Camulodunum pavements. It may have reached a population of 30,000 at its height. It was not until the late 18th century that historians realised that Colchester's physical Brythonic (British Celtic) and Roman remains were the city mentioned in ancient literature as "Camulodunum". The earliest Iron Age defensive site at Colchester is the Pitchbury Ramparts earthwork north of the town between West Bergholt and Great Horkesley. The main earthwork defences of the Brythonic Celtic oppidum of "Camulodunon" were built later, beginning in the 1st century BC but most date from the 1st century AD. They are considered the most extensive of their
Old English Latin alphabet (also known as "Caroline") replaced the insular. The letter ðæt (called "eth" or "edh" in modern English) was an alteration of Latin , and the runic letters thorn and wynn are borrowings from futhorc. Also used was a symbol for the conjunction "and", a character similar to the number seven (, called a Tironian et or "ond"), and a symbol for the relative pronoun "þæt", a thorn with a crossbar through the ascender (). Macrons over vowels were rarely used to indicate long vowels. Also used occasionally were abbreviations for following "m"s or "n"s. A number of changes are traditionally