Lindinis (modern Ilchester, Somerset) began as a mid-1st century military post guarding the Fosse Way crossing of the River Yeo, but quickly developed into a substantial roadside settlement and, by the later Roman period, a walled small town of around 12-13 hectares. It was active from c. 60 CE through the 4th century, with its peak prosperity in the late 3rd and 4th centuries when it appears to have served as an administrative centre.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Two inscriptions from nearby (the Civitas Durotrigum Lendiniensis stones) indicate that Lindinis became the caput of a sub-division of the Durotriges civitas, probably in the 3rd century — making it one of only a handful of known second civitas capitals in Britain, alongside Isurium Brigantum. It was also the focus of an unusually dense cluster of wealthy late Roman villas in south Somerset (Ilchester Mead, Catsgore, etc.).
Excavations since the 1950s, notably by Peter Leach in the 1970s-80s, have revealed the defensive circuit (earthen rampart later supplemented by a stone wall), street grid, timber and stone buildings, cemeteries along the approach roads, and substantial 4th-century occupation including mosaics. Modern urban overlay has limited large-scale exposure, so the street plan and full extent of public buildings remain only partially understood.
Lindinis (modern Ilchester, Somerset) began as a mid-1st century military post guarding the Fosse Way crossing of the River Yeo, but quickly developed into a substantial roadside settlement and, by the later Roman period, a walled small town of around 12-13 hectares. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Lindinis is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Ilchester Mead (0.1 km), Northover House, late Roman cemetery (0.4 km), Catsgore (3.8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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