Durnomagus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Durnomagus
Alternative name Fort Dormagen
limes Lower Germanic Limes
Dating (occupancy) a) Domitian
b) early Trajan
c) Antonine up to around 200
d) around 275
e) 4th century
Type a) to c) Alenkastell
d) and e) unknown
unit a) unknown Ala
b) and c) ala I Noricorum
d) and e) unknown
size 150 × 180 m = 2.7 ha
Construction a) and b) Holz-Erde-Lager
c) to e) Steinkastell
State of preservation no longer visible above ground
place Dormagen
Geographical location 51 ° 5 '33 "  N , 6 ° 50' 26"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 5 '33 "  N , 6 ° 50' 26"  E
height 45  m above sea level NHN
Previous Novaesium , Burungum
(both north-northwest)
Subsequently Apud Aram Ubiorum (south-southeast)

The Durnomagus fort was a Roman equestrian camp, a so-called Alenkastell , with a crew of around 480 on the Lower Germanic Limes . Today's ground monument is located under the center of the Lower Rhine town of Dormagen in the area of ​​the Church of St. Michael and the town's town hall. Today nothing of the Roman legacies is visible in the cityscape.

From the early first century to the end of the fourth century, the military camp secured the border section between the Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (today Cologne ) and the Colonia Ulpia Traiana resp. Vetera (today Xanten ) on the Roman imperial road from Lugdunum Batavorum (today Katwijk ) to Argentorate (today Strasbourg ).

location

Location of the Alenkastell in the course of the Lower Germanic Limes.

Topographically, Durnomagus was - like all forts of the Lower Germanic Limes - on a flood-protected hill directly above the lower terrace of the Rhine. In addition to flood protection, this positioning offered additional protection from enemy attacks from the Rheinaue due to the steeply sloping terrace edge.

In terms of military geography , the camp formed a point in the chain of around 50 forts and legionary camps that stretched on the left bank of the Rhine between Lugdunum Batavorum ( Katwijk- Britzburg) and Rigomagus ( Remagen ). This fort chain belonged to Lower Germanic army district (exercitus Germaniae Inferioris, EX GER INF), the later province Germania inferior , and formed the so-called Lower Germanic Limes . In the Itinerarium Antonini , a late antique street directory, the local section is described as follows:

Colonia Agrippina - Durnomago leugas VII ala - Burungo leugas V ala - Novaesio leugas V ala

Explanation: from Cologne to Dormagen, location of an Ala, seven Leugen (= 15.54 km) - to Burungum (controversial location, Worringen or Haus Bürgel ), location of an Ala, five Leugen (= 11.1 km) - to Neuss, Location of an ala, five leugen (= 11.1 km). Durnomagus was about a day's march from the CCAA in the south and from Novaesium in the north.

In today's townscape, the soil monument is in the center of Dormagen. Kölner Straße runs a few meters east of the Praetorial Front (front), Römerstraße lies below the Dekumat Front (back) and the course of Nettergasse roughly describes the right flank of the camp. Today's town hall is located in the Praetentura (front part of the camp), almost in the northern corner of the fort. Nothing can be seen above ground, the site is largely built over by a mixed commercial and residential area.

Research history

The etymological origin of the name "Durnomagus" is controversial, but probably of Celtic origin and presumably goes back to the previous settlement of a previously unproven ubic settlement in the vicinity of the auxiliary fort. As a Roman garrison site of an Ala , Durnomagus is recorded in the Itinerarium Antonini , which is the only written ancient source for this place. The distance from there to the CCAA was seven leagues (15.5 km), that to Novaesium ten leagues (22.2 km).

