The Ancients - Boudica's Tribe: How the Iceni Survived the Romans

Episode Date: October 26, 2025

Join us for a special episode of The Ancients, recorded on-site in Norfolk, as we delve into the fascinating history of the Iceni tribe both before and after Boudica's famed revolt against the legions. Tristan Hughes joins Professor William Bowden at the dig to hear about Iceni resistance, cultural continuity, and adaptation in the face of Roman conquest. Together they explore archaeological insights into the Iceni's daily lives, their treasured artefacts, and their complex relationship with Roman rule, sharing remarkable recent discoveries, offering a tangible connection to the past and piecing together a vivid narrative of a tribe that endured and evolved over centuries.See the finds made at the Caistor Roman Project [ACAST ONLY]MOREBoudica's Battle of BritainThe Roman Invasion of BritainPresented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music courtesy of Epidemic SoundsThe Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey guys, I hope you're doing well. Welcome to this special episode of the ancients where once again, as we do, every so often, we're out in the field. We are in Norfolk today exploring the story of Boudicca's tribe, the Yacani. What do we know about these people, both before Boudicca's revolt and afterwards, after the Romans defeated Boudicca. It's a really interesting story that archaeology is helping us learn so much more about. Now a quick note from me before we get into it, I would usually say Isini, I must admit, that's what I've said in the past. However, the experts out there who we interviewed and all the team out there, they say Ikani. So to avoid making this episode more confusing than it needs to be, we are going to be saying

Ikani throughout when talking about this tribe. But at the end of the day, at least in my opinion, tomato, you say it however you'd like. We're going Akeney today. I hope you enjoy. Let's go. In the rolling mists of ancient Norfolk, where the river Tass threads between green fields and reedy marshes stood Venta Ikenoram, the market town and heart of the Icani tribe. Imagine a morning by the river, in the first centuries after Rome's conquest, the settlement is alive with clatter, chatter, and the earthy perfume of livestock, pottery and freshly baked bread. Horses nibble on dew-wet grass, watched by children whose faces are streaked with dirt and laughter. This was daily life for the Akania deventa Icanorum, a people long-rooted in these lowlands.

The Akanie had occupied these lands since before the shadow of Rome fell upon Britain. They traced descent from Iron Age Britons who had built great roundhouses and eke to fierce independence from earth and animal for centuries. Their ancestry was carried in their bronze armourings and in the famous Nettysham Horde, jewellery masterpieces of spiralled gold and silver.

These treasures glimmered on the necks and arms of Icany women and chieftains alike. The mighty Queen Budica may herself have worn such finery before her fateful revolt. Though Rome's legions crushed the Icani in the bitter aftermath of Budica's rebellion in 60 and 61 AD, the tribe endured, battered, but not obliterated. Venter Ikenorum developed in the changing world that emerged after the Budycan revolt, it was a symbol of the ruling Roman power, but one that was inhabited by,

the Iqani and that reflected their interests and aspirations as well as those of Rome. The town, name and all, bore witness to its inhabitants' history. The Icani's memory lived on in the very map of Roman power. Let me introduce William Bowden, Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Nottingham, who leads the Caster Roman Project. Well, it is such a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me to the site. A pleasure to have you. And it is quite an extensive operation, isn't it? So where are we standing if we go back almost 2,000 years ago? Well, almost 2,000 years ago we would have been just inside the boundaries of the Roman town of Ventricinorum in the second, we're talking about

the second century AD really. The name means the market of the Icani and When you visit the Roman town today, which stands just to the south of Norwich, you'll see an area, a walled area, the city walls are perhaps the most visible part of the site. But what you see is actually only quite a small part of the Roman town. And so where we are now is quite a long, we're about 300 metres to the northeast of the site that people visit us case to roman town but actually although it feels like we're in a random field we're actually still within the boundaries of the town as it was in the second century and you're certainly still digging some amazing things up i mean how long have you been doing

archaeological work here how long has the case to roman projects been going on well i started working here in 2006 and um we started doing geophysical survey at the main town site and followed that up with seasons of excavation from about 2009 onwards. But we always wanted to have it as a, I started it as a university project, but I always wanted to have a really strong community elements to what we were doing here. So we set up the charity Casio-Roman project in 2009 and use that to support community and volunteer activity in archaeology and now it's very much been taken over by the community. The community managed the project, they do most of the work and so our members really lead

the activity here. But this is also an amazing site, isn't it? Because sometimes we get into this bipolar world of either a site is Iron Age, pre-Roman, or it's Roman in Britain. but this site allows you to show how much more permeable it was. You get to see the Iron Age and Roman stuff together at this site. That's right. And I think that's one of the key things that we have at this site. That kind of binary opposition between the Romans and native Iron Age people

is I think a big problem actually in how people still conceptualise the Roman period in Britain. Because I think when people think about the Romans, they think about a bunch of soldiers coming over from Italy, doing Roman stuff, and then, you know, and everyone else goes away somewhere. Making their roads and aqueducts. Making roads and aqueduct. You know, drinking wine, you know, wearing togas or whatever. And actually, as we know, most of the people living in Britain at that time are the descendants of the Iron Age population. You've perhaps got an immigrant population of maybe 5%, perhaps a little higher in cities. But the people living in this area are still the Icani.

