Cuccium Castle

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Cuccium Castle
Alternative name Cucci, Catio, Cuccio, Cuccium, Cuccis castelum
limes Pannonian Limes
Dating (occupancy) End of 1st / beginning of 2nd
to 5th century AD?
Type Equestrian fort
unit a) Cohors I Lusitanorum  ?
b) Equites Sagittarii
c) Cuneus equitum Promotorum
size unknown
Construction a) wood-earth?
b) stone
State of preservation not visible above ground
place Ilok
Geographical location 45 ° 13 '26.3 "  N , 19 ° 22' 33"  E
height 125  m. i. J.
Previous Fort Cornacum (northwest)
Burgus Bač-Bács (northwest)
Subsequently Fort Malata / Bononia (east)

The Cuccium fort was a Roman military camp , the crew of which was responsible for security and surveillance tasks on the Limes Pannonicus . The ancient fortification was located in a rock cone above the right bank of the Danube . The river formed here in large sections the Roman imperial border. Its archaeologically largely unexplored remains are located in the Vukovar-Syrmia County , in the urban area of Ilok , the easternmost city of today's Croatia .

location

The location of Cuccium on the Pannonian Limes between Cornacum and Malata / Bononia

The landscape around Ilok, which belongs to the Batschka , is characterized by the hilly foothills of a mountain range located to the south and running in a west-east direction. In the urban area, the Danube lowland forms a steep high bank on the south side. The oldest prehistoric finds, which were first found by Rudolf Robert Schmidt (1882–1950) at Bapska near Ilok, date from the younger Stone Age . Further traces of settlement on the loess hilltop there , separated by five thick cultural layers, can also be traced back to the Copper Age and the Early Bronze Age .

The fort was built in a strategically excellent location on a mountain hill. Today it is completely occupied by a medieval fortress, which has been in the possession of the Italian royal family Odescalchi since the late 17th century and has since been rebuilt several times. From this point the Roman soldiers had visual contact with the neighboring, northwestern Danube fort Cornacum ( Sotin ). In addition, the Barbaricum located on the other bank of the Danube or the settlement area of ​​the Sarmatian Jazygens , who had settled there since the 1st century AD, could be seen from here . This tribe was an extremely restless and dangerous opponent of Rome for centuries.

Research history

Model of the castle complex
The eastern end of the castle complex with the St. Ivan Church
The defensive wall of the castle facing the Danube
The landside slope of the castle hill
The Danube at Illok

The first reports about the Roman past of the place come from the Italian officer and scholar Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (1658–1730), who visited Ilok at the beginning of the 18th century. Many ancient finds that he mentioned, including three sarcophagi and three fragments of granite columns, have now been lost. Later visitors found the remains of a water pipe ( aqueduct ) and ruins in the surrounding area. The princes of Odescalchi stocked a cabinet of antiquities - which no longer exists today - with the finds made on site, which, for example, the archaeologist Josef Brunšmid (1858–1929) could still visit in full. His inventory included fragments of a marble tombstone with five damaged busts, a satyr's head depicted on a marble slab and a small altar stone, which was dedicated to the sun god Sol (Deo soli invicto) and was previously used as a spoil in the Orthodox cemetery.

Nothing has yet been published about official excavations at the fort. For a long time it could not be assumed that there was even a garrison in Ilok during the Principal's time . The grave inscription of a cohort enturio, which was recovered in 2000, gave first indications of such a period. Between 2001 and 2002, in the course of the renovation of the princely palace on the Burgberg, further research in the area of ​​the camp village belonging to the fort became possible for the first time.

Building history

Due to the lack of tangible finds, nothing has been known about the fort's construction details. However, it is easy to imagine that the fortification - in analogy to the development of other fort locations on the Pannonian Limes - was initially founded as a rectangular wood-earth warehouse and renovated in stone in the 2nd century. As a result, as has been established again and again in other places, there will have been destruction through fighting, subsequent rebuilding and various alterations.

