Cardena
Cardena is an ancient settlement ( vicus ) at the foot of the Martberg in Karden in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate .
Location and origin
Below the former Celtic oppidum and the later Roman temple district of Martberg on the Lower Moselle , in which - as the name of the mountain and some inscriptions reveal - mainly the Roman god Lenus Mars was venerated, the ancient craftsmen and traders settlement of Cardena was located directly on the banks of the Moselle. the valley settlement of the ancient mountain sanctuary.
Like the systems on the Martberg, Cardena is likely to have emerged from an older Celtic settlement . Utensils and coin finds from the late Celtic period were discovered in several places in the local area.
The Roman site is attested by a consecration to the genius Vicanorum as a vicus . The geographer of Ravenna handed down the ancient name of the place as "Cardena" around 700.
Cardena's importance resulted - in addition to its strategically favorable location at the beginning of the ascent below the Celtic oppidum and later Roman mountain sanctuary - from its location at the intersection of two trans- regionally important traffic routes: the Moselle as an extremely important waterway and the regionally important north-south connection from the Mayener area in the direction of Kastellaun , which forced travelers to cross the Moselle near Cardena. This route probably followed prehistoric paths that passed beneath the Celtic oppidum. This street seems to have been very busy so that the craftsmen and traders based in Cardena were able to meet the needs of travelers and pilgrims to the mountain sanctuary with products and services.
Extension and Chronology
The topographical location of Cardena is given by the relatively narrow strip between the banks of the Moselle and the foot of the Mart and Hüttenberg mountains. Previous excavations confirmed the assumption that it was a typical street village with one row of houses to the left and right of the main street, although there was a larger building complex, possibly a mansio , in the area of the collegiate church . In fact, it was archaeologically confirmed that St. Castor Street, which is still largely dead straight, follows the course of the former Roman main street. Individual smaller side streets seem to have branched off from this, as they do today. The late antique main street was a 3 m wide paved driveway, to which two walkways, each 2 meters wide, separated by 15 cm high curbs. The Roman settlement apparently reached a north-south extension of about 300 meters and seems to have been hardly wider than 80 m, which corresponds to a built-up area of about 2.5 hectares.
In addition to trade and services, the population of the vicus will have lived primarily from craft activities. For this purpose, an extensive pottery district was operated mainly south of today's train station, with the terracotta figures made in Cardena particularly enjoying great popularity among visitors to the temple district on the Martberg. The older of the around 20 Roman pottery kilns that have been found so far come from the 1st century AD and primarily produced what are known as "Belgian goods". Later, in addition to the terracotta figurines already mentioned, marbled crockery, black varnish ware and utensils of various kinds were made. The pottery was still in operation in the 4th century, but appears to have stopped after that.
The ancient settlement seems to have ended at about the height of the branch of today's Maximinstraße from St. Castor-Straße, which deviates from the rectangular street scene. Just a few meters south, along the banks of the Moselle, the pottery begins and at the beginning of the ascent to Martberg, as usual outside of the village, the Roman, late antique and early medieval graves of the population of Cardena can be found. The former parish church of St. Maria continues the late antique tradition of burials and the Karden cemetery can still be found here today.
aftermath
Already in the 4th century Castor von Karden (* unknown; † around 400), a student of Bishop Maximin von Trier (* end of the 3rd century; † 346) presumably from Aquitaine , is said to have served as a priest in Karden on the Moselle worked and founded a Christian community together with Potentinus , who also came from Aquitaine, and his sons Felicius and Simplicius. Part of the bones of St. At the request of Archbishop Hetti, Castor von Karden came to the then newly built Kastor Church in Koblenz in 836 . An early college of priests developed at St. Castor's grave and working place in Karden as early as Merovingian times, from which later a collegiate foundation emerged, of which, apart from Korbisch (1208), above all the former canons' building (presumably the refectory and dormitory from the year 1238) and the Romanesque collegiate church of St. Castor exist.
literature
- Hans Eiden: Excavations on the historical topography of Cardena (Karden) 1965-1970 . In: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum zu Mainz, excavations in Germany - Funded by the German Research Foundation 1950-1975. Part 2, Roman Empire in Free Germania - Early Middle Ages I , Mainz 1975, pp. 64–79.
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 50 ° 10 '45.9 " N , 7 ° 17' 58.4" E