So my next question was going to be, how do we pronounce the name? But you said it there, so it's Icani, not Iceni, is it? Yeah, that's right. It always used to be Bodhis, and the Icini. But the correct pronunciation, according to the people who study ancient Celtic languages, is Boudicca and the Iqani. Bodicea arrives effectively from a medieval typo, a slight miscopying of Tacitus, and that's where Bodhisar comes from. And the name becomes tremendously popular, particularly from the Victorian period.

But yeah, it's Boudicca and the Akanie. So if we focus on the Akanie before the Roman takeover, let's say before the Boudiccan revolt, first of all, This always feels a tricky question to ask. But do we have any idea when the people here start labelling themselves as Iqani, if they even ever did so? Yeah, that's a really good question. And obviously all the names that we have for peoples in pre-Roman Britain come from Roman sources.

And so we've got Roman sources, particularly Caesar, talking about describing the sort of ethnic makeup, if you like, of Britain. And they do it from a very particular point of view. So we certainly have coins in the very late Iron Age. So really after the period of Caesar's contact with the Romans, we have coins with the term Eken on, which people tend to think it probably is referring to the Ekanie. So, but these sorts of labels, it's a really interesting aspect, you know, when labels applied by others almost start to become also modes of self-identification, people take on those labels as well.

So I think paradoxically it may have been the Romans christening or sort of labelling this region as the, as the Akanie, that perhaps may have given people more of a sense of a cohesive identity that they might not have had before that. So I do think it's a two-way, a two-way process. And just a bit of context. So Julius Caesar 55, 54 BC, his two invasions of Britain and that early contact. And has the archaeology here revealed much about the nature of the Yucani settlement that was here before the Romans take over? Do we know much about that? In this particular site, we don't actually have much in the way of actual settlement evidence. What we have is a sort of halo, if you like, around the site of Iron Age pottery, metalwork and coins. generally in the territory of the

the Territory of the Akanie, which seems to be current Norfolk and bits of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, the general settlement patterns seems to be fairly small enclosed settlements with small groups of roundhouses. We don't really have the sense of large central places that we have at places like St. Albans, Colchester, Silchester, these big so-called Opida, where they're almost sort of proto-town.

I mean, people argue about that sort of terminology. But certainly there are groups coalescing and craft specialisations and large systems of defences. There's not so much of that in the territory of the Icanie. Yeah, there's some interesting, quite large monuments, but the jury is still out really on whether the equivalent to those sorts of op-hitter really existed in this area. So should we be thinking that most Ekanie groups were living in smallish settlements,

you know, with a few roundhouses, their farmers, they're living off the land, maybe extended family groups as well? Yeah, I think that's right. That's certainly what the sort of limited evidence of Ekanie settlement is, you know, is telling us, telling us. So I think we can envisage families, perhaps extended kin groups, coming together perhaps in times of conflict. One of the best sources for the structure,

the social structure of the Icani is the coin evidence. The Icania making coins, you know, really in the sort of first century BC into the first century AD. So, you know, quite late, in their history. But what we're seeing is that there are several different centres minting coins at the same time. So the idea of a sort of single king or single queen of the Icania is not reflected in the coin evidence.

What we've probably got are, you know, a range of different groups. And as I say, at least, you know, four or five of them are minting coins at any one time. So we can imagine perhaps several important groups or leaders. But do we think, I mean, because I immediately think of the Boudiccan revolt and the figure of Boudicca and her husband Prusuticus or Prusutagus. Yeah, Prusatius, I think, is, you know, as you like, really.

But the Romans labelled him almost as like the king. So do we get, could there potentially have been a hierarchy of chieftains as well or any idea around that? There could have been, we certainly don't see that in the, We certainly don't see that really in the archaeology. And I think the importance of Prasutigas and Budica is perhaps more to do with the Roman narrative of the revolt

rather than the actual situation as it might have been on the ground. They're the big figures for the great narrative story of how they overcome this massive revolt. I must also ask, before we go post-Budica Iconi, another amazing part of the Akanie story which is the beautiful treasures the art that has survived from Ekania lands like those beautiful talks isn't it

and other works of art talk to us about these beautiful works of Eucani art because they are stunning yeah I mean one of the amazing things that we do get in this region are the some of the extraordinary treasures particularly the Snatchisham talks which are these wonderful huge gold objects They're very heavy, aren't they to people?

They're very, very heavy. There's a lot of metal in those. And they're being put into the ground for particular, you know, particular, you know, possibly ritual reasons. But it's something that I think is a characteristic of the I cany. Probably power and status is reflected in portable wealth. And also, you know, probably in things like livestock, you know, large herds and this sort of thing.

And I think that's something that we actually see carrying on into the Roman period. I think part of how the Akanie view wealth and status is reflected subsequently in how they respond to the new material coming in from the rest of the Roman world. Can we say that they are a warrior society, a warrior culture? I think I would say no more so than any other Iron Age people. I mean, they certainly revolts first against Rome. Apparently, you know, on the grounds, you know, their weapons are removed. And this is the first, you know, the first revolts against Rome.

