Cambidanum

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Cambidanum is the name of the fortified late Roman settlement on the Burghalde in Kempten . She went from the east of the Iller situated High Imperial civilian city Cambodunum forth.

Site plan of the Roman Kempten ( Cambodunum ), late antique settlement on the Burghalde bottom left

Surname

The name is derived directly from the predecessor settlement Cambodunum . He is mentioned in the Notitia dignitatum . Other sources continue to use the name of the earlier settlement, such as the Itinerarium Antonini ( Campoduno , beginning of the 3rd century) and the Tabula Peutingeriana ( Camboduno , second half of the 4th century).

topography

The Burghalde plateau towers over the Iller river valley by around 25 meters and is 130 m long and between 20 and 95 m wide. At the foot there is a flood-free terrace measuring 200 × 50 m.

In the Flavian times , the Iller ran west of the Burghalde. The breakthrough of the river between Burghalde and Lindenberger Ösch , where the former civil settlement was located, could be related to a flood event in the 1st century AD. This is evidenced by finds of twelve oak trunks from the area of ​​the town hall square, which probably come from a bridge, dendrochronologically they could be dated to the reign of Emperor Tiberius . A C14 -dated birch trunk and various small Roman finds in alluvial and gravel layers below today's old town point in the same direction.

history

Under the pressure of the Alemanni invasions in the Roman province of Raetia in 260 , the settlement on the Lindenberg was abandoned by the end of the 3rd century at the latest. A complete or planned destruction, e.g. by fire, has not yet been archaeologically proven. The large thermal baths seem to have not been maintained in the 3rd century, so that walls and roof structures collapsed.

Only the emperors Aurelian (270–275) and Probus (276–282) were able to achieve military successes north of the Alps and pacify the province. The establishment of a military defense and the systematic construction of new forts of the Danube-Iller-Rhein-Limes go back to the later tetrarchs . It is also possible that the fortification of the Burghalde was built in the last quarter of the third century to accommodate the significantly reduced settlement of just under one hectare.

The control of the border was now entrusted to much smaller units ( Limitanei ), whose garrisons, as in Kempten, were set up on heights that were favorable for fortification. Cambodunum had thus become a border town. To the north, in today's town of Kellmünz on the Iller, was the Caelius Mons fort . To the west of Kempten, the imperial border did not run as a river border along the Roman road Kempten-Bregenz. According to the Notitia dignitatum, this area between Fort Vemania near Isny and Cassiliacum (near Memmingen ) was controlled in the 4th century by the sub-unit of Legio III Italica , probably around 200 men strong, located in Cambidano . Which unit provided service there in the late 3rd century and built the fortification is unknown.

In Constantinian times, and especially in the second quarter of the 4th century, the situation on the imperial frontier seems to have calmed down somewhat. The settlement on the Lindenberg could have been used again to a lesser extent, as indicated by coin finds of Constantine and his successors Constantinus II , Constantius II , Valentinian I and Valens from the area of ​​the small thermal baths, the Gallo-Roman temple district and an insula .

The end of the fortified settlement on the Burghalde and the Danube-Iller-Rhein-Limes is difficult to determine on the basis of the sparse latest finds, as in Kempten. In general, there are only a few late Roman finds from the Burghalde. A costume accessory for a military belt from the small building may be assignable to a soldier from the department stationed here perhaps until AD 420/430, which since the 4th century increasingly consisted of Germanic mercenaries. Statements beyond this period are not possible due to a lack of dating finds. The end of Cambidanum may be indicated by a thick, non-datable layer of fire on the south wall of the Burghalde plateau, which was discovered in the 1950s.

Archaeological sites of late antiquity in Kempten

View of the Burghalde from the northwest
Wall projection as the remainder of the late Roman fortification wall in Burgstrasse

Burghalde

Defensive wall

The fortifications visible today on the Burghalde date from the late Middle Ages and early modern times. Due to the topography, they are likely to be partly congruent with the late Roman fortification walls. In 1950, near the southwest bastion, a 1.2 m wide wall was found over a length of 15 m, which, due to its construction, should date from late antiquity.

In the west, the fortification wall is 1.8 m wide and runs in or just next to the late medieval wall of the Protestant cemetery. Above ground, part of the northern front is marked by a 1.2 m high wall protrusion at the intersection of Burgstrasse and the late medieval city wall. A semicircular shell tower with a width of 4.5 m was located about three meters south of the funeral hall. The walled area thus took up an area of ​​0.75 hectares and would be suitable for accommodating a 200-man strong sub-unit. It remains unclear to what extent the fence also included the civil settlement.

building

Only a few buildings are known of the interior development. A small house on the north-eastern wall measures 5.5 × 9.5 m. A larger building with two apses (exposed interior 11.4 × 18.4 m, according to other information 13.2 × 20.6 m) could only be excavated in its southern part. The interpretation varies between a bathing building and a reception building similar to the auditorium in the Kellmünz fort . In the absence of evidence and due to deviations in the construction, an older assumption by the excavator Ludwig Ohlenroth (1941) that it was supposed to be a late Roman (bishop) church was rejected.

