diff --git a/server-ca/daemon_common.py b/server-ca/daemon_common.py
index 39746dc29..42c1f8e1d 100644
--- a/server-ca/daemon_common.py
+++ b/server-ca/daemon_common.py
@@ -20,21 +20,6 @@ def short(session):
     tmp = session.partition(":")
     return tmp[0][:12] + "..." + tmp[1] + tmp[2]
 
-def ancient(session, state):
-    """Given that this session is in the specified named state,
-    decide whether the daemon should forcibly expire it for being too
-    old, even if no client request has caused the serve to mark the
-    session as expired.  This is most relevant to truly abandoned
-    sessions that no client ever asks about."""
-    age = int(time.time()) - int(r.hget(session, "created"))
-    if state == "makechallenge" and age > 120:
-        if debug: print "considered", short(session), "ancient"
-        return True
-    if state == "testchallenge" and age > 600:
-        if debug: print "considered", short(session), "ancient"
-        return True
-    return False
-
 def random():
     """Return 64 hex digits representing a new 32-byte random number."""
     return binascii.hexlify(Random.get_random_bytes(32))