During construction work and in gravel mining around Dormagen, Roman finds and findings often occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries . The discovery of several consecration stones for Mithras in 1821 caused a sensation , which could be recovered from an approximately 13 m long mithra, the exact location of which is not known. Two of the stones had been donated by members of the ala Noricorum and thus gave a first indication of the Roman auxiliary troops that had been stationed in Durnomagus in ancient times . In 1834 numerous Roman graves were discovered in the course of the expansion of the road from Dormagen to Worringen . The grave inventory was acquired by the farmer and author of a Dormagen village chronicle, Joan Peter Delhoven, who, together with his son Jakob, built up the first collection of Roman finds from Durnomagus in the first half of the 19th century, which contained over 500 coins, several hundred ceramic vessels, some inscription stones, as well as bricks and small finds. Most of the collection was lost in the course of time; only a small part ended up in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn and the Historisches Museum Düsseldorf . The discovery of a Roman coin treasure with 900 silver coins and four gold coins in 1839 was just as significant as the discovery of the Mithräum. The deposit was only 0.4 m below the floor of a cowshed, the series of coins ranged from Augustus to Commodus .

In 1854 Franz Fiedler was the first to publish on Roman Dormagen. In the decades that followed, an intensive discussion arose about the identity of the traditional garrison places Durnomagus and Burungum and whether and - if so - which of the two Dormagen, Worringen or Haus Bürgel should be assigned. Today the equation of Dormagen with Durnomagus is generally accepted. In the second half of the 19th and in the first half of the 20th century, further discoveries followed: When the Michaelskirche was rebuilt in 1887, grave goods were found on its south side, and in 1924 Roman ceramics were found on the west side. Also in 1924, when a new school was being built, an altar stone was found behind the town hall, and Roman coins and other ceramic remnants were found during various construction work in the area of ​​the “Roman Road”. As early as 1914, graves from the middle imperial era were found north of Dormagen, and in 1928 further grave finds confirmed this cemetery near Schierort.

Since 1964, the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, later the LVR Office for Ground Monument Preservation in the Rhineland, controlled the construction work in Dormagen. Since then, the Alenkastell has been localized and the associated vicus has been well delimited, most recently in 2004, when an area of ​​the auxiliary fort could be examined again.

history

The Roman presence in the area of ​​today's Dormagen begins with the construction of a military brickworks , which was operated in the second quarter of the first century AD by a vexillatio of the Legio I (Germanica) stationed in Cologne and later in Bonn and which was operated by the latest was in operation at the outbreak of the Batavian Uprising .

The first auxiliary camp was founded in the Domitian period. It took place as part of the expansion of the Lower Germanic Limes, which began in 83 AD. During the preparation and implementation of the chat wars, the latter was assigned the function of preventive flank security. The warehouse was completed by the year 90 at the latest. It is not known which troops set up the first camp. According to the finds, the only thing that seems certain is that it was an Ala quingenaria . The Ala I Noricorum , which was later stationed here, is out of the question, as it was billeted in Burginatium until the year 100 .

After the unknown cavalry unit had left, the Ala I Noricorum was relocated from Burginatium to Durnomagus at the beginning of the second century . Around the year 200 it is still attested there by two consecration stones for Mithras . The inscription on one of the stones reads:

“ Deo Soli I (nvicto) M (ithrae) p (ro) s (alute) I (mperatoris?) Suran [...] is Didil [...] / dup [l (arius)] al (a) e Noricorum c [ivi] s T (h) rax v (otum) s (olvit) l (ibens) [m (erito)] "

Translated: "The invincible sun god Mithras, for the sake of the emperor, Suran ... is Didil ..., Duplicarius of the Ala Noricorum, Thracian citizen, fulfilled his vow joyfully and for a fee."

After that, the Ala's trail is lost in the dark of history. Nothing is known about the troops stationed after her in Durnomagus in the third and fourth centuries. The fort was still in use until the end of the fourth century, probably until around the year 390 (according to another opinion, possibly until the fifth century) and was then abandoned. According to Michael Gechter, it was destroyed by a damaging fire around the year 200 and then only used temporarily during a Franconian invasion in 275, which in his opinion indicates a strengthening of the Porta principalis dextra (right side gate) during this time. Gechter further postulates the construction of a 57 m by 52 m large reduction fort in late antiquity, which is said to have survived into the fifth century. Horizons of destruction that could suggest a violent end to the garrison in late antiquity do not exist.