This is pre-Boudicca. This is another one. This is pre-Budica. And, yeah, we know that, you know, it's a very equine-focused society. There's a lot of horses. a lot of the metal work is about decorated, horse decoration and also chariot fitments. So the idea of the Icania and chariots is at least reflected

to some extent in the archaeology. And you see that elsewhere as well, don't you, the recently unearthed to Melsenby Horde and the like, the amount of beautiful chariot gear there. I'd also like to ask a bit about Iqani death and burial and religion because I know in other Iron Age groups, a lot of the information about the people themselves comes from

burials and how they were buried and so on. Do we know much about that in regards to the Yucani? Yeah, it's a real problem in that we have very little in the way of burial from the Iron Age. I mean, the numbers might have gone up now

but I think for the entirety of the sort of 800 year history of Iron Age North but we've probably got around 100 individuals. So what's happening is that they are certainly disposing of the dead in a way that is not leaving much in the way of archaeological traces, whether that is excarnation, so sort of laying the bodies out to nature or to wild animals. We don't really know, but whatever they're

doing, we're not really finding it. So we get to the big year of 60 or 61? Is it debated? 60s, 61, it's debated. The debate sort of ranges around, you know, how long the events depicted in the revolt should have taken, how long it gets, you know, people to go from, you know, one part of the country to another. So, yeah, the revolt sort of gets rather telescoped in the, you know, in the sources, but some people, you know, would argue it goes on longer. And can you explain briefly, we've done a whole podcast episodes on Boudicke's Revolved in the battles, but why this revolt is so important and intertwined with the story of the Icania and what happens to them.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of the time we see the Icani through the lens of the Boudiccan revolt, this famous episode when the Icani, under Boudicca, revolt against Rome, burning Colchester, London, St. Albans, before, you know, apparently being defeated at an unknown location. The so-called Wattling Street. The so-called Battle of Wattling Street, which is a whole other wormhole, but we probably won't go down right now. But what are the consequences of the failed revolt? Because isn't it, I know Romans do exaggerate it in the sources,

over 100,000 people, presumably lots from the area of the Akanie. What are the consequences for the Yacani people being the losers of this revolt? Yeah, this is a really tricky question. We have, you know, the sources which tell us of, you know, huge casualty numbers. I would say that is a very, very typical thing of Roman battle descriptions, the victory against overwhelming odds with very minimal casualties on the Roman side and huge casualties. It's a really, it's a standard part of what Roman audiences would expect from a battle narrative. We also have Tacitus telling us that, you know, following the revolt, there was retribution against the Icaine. They were, you know, the Harrod with fire and sword. And that the Icani suffered from famine because they had failed to plant their crops

before the revolt. Now, I would say that that is, none of this is really reflected archaeologically. the aftermath of the revolt, the effect of the revolt, I would go so far as to say if we didn't have those textual sources, we would not see the effect of the revolt in the territory of the Akanie. It is not archaeologically visible. So it is not showing at a site like this that there was severe stress on crops or famine or anything at that time. That's amazing. No, there's very little in the way of a Roman military presence in the territory of the Akania after the revolt. And in terms of material culture, the sorts of things that

the Aikani are wearing and where they are, we see enormous continuity. There is no sign of a great sort of discontinuity in the area following the revolt. So what does the archaeology show? What happens in this area of Britain in those decades after the Budokin revolt? What seems to happen to the Akanie? Well, as far as we can tell, they carry on. And a lot of the things that we see in the pre-Roman period, so an interest in portable material culture,

a lack of interest in important, imported materials from other parts of the Roman world. We see that carrying on into the Roman period. Before the revolt, the Icani are picking and choosing the aspects of the Roman world that they're interested in. So, coins coming from the Roman world, absolutely. The Aconi will have those. Wine as well? Wine less so.

The Aconi aren't really into, we don't get much. much in the way of consumption of wine or olive oil, actually, at this site. And whereas other places, like the Opida at St. Albans, Colchester, Silchester, those are people who are sort of really fully engaging with the Roman world as it exists in Gaul, so importing wine, shiny red pottery, this sort of thing. That kind of engagement with the Roman world, we don't really see in the pre-Roman period. And so in many ways it's not surprising that we don't get very much of it in the post-revolt period. At Ventricinorum, so the town, which is the only major town in the territory of the Akanian,

it seems to be that sort of regional capital founded in the post-revolt period, principally for the collection of tax, because that's what the Romans were ultimately interested in. That town is quite small. It's one of the smallest regional capitals in Roman Britain. Its forum is one of the smallest in Roman Britain. And for a long time it was thought that this is because the Iqani are impoverished after the Budakun revolt. They have an impoverished local elite who cannot afford to put up big buildings and this sort of thing. Whereas when we sort of get under the surface of that, to my mind,

mind, it's actually not that they couldn't afford it, but they simply weren't very interested in doing those sorts of, in creating that sort of urban environment. Do the Romans still see this part of Britain? There's very much on the periphery, it's in the east, far north-east, you know, in East Anglia. Do you think there's just not much interest in building a lot of Roman towns in the area, even after the Boudiccan revolt? It's an interesting aspect, this idea of it being on the edge, you know, in the east a long way away. And I think to some extent that's a, that's a modern conception of Norfolk. And for a long time, I sort of fell into that trap, I think, of thinking about, you know, what's going on in Norfolk, thinking

about what's going on at Venter in relation to, you know, what's going on in the southeast, in London and Colchester. But actually, I think for much of the Roman period, the important focus for Venter is looking eastwards towards the North Sea, towards the wash, towards maritime connections, ultimately going across to the, in the late Roman period, certainly going across to the Rhineland and up to the northern frontiers. So what is your research here? What is it revealed actually about, you know, the topography, the climates that was this area of Britain back in the first, second, third centuries AD? Certainly the landscape. around here was quite different.

