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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Quote:" a lot of people have looked for it (the battle site) and a lot of people claim to have found it" but I think more people have written books or done tv shows on Boudicca than have actually got around to nominating a site

There have been a lot of suggestions, dating back to the antiquarians of the 18th century - funnily enough, most of these early sites were in north London, around Hampstead Heath, Islington and King's Cross (platform 9, no doubt!). But these writers were not what we would call 'serious' (i.e. academic) historians, just amateurs like us...

Dudley's and Webster's suggestion of Mancetter has gained such currency over the years because they were the only reputable modern historians to propose a site, and even then it was supposed to be tentative. Most other historians who looked at the subject (Syme, Collingwood) realised that the literary record was insufficiently detailed to allow any accuracy, and the archeological record too slim to do more than hazard vague guesses.

So I don't think this points to any lack of verve or nerve in either the archaeological or historical profession, just a professional awareness that there's really not much to go on and the odds are firmly against discovery. Which does rather leave it to amateurs with nothing to lose!


Quote:the only real site analysis I have seen is Church Stowe by Craft Pegg... there are some contemporary remains and, apparently a local burial site... But where else in Britain is there another possibly artificial memorial hilltop?

Site analysis has been done at other places - Paulerspury, I believe, proved inconclusive. The suggested site at Clifton Dunsmore has quite an impressive writeup, featuring antiquarian 'burial' mounds and possible monuments and so on.

Trouble is, none of this provides real proof of a 1st century battle site. There's little evidence for the Romans erecting victory monuments (aside from Adamklissi, and maybe Arthur's Oon?), and none for burial mounds in the 1st century either. Known major battle sites like Cannae and Cremona have produced no human remains. The battle was probably on a major route in southern England, settled for thousands of years afterwards - unlike sites like Kalkreise and Harzhorn, lost in the wilds of Germania, it would probably have been picked clean of most material remains long ago.

So what would we find, even if we identified the exact site? Not much, probably! I still believe that a strategic and even logistical interpretation based on the literary evidence is our best bet for suggesting the general area of the battle - but that doesn't sound too thrilling, I know...

It's still possible that something will turn up one day. There's a survey commencing at own preferred site at the moment, which appears to my limited knowledge quite admirably methodical and rigorous. I fondly hope they discover something amazing, but I realise that any finds are likely to be unspectacular and therefore subject to interpretation and argument. We'll see...
Nathan Ross
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Messages In This Thread
Re: Calling all armchair generals! - by Ensifer - 03-11-2010, 03:13 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-18-2012, 06:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 12:02 AM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 02:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 05:40 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 11:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 05:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 09:42 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 10:10 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:25 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 08:36 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-26-2012, 02:57 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-27-2012, 01:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 08-05-2012, 02:24 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Nathan Ross - 08-30-2013, 10:16 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-07-2014, 02:18 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-08-2014, 01:50 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-11-2014, 02:03 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-18-2014, 07:54 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-20-2014, 02:37 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-25-2014, 08:29 AM

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