Can Computerised Terrain Analysis Find Boudica’s Last Battlefield?
Steve Kaye
British Archaeology: Issue 114 (2010)
Abstract
We have few details of the native response to the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43, but one episode entered folklore: the rebellion of an East Anglian queen. Steve Kaye thinks he knows how to narrow down the search for the elusive site of Boudica’s last stand.
Boudica, the rebellious queen of the Iceni, lost her final confrontation with Roman power in AD60–61 or 61–62. She had previously destroyed the towns of Colchester, London and St Albans, and possibly Silchester, but the site of the concluding battle – though much debated – is not known. Our understanding of events comes from accounts written by the near-contemporary Roman historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio, and archaeological evidence for destructive burning. What I am to describe here began with the thought that interesting insights into the battle’s location might be gained by combining the techniques of modern terrain analysis with Tacitus’s description of the battle site.
As Tacitus describes it in his second and more detailed account, Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor in Britain who commanded the second, ninth, 14th and 20th legions, was waging a successful attack on Anglesey when he was interrupted by news of a revolt. The Iceni, an East Anglian tribe led by Boudica, had been driven to revenge by Roman treachery: a pact had been broken by the violent actions of Roman soldiers against both her people, and herself and her daughters.
Can Computerised Terrain Analysis Find Boudica’s Last Battlefield?
Steve Kaye
British Archaeology: Issue 114 (2010)
Abstract
We have few details of the native response to the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43, but one episode entered folklore: the rebellion of an East Anglian queen. Steve Kaye thinks he knows how to narrow down the search for the elusive site of Boudica’s last stand.
Boudica, the rebellious queen of the Iceni, lost her final confrontation with Roman power in AD60–61 or 61–62. She had previously destroyed the towns of Colchester, London and St Albans, and possibly Silchester, but the site of the concluding battle – though much debated – is not known. Our understanding of events comes from accounts written by the near-contemporary Roman historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio, and archaeological evidence for destructive burning. What I am to describe here began with the thought that interesting insights into the battle’s location might be gained by combining the techniques of modern terrain analysis with Tacitus’s description of the battle site.
As Tacitus describes it in his second and more detailed account, Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor in Britain who commanded the second, ninth, 14th and 20th legions, was waging a successful attack on Anglesey when he was interrupted by news of a revolt. The Iceni, an East Anglian tribe led by Boudica, had been driven to revenge by Roman treachery: a pact had been broken by the violent actions of Roman soldiers against both her people, and herself and her daughters.
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