Time Team Specials

Boudica is revered as one of the greatest female warriors in history. Tony Robinson traces her story and follows a major excavation in Norfolk that may hold the key to uncovering what happened to Boudica's tribe after they were defeated by the Roman army.

Boudica's tribe, the Iceni, used to make exquisite torcs: jewellery that required metalworking skills more advanced than anywhere else in the world; and they left behind some of the greatest treasures of prehistory.

When the Romans threatened their way of life, the tribe dared to take on the full might of the Roman Empire. But the tribe's revolt failed and as Boudica disappeared from history so did the Iceni.

Tony visits Caistor St Edmund, a small English village that 2000 years ago was known as Venta Icenorum. In clear aerial pictures, it appears that the area was a significant Roman town in the heart of Iceni territory.

This Time Team Special asks whether the town was built on top of a tribal centre in order to punish the Iceni rebels, and considers whether imperial Rome simply crushed the Iceni or if Boudica led her tribe to destruction.