The riverine system of Norfolk was much more open. We have this so-called Great Estuary, whereby the sea, I suppose, came much. The Yarmouth sandbar didn't really exist, so Great Yarmouth is not there, and you could sail large vessels sort of much further into Norfolk. That silts up, really, in the post-Roman period,

and, you know, becomes peat deposits, which are then subsequently quarried out, and that's what creates the Norfolk Broads. So the Norfolk Broads are a sort of relic of this estuary system, but, yeah, largely the result of peat quarry. But, you know, we are in an area which is much more open to the sea. Our work here suggests that you certainly couldn't sail your ocean-going vessel as far as Ventraicinorum. It's on the river, it's on the river Taz, but probably good to being trans-shipped further up river

and then possibly move down to Kaster on small flat-bottom vessels. But it's definitely, I think, a landscape which is looking out towards the sea, and as I say, we certainly really see that in the late Roman period. Does that? Oh, because I can ask if that feels unusual then as a position for the Romans to build their only kind of Roman-looking town in this region. it is not right next to a navigable river, which normally seems one of the biggest priorities on their list when looking for a new place to found a town. Yeah, I think it's perhaps the

fundamental thing about Ventricenorum is it's in the wrong place. A more obvious place for a town is where present-day Norwich sits. It does have better riverine communications and that's almost certainly why Caster stops or Venterichinorum stops being a political centre in the mid-Saxon period. And it's why the Roman town is now an open field with sheep in it, which gives us the chance to investigate it as we can. But the reason for the town being here is, I think, something that we've puzzled over for since the project started. And I think it really reflects what was here before. We're now fairly certain that there is an Iron Age cult centre, not underneath the present Roman town,

but at a large temple site fairly close by. And I think that is why the town is founded here because it was an important place for the Icani. So the Romans are basically, even though they're not building towns everywhere, they're just doing it here, but they're building it in a place that they know is important to the Akanie people.

And so is it effectively the Romans showing their overlordship, their supremacy, that they're putting their mark, they're stamping their authority on this important area of the Akanie? Potentially, I'm always a little bit wary of the Roman boot founding towns as a sort of ideological statement. I mean, certainly that happened. but I think the fact that the town is founded adjacent to this cult site rather than on top of it and the major cult site clearly continues in the Roman period is monumentalised in the Roman period

and becomes clearly continues as a major cult centre in the Roman period So I think it is less of the Roman boot than perhaps a pragmatic acknowledgement that this is a place of power for the Akanie and so it's a sensible place to have a centre. So Aconi believes the archaeology suggests from that site nearby certainly do seem to continue into the Roman period, do they? Absolutely. And I think there's no reason to imagine that they shouldn't.

generally the Romans weren't that bothered about what belief systems were adopted and could be most of these belief systems you know gods gods goddesses are highly localized and could be easily absorbed into the Roman pancy. Syncretism isn't it? Yes that's right and we certainly have a lot of a lot of Roman gods and goddesses at this site we've got certainly evidence of Venus of Mercury or of Neptune are all being worshipped or venerated at Venterichinorum. So whichever God or goddess was worshipped at that site before the Romans come, the Romans could have said, that deity seems very similar to Venus or Mercury. So do you get it's like you have in, isn't it Bath where they have Akkai Sulis

and a mixture of Minerva and Sulis? Do you think it could have been a similar case here? A certain Roman deity is basically likened. is joined to the local deity that was worshipped here? Yeah, we could have a syncretic situation or we could have multiple diets worshipped at the same side. It's very hard to tell and annoyingly because we have no good stone around here.

We don't get any inscriptions. So we have nothing to really tell us about that kind of behaviour beyond the material culture. And in regard to the layout of the text, itself, the archaeological work that you've done over the years, is it reflective of, you know, you mentioned there's a forum right in the centre? So is it very much the traditional layout of a Roman town from anywhere in the empire? To some extent, and I think perhaps superficially, it has that aspect. It's got a gridded street system. The evidence that we

have suggests that street system develops over time, rather than being sort of laid out in one big act of Roman planning. And we have the sorts of buildings that we expect in towns in Roman Britain. We have the forum, temples, a bathhouse. Generally in Roman Britain, there's not actually much adoption of some of the key aspects of urbanism. In the Mediterranean, you'll get Lots of local worth is sort of erecting inscriptions and statues and making donations to their local town. And we have tons of epigraphic evidence from Gaul, but more particularly from Italy, of this sort of behaviour. That never really takes off in Roman Britain. There's very far less of that kind of behaviour going on in Britain.

