New Evidence for the Vicus at Malton Roman Fort, North Yorkshire

Abstract

Aerial photographs taken by English Heritage in 2006 and 2011 revealed a series of cropmarks in arable land immediately to the north-east of the Roman fort at Malton, North Yorkshire. Observations in the air, along with subsequent interpretation and mapping of these features, indicated that they represented the buried remains of a civilian settlement or vicus aligned on a road running from the north-eastern gate of the fort. The civilian settlement to the south of the fort was the subject of a series of excavations between 1949 and 1970 (Mitchelson 1964; Wenham and Heywood 1997) but it was thought that a linear earthwork running from the corner of the fort may have defined the eastern limit of the vicus. However, the findings from the aerial photograph mapping complement other evidence from fieldwalking and geophysical survey to indicate that the vicus was much more extensive than previously thought.