ILCHESTER
(“Lindinis”) Somerset, England.
The Roman town, whose ancient name may have been
Lindinis or a form allied to it, lay on the Fosse Way
where it is joined by a road from Durnovaria (Dorchester). The site has long been known but has not yet been
extensively examined. In the mid 1st c. A.D. a settlement
of simple circular huts was surrounded by a bank and
ditch. In the 4th c. an area of ca. 12.8 ha was enclosed
by a wall 0.9 m wide; this defensive work was perhaps
added to an earlier clay bank. The S gate has been
identified and one of its towers excavated. On the evidence of two inscriptions from Hadrian's Wall which
mention Durotriges Lindinienses (or Lendinienses), it
has been suggested that Lindinis was an administrative
center of the civitas Durotrigum, equal in status with
Durnovaria.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Proc. Somerset Archaeological Society
46 (1951) 188.
M. TODD
