A substantial civil settlement (vicus) lay outside the east rampart of the fort, and included a curving structure thought to be an amphitheatre.

[6][7] Excavations in 2004 by Headland Archaeology as part of work to renew the water mains in the village, found Roman artefacts and possible a boundary ditch and evidence of the vicus.

[8] In 2010, CFA Archaeology undertook excavations, as part of a planning condition in advance of the construction of the Musselburgh Primary Health Care Centre, on an area 50m to the north and down slope of the fort.

Those excavations reveled a Mesolithic stone tool scatter and Iron Age burials that pre-dated the fort.

The high number of horse equipment recovered led the archaeologists to believe that the theory that a cavalry unit was stationed there at some point is likely true.