Oldest town in Britain with the River Avon acting as a transit route. Evidence of frogs' legs being eaten as well as 31,000 flints and animal bones have also been found. Colchester claims to be Britain's oldest "recorded" town. Its claim is based on a reference by Pliny the Elder, the Roman writer, in his "Natural History" ("Historia Naturalis") in 77 AD. He described Anglesey as "about from Camulodunum, a town in Britain", where Camulodunum was the Roman name for Colchester. It is claimed that this is the first known reference to any named settlement in Britain, although coins minted by Tasciovanus mention the
Camulodunum in Camulodunum from 160 to about 200, with the names of several individual Samian potters identified as working in the colonia. Over 400 fragments of Samian moulds for producing the decorated pottery have been uncovered in the town, including 37 complete examples. A well-preserved Samian kiln was excavated by archaeologist M.R. Hull near Middleborough, just outside North Gate. It was 8 ft wide, with a 5m flue under a large circular kiln chamber, and had a complex system of ceramic pipes and tubes for regulating the oxidisation of the pottery to produce its distinctive red colour. Several of the potters