Dating

According to a brick stamp of the Legio XXII Primigenia pia fidelis (LEG XXII PPF), the camp must have already existed between the years 88/89 and 92/96. The epithet pia fidelis (Domitiana) was given to this legion stationed in Vetera by the emperor after they had sided with Domitian during the Saturnine uprising. Between the years 92 and 96 it was moved to Mogontiacum .

The series of coins begins with a single Claudian issue. Coins from the Domitian era are abundant. The final coin is a trien of Theodosius I from around 390.

Datable ceramics begin with a work by the South Gallic potter Germanus , which was made around the year 70. This terra sigillata , as well as other sigillates of the drag type . 29 must have been in use for a relatively long time, since on the other hand the lack of the Hofheim 89 type speaks against the existence of the camp before the year 80. Vessels by the late South Gallic potters Mercato and Mascuus , who produced between the years 80 and 100, are represented in large numbers .

Investments

Military brick

So far, five kilns and a drying shed have been uncovered from the Roman brickworks. Four of the five ovens and the drying shed were located within a radius of 25 meters, the fifth oven was 170 m away. Two of the brick kilns were operated from a common workplace. The ovens were about five meters wide and six meters long, the size of the drying shed was 11 m by 36 m. The ovens were built in the form of so-called “standing ovens”, in which the combustion chamber and combustion chamber are located one above the other. For better insulation, the furnace chamber was lowered into the ground and covered with bricks towards the floor. The ovens were heated from work rooms via a fire outlet. Similar to a modern convection oven, the heat could be distributed in the combustion chamber and act evenly on the items to be fired.

The brick kilns were repaired or renovated several times during their period of use. The product range of the brickworks included Tegulae and Imbrices (roof tile types), tubules (ventilation tiles), laterculi (mostly square, sometimes also round plates for building the pillars of hypocaust structures ), wall plates and face tiles with Medusa decor . The end of the brick factory is unsecured, but at the latest with the outbreak of the Batavian revolt , production was stopped.

Fort

The first camp was made of wood and earth. The excavated trenches were excavated between two plank or wattle shells, which were interlocked by cross beams. A total of two circumferential pointed trenches served as an obstacle to the approach. They connected to the wood-earth wall with almost no berm . Their total width is likely to have been about eleven meters, the tips of the trenches were at a depth of 2.60 m below the ancient level at a distance of four and eight meters from the outer shell of the wall. With its praetorial front, the four-door warehouse was oriented towards ONO, towards the Rhine, in all construction phases.

After at least one expansion or renovation phase, which cannot be dated in more detail, in which, among other things, the bottom of the inner trench was provided with an additional 60 cm deep trench, a so-called "ankle breaker", the wood-earth wall in the first Replaced by a stone wall in the middle of the second century. It is possible that this renovation was carried out by the Ala I Noricorum immediately after they moved into quarters in Durnomagus. The new wall was about one meter wide and two meters below the ancient level. The foundation consisted of basalt quarry stones connected with clay , the rising one of Opus caementitium with an outer facade of tuff stone blocks . The rounded corners and the four gates were reinforced with towers. There was also an intermediate tower between the corner and gate towers.

More intermediate towers were added in late antiquity. At that time there were likely guns on the platforms of the towers. In the second half of the third century the double trenches were leveled and replaced by a single pointed trench. This trench connected to the fort with a three meter wide berm. The top of the 11.5 m wide trench was 10.6 m away from the wall and was sunk three meters below the ancient level. Since the ditch was then no longer cleared, but only sloped, it developed in the fourth century into a trough-shaped, only two meters deep approach obstacle.

On the inside of the camp, the wall was joined by an earth wall six meters wide at the base with a walkway. The subsequent via sagularis (Lagerringstrasse), which was at least six meters wide , could be identified as well as the other main streets of the camp, the up to 8.5 m wide via praetoria , the seven meter wide via principalis and the one 20 m by 45 m via decumana, which opens into a large square behind the Principia . The principia probably covered a base area of ​​53 m by 42 m. The rear, six meter deep room flight, in which, in addition to the 5.5 m wide aedes (flag sanctuary), five other two to four meter wide rooms (one of which was heated), could be examined best . The 0.7 m to 1.2 m thick foundation was sunk up to two meters below the ancient level. The rising consisted of two-shell tuff stone masonry with a core of Opus caementitium . The principia were covered with a tile roof made of imbrices and tegulae .

