| Summary : A possible Roman church at Calleva Atrebatum. It is situated to the southeast of the forum, in Insula IV and measures 13 metres by 9 metres. The building comprises a nave, aisles, an apse to the west and a porch to the east. The apse contains a geometric black and white mosaic with a central motif of an equal-armed cross. A tiled area, 1.2 metres square, situated 3.5 metres east of the porch has been interpreted as the location of a font. If the building is a church it, cannot predate 313 AD, the year in which Christianity was first officially tolerated by Constantine the Great. However, the building could pre-date this as it also has features found in many temples. |
More information : [SU 6399 6234] CHURCH [R] (Site of) (NAT). (1)
Towards the southeast corner of the forum insula (IV) lies one of the most discussed buildings of Roman Britain, found in May 1892. It is only 24 by 42 ft overall, and not very well preserved; but within that compass it presents all the features of an early Christian church, facing as often, to the west. There is a central nave, with apsidal west end. 29 1/4 ft long and about 10 ft wide, - the walls are not parallel - and on either side there are small aisles 5 ft wide, which terminate on the west against the walls of slightly wider chambers, vestries perhaps, which resemble rudimentary transepts in plan. The east end is occupied by a wide and deep porch, such as is found in many early churches of Mediterranean lands. Some feet east of this, a four-foot tile foundation was discovered, with flint pitching around it, and a sump nearby. This structure lies on the axis of the building, and so does a well 20 ft west of the apse; both may be connected with the building, the foundation especially. The floor was found to retain stretches of red tessellation. In the apse was a 5ft square panel of coarse mosaic. Fragments of painted wall-plaster were also found.
Excavation did not produce any evidence of date, the mosaic is however of a pattern known also at Verulamium, where it is dated to about 300 AD. Traces of mortar were on the surface of the mosaic and it was suggested that an original wooden altar was replaced in masonry. Despite most careful excavation, no trace was forthcoming to clinch a Christian use of the building. It has therefore not been formally identified as a church. (2)
Re-excavated in 1961 by I.A. Richmond for the Silchester Excavation Committee. Only one course of the superstructure survived, at the north side of the apse and on the west wall of the adjacent northern room, where both the west and north walls had been rebuilt to foundation level after slight subsidence. The screen wall dividing this room from the north aisle had also been remodelled. It was originally built in timber framing set on a concrete sill, with a 3 ft. door, marked by a hole for the door-post, leaving a short length of wall at the north end. It was rebuilt with central opening, flanked by two screen walls. A new feature discovered in the vestibule of the building was a circular flint foundation 22 in. in diameter set centrally at its north end. This had been covered, after removal of the object supported by the foundation, by a squatter's hearth of post Roman date. Squatters' hollows and post-holes had penetrated and largely destroyed the red tessellated pavement at the east end of the nave of the building. Among the churned mud and flooring-material filling the hollows was a group of Constantine coins, to three of which still adhered the white mortar of the pavement, in which they had evidently once been embodied. The three coins in question are a follis of A.D.309-313, an Urbs Roma (A.D 330-335) and a Fel. Temp. Reparatio copy (A.D.348-353), the
last somewhat worn. This gives a terminus post quem of at least A.D.360 for the laying of the pavement and the construction of the building.On the road outside the building lay a coin of Caesar Constantius II (335-7). A full examination was also made of the axial building to the east. The tile base, 4 ft. square, found in 1892, proved to occupy the middle of a heavy flint foundation, in the west end of which the so-called 'pit' proved to be a soak-away, carefully built in flint and tile and 20 ins. square, forming an integral part of the structure. This strengthens the view that the tile foundation carried a laver, if it was not itself the bottom of a built basin. The edge of the foundation had been heavily robbed, but a well-built straight edge survived on the east side, attesting a little building some 11 1/2 ft. square. The combination of date and type of buildings strongly favours the notion of a Christian Church, with a table of offerings at the north end of the vestibule and a baptistery in an axial position in front of the church. The plan of the transeptal rooms echoes that of the famous large Constantine churches, such as St. Peter's and the Lateran in Rome and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. (3)
A transept is the one particular feature which identifies the building beyond doubt as a church. In date it is unlikely to have been erected before the late 4th century. (4)
The Silchester church has the characteristics of a Christian church. So prominent a church cannot be earlier than the reign of Constantine - more likely mid or late 4th century. (5)
Plan. (6)
The possible church measures 13 metres by 9 metres and comprises a nave, aisles, an apse to the west and a porch to the east. The apse contains a geometric black and white mosaic with a central motif of an equal-armed cross. A tiled area, 1.2 metres square, situated 3.5 metres east of the porch has been interpreted as the location of a font. If the building is a church it, cannot predate 313, the year in which Christianity was first officially tolerated by Constantine the Great. However, the building could predate this as it also has features found in many temples. (7)
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