Harbor temple
The port temple was the second largest temple in the ancient Colonia Ulpia Traiana , the predecessor town of today's Xanten . Architecturally, it was in the tradition of the Roman and thus indirectly the Greek temples . It is a classic podium temple , which was provided as a peripteros (ring hall temple) with a surrounding row of columns. With the surrounding temple area it took up most of the insula 37 of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana and was located directly on the northern city wall of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana near the Rhine .
Research history
The first findings that belonged directly to the port temple were made during excavations carried out by the archaeologist Harald von Petrikovits between 1934 and 1936, during which he uncovered a thick foundation made of Opus caementicium that extended over two meters into the depth. 14 meters to the east there were two wall foundations running parallel to each other, which were discovered in the late 19th century during excavations by the Lower Rhine Antiquities Association in Xanten . Petrikovits correctly interpreted the foundation as a podium temple and the two remains of the wall as a portico surrounding the sanctuary . Further archaeological excavations were carried out in 1977/1978 on the construction of the Xanten Archaeological Park . The foundations of the temple were completely uncovered and examined in this context. This was followed by a partial reconstruction of the building on site, which is intended to give visitors an impression of the size and construction of the original building. The southern corner was reconstructed up to the gable , but most of the columns are only indicated as stumps. The reconstructed podium erected for this purpose is hollow on the inside and at the same time protects the underlying ancient original findings that did not have to be touched during the reconstruction.
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Temple construction
In contrast to the usual situation with such temples, not only the individual walls of the structure were provided with a foundation for the harbor temple, but the entire area was secured with a large foundation plate. This was necessary due to the unsafe subsoil in the immediate vicinity of the banks of the Rhine. The foundation was built by providing a three-meter-deep pit with a dense grid of oak piles driven vertically into the earth and the space between the tree trunks being filled with cast masonry ( Opus caementicium ) mainly made of basalt and greywacke . The edge of the foundation was secured by tree trunks placed closer together, braided with brushwood and boarded in the upper layers with horizontal boards . The imprints of the oak trunks can still be seen today as cavities in the cast masonry originally filled in between.
The rising masonry of the temple itself was no longer present during the excavations, but could be reconstructed as the bottom row of stones left marks on the cast masonry of the foundation. These prints form two rectangles, one inside the other. The inner wall is the closed space in the middle of the temple (the cella ), the walls of which were 1.65 meters thick. The outer stone quarter is 3.25 - 3.40 m thick on the two long sides and the northern narrow side, and only 2.85 m on the southern (entrance) narrow side of the temple. It formed the basis for the row of columns ( peristasis ) that surrounded the interior on all four sides - on the narrow sides with six columns each, and on the long sides with nine columns each. On three sides of the temple, the pillars stood almost at the very edge of the foundation, only on the south side it protruded about five meters beyond. This created a kind of front terrace of the temple, into which a staircase was let, which made it possible to enter the building. The height of the entire structure will be reconstructed at 26.80 m.
About 16 m in front of the temple and in the orientation according to the cardinal points exactly according to this, an embroidery of 3.00 × 2.65 m was exposed, which was probably the altar. This was - as is common practice - therefore outside in front of the stairway to the temple.
In addition to the foundations, smaller remains of columns and capitals were found, which show that the temple was laid out according to the Corinthian order . The columns had a diameter of about 1.35 m in the lower area, they became narrower towards the top and had a diameter of about 1.20 m there. Its height can be reconstructed at around 18 m; their center distance was 3.85 m. Like the beams and the outer paneling of the podium, they were made of limestone from Lorraine . Other smaller finds of architectural parts consisted of plaster , stucco and marble . The latter was mainly imported from the province of Gallia Belgica and the area around today's Bergstrasse , but individual parts of the marble found also came from the Mediterranean region. These smaller finds are evidence of the original splendid furnishings of the temple, for example with Opus sectile as a floor covering, with marble wall panels and various sculptural decorations. For the inner wall of the cella, an ornament of two stacked levels of pilasters is assumed, which have reached a height of around 12 meters. Finally, small remnants of plaster with a curved shape were found, which suggest that there were niches in the interior of the cella (but nothing precise can be said about their function).
Reconstructed capitals, one of them colored
Remnants of the foundation with impressions of the former masonry under today's reconstruction building
Aerial view of the partially reconstructed temple
Rear view of the partial reconstruction
Temple precinct
The temple building formed the center of an almost rectangular complex that covered an area of 68 × 94 m and is known as the temple district. From the demarcation of this complex, only foundations have been found that consist of two parallel rows. The outer one extends much deeper into the earth than the inner one, so it had to carry a greater weight. From this it can be concluded that the temple area (probably two-storey) with a portico was limited, so a portico, which was open to the inside: Accordingly, the inner foundations contributed a colonnade, the external foundations, however, a massive wall, as Temenos also shielded the holy area from the outside world. This created a covered walkway around the inner courtyard that was open to the inside.