There were different forms of half-timbered barracks covered with clapboard or straw, some of which were previously unknown. In addition to combined barracks for horses and teams, pure horse stables and pure team barracks were also found. In the second quarter of the second century, the buildings were destroyed by a damaging fire, but then rebuilt. A single team barrack was destroyed again by fire towards the end of the second century. Apart from a few pits and a well, no other building finds could be established from the third and fourth centuries.

Vicus and burial grounds

The vicus , the camp village, in which the entourage of the troops, families of soldiers, traders, craftsmen, innkeepers, joy girls and other service providers settled is only sporadically and selectively recorded archaeologically in Dormagen. It surrounded the fort in a semicircle in the NNW to SSE. Transferred to today's cityscape, it roughly comprised the area between Florastrasse and Kirchstrasse.

As is customary in Roman custom, the burial fields were outside the settlement area, along the arterial roads. The graves from the Middle Imperial Era (second and early third centuries) were located along the roads leading to Novaesium and the CCAA, and occasionally on the western side of the vicus. The numerically smaller burial places of the late second and third centuries no longer overlapped the earlier burial grounds, due to the reduction in area of ​​the camp village, but were again in a more central location, exclusively in the immediate area of ​​the later St. Michael Church.

Pre- and post-Roman use

An earthwork lying under the Roman cultural layers can possibly be assigned to the Michelsberg culture . Corresponding finds were recovered in the vicinity as litter and reading finds and as an inventory of a settlement pit. A single, decorated shard of wall refers to the Bischheim culture . So far, there are no findings of the Celtic or Ubic settlement that preceded the Roman settlement.

After the end of the Roman presence, the country was occupied by the Franks. Possibly there was a Franconian settlement or a Franconian farm in the Dormagen area in the sixth or seventh century, but so far this has only been indicated by a corpse of the same time on Florastraße.

Finds

  • A first extraordinary discovery was made in 1821 with the uncovering of a mithraium . In the approximately 13 m long room, which was sunk into the floor, there were several stones dedicated to Mithras . Two of these consecration stones are of particular importance insofar as they were donated by soldiers of the Ala I Noricorum , whose stationing in Durnomagus is therefore considered to be definitely confirmed. Today the location of the Mithraic temple can no longer be localized.
  • Another, unusual discovery was made in the first half of the 19th century. At a depth of only 40 centimeters under the floor of a cow barn, a treasure trove was recovered, which was made up of 900 silver and four gold coins. The coin series extended from Augustus (30 BC – 14 AD) to Commodus (176–192).
  • The so-called Dormagen denarf find , which was recovered from Nettergasse, is of scientific importance . Even if the contents of a purse lost or deposited in the 160s only contain ten denarii, it is an important reference to Roman coinage . The coin series begins with one of Lugdunum / Lyon coming, Vespasian coinage from the years 69/70 and ending with a denarius of Marcus Aurelius , which was coined by 161 in Rome. Overall, the find consists of four pre- Trajan , one Trajan and five post-Trajan coins. It shows that Flavian coins were in circulation for a very long time. He also points out that Trajan's decree from 107, mentioned in Cassius Dio , to confiscate old and worn silver coins probably only referred to republican denarii.

Monument protection and remains

The area of ​​the camp is a ground monument according to the law for the protection and care of monuments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Monument Protection Act - DSchG) . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.

Numerous finds from the Dormagener fort ended up in the collection of the Delhoven family, who wrote an extensive town chronicle in the 19th century. Another part of the objects discovered during the excavations is in a small exhibition in the historic town hall of Dormagen.

