The Roman wall and ditch on Motherby Hill form part of the defensive circuit of Lindum Colonia (Lincoln), specifically along the western side of the lower walled city. Originally established as a legionary fortress around AD 60-70 and converted to a colonia for retired veterans c. AD 90, the defences were progressively extended downhill to enclose the lower town on the slope toward the River Witham during the 2nd to 4th centuries AD.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Motherby Hill preserves a stretch of the western defences of one of the four coloniae of Roman Britain and the provincial capital of Britannia Secunda in the later empire, marking a key boundary of one of the most important urban centres in northern Britain. The surviving wall and ditch illustrate the ambitious downhill expansion of the colonia, a topographically distinctive feature of Roman Lincoln.
Excavations and observations along Motherby Hill and the adjacent West Gate area have revealed the stone curtain wall with an external ditch, alongside evidence for earlier earthen rampart phases that were later faced and thickened in stone. Recorded sections show typical Lincoln construction in coursed limestone with a clay/rubble core, though much of the circuit here is known only from antiquarian observation and small-scale interventions during modern building works.
The Roman wall and ditch on Motherby Hill form part of the defensive circuit of Lindum Colonia (Lincoln), specifically along the western side of the lower walled city. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman wall and ditch on Motherby Hill is classified as a Roman site — 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 Lincoln Roman colonia (Lindum) (0.1 km), Roman wall, ditch and gate adjoining and under The Park (0.3 km), Col. Lindum (0.3 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 Roman wall and ditch on Motherby Hill