Immurium

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The Roman settlement and road station Immurium (also In Murio ) in the Eastern Alps is a particularly good example of an accommodation and supply complex on a Roman main road. Here, for the first time, such a system in the inner Alpine region, located between two pass crossings, was examined as extensively as possible.

location

Immurium is located near Moosham Castle in the municipality of Unternberg in Salzburg's Lungau . In Roman times the settlement belonged to the territory of the city of Teurnia (near St. Peter im Holz , not far from Spittal an der Drau ) in the province of Noricum . The ruins, which were filled in again after they were uncovered between 1964 and 1970 due to the unfavorable climatic conditions, are located on a south-facing slope sheltered from the wind at around 1100 m above sea level above the Mur valley . The eleven buildings examined include the mansio (hostel), a bathing building, a sanctuary of the sun god Mithras and several residential houses of various sizes.

history

Immurium was built in the course of the construction of the Roman road Virunum - Iuvavum under Emperor Claudius (41–54 AD) , which ran from Iuvavum ( Salzburg ) via Cucullae ( Kuchl ) - Vocarium ( Pfarrwerfen ) - Ani ( Radstadt ) - In Alpe ( Pass summit of the Radstädter Tauern ) - Immurium - Graviacae ( Stadl an der Mur ) - Tarnasicum ( Flattnitzhöhe ) and further to Virunum (on the Zollfeld north of Klagenfurt ) newly laid out. In the place name, as in that of the Ani station, there is a pre-Roman river name: Murus (Mur) and Anisus (Enns). The names of the individual stations, together with the distance information, have been handed down in the Tabula Peutingeriana , the modern copy of a Roman road map. A Celtic predecessor settlement of Immurium could not be proven. Since 201 AD under Emperor Septimius Severus , a new road branched off here, leading to Teurnia, which considerably shortened the route over the Alps. Immurium had now become an important inner-alpine transport hub. The finds show that the settlement existed from the 1st to the late 4th century AD. The Lungau was hit by the invasion by the Marcomanni in the later 2nd century AD, by which Noricum was badly affected not reached. On the other hand, a number of coins that were hidden in the heating of the mansio under Aurelian (270–275 AD) indicate a threat that existed at that time, perhaps from the Alemanni . Final destruction cannot be proven, although some improvised burials in the area of ​​houses B and F suggest fighting. At the time of the Slavic occupation around 600, Immurium had long since been abandoned. When Moosham Castle was built around 1200, the ruins were used as a quarry and some houses were removed almost to the last stone, but not overbuilt to this day.

buildings

The oldest building in Immurium is the (at least) 32.30 mx 22.85 m measuring mansio from the Claudian period, which arranges its rooms and stables around a central rectangular courtyard. Their building type can also be found in other places in the Roman Empire and lives on in the caravanserais of the Islamic world. In the following decades there was a lot of building activity. By 100 AD, the majority of the buildings examined were already in place, including the bathroom with hot, lukewarm and cold rooms and two water basins. Only the Mithraeum, with its two identical dedicatory inscriptions on a marble beam in relief, was probably only built at the same time as the Immurium - Teurnia road was re-routed around AD 201. Subsequent construction activity cannot be proven.

In the individual houses, fragments of mortar with imprints of wooden rods indicate that the foundations made of quarry stone carried rising masonry using the technique of opus craticium ( half-timbering ). There were just as few upper floors as there were no basements. In the larger houses, some preferred rooms were provided with hypocaust heating , often only afterwards, while the smaller houses E and G did not have such, despite the very harsh winters in Lungau. In addition to the recovered fragments of single and multi-colored painted wall plaster, there are remains of an elaborate ceiling painting from House F, which are currently (2013) being investigated. Several floors were decorated with mosaics, some windows had panes of blue-green glass. According to the abundant slag finds, iron was processed on a large scale, but it has not yet been possible to find the smelting furnaces. In addition, bronze castings with the production of fibulae and the manufacture of clothing can be proven. A woman with the Celtic name Ategenta , which is handed down on a lead label inscribed, was employed with the latter .

The settlement was larger than its excavated part; Wind breaks in recent years and leveling work have uncovered remains of the Roman wall in several places.

Immurium was the central place of the Roman Lungau; Its role was taken over by the Slavic founding of Tamsweg and the Bavarian settlements of Mauterndorf and St. Michael in the Middle Ages. Further Roman legacies in Lungau are a villa in Steindorf near Mauterndorf, which was partially excavated as early as 1971 and which was much larger in size than previously assumed, as only recently revealed by geophysical investigations. Here and in Litzldorf near St. Michael, marble components were found that come from large grave structures.

The most important finds from the excavations are exhibited in the Tamsweg Museum.

literature

  • Robert Fleischer , Veronika Moucka-Weitzel: The Roman road station Immurium - Moosham in Salzburg's Lungau . = Archeology in Salzburg 4, Salzburg 1998 (here the three detailed excavation reports are quoted).
  • R. Gietl: The Romans on the passes of the Eastern Alps . Unprinted diploma thesis Vienna 2004, pp. 201–214 (street course, full text , pdf, academia.edu).
  • Stefan Groh , Volker Lindinger: New research in Immurium-Voidersdorf / St. Margarethen in Salzburg. The geophysical prospection 2007. In: Annuals of the Austrian Archaeological Institute 77, 2008, pp. 77–89 ( full text , pdf, academia.edu).
  • Robert Fleischer: To old and new research in Immurium / Moosham . In: Römisches Österreich 33, 2010, pp. 1–22 (critical of Groh / Lindinger).

Villa in Steindorf:

  • Robert Fleischer, The excavation in Steindorf 1971 . In: Annual Issues of the Austrian Archaeological Institute 49, 1968–71, supplement 235–250.

Web links

  • Development of street, commercial and fort settlements (Noricum) . In: → Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum: Transformation - The Emergence of a Common Culture in the Northern Provinces of the Roman Empire from Britain to the Black Sea up to 212 AD → Noricum ( Origin of the Vici ; texts in German; Immurium as an example in context, with a number of plans and building descriptions)

Coordinates: 47 ° 6 ′ 6 ″  N , 13 ° 42 ′ 4 ″  E