Roman camp Olfen

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The Roman camp Olfen is a five-hectare Roman military camp from the Augustan era southwest of today's town of Olfen , Coesfeld district , on the Lippe .

exploration

In 2008, volunteers from the LWL archeology for Westphalia discovered Roman copper coins while inspecting a field near Olfen . Archaeologists informed of this use metal detectors to search for them . The first surface finds included three Roman coins and fragments of Roman ceramic vessels such as amphorae and sigillata containers. At the same time, archaeological prospecting for non-invasive exploration took place. This included aerial photographs and magnometer measurements . Trial excavations led to Roman finds, but not to the discovery of a moat. The course of the trench and two corners of the camp could only be recognized in 2011 on aerial photographs based on vegetation features . This was followed by a search cut in the same year in which the 4.1 meter wide and 1.6 meter deep storage ditch was discovered, which surrounded the facility as a pointed ditch. The foundation traces of a 2.2 meter wide wood-earth wall could also be determined. Further individual finds of Roman ceramics made in 2011, over 100 coins and vestments, allow the camp to be dated to the time of Emperor Augustus .

Bearing description

The camp was located on the right bank of the Lippe on a spur-like elevation that rises up to 20 meters above the floodplain. From the elevated position, with a wide view of the Lippe Valley, the Romans controlled in the period from 11 to 7 BC. A ford at this point in the river. The camp was approximately 240 x 250 meters in size. With an area of ​​around 5.4 hectares, it is a smaller complex with solid building structures compared to other Roman camps on the Lippe.

The size of the warehouse, the nature of the wood-earth wall and the location on the Lippe suggest that it was a supply warehouse, i.e. a facility in which supplies were kept and the Lippe transition was controlled at the same time. The Olfen camp could have served as a stage stop to the Roman camps in Beckinghausen and Roman camps in Oberaden , some 25 kilometers away . The Romans supplied their troops mainly by water - this, however, the ships had to lip upriver towed , that is, from the shore of humans or draft animals pulled against the stream. Low water on the Lippefurt near Olfen prevented the flat-bottomed ships from continuing their journey and required the goods to be temporarily stored. A maximum of two cohorts , around 1,000 legionaries , could have been stationed in Olfen - until the camp was probably abandoned after around four years.

According to the archaeologist Michael cattle camp Olfen had during Drusus - campaigns in Germania strategically most important.

literature

  • Bettina Tremmel : Olfen-Sülsen. A new Roman camp from the time of the Drusus campaigns. In: Archäologie in Westfalen-Lippe , 2011 (2012), pp. 86–89, ( Online, pdf)
  • Christoph Grünewald: Romans and Teutons. In: W. Frese (Hrsg.) Geschichte der Stadt Olfen , (Bielefeld 2011), pp. 43–55, ISBN 978-3-89534-889-1 .
  • Peter Kracht: Olfen In: Antike Welt , 2009, Heft 6, S. 6, (short reproduction of the PM from January 6, 2009).
  • Bettina Tremmel: Olfen-Sülsen: A new Roman camp from the time of the Drusus campaigns. Supply station on the west-east route from the Rhine to Oberaden. In: Jahrbuch Westfalen , 2013 (2012), pp. 13-17, ISBN 9783402158197 .
  • Bettina Tremmel: Olfen-Sülsen: A new Roman camp from the time of the Drusus campaigns. In: Varus-Kurier , 14, 2012, pp. 24-25. ( Online, pdf)
  • Bettina Tremmel: The Romans in the Coesfeld district. In: Portrait of German districts. District Coesfeld , (Coesfeld 2012), pp. 30–33, ISBN 978-3-88363-344-2 .
  • H. Zeiß: Der Latènehelm von Olfen In: Bodenaltertümer Westfalens 3. Westphalia 19 , 1934, pp. 117-178.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d LWL press release of October 25, 2011

Coordinates: 51 ° 41 ′ 13 ″  N , 7 ° 21 ′ 24 ″  E