Burial grounds

Two late antique grave fields have so far been archaeologically proven in Kempten. A group of 38 late Roman body burials in the early and mid-imperial burial grounds “Auf der Keckwiese” (area of ​​the later Keck chapel ) is likely to be assigned to a subsequent use of the settlement on the Lindenberg due to its location. 28 of these graves were without gifts. The burial of a grown man with a conical glass beaker and a silver belt set, who perhaps belonged to the upper class of the third quarter of the 4th century, is outstanding.

The late antique settlement on the Burghalde includes a smaller burial ground under today's town hall square . It consists of a little more than a dozen body graves, mostly without additions. The prone burial of an adult man from the 2nd half of the 4th century is remarkable. The skull was damaged by a blow from which the man appeared to have recovered. The few additions, a bronze sleeve with three probes, could have been used in the medical field.

literature

  • Gerhard Weber: Kempten - Cambidano in late Roman times. In: Karl-Josef Gilles / Clive Bridger (eds.): Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces. Archaeopress, Oxford 1998 ISBN 0-86054-887-2 ( British Archaeological Reports Intern. Ser. 704), pp. 137-141.
  • Jochen Garbsch: The late Roman Danube-Iller-Rhein-Limes ( Small writings on the knowledge of the Roman occupation history of Southwest Germany 6), Stuttgart 1970, esp. P. 14f.
  • Michael Mackensen : Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the northwest border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum - Kempten. First capital of the Roman province of Raetia? Special volume Antike Welt, von Zabern, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2691-2 (= Zabern's illustrated books on archeology ), pp. 134–146.
  • Michael Mackensen: Raetia Secunda - new fortifications and the late Roman army in Northern Raetia. In: C. Sebastian Sommer (Ed.): Archeology in Bavaria, window to the past. Pustet, Regensburg 2006, ISBN 3-7917-2002-3 , pp. 218-222.

Individual evidence

  1. a b Notitia dignitatum occidentis XXXV 8.19.
  2. ^ Itinerarium Antonini 237.
  3. Information from Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the province of Raetia secunda. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 139.
  4. ^ Gerhard Weber: The polis Kambodounon. In: G. Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, pp. 15–24, here p. 15.
  5. Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 135.
  6. Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, pp. 136-138; Gerhard Weber: Kempten - Cambidano in late Roman times. In: Karl-Josef Gilles / Clive Bridger (eds.): Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces. Archaeopress, Oxford 1998 ISBN 0-86054-887-2 ( British Archaeological Reports Intern. Ser. 704), p. 137.
  7. Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, pp. 140f .; Gerhard Weber: Kempten - Cambidano in late Roman times. In: Karl-Josef Gilles / Clive Bridger (eds.): Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces. Archaeopress, Oxford 1998 ISBN 0-86054-887-2 ( British Archaeological Reports Intern. Ser. 704), p. 137.
  8. Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 143.
  9. Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 146.
  10. Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 139.
  11. Gerhard Weber: Kempten - Cambidano in late Roman times. In: Karl-Josef Gilles / Clive Bridger (eds.): Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces. Archaeopress, Oxford 1998 ISBN 0-86054-887-2 ( British Archaeological Reports Intern. Ser. 704), p. 137.
  12. ^ After Gerhard Weber: Kempten - Cambidano in late Roman times. In: Karl-Josef Gilles / Clive Bridger (eds.): Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces. Oxford 1998, p. 137; after Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the province of Raetia secunda. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 143 4.2 × 9.3 m
  13. Numbers from Gerhard Weber: Kempten - Cambidano in late Roman times. In: Karl-Josef Gilles / Clive Bridger (eds.): Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces. Oxford 1998, p. 137
  14. Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 143
  15. Gerhard Weber: Kempten - Cambidano in late Roman times. In: Karl-Josef Gilles / Clive Bridger (eds.): Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces. Archaeopress, Oxford 1998 ISBN 0-86054-887-2 (= British Archaeological Reports Intern. Ser. 704 ), p. 137.
  16. Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 143
  17. Gerhard Weber: Kempten - Cambidano in late Roman times. In: Karl-Josef Gilles / Clive Bridger (eds.): Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces. Oxford 1998, p. 137; Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the northwest border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 143.
  18. Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 143
  19. Michael Mackensen: Cambidanum - a late Roman garrison town on the north-western border of the Raetia secunda province. In: Gerhard Weber (Ed.): Cambodunum-Kempten. 2000, p. 143.

Coordinates: 47 ° 43 ′ 22.4 "  N , 10 ° 19 ′ 14.2"  E