Burchana

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According to Pliny the Elder, Burchana (also Byrchanis ) is the most famous of 23 islands between the Rhine and Jutland known to the Romans . It was made in 12 BC. Conquered by the Romans during the Drusus campaigns (12 to 8 BC). So far it has not been possible to identify them or determine their location.

It has often been assumed that Burchana was a large island off the East Frisian coast that entered the islands as a result of one of the storm surges of the Middle Ages - namely during the Great Mandränke of 1362, perhaps even during the First Marcellus Flood in 1219 Borkum , Bant , Juist and Buise was torn apart. The preserved eastern part of Buise is now the island of Norderney . Others believe that geological reasons speak against it.

The thesis that Burchana was identical to Borkum was also represented. For this reason, the city of Borkum celebrated its 2000th anniversary in 1993. However, like the other East Frisian Islands, Borkum is geologically very young, which at most was rudimentary around the birth of Christ and was apparently only settled in the Middle Ages .

Source code

Gaius Plinius Secundus, Naturalis historia (Book IV, Section XIII, Paragraph 97):

Quidam haec habitari ad Vistlam usque fluvium a Sarmatis, Venedis, Sciris, Hirris tradunt, sinum Cylipenum vocari et in ostio eius insulam Latrim, mox alterum sinum Lagnum, conterminum Cimbris. Promunturium Cimbrorum excurrens in maria longe paeninsulam efficit, quae Tastris appellatur. XXIII inde insulae Romanis armis cognitae. earum nobilissimae Burcana, Fabaria nostris dicta a frugis multitudine sponte provenientis, item Glaesaria a sucino militiae appellata, barbaris Austeravia, praeterque Actania. = Some say that these (areas) up to the river Vistula (Vistula) are inhabited by Sarmatians, Venedians ('Wenden'; Slavs), Skiren and Hirren. The Gulf (southern Baltic Sea) is called Cylipenus, and in its mouth lies the island of Latris (Lolland? Zealand?). Soon they speak of another gulf, Lagnus, near the Cimbri. The Cimbrian promontory, stretching far out to sea, forms the Tastris peninsula (= Cape Skagen). From there, 23 islands became known to the Romans through their armies. The most famous of them are the burcana, which ours call 'bean island' because of a bean-like fruit that grows wild there. Likewise the Glaesaria, which is so named after the amber by our soldiers, but which is called Austeravia ('East Island') by the barbarians, and also Actania.

literature

  • Menso Alting: Descriptio agri Batavii et Frisii sive notitia Germaniae inferioris. Amsterdam 1697.
  • Kurverwaltung Borkum, publisher: Borkum 2000 years. Neustadt 1993.
  • Karl-Heinz Sindowski: Geological development of East Frisia. - J. Ohling, Ed .: Ostfriesland in the protection of the dike, Vol. I. Pewsum 1969.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Text variant: similitudine.