Page - 134 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

134 AdamRogers Fig. 3: Lincoln (Lindum),Brayford Pool at Lincoln in the low-lyingpart of the town. constructedalong the fen-edge, a transition zonemarking theboundarybetween the ‘treacher- ous wild Fenland’ and rich drier upland57 and still greatly susceptible to flooding,58 further emphasising the special nature of this area and the influencing aspects of the identity of the local inhabitants. Examples of shrines here includeHaddenhamon the south-west fen-edge59 andDeeping St James on thewestern fen-edge.60 Offerings across the Fenland landscapemay suggest thebelief of deitieswithin thewetland setting. North of the Lincolnshire Fens is the city of Lincoln. TheRoman era townat Lincoln (Lin- dum)wasprecededbyafortressonthesamesite, foundedat theendof theAD50sorbeginning of the AD 60s. The conversion to a town then took place at the beginning of the AD 70s. The settlementswere located on a spotwherewater formed an important focus in the pre-existing activities and settlement: amarshy location next to the RiverWitham at the point at which a largenaturalbodyofwateralso formed,knownastheBrayfordPool (Fig.3).There is increasing knowledge of Iron Age activity here, with some timber structures being excavated on what would oncehavebeenan islandwithin theBrayfordPool;61 the size of thepool is nowgreatly reduceddue to land reclamation (Fig.4).Very little is knownabout thenatureof the structures on this small island, or the activities associatedwith them, but thewet conditions heremight indicate that a farmstead is unlikely, and instead theremay have been some kind of religious andpolitical functionhere. Thiswatery location certainly appears tohave attractedmuch reli- gious activity, with objects deposited into theWithamand downstream at Fiskerton and then on to the Fenland. A triple-ditched linear earthwork lay to the north of the town site and the Brayford Pool. The definite function and date of this earthwork is still not certain, but a later Iron Age date is perhapsmost likely; what excavations there have been along the ditch have foundpottery of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.62 Although itmayhave functioned as somekind of stock control or barrier, it appears to have been directing attention, perhaps encouraging 57 Taylor 1985, 46. 58 Bromwich 1970. 59 Evans–Hodder 2006. 60 Hayes–Lane 1992, 135. 61 Darling– Jones 1988. 62 Jones–Stocker 2003, 30f.