City of the Dead: Calleva Atrebatum

Page 6 of 8

• 1. The lost town
• 2. Celtic roots
• 3. Our introduction to Calleva
• 4. Early excavations
• 5. Immigrants from France?
• 6. The Roman town
• 7. 6th-century abondonment
• 8. Find out more
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The Roman town

It was this centre that was adopted by the Romans, after formal annexation of southern Britain, in the years immediately following the invasion of AD 43. First as the centre of the client kingdom of Cogidubnus, then of the Roman administrative county of the Atrebates, Calleva developed into a Roman town.

It had its regular grid of streets, its public baths, amphitheatre, temples and forum basilica, as well housing for its residents that ranged from the large and splendidly decorated town houses of the wealthy to the humble timber-framed buildings of the poor.

'...richer town houses - decorated with mosaics and painted wall plaster - were situated away from the busy areas.'

Shops and workshops crowded the frontages of the main street, while the richer town houses - decorated with mosaics and painted wall plaster - were situated away from the busy areas. This is essentially the town that the early Victorian and Edwardian excavators revealed, and the magnificent coins, metalwork, pottery sculpture and mosaics that were subsequently found there - illustrative of the Roman way of life - can be viewed in the Museum of Reading.

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