And so I think the reason that Ventraicinorum has quite the small civic centre is partly that kind of lack of interest in this kind of civic behaviour. Conversely, the major temple sites that is always this seems to be this focus of the Icani, that does get really monumentalised in the second century particularly. So while we have one of the, I think, the smallest, forum in Roman Britain. We have, I think, the second largest Romano-Celtic temple. So it's not that the Akeney perhaps didn't have the resources, but that's where they were spending it, not on building a big forum. Do we have at all any like inscription survive from the temple's side that might mention a person who is an Ikanie, maybe making a donation or an offering at the temple, or anything like that, which might give us, you know, more names of Ikani people during this Roman

period? The only really good textual text we have is a cursed tablet or Deficio that comes from the river. And it's brilliant. It's absolutely my favourite thing from the site because it really humanises, sort of brings everything down to a human level. And it's a dedicated, I think a chap called something like Neisenius and or Nase is on the Deficio. And he's had a series of items. stolen from him. It includes 10 pewter vessels, a headdress, which is quite an interesting idea in itself, and a pair of leggings. And he says, you know, Neptune, bring me the blood of the culprit and I'll give you the leggings. And so this is, I love this because the idea that what's going to swing it for an all-powerful oceanic deity is a pair of second leggings

It just brings everything to a really, really human level. But this is, it's one of the only, I think this is the only sort of voice. I think the only example of a sort of voice of a local person that we have from this period. So far, so far. Because it sounds like, are there still quite a few or quite a lot of unanswered questions that you'd love to find the answer to through the archaeology, done here and in future years as well, that might reveal more about the nature of the Iqani relationship with Roman and how long the whole identity of someone being an Icane endures

during the Roman period? Yeah, I think there's a lot that could still come up. We certainly know that the people living here in the Roman period, there was a lot, there was a great deal of literacy. We find a lot of writing equipment. And to some extent, that's expected. It's a centre of administration. It's a centre of record keeping of tax collection. But we know that all sorts of people are writing. We get scratched graffiti on pots, not only on pots that we're finding in the ground, but clearly there is graffiti being made by the potters, by the potter. By the potter. themselves. And so I think the more we have of that level of literacy, the more we might see voices of local people. But how long an Icanian identity lasts is a really interesting question.

The town is still Ventraicinorum in the fourth, certainly in the fourth century. It's recorded as such in the Antonine itineries, which is a sort of a kind of guide to how you move around the Roman Empire. And so the town is certainly still has that name. Whether that identity is still present, clearly by the fourth century, everyone is Roman in one sense or another. But people can have multiple, you know, multiple identities. People can be Roman, but people can still be a caneney. And I think certainly as we enter into the sort of challenging period of the late 4th and 5th century, those sorts of local identities quite often re-emerged. They have a resurgence in times of stress.

And so, you know, I see no reason why an Icanian identity, you know, could not be persisting in that period. So you could actually see a revival of people claiming their Icanian ancestry in like the 5th century when all the troubles come. And I guess also in this part of the world where you probably get more the threat of Saxons or Franks or whoever coming from across the seas. You've got the so-called shore fort at Burr Castle not too far away, don't you? With those threats, you know, maybe it could have, and I know we're in a big period of speculation now, a big topic of speculation, but that

could have elevated the possibilities of people really stretching back to the Akanie identity of old. I think that's right. And certainly here we have very strong evidence of an early, let's say Anglo-Saxon presence, we've got very early cemeteries here dating to the fifth century which are full of new material culture and we see new settlement developing here. Who those people are is a really big question. But it's certainly something that we do see in Roman Britain as a whole in this period. We see new regional identities emerging. So in the southwest, you know, people People are choosing, I think, to become Roman in a way that they probably actually weren't during the Roman period. There's a newly emergent Roman identity.

But in other parts of the country, we're going to see other different local identities emerging. Well, it's such a pleasure to be here and to see how the archaeology is adding more to, you know, the story of the Akanie. And I guess it's pushing aside this old idea that the Akanie, they disappear once Boudicca is defeated. they don't, they're still here and it's remarkable to see all this new evidence emerging. Absolutely I think if there's one thing that we can achieve here is to

try and move the Iqani away from the Budikin Revolt narrative because the survival of that narrative is a peculiar combination of circumstances and

the utility of Budika as a woman leader to those Roman writers in the narrative that they want to want to create. Even though it wasn't unusual for women to be powerful in Iron Age Britain? No, we've got several examples but we know that there are probably quite a lot of revolts in Roman Britain but this is the one that is particularly attractive to Roman sources and it's also particularly attractive

to the people who are looking at Roman sources later on. So we have our Budica tinted spectacles. if you like, that we tend to look at the Akeney through. And so I'm hoping that fun as the Budakan revolt is as a hook for people, I think it's important that the entire sort of 800,000 year history of this region is not looked at solely through the window of that particular year. Will, thank you so much for your time. Pleasure.

The work of William and the Keister Roman Project has already revealed so much about the Icani, showing how their story is so much more than just Budica. And it's exciting to think about what new finds they'll unearth in the future. Now, with all the archaeology around me, before I left the dig, I couldn't resist having a look at some of their latest discoveries, fresh out of the ground. To talk me through them, I sat down with the project's chairman, Andy Woodman. We'll put a link in the description where you can see photos of the objects. Andy, it is great to have you on the podcast today.

Very welcome. Thank you. And thanks for coming to see us. Well, it's a pleasure to be here. We've had a chat with Will already about the Icani. And now you've brought ourselves a select choice, a selection of objects. A choice selection of sexy bits, yes, I have. So what have we got? Let's get straight into it. What's this first object we've got?

