The Archaeology of The Upper City and Adjacent Suburbs

This volume contains reports on sites excavated in the upper walled city at Lincoln and adjacent suburbs between 1972 and 1987. The project included large-scale excavations which yielded some stunning finds and revealed considerable information about several periods of the city's history. Each site is described in turn, incorporating stratigraphic, artefactual and environmental information, and the common threads are brought together in a general discussion. The excavators found remains of the defences of the Roman fortress, Roman houses, and the legionary headquarters, whose site was subsequently converted into a civic precinct. There were traces of occupation in the Early Saxon period, while the area outside the west gate has produced more pottery of the Mid-Saxon period (c.650-c.850) than any other in the city. Although there was renewed activity from the 10th century, full urbanisation of the upper city may not have happened until the late 11th century. There were already several churches before the Cathedral was begun in 1072, and the sequence of that at St Paul in the Bail is set out in detail. Several smaller excavations provided evidence for industrial activities such as malting, quarrying, and bell casting. Structural and artefactual evidence for the post-medieval period also give a flavour of the local life-style in the 16th-18th centuries. This work forms a companion volume to those on Wigford and the Brayford Pool (LAS 2) and The Lower Walled City (LAS 4).