Boadicea’s Home Town

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 643, 20 April 1929, Page 18

Boadicea’s Home Town

EXCAVATIONS TO BE MADE AT CAISTOR, SITE OF FORMER STRONGHOLD OF THE ICENI . . .

>5? photographers of the R.A.F. have performed the astonishing feat of GMf] discovering a Roman town buried underneath a field of barley. This is—or was—Caistor, which lies near Norwich, Hereabouts, in the heyday of their power in Britain, lived 20,000 Romans. What none could discover, actually walking over the buried town, the camera picked out from a great height. Well-planned streets were clearly visible, and buildings which archaeologists have been dreaming of for years.

These signs of ancient habitation are visible only when the earth is yielding a crop of barley or corn. So shallow is the grave of Caistor that nothing will grow to ripeness where her hard roads, shapely villas and stone-made public buildings once stood. These solid remnants of bygone life choke the roots of plants, and thus leave outlined in stunted crops the pictures of old times. It is a formless patchwork to the human eye. To the camera in the clouds it takes a definite and orderly shape, and promises to lead to the solution of a riddle of the ages. Two of the outlines caught by the camera so clearly resemble temples that archaeologists are excited over the possibility of great discoveries. For years they have not dared to tackle so vast an undertaking as would have been a speculating quest in this neighbourhood—for Caistor and its environs straggle over about 1,000 acres.

Now they can go straight to the heart of the town, and perhaps from the present buildings learn practically everything that they need to know of the vanished citizens. One line of research may yield a thrilling story of Queen Boadicea’s fight against the Romans.

Boadieea ruled the people who were conquered at Caistor by the Romans. It was not here that she fought, nor from here that she conducted her merciless massacre, but it is deemed likely that she retained quarters in Caistor. Mr. B. Cozens-Hardy, who is directly responsible for the steps -which led to the revelations, has begun excavations. “We have consulted Mr. Donald Atkinson, reader of ancient history at Manchester University,” he says, “and as excavator he will work for five or six weeks. He will resume work again in the summer. “The committee appointed by Norfolk and Norwich have for years regarded the site as the most promising in England, but dare not undertake excavations over so large an area without something to guide them. “No one can say what the ploughed fields of Caistor hide. But we hope for much. “It is possible that the two temples will tell us something of Christianity in Roman England, and something of the Pagans. “Since the Romans abandoned the town, after the barbarian invasion, it has been left untouched. Caistor was one of a dozen towns from which provincial Romans conducted their administrations, and therefore the possibilities of the discovery of valuable historic data are distinctly favourable.” Mr. Cozens-Hardy mentioned that he first noticed the pe'cullar withering of crops last year, while showing an American visitor the site. “I appealed to the Air Ministry to allow the R.A.F. to use It as a photographic target, with the result that we can now go ahead with our work.” Mr. Atkinson says;—-“There is reason to suppose that the site is that of Venta. Icenorum, the chief town of the native tribe of Iceni. We hope to find the municipal and administrative buildings and the temples. There is a chance that the place may have been occupied before the Roman invasion. For the first 20 years of the Roman occupation the Iceni were left more or less independent and were friendly with the Romans. The place was probably the headquarters of Boadieea, and we may find remains of that period. If we are to excavate the whole town —as I hope we shall —- it will probably take some years.”