Cuccium was supplied with fresh water via a clay pipe. This was fed by the so-called dean source and led via Vodena Glava to the castle hill of Ilok.

Troop

So far, one can only speculate about the troops stationed in the fort during the middle imperial period. For the 4th century, the Notitia Dignitatum , a late Roman state manual from the first half of the 5th century, mentions the garrison unit of the Equites sagittarii - mounted archers - followed by a Cuneus equitum promotorum , also a troop of horsemen.

Since it was found in 2000, a grave inscription has provided information about an officer who died here. In the opinion of the epigrapher Barnabás Lőrincz (1951–2012), this inscription can only be dated to the end of the 2nd century AD due to the name Marcus Aurelius mentioned there . For the location of the also named Cohors I Lusitanorum (First Cohort of the Lusitanians) there was no reliable location information so far. Lőrincz had accepted it in the past before the Marcomanni and Sarmatian Wars (166–180) at the Kölked Fort and after the end of the fighting in the alleged Szekszárd Fort :

D (is) M (anibus).
M (arco) Aurel (io) Sereno, vet (erano)
ex (centurione) coh (ortis) I Lusit (anorum), domo
Bass (iana), vixit ann (os) LVI,
h (ic) s (itus) e (st).
Cl (audia) Maximilla coniug (i)
pientissimo et si-
bi posuit.

Translation: “The gods of the dead. For Marcus Aurelius Serenus, veteran, former centurion of the First Cohort of the Lusitanians, from Bassiana, lived 56 years, here he is buried. Claudia Maximilla, his extremely loving wife (this stone for him) and built herself. "

Vicus

During the extensive renovation and reconstruction work on the castle complex with the princely palace, from 2001 it was possible for the first time to collect more precise data on the vicus , the camp village of the fort, which was located west of the palace on the castle plateau. Even further west of the ancient settlement area, archaeologists came across a singular early Roman cremation from the middle of the 1st century AD in 2002. The remains of the deceased and the gifts were housed in a wooden coffin. The 1.88 x 2.12 meter grave pit had rounded corners and could be attributed to a well-off member of the local aristocracy of a Celtic- Pannonian ethnic group that was already present in pre-Roman times and who settled this place before the arrival of the Romans. The grave contained imported goods from northern Italy and regionally produced pottery. The burial, which was already characterized by elements of the advanced Romanization , in which coins from the reign of Emperor Claudius (41–54) were also found, may indicate an early grave field in which the not yet fully assimilated natives were buried. As pits, ceramics and coins from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD showed, the Roman vicus expanded beyond the original pre-Roman settlement limits.

Roman burial grounds

Other grave fields from the 1st to 4th centuries AD could be found along the arterial roads. On the road to the southeastern provincial capital Sirmium , the late antique sarcophagus burials and brick graves are particularly noteworthy, other graves are known from the Limes road to the northwestern Limes fort Cornacum and Basianae .

Archaeobotanical investigation

The finds of the singular burial found in the vicus area in 2002 allowed a more precise archaeobotanical investigation and conveyed in this area an idea of ​​the environment that prevailed in the region at the time of the early Roman rule. Around and in two situla-shaped vessels, the remains of numerous plants and seeds had been preserved. The vessels themselves were with the local population from the 3rd century BC. In use as kitchen utensils until the early 2nd century AD. The investigation was carried out under the direction of Hansjörg Küster at the Institute for Geobotany at the University of Hanover .

From the plant remains examined in 1957, 30 taxa could be identified, the majority of which were cultivated plants. The following table shows the species recognized.

