Legionary 'prata' and 'territorium'

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Description

Many studies have identified the likely presence of large areas of land surrounding major Roman fortresses in which agricultural production and services were dedicated to the service of the legion rather than the local population. There has been some study of the 'territorium' that may have been dedicated to the support of the legionary base at Gloucester, and estimates of its size have ranged between 35 and 70 square miles (Hurst 1988, 68-9). In his account Hurst suggests that the legion will have drawn on their territorium for the supply of grain, fruit and vegetables as well as cattle (for leather as well as meat and milk), sheep (for meat, milk and textile), horses and pigs. It is also likely that supplies of timber and stone would have been drawn from the nearest available sources, which may also have been within the territorium and reserved for the legion's use. There is no evidence for the boundary of Gloucester's territorium, but it has been suggested that the territorium of Inchtuthill was marked by physical boundaries in the landscape (Collingwood and Richmond 1969, 73). Given the large area dedicated to the exclusive support for the fortress at Gloucester, it is likely that Lincoln's dedicated territorium extended way beyond the modern District Council Boundary, and therefore any boundary features are likely to have been way outside our study area. Even so, the identification of the territorium is important for our understanding of the military occupation and the City Archaeologist should engage in archaeological research work outside the District boundary with the aim of identifying its boundaries (either through the identification of boundary structures or through analysis of distribution patterns of artefacts of distinctively military character). Within the District boundary the existence of the territorium will provide an excellent opportunity to study the impact of Roman military agricultural techniques, both when compared with any pre-existing Late Pre-Roman Iron-Age techniques and with contemporary Romano-British techniques outside areas of military occupation. In the valley floor, we might expect to find pasture land, and here boundaries with stock-proof enclosures might be expected. The ditches of any such field systems might contain important environmental deposits which will help in understanding the impact of the establishment of the territorium on the local agricultural and natural environment. Any such boundaries are also likely to be valuable, in establishing whether they were laid out orthogonally with the fortress. On the pasture land the remains of small buildings used in stock management might be expected. The hill-top lands offer the lightest soils, and we need to explore the possibility that these areas were used for arable. Such arable agriculture may have been more centrally organised than the stock-raising and further sites like that identified at Bishop Grosseteste College might be expected (RAZ 6.17). Any evidence for quarrying of the limestone, ironstone or clay along the cliff edge dating from the military era will be of very great interest (RAZ 6.22), but we should note that most of the earliest buildings of the fortress were of timber. Consequently work both within and outside the RAZ (for example in RAZ 6.22 and 6.23) should explore the possibility either that there was extensive clearance of indigenous woodland as a result of the invasion, or even that some deliberate plantations were established.

LARA Boundaries

This RAZ includes all of the ground on the north side of the river and out to the city boundary, which has not been allocated a more specific archaeological identity. It is possible, however, that the territorium extended south of the Witham and included natural resources like the woodland on Boultham Moor (RAZ 6.23) and fish and fowl in the wetlands along the rivers (RAZ 6.24 and 6.25).