Let's go early. Right. This early object is an early Saxon, barbed and tongued arrowhead. Early Saxon, did you say? No, I did. I said, I said early Bronze Age. Early Bronze Age, there is. Your ears are just going funny, Trifton. And you can see it's translucent, it's made of fine flint.

So this is a very fine flake, which has then been shaped using an antler tool to get the tangs. And obviously the point about a barbed and tanged arrowhead is once it goes in, goes in, it stays in. So that's showing that people were here long before, you know, mentions of the Yucani by the Romans, that they're here. There are Bronze Age barrows and stuff in, in the vicinity, and there's a, there's a hinge about two miles away. So around the lowland rivers, we're going to be having prehistoric people. I think there are other people who are going through the earlier ages of the Stone Age, the Paleolithic, the Mesolithic, around rivers and this site is near the confluence of rivers so that's often a significant piece of

work but that's a lovely a lovely place of it isn't it it's the nicest i've ever seen come out of the ground and i'm going to put it back in the bag before i get told off and next so we have got it's a coin next we've got is a coin and we find a fair amount of coins here all of our meadows and fields have been very thoroughly metal detected, but metal detection only goes to a certain level. And even so, we still find we get nighthawked. But the local Norfolk policeman, who is the Nighthawk policeman, is also one of our members. So that helps. And he also makes reproduction Roman pottery, which is a bizarre combination. But once the turf is off, and we get down below the range of a metal detector, then we start to find

a significant amount of coins most of the coins we find are middle fourth middle fourth century Constantinian constantine okay right yeah around about the 330 to 350 tiny coins easy to lose probably are probably of relatively low value probably dating to the time when the town was resurgent possibly due to the export of grain and wool to the Rhine frontier, which was under stress at that time from the barbarians across the river. What's interesting about this coin is that it's silver-plated. Okay. It's the first one that we're aware of that isn't solid gold or solid silver. Ah. The Akeney weren't going to be, weren't minting, minting coins, weren't striking coins

that much. Coinage is obviously comes in through contact with Roman economies across the channel and they won't be abused as a coin economy as such it would have had a specific value. But this one is different because it's a copper alloy coin with sheets, thin sheets of silver on either side before it struck. So is it almost in this time where a coin's worth is the van with like its metal composition. Is this almost a rip-off coin or a con? Well, that's the question. We haven't found one like it before, so our coin expert will be digging into his comparatives to find out. But it could be a hooky coin, or it could be that they were struck to give to people for commemorative reasons rather than for, you know, coinage

value. So, but an interesting one nonetheless. And do we know what it shows on it? What are the images on it? On the reverse, it has a typical I'm a typically iron age collection of stylized horses. Ah, that's classic. So it's a classic zoomorphic art on the reverse side. So a lovely piece. And potentially, I guess a theorisation isn't it, but if there was a time of difficulty for these people

before the Romans take full control of this region, maybe this coin is evidence of it, but as you say, more evidence needs to be done on it, but it's still interesting to theorise. It's still interesting because it's different. And, you know, as you know with all these things, there are hundreds, tens of thousands of pieces of pottery and brickwork, etc. But it's when you find something different and it makes you think. Well, shall we now turn our attention to this object right here?

It's a small face. It's a small face. It's about the size of, it's about five centimetres tall. I'd say it's, yeah, it's a couple of five centimeters. It's slightly hollowed at the back. right it's of a bearded and hair-suit man with possibly braided hair or it looks a tad like the emperor hadrian i was literally thinking that it looks like the hair star and with a beard of doesn't it just he's lost a bit of his nose so he may have had a more roman nose before he was in the

plowsoil for two thousand years but wouldn't we all frankly and it's either going to be on a building although it's quite small if you want to see it from a long distance or it's going to be on a large vessel, a large urn or something. It's been suggested it might be one of the four winds, but not seen one before. It's made out of pretty horrid clay and fired. It's been fired in a kiln, but it's not hard. And the details still survive, you know, the clear features of a face, the ear, the beard, the nose, the eyes, the hair and everything. They're all there. So again, we're going to have to look into some parallels for that, but that's a beautiful piece. And do we think that would date to the Roman period? I think, I think, given

Given its context, I think we're talking early second century. And certainly with a hairstyle and everything. Certainly with a hairstyle and that looks kind of Hadrianic. It looks very, quite Roman, yes indeed. Absolutely does. Well, look, what have we got next? What have we got next? From a similar period, we've got this delightful little, what's called a fly brooch.

And it looks just like a housefly. Like a housefly. So I've never ever heard of an ancient decoration in the form of a of a fly. Me neither. Yeah. And it's dead cute. You can imagine 2,000 years ago, when it hasn't been in the dirt for the last 2,000 years,

that's going to be shiny and polished. One of my guys has looked into parallels and found some pictures of some similar fly brooches with some enamel blubs on it covering. This one doesn't look like it has because had it been, there would have been some little recesses I suspect in there. And to describe it so you can see two clear, very, um, thin wings. Very thin wings. It's like a Y-shaped tail at the right at the back. Yes, and a sort of pointed mouth with a, almost with a proboscis. Yes. Is that the right word?

