Vital evidence has been discovered which could prove Colchester was a major settlement more than 2,000 years ago. Experts from the Colchester Archaeological Trust have been digging at Colchester Institute which is undergoing a radical £92 million redevelopment. And they have found artefacts which show Colchester, Britain's oldest recorded town, may have existed as a thriving settlement in the first century BC. Philip Crummy, director and chief archaeologist of the Colchester Archaeological Trust, said evidence, including coins, already existed that Colchester dated back to about 25 BC.