Iuliacum

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Schematic representation of the vicus iuliacum in the 1st – 3rd centuries. Century AD (redrawn from Tholen, 1975)
Representation of Jülich on the Peutinger table (marked in red)

Iuliacum is the Roman name for today's Jülich (in the Düren district in North Rhine-Westphalia). The vicus is listed on the Tabula Peutingeriana as the first stage destination coming from Cologne on the road to Tongeren ( Atuatuca ). The trunk road from Cologne to Boulogne-sur-Mer is one of the main connecting routes in the northwestern provinces and was laid out early in the Augustan period.

location

The Rur river narrows at the site of today's Jülich . In Roman times, roads and paths are bundled on both sides to the left and right of the Rur and meet the main road in order to cross the river at this ideal point. Only 30 kilometers from the gates of Roman Cologne , i.e. a day's journey, was a very good place to settle here. However, this was not created directly on the Rur, but in a bend in the Ellebach , about 300 meters east of the actual Rur crossing.

Naming

The naming Iuliacum suggests a Claudian-Iulian foundation in the first century. The first component Iuli- represents the Latin name Iulius ( Julius ) and the second element - (i) acum is the Celtic suffix - (i) akon in the sense of "possession, property", that is, "possession of Julius". The -ich place name ending in German-speaking countries mostly has this origin. It corresponds to the common Juliacum of France, such as B. Juillé (Sarthe, Juliacum around 1082), Juilly (Côte-d'Or, Juliacum 1276), Jully (Yonne, Juliacum 1145) etc.

In the older literature this place name is also often accepted as an indication of a foundation by Gaius Iulius Caesar himself. This thesis has been refuted by modern research. The vicus also evidently had a purely civil character. Finds of Roman bricks with stamps from troops, such as the Rhine Fleet, are not uncommon in a civilian context, because the bricks were mainly manufactured and traded by the military.

topography

Secondarily used Roman tombstone at the Witches Tower in Jülich (copy)

In the 1st century there was a pottery settlement about one kilometer north of the vicus . The place Iuliacum itself was laid out to the left and right of the street using strip house technology . The narrow gable side faced the street. In this way, as many vicus houses as possible could be built along the street. A water pipe found during construction work led to a building on whose foundation walls the provost church stands today. This building south of Römerstrasse has an orientation that differs from that of the strip houses and is rotated by almost 90 degrees. Possibly there was a thermal bath here .

On the road leading to Cologne, sections of the vicus burial ground with early to mid-imperial cremation graves and late antique body burials were uncovered several times .

An important find from the vicus is the fragment of the base of a Jupiter column from the 2nd century. The inscription on the front identifies the object as a dedication to Iupiter Optimus Maximus , which was donated by the vicani iuliacenses , the inhabitants of Iuliacum. This inscription not only proves the vicus in Jülich as the place Iuliacum, it also testifies that its inhabitants had a sense of community as vicani . The relief of a wreath of oak leaves was attached below the lettering . Part of the decoration on the right side of the base fragment has been preserved. Here was a half-relief depicting a helmeted Minerva , the goddess of wisdom and patron saint of merchants and traders. The image of Minerva at this central point could give an indication of the commercial character of the settlement.

In Jülich, a horizon of destruction by fire can be proven in several places for late antiquity . The destroyed stone buildings were then rebuilt using truss technology. The extension of the place was limited to a third of the previous size and received a defensive wall in the form of a 12-sided polygon . The route of the trunk road was led around the fence to the north. A defensive trench has not yet been proven archaeologically, even if various attempts at reconstruction assume such a ditch. Research has long held that Iuliacum was built a priori as a square fort of the Saalburg type . It was assumed that the fort was founded as a result of the Batavian revolt after 70 AD by the Legio VI Victrix . The finds of bricks with legionary stamps and matron consecration stones seemed to support this assumption. The more thorough investigations of recent years sufficiently refute this thesis. The range of finds that has meanwhile existed already began in the first half of the 1st century. Some explorations also show an overlay of the foundations of strip houses by the fort wall. The actual settlement must therefore have existed before the fortification . The settlement indicators also spread beyond the boundaries of the fence.

