Christoph B. Rüger

Christoph Bernhard Rüger (born July 3, 1937 in Liegnitz , Lower Silesia Province ) is a German provincial Roman archaeologist . Rüger's research area extended to the Latin provinces of the Roman Empire, epigraphy and the Roman military.

Life and accomplishments

During his school days from 1956 (Abitur at the state Beethoven-Gymnasium Bonn , 1958) and as a student, he was able to gain experience as an excavator on the excavations of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn in Neuss, plus while studying in the Canadian Yukon Territory under Richard Stockton MacNeish, in Bonn, Krefeld and from 1962 to 1965 in Tarragona with the Madrid department of the German Archaeological Institute ( Centcelles excavation ).

Rüger studied history , classical philology , classical archeology and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Toronto. He received theoretical and practical training in scientific methods in field archeology and aerial photography archeology from the relevant department of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn.

In 1965 he received his doctorate in Bonn with a thesis on the history of the Roman province Germania Inferior by Johannes Straub and Harald von Petrikovits , and until 1973 he was head of Roman excavations in Bonn, Krefeld-Gellep and Xanten while working for the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn. For Harald von Petrikovits he carried out excavations in the Roman legionary camp of Lambaesis from 1968 to 1969 and kept Roman North Africa as a practical excavation research area, especially in Chemtou- Simitthus, in the legionary camp of Lambaesis and in Siga in today's Algeria (1969-1973, 1977-1978), in Chemtou (1980–1985) and in Zeugma in Turkey (1999–2002).

From 1973 until his early retirement for health reasons at the end of 1989, Rüger was director of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn as the successor to Harald von Petrikovits, and until 1986 he was also head of the land preservation department in the Rhineland. Since 1945, the area of ​​the Roman city Colonia Ulpia Traiana (CVT), with 83 hectares of walled area, the largest undeveloped Roman city complex north of the Alps, had been endangered and partially devalued by commercial settlement in its archaeological inventory. Tens of thousands of square meters of archaeological emergency excavations by the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn (as a monument preservation institution for the Rhineland with the exception of the city of Cologne) were the result from 1951 to 1973. In 1971, Rüger began the rescue of the CVT premises with the energetic new city director of Xanten, Heinz Trauten. In July 1974, a groundbreaking state development plan in North Rhine-Westphalia became law. This largest protection measure for an archaeological site in Germany ended once and for all the overexploitation of the CVT monument. The Xanten Archaeological Park (APX) and the Xanten Regional Museum (RMX) were immediately opened in the summer of 1974 (APX summer 1978) as the Xanten department of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn (today the LVR Archaeological Park Xanten APX ).

As a consultant for national and international archaeological site conservation, Rüger worked in Portugal, Spain and Lesotho. From 1992 to 1997 he set up the Chimtou Archaeological Museum in Tunisia together with Martin Hartmann .

Since 1985 Rüger has been honorary professor for the history and archeology of the Rhineland in Roman times at the University of Bonn , where he taught from 1978 to 2003. Together with Julianus Egidius Bogaers , he organized the 10th International Congress for Roman Military Studies ("Limes Congress") in 1974 and published the congress files and contributions. In 1969 he became a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), and has been a full member since 1974. From 1974 to 1993 Rüger was a member of the Roman-Germanic Commission of the DAI, from 1983 to 1993 the commission for the Baghdad department of the DAI and the administrative board of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz. From 1983 to 1991 he was President of the German Museum Association .

Fonts (selection)

