement’s walls. This summer saw CRP return to the same spot, where they have reopened and expanded a trench located just outside the town limits.
There, investigations in 2023 had revealed possible traces of timber buildings, along with fragments of Late Iron Age and early Roman pottery. In 2024, CRP returned to expand the trench in the hopes of revealing clearer evidence of this early activity. A Roman east–west boundary ditch was soon discovered, with the burials of two newborn babies inserted into its upper fill. They add to a small but growing picture of local funerary practices: only a dozen or so adult individuals have come to light at Venta Icenorum since 2009. It is worth noting, too, that child graves tend to indicate domestic settings, as their burial locations were not subject to the same Roman taboo as adults, which usually enforced interment outside settlement boundaries.
As the excavation progressed, the team recorded a series of well-preserved pits which produced a wide range of artefacts (including various pottery types, animal bone, tile, daub, and other small finds). These will help to elucidate further the date and nature of Roman occupation in their immediate vicinity. Many also contained organic stained fills and capping layers, either of redeposited clay, gravel, large flint cobbles, or fired-clay debris (a very organised and meticulous approach to waste disposal). Meanwhile, a more trench-like pit on the northern edge of the boundary ditch contained a particularly dark, charcoal-heavy deposit, which was relatively rich in decorated Samian pottery sherds. A large number of soil samples have been taken from these pit fills, and it is hoped they will provide environmental and macrofossil evidence to give a better understanding of where the organic material came from, and to see if it contains any evidence of latrine and dietary waste.
Some of the pits may have been created through clay extraction, Giles Emery suggested during my visit, but he highlighted that they were later put to more enigmatic use, with possible ‘structured deposits’ arranged within their fills. This was true, too, of the boundary ditch, where a pristine Late Iron Age/1st-century brooch was found within clean deposits at its very base: the pin was still intact, suggesting that this was not an object that had broken and been thrown away, but one that had been intentionally placed there. One or two clusters of finds within the same ditch may represent selective placement among charcoal-laden deposits. These include several broken pottery vessels (one inverted), an iron knife with a lion-headed bronze handle, 1st- to 2nd-century brooches, part of a red-deer antler, and a barley-twisted blue-glass stirring rod.
Finds from the fringes
Geophysical survey indicates that this end of the field has seen a lot of activity, and the excavated features give the sense of being on the very edge of an area of occupation located close to the temple site and dating to the cusp of the Late Iron Age and Roman period.
‘We are still exploring ideas of how Venta Icenorum was founded, and why it was located here,’ Will Bowden said. ‘The idea of the Iceni disappearing after Boudica is just not supported by the archaeology, however. For example, we can see Iron Age pot forms still being made in the Roman period, but using more industrialised techniques – this suggests some level of continuity in diet and cooking styles.’
Other finds from this year’s excavations paint a colourful picture of how contact with the Roman world impacted on local material culture. The team have recovered numerous fragments of colourful Samian ware imported from Gaul (including one bearing an image interpreted as a satyr), as well as a 1st-century socketed lance head, offering rare hints of an early military presence on the site. More personal items include bone and copper pins, a brooch with traces of colourful enamel, a blue glass bead, and a finely made twisted torc bracelet, similar to ‘killed’ fragments discovered on the temple site.
Above all, the project’s findings add to a growing picture of how Venta Icenorum’s inhabitants responded to the introduction of new social structures, goods, and resources. Increasingly, the impression is not one of cultural devastation and a failed urban experiment, but of insights into an area with a long and complex history of occupation.
Further information:
The Caistor Roman Project is a registered charity focused on the archaeology of Venta Icenorum. It also provides training opportunities for students from the University of East Anglia, the University of Nottingham, and elsewhere, as well as placements for members of the Veterans Association. To find out more about the CRP and its excavations, please visit http://www.caistorromanproject.org.
