Cataractonium

Cataractonium

Shown within England
Alternate name	Caturactonium Cactabactonion
Location	Catterick, North Yorkshire, England
Region	Brittania
Coordinates	54°23′3″N 01°38′59″W / 54.38417°N 1.64972°W / 54.38417; -1.64972Coordinates: 54°23′3″N 01°38′59″W / 54.38417°N 1.64972°W / 54.38417; -1.64972
Type	Fortification and settlement
Length	135m
Width	135m
Area	1.8ha
History
Builder	Quintus Petillius Cerialis
Founded	71
Periods	Roman Imperial

Cataractonium (Grid Ref:SE225992) was a fort and settlement in Roman Britain. The settlement evolved into Catterick, located in North Yorkshire, England.

Cataractonium likely took its name form the Latin word cataracta meaning either "waterfall" or "portcullis". Some linguists have suggested that this was a misinterpretation of an original Brittonic placename meaning "[place of] battle ramparts". The name is attested as Cataractonium in two 2nd-century Vindolanda tablets. The British section of the 2nd-century Antonine Itinerary mentions Catterick three times, but declines it variously as Cataractoni and Cataractone, implying the scribe considered it a 3rd-declension name. It is spelled Caturactonium (Greek: Κατουρακτόνιον, Katouraktónion) in Ptolemy's Geography and misspelled Cactabactonion in the Ravenna Cosmography. The name was spelled Cetrecht, Cetrehtan, and Cetrettun by Bede in the 7th century and Catrice in the Domesday Book compiled around 1086.

There is considerable evidence for Pre-Roman activity in the environs of the eventual Roman settlement. Evidence on both sides of the Swale suggests both Bronze Age and Iron Age activity. The Bronze Age remains take the form of a chambered cairn some 500m south-east of Catactonium, a ceramic vessel 200m north and a bronze rapier 150 north-east. The cairn has associated domestic occupation which continues into the Iron Age in the form of a multi-period roundhouse.