Posted on 08/20/2011 8:10:56 AM PDT by decimon
Archaeologists believe they have found the first pre-Roman planned town discovered in Britain.
It has been unearthed beneath the Roman town of Silchester or Calleva Atrebatum near modern Reading.
The Romans are often credited with bringing civilisation to Britain - including town planning.
But excavations have shown evidence of an Iron Age town built on a grid and signs inhabitants had access to imported wine and olive oil.
Prof Mike Fulford, an archaeologist at the University of Reading, said the people of Iron Age Silchester appear to have adopted an urbanised 'Roman' way of living, long before the Romans arrived.
"It is very remarkable to find this evidence of a planned Iron Age layout before the arrival of the Romans and the development of a planned, Roman town," he said.
"Indeed, it would be hard to see a significant difference between the lifestyles of the inhabitants of the Iron Age town and of its Roman successor in the 1st Century AD."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
ping
Roamin’ ping.
This suggests much about widespread trade and the dispersal of knowledge.
Myy granddaughter...maybe 4 or 5....she drew a Town on the driveway...Stores, houses, Lake, roads.
?Grandma (moi) said she was going swimming in the water...naked. Shocked, she added a jail to the Town and guess where grandma wound up.
town planning ping
On a desk?
Yeah, smarter people started suggesting that it might be a good idea to
locate the tanners, night soil collectors, and other odoriferous
trades on the prevailing downwind side of the rest of the
community.
bump.
Well, they knew that a lot of guests would be flying in to attend the royal weddng for William the Iron Man and his bride, Kate the Magnificent, so they had to get organized fast.
That's cuz Kate wore no bloomers.
LOL! smart kid!
"Other than that, what did the Romans ever do for us?"
Same goes for this side of the pond.
The grid city design is far superior to the subdivision design favored by developers. It prevents congestion, allows better walking opportunities, has better ingress and egress.
Modern city planners can learn from these pre Roman cities.
Grandma skinny dipping should most certainly be illegal........
Thanks for the ping. Maybe a lot of people were more advanced earlier than we have previously assumed.
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GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
Thanks decimon. |
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They were probably Roman in all but name by then. Just like the invading Goths like Alaric were already heavily Romanized down to fighting methods in 451 AD
It's not hard to imagine that areas of Britain or elsewhere would come to resemble the major trading partner. In turn, Romans adopted what they favored of peoples elsewhere.
In other words, the Romans took over an existing civilization.
“After the Roman invasion, the town was used by its military, and there is evidence that Roman buildings were very swiftly built on top of Iron Age structures.”
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