SILCHESTER, ENGLAND—According to a statement released by the University of Colorado Boulder, the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum near the village of Silchester in southern England had a dramatically higher peak population than some researchers previously believed. Archaeologists Scott Ortman of the University of Colorado Boulder and John Hanson of the University of Oxford analyzed data from Calleva Atrebatum using previously established statistical relationships between Roman public and residential buildings, as well as streets and gates. They concluded the town once had 1,115 homes, and that the peak population was around 5,500. Previous estimates for Calleva Atrebatum were as low as 930 people, and resulted in the view that the town had an unsually low population density, and functioned more as an outpost where Roman officials responsible for managing Britons were stationed. Ortman and Hanson’s work suggests it was a densely occupied town akin to others of its size throughout the Roman Empire. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Britannia. To read in-depth about Roman Britain, go to “The Wall at the End of the Empire.”
