Was the growth of an Iron Age town in Britain down to French immigrants? Archaeologists begin £1 million project at site where Prehistoric poodle was found

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Archaeologists to carry out futher excavations at Calleva Atrebatum Roman town

An 18-year excavation at one of Britain’s most important Roman sites will use a £1 million grant to attempt to reveal whether the rapid expansion of the settlement of Calleva Atrebatum – the Roman town which is now the village of Silchester – was a result of a growing local population or 1st century BC French immigrants.

Since 2008, a University of Reading team has excavated increasingly unprecedented finds in the first evidence of an Iron Age town in the UK. They will now study 100 square kilometres of the surrounding landscape, using survey methods and small-scale digs in the hope of making more discoveries like the 50-metre building – the largest example of a house from the period ever found in Britain.

“Exploring Iron Age Calleva however has been tantalisingly out of reach until now,” says Professor Michael Fulford, who says the work has created an “unparalleled picture” of early Roman times in the area.

"In this first year we are excavating two sites – continuing our work in Insula III, inside the Roman Town walls, and Pond Farm, a presumed Iron Age hillfort about 1 km north-west of the town.

“This may lead to evidence that the Iron Age town was a natural development, a nucleation emerging out of the prehistoric settlement of the north Hampshire and West Berkshire countryside, ather than a planned colony of Atrebates, a Gallic tribe from northern France, led by their famous leader, Commius.

"The story of Roman Silchester may have ended for now - but the tale of Iron Age Calleva is just beginning."

Comparable buildings have only previously been found in northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
 
Members of the public are being invited to visit the sites during weekdays until September 11, with a family open day planned on September 13.

• Read the Pond Farm leaflet (opens in PDF) for details. Use Sat Nav RG7 2HP to find the site.

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Three museums to see Iron Age finds in

Museum of the Iron Age, Andover
This museum tells the story of Danebury Ring, an Iron Age hillfort excavated by Professor Barry Cunliffe between 1969 and 1988 to become one of the most intensively studied sites of the Iron Age (750 BC to the Roman invasion 43AD).

Kirkleatham Museum, Redcar
During the Iron Age, in 300 BC, families were living in a settlement in North Yorkshire, growing crops and rearing animals. A Roman villa (AD 370) was found in the next field where people were making jet jewellery and pottery, and trading products around the area, becoming the setting for an Anglo-Saxon village, the home of a Saxon Princess. Find out more here.

Bodrifty Iron Age Settlement, Penzance
This area of enclosed moorland contains the remains of an Iron Age settlement, consisting of the ruins of eight roundhouses within a low enclosing bank. The site was excavated in the 1950s and a wider area surveyed In 1985. Some Bronze Age pottery was found indicating occupation.

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art534685-growth-iron-age-town-britain-down-prehistoric-french-immigrants-archaeologists-begin-million-project-hampshire