NMP extract of Caistor Roman town

The NMP mapping around the Roman town of Venta Icenorum, at Caistor St Edmund, just to the south of Norwich, has potentially revealed the full extent of the triple-ditched enclosure that surrounded the walled town. These defences had previously been interpreted as a Roman fort pre-dating the establishment of the town and were thought to relate to the period immediately after the Boudiccan revolt. Only the southern and eastern sides of the enclosure had previously been identified on the aerial photographs and the full plan of the site was not known. The NMP mapping has now identified sections of all sides of the triple ditched enclosure and indicates that it may have been kite-shaped in plan (indicated by the blue dotted line). These results have led to suggestions that the triple ditches may in fact relate to a set of early town defences that pre-date the construction of the walls in around the 3rd century AD, rather than relating to a fort. The NMP mapping has also revealed further detail of the network of roads and structures (coloured red on the NMP mapping) associated with the town.NMP mapping © Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service/English Heritage. Ordnance Survey map reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO © Crown Copyright, licence number 100019340