Moat Farm Dyke is a linear earthwork forming part of the northern defensive system of Camulodunum, the late Iron Age oppidum of the Trinovantes and Catuvellauni and subsequently the Roman colonia of Colchester. It functioned as a northward extension of the Lexden Dyke, helping to enclose and define the western approaches to the oppidum; it was likely constructed in the late 1st century BC or early 1st century AD, and remained a visible landscape feature into the Roman period.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Rather than a settlement in itself, the dyke was a component of one of the most extensive pre-Roman territorial boundary systems in Britain, controlling movement and demarcating the ceremonial and political core of Cunobelin's capital. Its incorporation into the landscape around the Roman colonia at Camulodunum (founded AD 49) illustrates the continuity between native and Roman territorial organisation.
The Camulodunum dyke system has been mapped and sectioned at various points since the work of Hawkes and Hull in the 1930s, with later interventions by the Colchester Archaeological Trust establishing the typical profile of a substantial ditch with an inner bank. Specific excavation evidence from the Moat Farm Dyke segment itself is limited in the published record, and its dating relies largely on analogy with better-investigated stretches such as Lexden and Gryme's Dyke.
Moat Farm Dyke is a linear earthwork forming part of the northern defensive system of Camulodunum, the late Iron Age oppidum of the Trinovantes and Catuvellauni and subsequently the Roman colonia of Colchester. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Moat Farm Dyke: a northern extension of Lexden Dyke; part of the Iron Age territorial oppidum and Romano-British town of Camulodunum 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 Lexden Dyke at Spring Meadow: part of the Iron Age territorial oppidum and Romano-British town of Camulodunum (1.5 km), Site of pre-Roman settlement (1.5 km), Lexden Dyke Middle: part of the Iron Age territorial oppidum and Romano-British town of Camulodunum (2 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Moat Farm Dyke: a northern extension of Lexden Dyke; part of the Iron Age territorial oppidum and Romano-British town of Camulodunum