Alpen-Drüpt fort

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Alpen-Drüpt fort
limes Lower Germanic Limes
Type A) Auxiliary fort
B) March camp
C) March camp
D) Late antique fortress
size A) between 2.4 and 3.6 ha
B) 517 × 400 m = 20.7 ha
C) 369 × 380 m = 14 ha
D) unknown
State of preservation Ground monument
place Druids
Geographical location 51 ° 35 '2.5 "  N , 6 ° 33' 3.5"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 35 '2.5 "  N , 6 ° 33' 3.5"  E
height 25  m above sea level NHN
Previous Fort Wesel-Büderich (north)
Subsequently Calo (south)

The Alpen-Drüpt fort is a Roman auxiliary fort of the Lower Germanic Limes in the area of ​​the village of Drüpt on the left Lower Rhine, which belongs to the municipality of Alpen . Right next to the Limes fort, traces of two larger marching camps and a late Roman fortification were also discovered.

location

The sites are around eight kilometers south of the Vetera legion camp . They are largely not built over. In ancient times, the military camps were between Calo in the south and Vetera in the north, directly on the Roman Rhine Valley Road . In today's settlement image, the monuments are located in the fields of the village, which is essentially only populated with separate farmsteads.

Research history

Roman-era finds from the area around these facilities were known as early as the 18th century. The Prussian Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt (1786–1845) described Roman finds from the area around Drüpt, which came to light when the Rhine breached in 1823 and when today's Bundesstraße 57 was built. According to Schmidt, a Roman brick kiln that still contained several thousand bricks was cut when the road was being built. The bricks are said to have been stamped LEG XXX. Accordingly, the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix would have maintained a legion brick distillery in Drüpt / Trepitia. In 1854, Franz Fiedler thought he could identify the site as the historically transmitted Trepitia .

Since the 1960s, aerial photographs had repeatedly seen a series of straight and perpendicular trenches in Alpen-Drüpt, which could not be interpreted at the time, but made the area the focus of observation by regional archaeologists. In 2006, Thomas Becker was able to prove the Roman Rhine Valley Road in the immediate vicinity . A mapping of the vegetation features carried out in the same year initially yielded no further findings. The late antique finds from the northeastern edge of the village, made by a volunteer from the monument preservation department, led to a magnetographic measurement by the Archaeological Institute of the University of Cologne under the direction of Michael Heinzelmann . The measurement results corresponded to the trench courses of the aerial photos and based on the finds Clive Bridger interpreted this site as a late antique fortress in 2014. The areas south of it were investigated in 2013 by Baoquan Song (Ruhr University Bochum) from an aerial archaeological point of view and again in 2015 by aerial photographs and by private companies magnetographically and by means of two excavation cuts.

Earlier research had long speculated whether Drüpt was identical to the Trepitia mentioned in the cosmography of the geographer of Ravenna . However, this was rejected by the archaeologists of the most recent investigations, among other things because Trepitia is recorded between Asciburgian and Novaesium and there are no concrete sources for the location of Trepitia.

Findings

overview

The archaeologists found a total of an auxiliary fort, two marching camps and traces of a late antique fortification. The research is still at the very beginning of the investigations, which in the 21st century and with a view to the UNESCO protection of the Lower Germanic Limes planned for 2021 must not interfere too much with the soil.

Auxiliary Fort A

The magnetographic investigations led to the discovery of a typical auxiliary fort in 2015. A storage ditch could be traced over its full length of around 156 meters and with a ditch interruption for a gate. The length of the other axis is unclear, however, as the western area of ​​the camp was eroded away. The part of the floor plan that has been preserved has the typical rounded corners. The scientists interpolated the area of ​​the fort to a size between 2.4  hectares with a square and 3.6 hectares with a rectangular floor plan and interpreted the conception of the camp as potentially suitable for a Cohors milliaria equitata (partially mounted infantry unit of double strength), which is a Crew of 1080 men (800 infantrymen and 240 cavalrymen) corresponds.

The Principia (staff building) were identified from the internal development , which with a front of about 36.3 meters and a depth of 34 meters took up an area of ​​a good 1200  m³ . The second-largest building of the camp, which is located immediately next to it and measures around 21 meters by 34 meters, takes up 714 m³ and was identified as the Praetorium (the commandant's house). The third largest structure, which was around ten meters wide and at least 24 meters long, could be interpreted as a horreum (storage building) due to its intermediate pillars . The bulk of the excavation pits speaks in favor of former stone structures in all three buildings. The function of a fourth large building (21 m by 40 m = 840 m³) to the north outside the fort could not yet be determined.

