ROMANO-BRITISH BERKSHIRE IT must be stated at the outset of this article that the district now known as Berkshire had no separate existence at the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. It can only be stated with safety that the Atrebates, a Belgic tribe, occupied a greater part, possibly even the whole, of this district at the time of Caesar's invasion of Britain, and the subjugation of the country by Claudius commenced in A.D. 43. The chief town of the Atrebates, called Calleva, was situated in the parish of Silchester just over the county boundary in Hampshire and, while it flourished, strongly influenced much of the country around. So far as the archaeological evidence is concerned the Roman occupation of this district was, it would seem, quite peaceful, as it was throughout all the Midlands. There is much which points to a continuity of village life by the native British, who gradually became Romanized. This is shown by the evidence of pottery and other objects of the Celtic period found associated with those of the Romano-British, indicating the adoption by the natives of Roman civilization. Such evidence has been found at Theale where, as may be seen from the exhibits at the Reading Museum, the ruder pottery of the British period was associated with articles of the finer Roman ware. More important discoveries in this respect were made at Long Wittenham where a native British village composed of enclosures of mud or wattle and daub walls, circular, rectangular or rhomboidal in shape, was excavated. Mr. Haverfield, who visited and described these excavations, gives a list of other places in the Upper Thames Valley, including Appleford and Radley, where the growth of the crops shows similar lines, rectangles and circles to those explored at Long Wittenham. All these seem to represent small hamlets and homesteads of an early date, the circles being probably British settlements, whilst the rectangular en- closures may belong to the second and third centuries of our era. The inhabitants were probably engaged in pastoral and agricultural pursuits and there are no traces of wealth or advanced civilization. The native village discovered at Wickham Bushes in Easthampstead was of a like type, but shows slightly greater prosperity and more Roman influence. Probably similar settlements existed also at Compton, East Ilsley and Maidenhead. 197
