Aguntum
Aguntum was a Roman settlement that was raised to an autonomous city, the " Municipium Claudium Aguntum", under Emperor Claudius in the 1st century AD . The ruins of Aguntum are located in East Tyrol (Austria) about four kilometers east of Lienz in the municipality of Dölsach . The excavation area is 30,000 m².
history
The origins of the city have not yet been clearly established. The Noric people of the Laiancer resided here; her name is still recognizable today in that of the city of Lienz. According to one theory, the settlement developed from a street station ( mansio ) on Via Julia Augusta . It is located at the antique road junction into Mölltal , from where valuable Tauern gold was delivered. The finds speak for intensive building activity and urban development under Emperor Claudius . The city wall, which only exists on the east side, is described as puzzling. This wall, which was transformed into a representative building in the second or third century, was declared as an early Augusta barrier wall on Via Julia Augusta when it was first erected. However, since there is no archaeological evidence of a settlement in the later urban area in Augustan times, this can only be viewed as a hypothesis based on the current state of research.
Emperor Augustus' step-sons conquered in 15 BC. The Alpine countries. These areas were then incorporated as the Roman provinces of Noricum and Raetia .
According to the sources available today, the conquest of Noricum was likely to have taken place quite peacefully. Relations between Rome and the peoples north of the Alps (or on their southern edge) are from the 2nd century BC. Chr. Handed down. With the Roman conquest of the Alpine countries, the friendly Noricum was also tied more closely to Rome and finally incorporated into the Roman Empire as a province. As the end of this process, five municipalities were established under Emperor Claudius , namely Iuvavum , Teurnia , Virunum , Celeia and Aguntum.
After the elevation to the Municipium , Aguntum experienced a heyday lasting at least two centuries, which is reflected in the construction of numerous public and private buildings. In the first century, the city wall, the atrium house (both in the second half of the 1st century AD) and the large thermal baths (in several phases, starting in the first half of the 1st century AD) were built .
Part of the urban area administered by the “ Municipium Claudium Aguntum” was the area of today's East Tyrol as well as the Pustertal and its secondary valleys. The sphere of influence of Aguntum extended to the Felbertauern in the north, to the Kärntner Tor in the east, (presumably) Mühlbach in the Pustertal in the west and to the transitions into the Gailtal , to the Kreuzbergsattel and (presumably) to the Enneberg in the south.
The city remained inhabited at least into the 5th century AD, but the nearby Lavant was already heavily populated from the 3rd century AD . The topographical conditions there (elevated location, so-called "hilltop settlement") offered the population in late antiquity better protection from enemy attacks than the flatland settlement of Aguntum.
After the battle of Aguntum 610 between Bavarians and Slavs invaded the Slavs prior to the valleys of East Tyrol, and Aguntum was completely destroyed.
Excavations
Ruins of the city were still visible in the 16th century, which is why the legend of the dwarf city came up at that time . The reason for this was that only the low vaults and corridors of the mezzanine floor for the hypocaust heating remained of the buildings. So one was convinced that the rooms could only have been inhabited by dwarfs.
First excavations took place in the 18th century. Since the beginning of the 20th century, excavations have been carried out by the University of Vienna and the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna. In 1991 a contract was signed between the state of Tyrol and the Institute for Classical and Provincial Roman Archeology at the University of Innsbruck , which means that the institute is now responsible for the excavations. Today, in addition to the museum, you can visit the city wall, the atrium house , the thermal baths , the so-called artisan quarter and the Macellum .
Macellum
The macellum was uncovered during excavations in 2006 on the western edge of the excavation site. The circular building initially gave rise to speculation about its function; at that time there was talk of a meeting place or a cult building. Such round buildings were found frequently in the Italian motherland of the Roman Empire and in the African and Oriental provinces, but are rare in the northern provinces. Today, however, it is considered likely that the building, like most of the other small round buildings in the southern provinces of the empire, was a macellum, a small market hall in which food such as meat, fish and oysters were sold. At that time, live oysters were cooled with ice and then insulated with straw and brought from wagons to Cologne and Mainz and other provincial cities.
city wall
The city was once surrounded by a wall that was about 400 m long, 2.45 m thick and 7 m high, and was built of brook stones and mortar. It is currently being reconstructed up to a height of 5-6 m. Entrance into the city was found through a 9.50 m wide main gate, the time of which has not yet been clarified. The main gate had two passages and was flanked by towers that had doors on their outside, which shows that they served little or no defense purpose.
temple
In 2019, a stone wall measuring 6 m × 5 m × 1 m was found exactly in the middle of the forum . Presumably these are the remains of a temple from the first century. Excavations are planned for 2020 in which the alleged temple will be examined more closely.
Thermal bath
The thermal baths are located in the northwest of the excavation site. The large thermal baths were a public building, not only for body cleaning, but also as a social and cultural center. The representative thermal bath has been rebuilt several times since the 1st century AD and rotated by 180 ° in the second construction phase. Since then, the entrance has been in the west near the Debantbach. The prosperity of the Aguntum residents can be seen in the recovered, valuable finds and pieces of jewelry found in the sewers as well as in the architectural fittings of the thermal baths: marble doorsteps, marble-clad walls and warm water basins, wall paintings and mosaic floors.
Assembly hall
In 2018, a meeting room was discovered during excavations, which, according to initial findings, suggests a courtroom. The hall has a total area of 360 square meters, was decorated with marble and equipped with underfloor heating.
Observation tower
In the northern part of the excavation area there has been an 18.9 meter high steel observation tower since 1997 . The ascent is via a total of 91 steps and five intermediate landings up to the 15 meter high viewing platform . From here you have a very good view of the excavations and the impressive landscape of the Lienz basin.
museum
Because of the risk of flooding and mudslides from the nearby Debantbach , a protective structure was built in 1999 directly over an area of the atrium house, which was subsequently expanded into a museum. This protective structure was renewed from 2006 and today extends over the central area of the atrium house. The newly built Aguntum Museum has been accessible since June 2005. The museum has an exhibition area of 1,250 m² and is located on the side of the federal road opposite the excavation at street level.
literature
- W. Alzinger: Aguntum and Lavant , Dölsach 1958.
- M. Tschurtschenthaler: Aguntum. Museum and archaeological park, historical overview in L. Gomig (Ed.), Dölsach 2007, pp. 165–169.
- M. Auer: Municipium Claudium Aguntum. On the dating question of the city wall. Annual notebooks of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, No. 77, 2008, pp. 7–38.
- Maximilian Ihm : Aguontum . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 909.
- House prospectus
Web links
- Aguntum Museum
- Aguntum: Traces in the Past , August 19, 2010 from dolomitenstadt.at
- Project website of the University of Innsbruck
swell
- ^ House prospectus
- ^ Tyrol information - Aguntum excavation
- ↑ Probably discovered a Roman temple. In: tirol.orf.at . August 7, 2019, accessed August 7, 2019.
- ↑ Hall discovered during excavations in Dölsach. In: tirol.orf.at. August 9, 2018, accessed August 13, 2018 .
- ↑ Information according to information from the engineering office in Lienz, which was entrusted with the construction of the observation tower
Coordinates: 46 ° 49 ′ 38 ″ N , 12 ° 49 ′ 23 ″ E