Wheathampstead is a late Iron Age oppidum in Hertfordshire, occupied from roughly the mid-1st century BC until perhaps the early 1st century AD, when its functions appear to have shifted to nearby Verlamion (later Verulamium/St Albans). The site is defined principally by massive linear earthworks — notably Devil's Dyke and The Slad — enclosing an area of around 90–100 acres in the Lea valley, suggesting a high-status tribal centre of the Catuvellauni or their Belgic predecessors.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Wheathampstead has been traditionally identified, following Mortimer Wheeler, as a possible stronghold of Cassivellaunus and a candidate for the site stormed by Julius Caesar in 54 BC, though this identification is contested and unprovable. Regardless, it represents one of the earliest and largest territorial oppida in southeast Britain and a key node in the political landscape that preceded Roman Verulamium.
Wheeler's 1932 investigations recorded the scale of Devil's Dyke (around 130m long, 12m deep, 27m wide) and recovered Belgic pottery suggesting occupation in the late 1st century BC and early 1st century AD, but produced little evidence of dense interior settlement. Subsequent fieldwork has been limited, and the precise extent, layout, and internal occupation of the oppidum remain poorly understood.
Wheathampstead is a late Iron Age oppidum in Hertfordshire, occupied from roughly the mid-1st century BC until perhaps the early 1st century AD, when its functions appear to have shifted to nearby Verlamion (later Verulamium/St Albans). It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Wheathampstead is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Lockleys (5.5 km), Welwyn (5.6 km), Lockleys Roman villa (6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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