March camp B and C

A north-south axis with a length of 517 meters was determined for camp B. An interruption of the ditch by the Porta principalis dextra (right side gate) and the adjoining Via principalis (warehouse cross street) divided the camp into a northern, 287 meter deep and a southern, 210 meter deep half. To the east, the storage trenches could still be detected over a length of around 400 m. The fort must therefore have had a minimum size of around 21 hectares, an area that is suitable for accommodating significantly more than one legion.

Camp C had a southwest-facing width of around 369 meters, the length could be tracked to 380 meters without reaching the ends. A minimum area of ​​around 15 hectares must therefore be assumed.

Both camps are considerably larger than the marching camps found in the Vetera area . So they were probably in a different context. Because camps B and C overlap, they cannot have existed at the same time. The size of the camps suggests that a large part of the Exercitus Germania inferioris (the Lower Germanic Army Group) has been concentrated in Drüpt . Since there is no find material, the historical context must initially remain in the dark.

Late antique fortification D

At the far north-eastern edge of the complex of findings, another fort was identified by aerial archaeological archaeological research, magnetography and the concentration of finds, which, due to the nature of the find, could be referred to as a late antique fortification.

Monument protection

The Alpen-Drüpt fort is a ground monument under the law for the protection and maintenance of monuments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Monument Protection Act - DSchG) . Research and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval. Incidental finds are to be reported to the monument authorities.

literature

  • Thomas Becker: Investigations on the road system along the Roman border . In: Harald Koschik (Ed.): Archeology in the Rhineland 2006, Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2128-2 , pp. 105-107.
  • Steve Bödecker, Baoquan Song and Sebastian Held: A new auxiliary fort on the Lower Germanic Limes. Alpen-Drüpt . In: Grietje Suhr and Michaela Helmbrecht (Red.): The Limes. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission . Volume 11 (2017), Issue 2, ISSN  1864-9246 , pp. 6–11, ( digitized version ).
  • Clive Bridger: A new Constantine-Valentine fortification in the Wesel district? A preliminary report . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes in Raetien, Upper and Lower Germany from the 1st to the 4th century. 7th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . (= Contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 8), Theis, Darmstadt 2014, pp. 192–204.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Friedenthal: To Trepitia - Drüpt. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 59, 1959, p. 188, note 2.
  2. ^ Ernst Schmidt (ed.): Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt: Research on the Roman roads etc. in the Rhineland. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 31, 1861, p. 98.
  3. ^ Franz Fiedler: Durnomagus or Dormagen and its monuments from Roman times. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 21, 1854. S. 39f.
  4. ↑ Clive Bridger: A new Constantine-Valentine fortification in the Wesel district? A preliminary report . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes in Raetien, Upper and Lower Germany from the 1st to the 4th century. 7th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . (= Contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 8), Theis, Darmstadt 2014, pp. 192–204.
  5. ↑ a b c Steve Bödecker, Baoquan Song and Sebastian Held: A new auxiliary fort on the Lower Germanic Limes. Alpen-Drüpt . In: Grietje Suhr and Michaela Helmbrecht (Red.): The Limes. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission . Volume 11 (2017), Issue 2, ISSN  1864-9246 , p. 8, ( digitized version ).
  6. ↑ Steve Bödecker, Baoquan Song and Sebastian Held: A new auxiliary fort on the Lower Germanic Limes. Alpen-Drüpt . In: Grietje Suhr and Michaela Helmbrecht (Red.): The Limes. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission . Volume 11 (2017), Issue 2, ISSN  1864-9246 , p. 10, ( digitized version ).
  7. ↑ Steve Bödecker, Baoquan Song and Sebastian Held: A new auxiliary fort on the Lower Germanic Limes. Alpen-Drüpt . In: Grietje Suhr and Michaela Helmbrecht (Red.): The Limes. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission . Volume 11 (2017), Issue 2, ISSN  1864-9246 , pp. 9f., ( Digitized version ).
  8. ↑ 51 ° 35 '5.5 "  N , 6 ° 32' 43"  E
  9. ↑ 51 ° 35 '15 "  N , 6 ° 32' 37.75"  E
  10. ↑ Steve Bödecker, Baoquan Song and Sebastian Held: A new auxiliary fort on the Lower Germanic Limes. Alpen-Drüpt . In: Grietje Suhr and Michaela Helmbrecht (Red.): The Limes. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission . Volume 11 (2017), Issue 2, ISSN  1864-9246 , p. 9, ( digitized version ).
  11. ↑ 51 ° 35 '25.25 "  N , 6 ° 32' 44.75"  E
  12. ↑ Clive Bridger: A new Constantine-Valentine fortification in the Wesel district? A preliminary report . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes in Raetien, Upper and Lower Germany from the 1st to the 4th century. 7th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . (= Contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 8), Theis, Darmstadt 2014, pp. 192–204.
  13. ↑ Law for the protection and care of monuments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Monument Protection Act - DSchG) ( Memento of July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )