Abstract/Summary

This paper seeks to examine the contribution of targeted wood charcoal analysis (anthracology) to our understanding of the 1st millennium BC Late Iron Age oppidum and transition to the Early Roman town at Silchester and a series of nearby late prehistoric satellite sites investigated by the ongoing Silchester Environs project. Consideration is given to whether clear differences in charcoal assemblages of varying size and origin are discernible through time and space across the landscape, and whether these are of significant value in consideration of taphonomy, interpretation of the sites and of lifestyles on a site level and beyond. Data for the sites are presented but discussed in summary only at a site level, more detailed context level interpretation is published elsewhere (Barnett 2018, in prep. a and c). Instead, this paper aims to stand back and take stock of the work so far and what lessons can be learned within and outside the project.