Small fort Hankertsmühle

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Small fort Hankertsmühle
limes ORL between Wp 9/76 and 9/77 ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Upper German Limes
Vorderer Limes, route 9
Dating (occupancy) at the earliest around AD 159/160
(or from AD 233?)
to AD 259/260 at the latest.
Type Small fort
size 16.32 / 17 × 19 / 18.05 m
(= 0.03 ha)
Construction Stone fort
State of preservation Wall stumps preserved in the ground (not visible)
place Mainhardt
Geographical location 49 ° 3 '19.4 "  N , 9 ° 34' 18.2"  E
height 434  m above sea level NHN
Previous Small fort Mainhardt-Ost (north)
Subsequently Murrhardt Castle (south)
The northern part of the Vordere Limes with the older Neckar-Odenwald-Limes to the west

The small fort Hankertsmühle was a Roman fortification of the principate on the Upper Germanic “Vorderen Limes” , which in 2005 achieved the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site . The small fort was built around 50 meters from the Roman border and is now located in the district of Mainhardt , a municipality in the Schwäbisch Hall district in Baden-Württemberg .

location

The small fort was built at a distance of around 4.5 kilometers from the small fort Mainhardt-Ost to the north. A similar distance could also be determined for the small fort Ebnisee to Rötelsee and could be typical for the smaller military stations on the Limes. The location of the fortification was largely determined by the Front Limes , which ran straight from the northwest to the southeast and took no account of the respective topographical terrain. The border line crossed the upper Rottal east of the fort . The military installation is located in the narrow, flat meadow on the northern bank of the Rot and stood with its pretorial front, the surrounding wall facing the enemy, roughly parallel to the Limes, which was about 50 meters away.

Research history

Sketch of the location of the small fort based on the excavation by Gustav Sixt in 1897.

In 1897 the fortification was found and examined by Gustav Sixt , the responsible route commissioner of the Reich Limes Commission (RLK). Sixt himself described it as an intermediate fort . The fence was examined, but the inside of the structure was not excavated. No further work took place. The remains of the facility are now underground and cannot be seen. An information board on the adjacent path indicates the small fort. The north-west corner of the wall was already destroyed in the year it was discovered by the construction of the road from the hammer mill to the former Hankertsmühle.

Building history

The facility is one of the smallest of its kind on the Upper German Limes, for which the term field guard is often used in literature . The length of the sides was measured in the east and west as 16.32 and 17 in the north and south as 19 and 18.05 meters, the wall pieces as 1.85 meters. The corners were rounded. On the east side - facing the pile ditch - there was a 1.52 meter wide entrance, framed by 3.50 meter long and 1.80 meter thick cheek walls. The RLK assessed the massive strength of the walls and gate cheeks as strange in view of the small size of the structure. The crew will not have been more than 10 to 20 soldiers. A trench in front of the fence and a wooden battlement can be accepted, as well as a U-shaped wooden interior with the open side facing the gate.

On function and dating

Presumably, the facility was intended to monitor access from the Barbaricum via the Rot valley, which is a sensitive Limes site for reasons of topography. According to archaeologist Andreas Thiel , the Limes road accompanying the border will not have crossed the river at this point, as the location in the narrow, winding valley precludes a long-distance path from passing the field guard.

The archaeologist Dieter Planck summarized a number of constructions of small forts on the Upper Germanic Limes that were similar in size, construction and distance from the border wall, including the small fort Hankertsmühle, under the name Rötelsee type field guards . On the basis of datable finds in the systems he has examined, he assumes that this type probably only emerged in the late 2nd century. Thiel dated this type of fort even more recently, to the late Limes period. The reduction in the number of troops at that time resulted in a reorganization of the border surveillance. In the place of the constantly manned tower positions, the small fort of this type had now appeared in order to cope with the surveillance of the border with a crew that would no longer have been sufficient to fill the tower positions. However, no finds have survived for the small fort Hankertsmühle, so that specific statements, independent of the use of comparable facilities, are not possible about the time of its creation and the period of its use.

Hankertsmühle

Today there are few remains of the Hankertsmühle, which already existed in 1371, but was first mentioned in a document at the time, near the fort. After the accidental death of the last miller's wife, the miller left the property with his 13 sons in 1912 and emigrated to the USA. In 1913 the state bought the mill for demolition. A small Roman column, which is now at the former archway of the property and comes from a Limes building, shows that in the Middle Ages the Roman remains were used as a cheap quarry, as was the Hankertsmühle itself in the 20th century. The Kümmelsbächle flows out at the mill , the former Mühlbach, into the red.

Monument protection

The small fort Hankertsmühle and the aforementioned ground monuments have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage as a section of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes since 2005 . In addition, the facilities are cultural monuments according to the Monument Protection Act of the State of Baden-Württemberg (DSchG) . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.

See also

literature

  • Dietwulf Baatz : The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube. 3rd edition, Mann, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-7861-1701-2 .
  • Christian Fleer: Typification and function of the small buildings on the Limes. In: Egon Schallmayer (Ed.): Limes Imperii Romani. Contributions to the specialist colloquium “Limes World Heritage Site” in November 2001 in Lich-Arnsburg. Saalburg Museum, Bad Homburg v. d. H. 2004, ISBN 3-931267-05-9 , pp. 75-92, especially p. 78 ( Saalburg-Schriften. Volume 6).
  • Dieter Planck , Willi Beck: The Limes in Southwest Germany . 2nd edition, Theiss, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0496-9 , p. 79.
  • Andreas Thiel : On the function of the small fort on the Upper German Limes . In: Yearbook 2003/2004 of the Heimat- und Altertumsverein Heidenheim an der Brenz e. V. Heidenheim 2004, ISSN  0931-5608 , pp. 69-77.
  • Gustav Bossert: The Hankertsmühle near Mainhardt . In: Schwäbische Heimat 26, (1975), pp. 131-134.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Andreas Thiel : On the function of the small fort on the Upper German Limes . In: Yearbook 2003/2004 of the Heimat- und Altertumsverein Heidenheim an der Brenz e. V. Heidenheim 2004, ISSN  0931-5608 , p. 72f.
  2. ↑ fortlet Mainhardt-east at 49 ° 4 '49.48 "  N , 9 ° 33' 43.55"  O .
  3. ↑ fortlet Ebnisee at 48 ° 55 '33.6 "  N , 9 ° 37' 9.3"  O .
  4. ↑ fortlet Rötelsee at 48 ° 53 '11.72 "  N , 9 ° 38' 1.84"  O .
  5. ^ Horst Clauss: The small fort Mainhardt-Ost. In: Württembergisch Franken. Yearbook of the Historical Association for Württembergisch Franken 72 , 1988. pp. 355–360; here: p. 360.
  6. ↑ The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roman Empire . Section A, Volumes III and IV. Lines 6–9 . Otto Petters, Berlin / Leipzig 1933, p. 168.
  7. ^ Limes leaf. Notices from the route commissioners to the Reichslimeskommission. 1892-1903 . Bookstore by Jacob Lintz, Trier 1903, p. 675.
  8. ^ Dieter Planck, Willi Beck: The Limes in Southwest Germany . 2nd edition, Theiss, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0496-9 , p. 79.
  9. ↑ Memorial plaque on the Hankertsmühle.