Cataractonium

Cataractonium (Grid Ref:SE228228) was a fort and settlement in Roman Britain. The settlement evolved into Catterick, located in North Yorkshire, England.

Etymology
The place was also known as Katouraktonion around 150 AD and Catrice around 1086 AD in the Domesday Book. It took its name form the Latin word 'cataracta meaning waterfall. This is likely to have been a misinterpretation of the original Celtic place-name meaning (place of) battle ramparts. It is also mentioned in Ptolemy's Geography as Caturactonium and as Cactabactonion in the Ravenna Cosmology.

Origins
Though there is no definitive date for the building of the fort, it is likely to have been around AD 70 during the governorship of Quintus Petillius Cerialis to support the campaign of Agricola in Scotland. It was also likely to have been in use during the Brigantes revolt in AD 155 under the governorship of Gnaeus Julius Verus. The first site appeared to be little more than a timber hill fort, but the later and bigger settlement was constructed in stone and had a civilian population too.

Military
No direct evidence exists of which military units may have been stationed at the fort, but it is likely that an auxilliary unit from Bremetenacum Veteranorum (Ribchester) would have been posted here. Tiles found nearby were stamped BSAR. This would suggest that over the years of occupation, soldiers from the Ala II Asturum, Numerus equitatum Sarmatarum and Cuneus Sarmatarum armies were used as detachments for the fort.

Culture
Among the artifacts excavated at the site was a theatrical mask, suggesting there may have been a theatre or small amphitheatre.

Economy
A 1995 project that mapped the site from the air, located at least sixteen identifiable buildings and the partial remains of several others. These were likely to have been shops.

Roads
The Anotonine Itinerary mentions Catterick three times. In the first Itinerary it known as Cataractoni, located 12 mi from 'Vinovium (Binchester) and 24 mi from Isvrium (Aldborough, North Yorkshire). In the second Itinerary it is known as Cataractone, 16 mi from Lavatris (Bowes) and again 24 mi from Isurium. In the fifth Itinerary it is known again as Cataractone, but the distance to Lavatris is reported as 18 mi, and Aldborough is called by its full name Isurium Brigantum.

It is fed by the major trunk road of Dere Street, leading from Eboracum (York) and Isurium Brigantum (Aldborough) to the south, heading north towards Morbium (Piercebridge).

Rivers
The fort was located to the south of the River Swale. The early fort was used as a marching camp for patrols in the area and as defence for the bridge crossing that carried Dere Street.

Archaeological remains
Little can be seen above ground as most of the area is now covered by Catterick Racecourse and the A1(M) road. The most visible is a section of wall. There was evidence of at least four altars of worship. They were dedicated to Veterus, an ancient German ancestral god, Suria, another name for Ceres, the third to Matribus Domesticae, the mother goddess of the house and lastly to an unnamed god of roads and pathways.

An excavation by Sir William Lawson around 1840 revealed the foundations to the walls of the fort.