Pre Roman Britain

a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jul/16/silchester-dig-british-city"Guardian:/abr /br /blockquoteThe streets and foundations of the oldest town in Britain are emerging on a low hill near Basingstoke in Hampshire – and they may cause history books to be shredded.pAlmost a century before the Romans arrived in 43 AD, a town of up to 10,000 people was laid out at a href="http://www.silchester.rdg.ac.uk/" title="Silchester"Silchester/a, with all the characteristics credited to the invaders: a regular grid pattern of streets and narrow alleys dividing plots, supplied with water from wells and springs – a wealthy place minting its own coins and trading in luxury goods with continental Europe./ppEven the name it kept through centuries of Roman rule, Calleva Atrebatum, dates back to its iron age founders. A layer of charred wood suggests the town was destroyed by fire, possibly in the revolt led by Boudicca in 60AD./ppThe site is surrounded by Roman walls built more than a century later, still 4m tall in places, but the emerging evidence suggests its glory days were pre-Roman./pp"We're turning up more questions every day, but the evidence is all pointing in one direction," said Professor Mike Fulford, of Reading University. "The only rivals for the title of oldest town would be St Albans or Colchester – but there is nothing to suggest anything on this scale."/ppHe believes it the town was founded by Commius, a leader of the Attrabates tribe in Gaul, who fell out with his former allies and had to flee Julius Caesar in 50BC. The site he chose, in an area where his tribe probably already had links, was well inland so safe from Roman galleys, on a low spur of defensible land which still has remarkable views in every direction, with ample water and surrounded by forests full of game./pp...br //p/blockquoteMy recollection of British history is that there were several communities before the Roman invasion. The were not nearly as prosperous before the Roma period and they went into decline with the downfall of Rome. br /br /The Roman culture made commerce and education sigfnificantly better in the ares they occupied. Since they never occupied the area of Scotland, it took the Scots much longer to achieve what people in England did. In fact it was not until the English conquered Scotland and imposed the English culture on the Scots that the Scots were able to achieve their potential in education and commerce.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5051247-2476088327640031132?l=prairiepundit.blogspot.com'//div

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