Winchester more urban settlement type developed, known as an oppidum, although the archaeology of this phase remains obscure. It was overrun by the confederation of Gaulish tribes known as the Belgae sometime during the first century BCE. It seems to have been known as Wentā or Venta, derived from the Brittonic for "town" or "meeting place", or the word for "white" (Welsh "gwyn"), due to Winchester's situation upon chalk. After the Roman conquest of Britain, the settlement served as the capital () of the Belgae and was distinguished as Venta Belgarum, "Venta of the Belgae". Although in the early years of
Venta Icenorum Venta Icenorum Venta Icenorum, located at modern-day Caistor St Edmund in the English county of Norfolk, was the civitas or capital of the Iceni tribe, who inhabited the flatlands and marshes of that county and are famous for having revolted against Roman rule under their queen Boudica (or Boadicea) in the winter of 61 AD. The town itself was probably laid out, and its first streets metalled, approximately in the first half of the second century. The town, which is mentioned in the "Ravenna Cosmography", and the "Antonine Itinerary", was a settlement near the village of Caistor St. Edmund, some