Yes. I forget my... Well, it's either a big or a proboscis, isn't it? But like it's, yeah. And on the back, there would have been a very thin pin joining it together. But clearly, this is what, a centimeter or more, a centimeter, a half in total size. So that's not going to hold a piece of clothing together. This is bling. This is decoration. This is whether it's associated as someone might have suggested with mercury i don't know or whether it's someone who liked houseflies i'd the person who liked houseflies exactly yeah yeah we get a lot of horse flies around here so maybe maybe it's to ward off horseflies i don't know but that's a very sweet little thing that really is isn't it and i guess it's also i mean the the skill and the

detail to craft that the metal working um yeah which you get associated with the eucani a lot and evidently continues. We do and we know that just to the other side of that field there's evidence of broach making in the pre-boodicun period and one of the reasons we're in this field because we know there are kilns and furnaces in here. We just haven't landed on top of one just yet. Not just yet. Not just yet but we will and we're going to at some point in the future we're going to reinvestigate the area that surgeon commander man discovered the brooch making. It's a scheduled area now.

But that's a sweetie. Arrowhead, coin, heads and brooch, fly brooch. Yeah. What's next? We'll do a couple more, I think. We've got loads and loads of coins, as I said, from the middle 4th century,

as lots of moment sites do. The age of Constantine. Yeah, the age of Constantin where there's rampant inflation, where huge coin loss, also an area of great uncertainty. uncertainty with the Constantinian change and the British Emperor that declared himself and roamed around. But I've chosen some things which kind of illustrate what it might be like

to have a Roman-influenced town in the middle of a rural population. Okay, not near the rest of Roman society, right? We don't have a whole series of villas with mosaics and dancing nymphs, right? The biggest town nearer to here is Colchester. Yet we have Roman Rwana British temples that would have been the largest building this side of this side of Colchester. So the majority of people here, they're Iron Age people, still in their round houses and so on exactly the same. Absolutely and the elite would become more Romanised than the non-elite but I agree with you it's the same population that was here through the Bronze Age and the Iron Age and would have

been here throughout until the post-Roman period. Interesting. And they probably still lived in the same way they did before but they would gradually adopt some roman techniques like wheel-based pottery better kilns and the elite would start acquiring some nice roman bling and we tend to find this so what is this pointy object we have here this pointy object is a very pretty stylus just it's just missing the point in there and probably yeah and at the top there might have been a flat piece just to smooth out any mistakes in the wax But it's got some beautiful decoration at the top there. So that's almost like the equivalent of a rubber on a pencil today.

I think so. I think this is the Mont Blanc of the early Roman period. So it's got right, so this is, once again, this is about, trying to think of a 30 centimetre ruler. It's about 10 centimetres. I think that's about 10 centimetres. That size of trowel. And right at the top, maybe half a centimetre, you have a little bit of decoration.

The rest is just kind of black in colour. It's black, but shiny. Black shiny. It's been polished. been polished and then the decoration is horizontal bands and then a few vertical, well, diagonal lines as well. Yeah, sort of trellis shape. So what do we know about it? What do we think? What do we think it's... Do we think the, do we think the material was local, that kind of blackish material? It's hard to say. It's originally thought to be a copper alloy and I think it is rather

than a piece of jet or something. I think it'd be hard to get a piece of jet that fine. So I think it's that and then coloured, and I think it's metal, but it's a lovely little piece and what it illustrates clearly is literacy. In a totally non-literate population, in a region of the country that's non-literate, we've got the introduction of literacy. And do we think that would be centred on the Roman towns? Within the wall, there'd be more people. I think within the wall, I think within the wall you've got Roman administrators. I think the purpose of the town is to control the market, to control import and export, and to control taxation. And somebody is keeping a score, and I think that's what that illustrates.

And so do we think that some members of the local population, you know, they would have adapted to Roman, I guess Roman lifestyle. Some local, on-age people, some Iqani people would be living within the walls of Ventricenorum, and they would have learned things like, well, we would think that at its peak, you've got two or three thousand people. Right. Which is, that's a large number at a time when the population of the whole island was, what, 2 million? Yes.

Something like that. So there is a concentration and wealth concentrates and work opportunities to concentrate. So that's typically why I think we'll see that. We have one more objects to have a look at, don't we? We have one more in typical show and tell tradition. And this talks a little bit about what people do in their spare time. Amazing. This is a polished bone gaming counter.

It's about a centimetre and a half in diameter and it's been inscribed with perfect concentric circles. It's very tactile. So it's a clear gaming piece, isn't it? Yes. That design. It has no other purpose. You've got some kind of a board with counters on that you're moving around.

This is a gaming counter. That's a gaming counter and someone has made that specifically for that going. I love it when archaeologists find these sorts of artefacts because they do give you an insight into the downtime almost. It's people stuff, isn't it? It's people stuff, exactly. I mean, you get the beautiful heads of, you know, maybe an emperor or a god or so on. But to get something like that, you know, what they did together around a fire or a half or something like that, they're really special with those. I think so. That's what makes it special. In and amongst the mountains of pottery and brickwork and bones and everything else. Yeah. And do we think it's

Do we think that is made out of bone? I mean, what types of bone would they have been using? It's hard to say it's been polished. I mean, this came out of the ground two hours ago. Two hours ago? We are on the scene. This is breaking news. You're absolutely on the scene,

so you'll appreciate this not been an awful lot of work done on it. But we will clearly look into it and we'll look into parallels around the rest of Britain. But were there particular animals whose bones were used more than others at this site? I'm not sure. I mean, antler gets used for quite sweet stuff. Yeah. But I think this is probably...

