Hoard from Neupotz

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Roman crockery from Neupotz

As a hoard of Neupotz of with 1,062 objects and more than 700 kg largest is Roman times metal Fund Europe referred to in the years 1967-1997 in the gravel extraction from a Altrheinarm at Neupotz in the Rhineland-Palatinate district of Germersheim in Germany by the swimming clamshell was promoted to light .

The hoard is owned by the owners of the gravel works , the Kuhn brothers. In 2016 they left it on permanent loan to the Museum of Prehistory and Early History (Berlin) ; the objects are exhibited in the Neues Museum Berlin .

The Neupotz hoard is not a closed find . However, the majority of the objects are considered to be related. The current interpretation of the find complex regards it as a booty that was lost in the year 260 from a returning Alemannic raid. The Teutons were possibly caught by Roman patrol boats when crossing the Rhine . The "barbarian treasure", as part of the probably very extensive booty, went down in the floods of the Rhine.

Location

location

Re-enactment of the find situation

The site is located southeast of Neupotz within a former arm of the old Rhine. The find area covers an area of ​​500 m × 300 m and is today in the area of ​​two quarry ponds , which are separated from each other by an approximately 30 m wide dam. The dam was left as a road dam so that it preserved the stratigraphy of the site. It can be assumed that further archaeological finds are contained in the dam. The finds were recovered from a water depth of eight to twelve meters. However, it is considered likely that the find layer itself was about four meters deep and only slid into lower layers together with the extracted gravel layer.

Find history

The Rhine loop near Neupotz was part of the main course of the river in the 3rd century . The site was roughly halfway between the legionary camps of Argentorate (Strasbourg) and Mogontiacum (Mainz) in the Roman province of Germania superior ("Upper Germany") . The greater Civitas Nemetum area was administered from Noviomagus Nemetum ( Speyer ). There is a spatial reference to the large pottery site Tabernae ( Rheinzabern ), which is in the immediate vicinity of the site. It is believed that a port of the Roman industrial site was located a little north of the site. The course of the Rhine in Roman times was confusing because it meandered strongly and the banks were densely forested.

Dating

The dating of the barbarian treasure is essentially based on the 39 coins it contains. The most recent coin is a worn Probus Antoninian coin . With the inclusion of this coin, the complex of finds could be dated to around AD 277/278 and assigned to the Probus Wars .

However, recent research suggests that the Probus coin cannot be assigned to the Barbarian Treasure. On the one hand, like the post-Roman finds, it could have come to the objects of the hoard by chance; on the other hand, the exact location of many coins remains unclear. They were often picked up from the spoil heaps and taken home by those who found them. Only later were these coins, including the Probus coin, returned to the hoard. Thus, it cannot be proven with certainty that the Probus coin actually belonged to the hoard's original coin size. What is certain is that the Probus coin does not fit into the overall picture of the remaining coins, which end with a final coin of Gallienus AD 258-259.

Historical context

Looting of the Alamanni (orange), Juthungen (red) and Franks (pink) in AD 260 - N = Neupotz, A = Augsburg

The find is assigned to the Germanic raids of 259/260 AD, which ultimately led to the fall of the Limes . It belongs to the same fund horizon as the hoard find from Hagenbach or the hoard find from Otterstadt "Angelhof" . A total of 18 excavator finds from the 3rd century are now known from the Rhine between Seltz and Mannheim .

As early as the 2nd century to reports (for example, 162 n. Chr. Multiplied by German raids chat ). The time of the Imperial Crisis of the 3rd century led to a considerable weakening of the Roman borders. Emperor Valerian was busy defending against the Goths on the lower Danube and the Persians on the eastern border of the empire. His son and co-emperor Gallienus tried to secure the north-western borders. The empire was in a serious crisis. .. 233 AD broke the 213 AD was first mentioned.. Alemanni (however, this "first mention" problem; sure the name is occupied only 289) into the Roman Empire area one. In 259/260 AD the Limes was crossed on a broad front and the Germans penetrated far into the Gallic hinterland without hindrance . Looting may have been one of the main targets of these incursions. The Limes was not only a military marker, but above all the border of the Roman economic area.

The population fled from the invading Germans and left money and monetary value in hiding. Numerous hiding spots today allow an approximate reconstruction of the looting routes. When the Teutons, richly laden with booty, which included prisoners, returned to their home regions, they were expected in some places by Roman troops. Evidence of this is provided by the Augsburg victory altar , the establishment of the “Gallic Sonderreich” by Postumus and the aforementioned hoards of prey from the Upper Rhine. In the latter case it is assumed that confrontations with the Roman Rhine fleet led to the losses. Parts of the booty were lost in the floods, some of it may have passed into the possession of Roman troops, but most of the booty has probably reached the Germanic areas.

Found objects

Barbarian treasure

Reenactment

The “barbarian treasure” with a total weight of a good 700 kg consists mainly of metal objects made of silver (10 kg), copper alloys (203 kg) and iron (513 kg). This is certainly also a consequence of the transience of the organic components of the hoard, but a comparison with other hoard finds shows that, because of the lack of metal in the Germanic homeland, the looters preferred to transport metal objects from the Roman Empire. The interest in pure metal value is also evidenced by the many objects that were dismembered and divided before crossing the Rhine.

Fetter

The metal crockery is the most numerous part of the hoard. This also includes four huge bronze kettles, which contained further bronze vessels and also served as "packaging". Kitchenware, tableware and drinking utensils belong to the complex of finds in a large variety of shapes.

Iron objects are available as tools and implements, car parts, locks and shackles, among other things. The iron parts of transport trolleys and pulling gear are a focus here. Based on the knowledge gained in this way, a Roman-era transport wagon was reconstructed. Both cuff rings, which served as ankle cuffs, and “handcuffs” could be identified. While some shackles could be used by both animals and prisoners, others could only be used by humans. The shackles were found along with the rest of the objects; therefore it is unlikely that they were carried by prisoners while crossing the Rhine. The inscription on the Augsburg Victory Altar shows that prisoners were among the loot. There it says: "Many thousands of captured Italians were torn out". An important reason for the capture was technology transfer. The barbarians robbed not only the establishment of entire workshops, but also the craftsmen who were familiar with the manufacture of Roman goods.

Pre-Roman finds

The hoard contains at least four prehistoric weapons and vessels. None of the objects was directly related to the ancient finds. There are two controversially discussed approaches to the interpretation of these finds: The pieces could actually have belonged to the booty, for example as pieces venerated in a public or private sanctuary as part of the ancestral cult. It is also conceivable that earlier sacrifices were used, which were sunk in the river and now accidentally dredged with the Roman treasure.

Post-ancient finds

The recovered objects also include 21 post-antique items, such as early medieval and Franconian weapons. These finds serve as evidence that "chance" must and can be included in the interpretation of the complex of finds. This is important for the dating of the hoard (see Probus coin) and for the prehistoric finds.

literature

Web links

Commons : Barbarian Treasure  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Speyer: The dispute over the barbarian treasure is settled. Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, July 4, 2016, accessed on the same day.
  2. ↑ Treasures from the Rhine. Neupotz's barbarian treasure. State museums in Berlin

Coordinates: 49 ° 6 ′ 18 ″  N , 8 ° 19 ′ 8.4 ″  E