• Centcelles. The pottery from the excavations 1959–1961. In: Madrider Mitteilungen 3, 1962, 101–118.
• (with M. Todd), new finds of Roman brick stamps in Krefeld-Gellep. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 164, 1964, 306–307.
• The Roman settlement of the Rhineland. A guide to the Rhineland relief: Kleine Museumhefte 1 (Düsseldorf 1967).
• Germania Inferior. Investigations into the territorial and administrative history of Lower Germany in the Principate's time. Supplements to the Bonner Jahrbücher vol. 30 (Cologne-Graz 1968).
• Roman pottery from the cloister of Tarragona Cathedral. In: Madrider Mitteilungen 9, 1968, 237–258.
• A dedicatory inscription from Tarraco. In: Madrider Mitteilungen 9, 1968, 259–262.
• The Roman craftsmen on the Lower Rhine. For the reconstruction of the artisan quarter in the Colonia Ulpia Traiana near Xanten. In: Unser Niederrhein 12, H. 3, 1969, 27-28.
• Sentiacum. For the Roman settlement of the Ahr estuary. In: Ch. Fischer, The Terra Sigillata Manufactory from Sinzig am Rhein: Rheinische Ausgrabungen Vol. 5 (Düsseldorf 1969) 176–180.
• Preliminary report on the work in Centcelles 4. Dating Roman ceramics. In: Madrider Mitteilungen 10, 1969, 251–275.
• Roman brick fragments from Haithabu (excavation 1963–64). In: Reports on the excavations in Haithabu. Report 4: The archaeological find material I (1963–1964), (Neumünster 1970) 74–76.
• (with I. couple), Gelduba fort; in: Rheinische Ausgrabungen Vol. 10, Contributions to the archeology of the Roman Rhineland II Rheinkunde 25, 1973, 42–48.
• (with Ursula Heimberg), A pottery in the vicus in front of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana: Rheinische Ausgrabungen Vol. 12 (Bonn 1973) 84–118.
• Article in: The Lower Germanic Limes (Ed. JE Bogaers and CB Rüger) Art u. Antiquity on the Rhine, No. 50 (= Guide to the RheinischesLandesmuseum Bonn) (Cologne 1974).
• 'Bonn', § 2 'Römische Zeit', in: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (founded by J. Hoops, Hrsg. H. Jankuhn et al.) Vol. 3, Lfg. 1/2 (Berlin 1976) 225–229.
• Some archaeological aspects of the Roman Rhineland, Atti dei Convegni Lincei 23, Conv.Internazionale "Renania Romana" (Rome April 14-16, 1975) (Rome 1976) 9-29.
• (with JE Bogaers (Hrsg.)): Studies on the military borders of Rome II (lectures of the 10th international Limes congress in the Germania inferior) . Habelt, Bonn 1978.
• The Sahara and the Romans: Sahara. 10,000 years between pasture and desert (exhibition catalog Cologne 1978) 341–343 (Arabic translation: Tripolis 1980).
• Keyword 'Limes' in: Concise Dictionary of German Legal History Vol. II (Stuttgart 1978) Sp. 2036.
• (inter alia) The large late Roman fortress in Colonia Ulpia Traiana: Bonner Jahrbücher 179, 1979, 499-524.
• (inter alia) A victory monument of the legio VI victrix: Bonner Jahrbücher 179, 1979, 187–2200.
• Siga, the capital of Syphax, in: Die Numider (Hrsg. HG Horn and CB Rüger) (Catalog, Cologne-Bonn 1979) 181–184.
• The grave of Tin Hinan near Abalessa / Algeria: ibid. 251–254.
• Ders., The pottery of the tomb of Es Soumâa near El Khroub: ibid. 339–344.
• Research on the Limes of Germania inferior (German. Part.), 1974–1979: in: Roman Frontier Studies 1979 (Papers presented to the 12th International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies) (Ed. WS Hanson and LJF Keppie): BAR-British Archaeol. Reports, internat. Ser. 71, Oxford 1980, 495-500.
• Colonia Ulpia Traiana - Xanten Archaeological Park. A monument in North Rhine-Westphalia: Bonner Universitatsblätter 1980, 107–117.
• Inscription finds from the years 1975–1979 from the Rhineland: Epigraphische Studien Vol. 12 (Cologne 1981) 287–307.
• Vindex cum inermi provincia? On another Neronian Mars inscription from the Rhine: In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie u. Epigraphik 43, 1981 329-335.
• A Husband for the Mother Goddesses - Some Observations on the Matronae Aufaniae, in: Rome and her Northern Provinces (= Festschrift for Sheppard Frere) (Gloucester 1983) 210–221.
• Roman inscription finds from the Rhineland 1978–1982 together with the index of the inscription finds 1975–1982: Epigraphische Studien Vol. 13 (Koln 1983) 111–166.
• Industrial landscape and archeology in the Rhineland: A future for our past. Council of Europe, No. 23, 1984, 24 ff. Also in French in the French edition: Paysage industriel et archeologie en Rhénanie
• (with Heinz Cüppers with the assistance of B. Beyer), Roman settlements and cultural landscapes: Historical Atlas of the Rhineland , Supplement III / l-III / 2, (Cologne 1985).
• A Ubica Aemulatio Claudi Caesaris ?. Observations on a grapheme in Lower Germany: Acta Archaeologica Lovaniensia25, 1986 (Festschrift for J. Mertens), 159–166.
• Edith Mary Wightman in memoriam: Trierer Zeitschrift 49, 1986, 415-416.
• Observations on the epigraphic evidence of the mother goddesses in the Latin provinces of the Roman Empire: matrons and related deities. Supplements to the Bonner Jahrbücher Vol. 44 (Cologne 1987) 1–30.
• Observaciones acerca de la construcción de los puentes romanos en Renania - Tecnica y función politica desde César hasta Honorio: Cuadernos de San Benito 1 (1st Seminar Internacional Puente de Alcantara), Madrid 1989, 55-62.
• Pagan religiosity in the cities of the north-west provinces of the Roman Empire, in: The city in Upper Italy and in the north-west provinces of the Roman Empire, Kölner Forschungen Vol. 4, 1991, 227-233.
• Afrikaner in Trier, in: L'Afrique, la Gaule, la religion à l époque romaine, coll. Latomus 226 (= Mélanges à la mémoire de Marcel Le Glay ), Bruxelles 1994, 468–472.
• Roman Germany from 43 BC. to AD. 69. In: The Cambridge Ancient History 2nd ed., Vol. X, The Augustan Empire 43 BC to AD 69 (Cambridge 1996) 517-534.
• Latin writing in the Roman border area against the Teutons, in: Runic inscriptions as sources of interdisciplinary research, Abhandl. d.4.Internat. Sympos. on runes and rune inscriptions in Göttingen 1995 (S. Nowak, K. Düwel, eds.) Berlin-New York 1998, pp. 357-375.
• On marble bowls in Chemtou, in: Mitteilungen des DAI Rom. Dept. 104, 1997, 379-385.

Web links

• Biography and list of publications
• Chemtou: www.chimtou.com
• Publications: http://www.mavors.org/PDFs/RuegerPublications.pdf