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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
There are traces of old fortifications all along the Chilterns, and most other upland areas of Britain too, dating from the prehistoric era to the 17th century; that alone won't tell us much.

I do think this searching after place-name etymologies is rather fruitless (however fun) - there are far too many unknown influences from thousands of years of history. Webster's idea for Mancetter/Manduessedum - 'fort of the pony chariots' or whatever - is quite neat, but not compelling unless you think the site works.

In terms of our battle location, the only trace we might feasibly look for is a temporary Roman marching camp, large enough to hold ten thousand men, and somewhere in the vicinity of a 'defile'. Aside from the possible ditch patterns at Dunstable (which are probably civilian), I don't think we've identified anything like that.

Before thinking further about monuments or temples or whatever, you might consider how or if Romans and/or Britons might have commemorated such places - what comparative evidence do we have? Then you'd have a better idea what you were looking for.

Absence of other archaeological traces would not be surprising. I was reading some reports on the controversy over the exact site of Hastings the other day - the battle was a thousand years after Boudica, and we know the general location pretty accurately (the Normans stuck a huge abbey in the middle of it!), but there have been no finds from the battle at all, not even an arrowhead or a fragment of bone. The same is true, I think, for the majority of known battle sites worldwide.



(06-13-2016, 01:27 PM)John1 Wrote: we're nailed Laciodulma.

Why would this random unidentified ruin have anything to do with the mythical (and meaningless) 'Laciodulma'? It's some kind of fortified site on top of a hill, probably medieval.

The Roman towns along Watling Street are all built along the road itself - there are even some suggestions that neighbouring settlements were moved to the roadside and took their names with them.
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 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
RE: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand. - by Nathan Ross - 06-13-2016, 01:43 PM

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