See also

literature

  • Michael Gechter : Durnomagus riding fort . In: Tilmann Bechert, Willem JH Willems (Hrsg.): The Roman border from the Moselle to the North Sea coast . Theiss, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1189-2 , pp. 37-40.
  • Michael Gechter: The beginnings of the Lower Germanic Limes. In: Bonner Jahrbücher . 179, Rheinland-Verlag, Bonn 1979, p. 110 ff.
  • Heinz Günter Horn : Dormagen NE. Architectural remains and consecration stones . In: Heinz-Günter Horn (Ed.): The Romans in North Rhine-Westphalia. Licensed edition of the 1987 edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-59-7 , pp. 400–401.
  • Gustav Müller : Dormagen NE. Alenkastell and military brick . In: Heinz-Günter Horn (Ed.): The Romans in North Rhine-Westphalia. Licensed edition of the 1987 edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-59-7 , pp. 394-400.
  • Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen (= guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn. Volume 90). Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979.
  • Gustav Müller: Excavations in Dormagen 1963-1977 (= Rhenish excavations. 20). Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7927-0448-X .
  • Gustav Müller: Dormagen - Durnomagus . In: Julianus Egidius Bogaers , Christoph B. Rüger (Ed.): The Lower Germanic Limes. Materials on its story. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7927-0194-4 , pp. 101-104.
  • Harald von Petrikovits : The Roman Rhineland. (= Bonner Jahrbücher. Supplement 8). Rheinland-Verlag, Bonn 1960, p. 47 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Itinerarium Antonini 254.4 f.
  2. ↑ Including CIL 13, 8524 .
  3. ^ Hermann Cardauns and Reiner Müller (eds.): The Rhenish village chronicle of Joan Peter Delhoven from Dormagen . New edition. Dormagen official administration, Dormagen 1967
  4. ^ Franz Fiedler: Durnomagus or Dormagen and its monuments from Roman times. In: Bonner Jahrbücher. 21 (1854), pp. 45-56.
  5. ^ Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979, (= Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Vol. 90; = Dormagener Contributions, Vol. 8), p. 1.
  6. ↑ Chris Stoffels: Archaeologists find barracks . Article of the NGZ-Online on the website of the archaeologist Jürgen Franssen, (accessed on July 18, 2010) .
  7. ^ Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979 (= Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Vol. 90; = Dormagener Contributions, Vol. 8), pp. 1–3.
  8. ↑ a b CIL 13, 8524 and CIL 13, 8523 .
  9. ↑ CIL 13, 8524 .
  10. ↑ a b c Michael Gechter : Durnomagus riding fort . In: Tilmann Bechert, Willem JH Willems (Hrsg.): The Roman border from the Moselle to the North Sea coast . Theiss, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1189-2 , p. 38.
  11. ^ Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979, (= Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Vol. 90; = Dormagener Contributions, Vol. 8), pp. 29–32.
  12. ^ Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979, (= Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Vol. 90; = Dormagener Contributions, Vol. 8), pp. 17–28.
  13. ^ Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979, (= Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Vol. 90; = Dormagener Contributions, Vol. 8), pp. 29–53.
  14. ^ Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979, (= Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Vol. 90; = Dormagener Contributions, Vol. 8), pp. 54–60.
  15. ^ Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979, (= Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, vol. 90; = Dormagener contributions, vol. 8), p. 61 f.
  16. ^ Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979, (= Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Vol. 90; = Dormagener Contributions, Vol. 8), p. 63 f.
  17. ↑ a b Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979, (= Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Vol. 90; = Dormagener Contributions, Vol. 8), p. 2.
  18. ↑ Cassius Dio 68.17.
  19. ↑ Volker Zedelius: The Dormagener Denarfund . In: Gustav Müller: Durnomagus. The Roman Dormagen. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1979, (= Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, vol. 90; = Dormagener contributions, vol. 8), p. 68 f.
  20. ↑ Law on the protection and maintenance of monuments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Monument Protection Act - DSchG)
  21. ^ Stephan Zöller: Roman weapons document the city's early history. In: Neuss-Grevenbroicher Zeitung , January 3, 2020, p. D3. Online version , accessed January 10, 2020.