ANCASTER
(“Causennae”) Lincolnshire, England.
The Roman settlement at Ancaster lies 29 km
S of Lincoln on Ermine Street. The place has long been
identified as the Causennae of the
Antonine Itinerary,
but if the Itinerary distances are accepted Causennae
should lie S of Ancaster. The settlement lies at the junction of two important routes: the N-S ridge followed by
Ermine Street, and an E-W route through the Ancaster
Gap. An Iron Age settlement occupied the site at the
time of the Roman conquest.
The first Roman occupation of Ancaster took the form
of a fort, built not long after A.D. 43 and held until ca.
A.D. 70-80. Only a section of the defenses has so far
been recovered. After the withdrawal of the army unit
a civilian vicus developed, which received its own defenses, probably in the later 3d c. These consisted of a
stone wall 2.1 in wide, an earth rampart behind it, and,
in the final form, two broad ditches outside (3.6 ha).
Projecting towers were built at the angles, probably in
the 4th c. Knowledge of the interior is limited. A few
pieces of religious sculpture, including a relief of the
Matres, suggest a temple or temples. Agricultural buildings are known outside the walls, and an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery immediately outside the S defenses suggests that occupation continued at least into the 5th c.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Trollope, “Ancaster, the Roman
Causennae,”
ArchJ 17 (1870) 1ff; C.F.C. Hawkes, “Roman Ancaster, Horncastle and Caistor,”
ArchJ 103
(1946) 17ff.
M. TODD