The sheep, maybe? Sheep is the most predominant bone, so that suggests it's the most predominant bone. Cow bones are bigger, so perhaps they're more resilient to being worked. I mean, that looks like it's been put on laves, isn't it? I mean, it's that precise. That looks like there's been lathe worked.

You wouldn't put a brittle bone on there. Well, Andy, it's such a pleasure to have you on, especially as you've got a strong connection to history here. And there many years you've been working here. I mean, are there any particular artefacts that you've discovered over the years that are really close to your hearts that you'd like to mention?

Oh, I haven't talked about that. I think finding the temple complex just across the road there, which is the second largest Ramona British temple in the country and the largest one that's only one that's larger than this is at Silchester,

which is an order of magnitude bigger. And Silchester is really is built on top of Kvitass, section of main thoroughfares and roads, etc. And when we investigated it, we found actually there were two phases. And below the very first phase was a beautiful gold coin, a Trinivantean gold coin, so from the next tribe along. That temple was demolished and a much bigger, blingier temple was put on its place.

And underneath the foundations of that replacement count temple were a line of nine coins, each of different emperors, from Nero to Hadrian. Now, that doesn't sound like an accident. Just continuous, is it? Yeah, it's one after. It's got every single emperor except for Titus. And he was quite transient anyway. He wasn't there for long.

So someone has made a point that says, we've taken down the old temple, which was probably put on top of a secret tree or something sacred to the local population. And we were placing it with this bigger, better temple, but we don't want to anger anyone. So we're going to redeposite this line of coins, each for a different emperor.

And fortunately, one is smaller than ten, and ten constitutes a horde, and we'd have to go through a whole faff. You've got a horde, so it's not a faf. We don't have to go through that. Well, Andy, you're a great character, and just looking at these particular artefacts, it just shows the great, you know,

the variety of objects that have been uncovered here these digs over the years. And I mean, for you in particular, I know you'll be here many more years in the future too, but is there... I suspect so. Is there any dream objects you'd love to find,

a cany object that you'd like to find in the ground one day? Well, we've not found any real evidence of military. Yeah, okay, right. That's up here. Not that I'm desperately

looking to do that. I cut my teeth on the Roman wall in the north, so you get enough stuff up there with military stuff. But it'd be interesting to find something to prove it or otherwise.

And I think it's just to understand that cultural transition from the Iron Age into a Romanised society and at the other end to understand the transition from a Roman administration to whatever that post-Roman age was and how it evolved.

And we know that there's some early Saxon settlement around here and there's an early Saxon graveyard cemetery over there and we know that by the middle Saxon period they've moved to the modern pinning of Norwich. that's I think what we ideally what we'd like to know some more about. That transition at each end of the Roman period. There's loads

of places you can find about peak Roman period. We're never going to find the dancing nymphs. We're never going to find a full Are you telling me you're not... Have you given up hope of finding a complete mosaic of an elaborate Greek myth? I think so. We found

a lot tessellated floors and we found what we thought was a Are you sure the Pompeo of Norfolk is not beneath these fields. It's hard to say, isn't it? I mean, the pompover, we found lots of aqueducts. Well, what we found is a series of iron collars because of the wood and it's already rotted away.

But, yeah, I'd like to understand more about that. And I'd like to transform our organisation to something which is more self-sustaining. We've been funded by donations and funds for the last period of time. And that way of working is dying now. There aren't charities giving out money in the same way as they were.

So we have to transform ourselves into something which is more sustaining, and that's going to be a challenge to us. And as the next chairman, it's not going to fall on me somehow. Well, Andy, hopefully you'll get much more interest in this now with this episode, all about the Ocany. I'm hoping so, and if anyone is interested in joining us,

then they can apply for membership through our website, which is case to Romanproject.org. Case to Roman Project. Well, there we go. Andy, thank you so much once again for showing me these artefacts, and giving me a part of your time to talk all about it. You're most welcome. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Well, I've had the most wonderful day here at Caster St. Edmonds, or Venta Iconoram, if you prefer.

My thanks to the project team, to Andy Woodman and Professor William Bowden at Nottingham University for inviting us today. The teams here, including multiple volunteers, are doing incredible work piecing together fragments of history, finding the lost stories that lie hidden beneath the soil, for nearly 2,000 years, from gaming pieces to that amazing Roman stylus. You can find out more about the Kaster Roman project at their website,

which has detailed maps of the site and photographs of key finds. We've put the link in the show notes. I'll also put images of the objects we looked at on my social media page on my Instagram, so you can look at that as well. Now, if you want to hear more about the Akanian and Budica, while we have some great episodes in our ancient archive, You'll find links to them too in the show notes of this episode. This is one of my favourite parts of the job.

Getting right up close to history, touching the same items, families and even warriors of the Akanie would have touched almost 2,000 years ago. And to actually come here, to come here to the excavation itself, to do an ancients recording on site. It's such a pleasure to do, and I really do hope you've enjoyed the episode. I hope the Akanie and Boudicca herself will be happy to know that they haven't been forgotten. This has been The Ancients from History Hit. Thanks for joining us, and I'll see you in the next episode.