Taxa number comment
Vitis vinifera ( grapevine ) 1391 not carbonized and not mineralized
Lens culinaris ( lens ) 240 not carbonized and not mineralized
Cerealia ( grain ) 97 charred
Panicum miliaceum ( millet ) 26th charred as well as not charred and not mineralized
Ficus carica (common fig ) 25th not carbonized and not mineralized
Triticum dicoccon ( emmer ) 19th charred
Sambucus ( elderberry ) 17th not carbonized and not mineralized
Sambucus nigra ( black elder ) 16 not carbonized and not mineralized
Triticum aestivum ( common wheat ) 15th charred
Prunus domestica ( plum ) 13 not carbonized and not mineralized
Vicia ervilia ( sweet peas ) 13 charred
Triticum monococcum ( Einkorn ) 7th charred
Ficus carica or Fragaria vesca ( real fig or forest strawberry ) 6th not carbonized and not mineralized
Malus or Pyrus ( apple or pear ) 6th not carbonized and not mineralized
Prunus avium ( bird cherry ) 6th not carbonized and not mineralized
Hordeum vulgare ( barley ) 5 charred
Olea europaea ( olive ) 4th not carbonized and not mineralized
Atriplex patula or Atriplex prostrata ( spreading message or spear message ) 2 not carbonized and not mineralized
Triticum cf.spelta ( spelled ) 1 determinable with great probability; charred
Cucumis melo or Cucumis sativus ( sugar melon or cucumber ) 1 not carbonized and not mineralized
Ficus carica (common fig ) 1 determinable with great probability
Chenopodium album ( white goosefoot ) 1 not carbonized and not mineralized
Fallopia convolvulus ( knotweed ) 1 determinable with great probability
Sambucus ebulus ( dwarf elder ) 1 not carbonized and not mineralized
Stellaria media ( common chickweed ) 1 not carbonized and not mineralized
42 indeterminate

The burial was probably already influenced by Italian rites. Grave goods with various fruits, such as those found in Cuccium , are also known from there. Roman cults also knew wheat and barley as offerings, which were given to the deceased as food in the grave, along with field beans and lentils. Influences from the Greek area may also have played a role. Grapes and figs were among the most common grave goods in Greece until the turn of the century . The interpretation of the grave goods in Cuccium still causes problems, since the burial rites in southern Pannonia are still largely unknown in the early Imperial period. The fact that the plants and fruits added are very likely to be signs of Romanization is shown by comparing pre-Roman La Tène burials of the local population in the 1st century BC. BC clearly, in which animal bones clearly dominate. All types of grain and the vetch lay charred in the grave, while the other vegetable finds came fresh or dried into the grave. Here too, burial rites that are not known in detail can be assumed, in which the grains found charred as well as the vetch were possibly placed on the pyre of the deceased or thrown on it during the cremation.

The legumes and grains recovered from the grave - barley, millet, four types of wheat - will probably have grown on the good local soil, but they have always been trade goods. In particular, various types of fruit such as apples, pears, plums and grapes came to the region very early in the course of Romanization, which was also accepted by the locals. But these crops could also have been negotiated here. Sources from the time shortly before the turn of the ages up to the early 3rd century ( Strabo 7, 5, 10; Cassius Dio 49, 36, 2) report small amounts of wine with poor taste that were pressed in Pannonia. The local Celtic aristocracy had wine - which quickly became a status symbol - imported from Italy at the beginning of the 1st century. It was not until the second half of the 3rd century that the cultivation of vines in the region by Roman soldiers was officially documented. The elder, on the other hand, is a plant already used by the Celts for medicinal purposes. Old elder trees are also associated with the cult of the dead. The Celts believed that the god Pushkaitis sat under the elder and would direct the fate of the people from there.

The weed and ruderal plants that were sure to get into the grave unintentionally show that by this time the people had already, to a certain extent, arranged the area around their settlement for agriculture.

Finds

Only a few scientifically proven finds are known from the Roman Cuccium . Some stone monuments were partially walled up in the medieval fortress. An indication of the spread of Egyptian cults on the Pannonian Limes was provided by e.g. E.g. the statuette of an Isis priest listed in the catalog of the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest for the year 1825. However, it is now considered lost. There was also evidence of Egyptian cults in the Teutoburgium fort further west .

