Roman Lincoln, 1953

The excavations carried out by the Lincoln Archaeological Research Committee during 1953 dealt with two sites of a very different nature, although of the same period. Yet together they provide a useful illustration of the two principal aspects of the history of Roman Lincoln and also of two types of archaeological investigation demanded in an urban centre. The first excavation, in East Bight, was deliberately undertaken in an attempt to find answers to certain problems relating to the early military and quasi-military occupation of Lincoln and was excavated methodically and without haste; the second was a hasty examination during building operations at no. 292 High Street where a structure, apparently connected with the communal life of the town in its later period of expansion, demanded immediate investigation, without the opportunity for unhurried and detailed examination.The first excavations of the Research Committee, in 1945–6, at Westgate and North Row (fig. 2), resolved once and for all the question of the general siting of the Claudian fortress of the Ninth Legion and, in particular, demonstrated that on north and west the legionary defences underlay those of the later Colonia. These conclusions suggested the possibility that the defences might similarly coincide on south and east also, where the line of the Colonia wall was known; but, as Professor I. A. Richmond pointed out, if this was so, the area of the legionary fortress would only have been approximately 42 acres whereas a minimum of 50 acres might have been expected.