The outer wall of this portico was structured to the north by slightly protruding sections, so-called pilaster strips . This is where the Decumanus maximus, the east-west main street of the city, ran. In the west of the temple area, five meters in front of the outer portico wall, directly on the north-south road running there, the remains of several foundation stitches were exposed, which are about 4.50 m apart. Research therefore assumes that there was also a small row of columns on the outside, in which the entrance to the sanctuary was possibly located. A clue for this is also that no evidence of access to the inner courtyard was found on either of the narrow sides of the temple area.
The portico of the port temple surrounds an area that is approximately, but not completely rectangular, but actually forms a parallelogram . The reason for this is not yet known. It is also unclear why one corner of this parallelogram extends right up to the port tower of the city wall. There the Via sagularis , which once led around the entire city on the inside of the city fortifications, was interrupted. It is reasonable to assume that this idiosyncratic topographical layout of the harbor temple is due to the fact that there was a sanctuary at the same place before the city was founded, the position and orientation of which was wanted for religious reasons. However, from the various finds and findings from the “pre-Colonia” era that were made in the area of the temple, nothing indicates a temple at this point.
History of the construction
In the layers below the temple remains, various archaeological findings have been uncovered, which are stratigraphically dated to the time before the construction of the structure. They prove that the area was densely populated until shortly before the start of construction work on the sanctuary. Mainly remains of pits, ditches and other signs of human intervention that can be traced in the ground, through which buildings in wood or clay construction can be opened up and divided into five settlement phases, were found. The finds reveal settlement and, occasionally, manual activities of a Roman or Romanized population, but a definitive classification into a type of settlement is not possible. The most important other findings include a road with gravel cover, which led through the western area of the later temple area and did not yet show the orientation of the later road grid of the Colonia, and a stone building, which is called "Building Y". This was located directly to the north of the temple and covered an area of over 300 m 2 ; it belongs to the latest settlement phase before the temple was built and is dated to around 100 AD, i.e. shortly before or shortly after the city was elevated to Colonia . The purpose and use of the building are still unclear; the interpretation as a small temple building, which would then have been completely dismantled before the construction of the port temple, is purely speculative.
The construction of the temple can be limited chronologically by the fact that the foundations of the temple portico and those of the port gate of the city wall meet. At this point, the findings on the ground show that the gate existed before the sanctuary was built. The excavated remains of the port gate still contained wooden parts that, according to the results of dendrochronological studies, came from trees that were felled in the winter time of 105/106 AD. The port temple must therefore definitely have been created later ( terminus post quem ). However, the preserved remains of the building's decoration are classified rather early in terms of style within the 2nd century. Therefore, the port temple as a whole is mostly dated to the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-138) or, at the latest, to that of his successor Antoninus Pius (138-161). To whom it was dedicated is not known; The god of war Mars or the deified emperor Trajan (reigned 98–117) after his death were considered . An indication of this is given by the design of the ring hall temple, which is rather untypical for the time it was built, but also generally for the north-west of the Roman Empire. This could be a sign that a special order from Rome motivated the erection (but the cause of which can only be speculated).
Various small fragments of sculptures have been found in the area of the temple podium, some of which belonged to a frieze and some to statues . These finds can no longer be stratigraphically classified, but many of them are not only badly damaged, but also show traces of mortar and characteristic signs of fire exposure. The mortar is a sign that these pieces were later used as building material; the scorch marks indicate that the sculptures were brought only in the aftermath of the use of the temple there to in lime kilns to lime to be processed.
The abandonment and destruction of the temple is dated back to the late 3rd century AD, when, following the Frankish raids in 275/276, most of the urban area was abandoned and the settlement moved to a smaller area in the center, the Tricensimae , shrank. It is assumed that with this downsizing of the place the large structures in the abandoned areas were demolished because stones were needed to build the new fortifications and monumental buildings could provide future attackers with cover and thus military advantages.
literature
- Jutta Zerres: The excavations of 1979/80 at the port temple (Insula 37) of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana (= British Archaeological Reports. International series. Volume 2181). Archaeopress, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-1-407-30731-2 .
- Hans-Joachim Schalles : The port temple. In: Martin Müller , Hans-Joachim Schalles, Norbert Zieling (eds.): Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Xanten and its surroundings in Roman times. (= History of the city of Xanten. Volume 1). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3953-7 , pp. 311-318.
Web links
- Description of the port temple on the APX website , accessed September 13, 2018.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harald von Petrikovits: The excavations in the Colonia Traiana near Xanten. The excavation of the core settlement and the banks (1934–1936). In: Bonner Jahrbücher . Issue 152, 1952, pp. 41-161, here pp. 125-131.
- ↑ Hans-Joachim Schalles : The port temple. In: Martin Müller , Hans-Joachim Schalles, Norbert Zieling (eds.): Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Xanten and its surroundings in Roman times (= history of the city of Xanten. Volume 1). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3953-7 , pp. 311-318, here p. 312.
- ↑ Jutta Zerres: The excavations of 1979/80 at the port temple (Insula 37) of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Archaeopress, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-1-407-30731-2 , summary on p. 120 f.
- ↑ For building Y see Jutta Zerres: The excavations of 1979/80 at the port temple (Insula 37) of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Archaeopress, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-1-407-30731-2 , p. 61 and p. 74.
Coordinates: 51 ° 40 ′ 9.6 " N , 6 ° 26 ′ 46.7" E