In 1909 the roughly hewn boundary stone of a vicus was recovered from the cement factory at that time , which Tiberius Claudius Priscus, commander (prefect) of the Ala I Civium Romanorum (1st cavalry regiment of Roman civil rights) had probably placed during the reign of Emperor Vespasian (69-79).

Front:

Age (r)
vici Iosi-
sta ads-
ig (natus) Ti (berio) Cl (audio) Pr-
isco pr (a) ef (ecto)
alae I c (ivium) R (omanorum)

Back:

c (aput) a (gri) e (xcepti)

The Vicus Iosista mentioned in the inscription was in the area of Colonia Sirmium , the provincial capital of Lower Pannonia.

The marble tombstone of Marcus Aurelius Serenus was discovered by chance in the vicinity of Ilok in 2000. When he died at the age of 56, Marcus Aurelius Serenus was already retired ( veteran ). He was last in the rank of centurion of the Cohors I Lusitanorum ("1st Cohort of the Lusitans "). The deceased, for whom his wife Claudia Maximilla had the tombstone placed, came from the Pannonian town of Bassianae , which was near today's Serbian village of Donji Petrovci. The stone is dated to the last decade of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 3rd century. According to analyzes by the epigrapher Barnabás Lőrincz, the Cohors I Lusitanorum had been a regular crew in the Pannonian Danube fort Kölked (Altinum) between 118/119 and 180 and possibly took part in the Marcomann Wars (166-180). After that, the Lusitanians stayed in Pannonia, but apparently did not return to Altinum , but were perhaps relocated to the Szekszárd Fort a little further north, which has not yet been archaeologically proven . The assignment of the evidence of the Lusitans known from Croatia has not yet been completed.

Post-Roman development

After the final withdrawal of the Roman troops in 433 AD, East Germans settled in Cuccium , leaving behind a rich spectrum of finds. A spathe with a blade made of Damascus steel , which was found in Ilok and is now kept in Zagreb , has been published several times . It is said to have been owned by a warrior of the Gepids or Ostrogoths .

Monument protection

Archaeological finds and sites as well as archaeological zones, landscapes and parts thereof are cultural assets of the Republic of Croatia and enjoy special protection. The Croatian Administrative Authority for Monument Protection in the Ministry of Culture in Zagreb is responsible. Law no. 01-081-99-1280 / 2 of June 18, 1999, with its subsequent additions and amendments, is governed by Article 89 of the Croatian Constitution. Damage, destruction and theft of cultural property must be reported to the competent authority immediately, but no later than the next day. Unannounced excavations are forbidden, violations of the export regulations are punished as a crime in the most serious case , and in the lightest case as an offense within the meaning of Croatian law.

