Lincoln, England home to the University of Lincoln and Bishop Grosseteste University, and to Lincoln City Football Club. The earliest origins of Lincoln can be traced to the remains of an Iron Age settlement of round wooden dwellings (which were discovered by archaeologists in 1972) that have been dated to the 1st century BC. This settlement was built by a deep pool (the modern Brayford Pool) in the River Witham at the foot of a large hill (on which the Normans later built Lincoln Cathedral and Lincoln Castle). The origins of the name Lincoln may come from this period, when the settlement
Lincoln, England its own right known as the County of the City of Lincoln. Thereafter, various additional rights being conferred on the town by successive monarchs, including those of an assay town (which controlled metal manufacturing, for example). The oldest surviving secular drama in English, "The Interlude of the Student and the Girl" (c. 1300), may have originated from Lincoln. Lincoln's coat of arms, not officially endorsed by the College of Arms, is believed to date from the 14th century. It is "Argent on a cross gules a fleur-de-lis or". The cross is believed to be derived from the Diocese of Lincoln,