Now the assumption is that Iuliacum was destroyed by the Germanic invasions around 275/76 and then rebuilt and fortified. However, more recent results cast doubt on this. Conclusions by analogy to defensive structures of the same construction, for example in Jünkerath ( Icorigium ), Bitburg ( Beda vicus ) or Neumagen , suggest that the fortification was built at the beginning of the 4th century, i.e. about a generation after the Germanic invasions. However, a coin find from the screed of a building belonging to the fort complex specifies a post-quem date for its construction around 340, i.e. more than 70 years after the Germanic threat. The reasons for the fortification of Iuliacum are therefore not to be found in the Germanic invasions. Rather, they are probably related to the gradual withdrawal of Roman troops from the Rhine border and its gradual abandonment.

Continuity into the early Middle Ages

The vicus Iuliacum still existed after the withdrawal of the Roman troops. The necropolis east of the settlement on the trunk road to Cologne has been occupied well into the 5th century. In late antiquity, another burial site was created north of the fort, which was used continuously until the early Middle Ages . The burials of the dead show an increasing presence of Germanic sections of the population. These may be mercenaries or federates . The strong fortification of Iuliacum therefore ensured the survival of an urban population up to the Merovingian period and beyond.

Monument protection

The area of ​​the vicus is a protected ground monument according to the monument protection law . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and possible accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.

literature

  • Ulrich Coenen: From Juliacum to Jülich . 2nd Edition. Verlag G. Mainz, Aachen 1989, ISBN 3-925714-17-0 , p. 11 f .
  • Raymund Gottschalk: Late Roman graves in the area around Cologne (=  Rhenish excavations 71 ). Philipp von Zabern, Darmstadt 2015, ISBN 978-3-8053-4956-7 , p. 225-233; 335-357; Plate 91-121 .
  • Eberhard Graffmann: On the history of the name Jülich . Festschrift for the 75th anniversary of the Jülich history association 1923 e. V. In: Guido v. Büren, Erwin Fuchs (Ed.): Jülich, City - Territory - History . Boss-Dr.-und-Medien, Kleve 2000, ISBN 3-933969-10-7 , p. 357 f .
  • Ursula Heimberg : Settlement Structures in Lower Germany . Festschrift for the 75th anniversary of the Jülich history association 1923 e. V. In: Guido von Büren, Erwin Fuchs (Ed.): Jülich, city - territory - history . Boss-Dr.-und-Medien, Kleve 2000, ISBN 3-933969-10-7 , p. 189-240 .
  • Heinz Günter Horn (Ed.): The Romans in North Rhine-Westphalia . Theiss, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0312-1 , p. 447-450 .
  • Jürgen Kunow : Central locations in the Germania Inferior . In: Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 18 . 1988, p. 55-67 .
  • Marcell Perse: A summary of the archaeological structures of Jülich city center based on the excavation results in the course of the sewer rehabilitation in 1987 . Roman-Germanic Museum, Jülich 1988.
  • Marcell Perse: Contributions to Jülich Archeology (VII) . Festschrift for the 75th anniversary of the Jülich history association 1923 e. V. In: Guido v. Büren, Erwin Fuchs (Ed.): Jülich, City - Territory - History . Boss-Dr.-und-Medien, Kleve 2000, ISBN 3-933969-10-7 , p. 79-104 .
  • Marcell Perse: The image of the Juliacum fort - aspects of the archeology of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages . Contributions to European prehistory and early history. Festschrift for V. Bierbauer on his 65th birthday. In: Bernd Päffgen , et al. (Ed.): Cum grano salis . Likias, Friedberg 2005, ISBN 3-9807628-5-8 , pp. 129-142 .
  • Marcell Perse: The vicus of Jülich . In: Vera Rupp , Heide Birley (Hrsg.): Country life in Roman Germany . Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2573-0 , pp. 108-109 .
  • Heike Pöppelmann : The late antique-early medieval burial ground of Jülich, Kr. Düren. (=  Bonn contributions to prehistoric and early historical archeology 11 ). Bonn 2010, ISBN 3-936490-11-2 .
  • Peter Josef Tholen : Julicaum-Jülich. A topographical study . In: Bonner Jahrbuch . No. 175 . Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn 1975, p. 233 ff .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert Dauzat et Charles Rostaing , Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieux en France , réédition Guénégaud, Paris, 1979, p. 371a
  2. ↑ Law on the protection and maintenance of monuments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Monument Protection Act - DSchG).

Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 15.6 ″  N , 6 ° 21 ′ 40.3 ″  E