During our long excavations at Insula IX, one enigmatic find in particular always raised questions whenever discovered.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Roof tiles and bricks impressed with a distinct circular stamp bearing the Emperor Nero\u2019s name hinted at some kind of building program funded by the notorious first-century ruler. Examples of the tiles were also found during the excavations of the Forum-Basilica complex in the 1980s as well as the Victorian campaign in the bath-houses in the 1903, perhaps suggesting a town-wide redevelopment.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/silchester\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/Blog\/16.-Silchester-Nero-tile-fragments-270x300.jpg\")
Was Nero trying to buy the support of the Calleva locals with a lavish spending spree, or perhaps thanking them for their defence against the Boudiccan rebellion of 60\/61AD? Our further excavations into Insula III in 2013-16 unearthed four more Nero tiles, but sadly no more explanations or evidence of the man himself. Made of a distinct yellowish clay, these tiles are unique to Silchester with every known example being found within the town walls\u2026..except for one.<\/p>\n
In the autumn of 1925, gentleman archaeologist Lt. Col. JBP Karslake noticed a concentration of Roman bricks and tiles in a field around two miles to the south-west of Calleva. Thinking that this may be the remains of a brick clamp or kiln he excavated a trench into the area and discovered amongst a mass of underfired and overfired wasters \u2018\u2026part of a tile of which sufficient remained to preserve a round stamp in the centre with the legend NER. CL. CAE. AUG. GR.\u2019. A geophysical survey carried out by our team recently revealed a concentration of seven or eight anomalies surrounding a large, central disturbance within the field. Although hard to ascertain for definite, a number of the \u2018blobs\u2019 on the geophysics have the classic teardrop shape of single-chambered Roman tile kilns, some arranged in groups of two or three. And so, on Wednesday<\/p>\n 9th August we will be opening two trenches over a number of these features to find out whether or not these were the kilns used to supply Nero\u2019s Calleva development and hoping to add to our collection of stamped tiles. Earlier this week we dug a couple of test pits in the middle of each of our trenches and things are looking positive already. We\u2019ll be keeping you posted over the next few weeks with all our news and we\u2019ll be revealing more information about how to come and visit us, as well as updates about our open day on Saturday 26th August.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During our long excavations at Insula IX, one enigmatic find in particular always raised questions whenever discovered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![](\"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/silchester-archaeology\/files\/2017\/07\/20429615_1408287515922097_278021735464432743_n-300x251.jpg\")
Summer 2017 Excavations \u2013 The Temples<\/h2>\n
![](\"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/silchester-archaeology\/files\/2017\/08\/20170809_110557-300x225.jpg\")
On Wednesday 9th August we will begin our summer season of excavations at Silchester Roman Town. This year we will be looking to find a previously-undiscovered temple situated within the east of the town. The Victorian excavations of the late 19th Century revealed two temples sat within a walled temenos \u2013 an area of land or sanctuary separated from the rest of the town \u2013 but only partially identified a third building slightly to the north. However, our geophysics work has shown the third building to be formed of two concentric squares, the classic layout of a Roman temple. Because of the lack of Victorian intrusion we\u2019ll be hoping to find some undisturbed archaeology within and perhaps discover more about the religious practices of the inhabitants of Calleva. We\u2019ll be holding an open day on Saturday 26th of August for visitors to come and see the progress we\u2019ve made at Silchester as well as our second site which we will be revealing later this week.<\/p>\n