Ebook: The Silchester Amphitheatre: Excavations of 1979-85

With contributions from D. Allen, J. Bird, G. C. Boon, R. Bradley, P. Cannon, M. Corney, A. Grant, B. M. Dickinson, D. Richards, B. Sellwood, N. Sunter, J. Timby, A. van Scheepen, J. Watson. Principal Illustrator: Brian Williams.

The amphitheatre at Silchester was taken into Guardianship by the Secretary of State for the Environment in late 1979; through the generosity of the Englefield Estate excavation was allowed to proceed before the Guardianship agreement was finalised. Although a number of other amphitheatres are known from both civilian and military sites in Britain, only three of them had been thoroughly examined before the present excavations began. The earliest excavation had been that of Maumbury Rings (1908-13), the amphitheatre associated with the civitas capital of Dorchester, Dorset, followed by the total excavation of the amphitheatre attached to the legionary fortress at Caerleon in south Wales in 1926-7. That half of the Chester fortress amphitheatre which did· not underly a Georgian listed building was mainly excavated between 1965 and 1969. Thus, Silchester's amphitheatre was only the second example associated with a civitas capital in Britain to be extensively explored. It had not previously been excavated, unlike the walled area which had been investigated on a large scale between 1890 and 1909.