| Abstract: |
Volume describing the results of almost twenty years of excavations in the below hill area of the City of Lincoln. The sites excavated between 1972 and 1987 included several on the banks of the Brayford Pool and the River Witham, as well as others fronting the High Street in what was an important Roman and medieval suburb. The area contains the earliest evidence for occupation of the settlement, dating to a century or so before the Roman arrival. During the Roman legionary period (c. AD50--80) there was associated occupation close to the river, and a burial ground further south, close to the junction of Ermine Street and the Fosse Way. The street frontage was further developed as a commercial zone in the second century, with traders' houses extending for several hundred metres to the south of the river-crossing. The waterfront was consolidated and saw some reclamation. There is little evidence as yet for occupation of the suburb between c. AD 400 and c. AD 900, but the suburb of Wigford was established by the early tenth century, and several parishes were in being well before the Norman Conquest. Remains of domestic, ecclesiastical and commercial structures were discovered, and the waterfront was further exploited for fishing and wharfage. In spite of the economic decline of the late medieval period the Carmelite friary and nearby ceramic industry appear to have remained buoyant. The High Street frontage remained built up throughout, until a revival from the eighteenth century. Includes French and German summaries, and separately authored reports |