See also

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Mirjana Sanader: The border in Croatia. In: Gerhild Klose, Annette Nünnerich-Asmus (eds.): Limits of the Roman Empire. von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 3-8053-3429-X , p. 156.
  2. ↑ CIL 3, 15138.6 ; Danica Pinterović: Limes Studies in Baranja and Slavonia. In: Archaeologia Iugoslavica, 9, 1968, pp. 55-82; here: p. 77.
  3. ^ A b Barnabás Lőrincz : On the crews of the auxiliary fort in Eastern Pannonia. In: Miroslava Mirković (ed.): Roman cities and fortresses on the Danube. Files of the regional conference organized by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Belgrade, 16. – 19. October 2003. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn 2005. ISBN 86-80269-75-1 . Pp. 53-66; here: p. 63.
  4. ↑ a b c Marko Dizdar, Renata Šoštarić, Kristina Jelinčić: Ranorimski grob iz Iloka kao prilog poznavanju romanizacije zapadnoga Srijema. In: Prilozi Instituta za arheologiju u Zagrebu. 20, 1 (2003), p. 70. PDF
  5. ↑ excavation zone from 2001 to 2002 at 45 ° 13 '27.99 "  N , 19 ° 22' 23.47"  O .
  6. ↑ Notitia Dignitatum occ. XXXI 21 and occ. XXXII 25.
  7. ↑ a b Renata Šoštarić, Marko Dizdar, Sara Mareković u. a .: Comparative Analysis of Plant Finds from Early Roman Graves in Ilok "(Cuccium)" and Šćitarjevo "(Andautonia)", Croatia - A Contribution to Understanding Burial Rites in Southern Pannonia. In: Collegium Antropologicum. 30 (2006), pp. 429-436; here: pp. 430–431 PDF .
  8. ↑ Renata Šoštarić, Marko Dizdar, Sara Mareković u. a .: Comparative Analysis of Plant Finds from Early Roman Graves in Ilok "(Cuccium)" and Šćitarjevo "(Andautonia)", Croatia - A Contribution to Understanding Burial Rites in Southern Pannonia. In: Collegium Antropologicum. 30 (2006), pp. 429-436; here: p. 431.
  9. ↑ a b Renata Šoštarić, Marko Dizdar, Sara Mareković u. a .: Comparative Analysis of Plant Finds from Early Roman Graves in Ilok "(Cuccium)" and Šćitarjevo "(Andautonia)", Croatia - A Contribution to Understanding Burial Rites in Southern Pannonia. In: Collegium Antropologicum. 30 (2006), pp. 429-436; here: p. 435.
  10. ↑ Renata Šoštarić, Marko Dizdar, Sara Mareković u. a .: Comparative Analysis of Plant Finds from Early Roman Graves in Ilok "(Cuccium)" and Šćitarjevo "(Andautonia)", Croatia - A Contribution to Understanding Burial Rites in Southern Pannonia. In: Collegium Antropologicum. 30 (2006), pp. 429-436; here: p. 432.
  11. ↑ a b Renata Šoštarić, Marko Dizdar, Sara Mareković u. a .: Comparative Analysis of Plant Finds from Early Roman Graves in Ilok "(Cuccium)" and Šćitarjevo "(Andautonia)", Croatia - A Contribution to Understanding Burial Rites in Southern Pannonia. In: Collegium Antropologicum, 30, 2006, pp. 429-436; here: p. 434.
  12. ↑ Renata Šoštarić, Marko Dizdar, Sara Mareković u. a .: Comparative Analysis of Plant Finds from Early Roman Graves in Ilok "(Cuccium)" and Šćitarjevo "(Andautonia)", Croatia - A Contribution to Understanding Burial Rites in Southern Pannonia. In: Collegium Antropologicum, 30, 2006, pp. 429-436; here: p. 433.
  13. ^ Bernarda Perc: Contributions to the spread of Egyptian cults in the Balkans and in the Danube countries in Roman times. Munich 1968, p. 67.
  14. ^ Bernarda Perc: Contributions to the spread of Egyptian cults in the Balkans and in the Danube countries in Roman times. Munich 1968, p. 205.
  15. ^ Jenő Fitz : The administration of Pannonia in Roman times. Volume 1, Encyclopedia, Budapest 1993, p. 268; AE 1911, 237 .
  16. ^ Barnabás Lőrincz : On the crews of the auxiliary fort in Eastern Pannonia. In: Miroslava Mirkovic (ed.): Roman cities and fortresses on the Danube. Filozofski fakultet, Belgrade 2005, ISBN 86-80269-75-1 , p. 63.
  17. ↑ Barnabás Lőrincz: The Roman auxiliaries in Pannonia during the Principate's time. Part I: The Inscriptions. Forschungsgesellschaft Wiener Stadtarchäologie, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-902086-02-5 , p. 52.
  18. ↑ Barnabás Lőrincz: The Roman auxiliaries in Pannonia during the Principate's time. Part I: The Inscriptions. Forschungsgesellschaft Wiener Stadtarchäologie, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-902086-02-5 , p. 28.
  19. ^ Josip Klemenc: The Pannonian Limes in Yugoslavia. In: Acta et dissertationes archaeologicae, 3 1963, pp. 55-68; here: p. 64.
  20. ↑ The legal regulations on the website of the Croatian Ministry of Culture (in Croatian language).