Where was Venta Icenorum?

British tribes

Where is Venta Icenorum today? Norwich

Caistor St Edmunds Roman Town: Venta Icenorum The village now Venta Icenorum

What can you see? Activity 1 –Start with Aerial Photo 1 –Look at it very closely and describe what you can see –Add labels –What do you think this place might have been? Activity 2 –Now compare Aerial Photo 1 with Aerial Photos 2, 3 & 4 –Can you find the same features? –Any more information? –Any more ideas?

Aerial Photo 1

Aerial Photo 2

Former ditches in the south field first recognised on aerial photographs in 1960 ditches Aerial Photo 3

Aerial Photo 4

What was there? Activity 3 –Look at the following photos of what the site looks like today –Can you match these up with the Aerial Photos?

The walls survive best on the north side of the town

This tower-like bastion was once attached to a length of wall, now destroyed, near the West Gate

South wall (right) and north wall (below)

Activity 4 –Compare the 2 different interpretation drawings of what Venta Icenorum might have looked like in the past –What are the differences? –Why are they different? What was there?

4 th century Caistor as imagined in the 1990s (Sue White)

4th century Caistor as imagined in 2015 (Jam Creative Studios)

Now you’ve examined the pictures of the town can you add any more labels to your map?

(University of Nottingham) Plan of the town, showing the main Roman features. How many of these labels are the same as yours?