Modern-day Aldborough, in North Yorkshire, lies on the site of Isurium
Brigantum, the former administrative capital of the Brigantes, one of
the largest indigenous tribes of Roman Britain. Strategically located on
Dere Street, by the second century AD it had become a key Roman town
engaged with the supply of the northern frontier, with buildings and
mosaics that reveal a thriving economy through to the fourth century.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the site of Isurium
Brigantum was the subject of important antiquarian investigations.
However, unlike some southern counterparts - for example, Calleva
Atrebatum or Verulamium - in the twentieth century it attracted less
archaeological attention until, in 2009, a team of archaeologists led by
Dr Rose Ferraby and Professor Martin Millett began a major
re-examination of the site. Large-scale geophysical surveys using both
gradiometry and high-resolution ground-penetrating radar were conducted
and these revealed most of the town and its surroundings, allowing its
development from the second century AD to the medieval period to be
mapped with great accuracy.