Arnsburg Castle

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Arnsburg-Alteburg Castle
limes ORL 16 ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Upper German Limes ,
route 4
northern Wetteraustrasse
Dating (occupancy) at 90 (possibly earlier)
to 260
Type Cohort fort
unit A) Cohors II Aquitanorum equitata
B) Cohors I Aquitanorum veterana equitata
C) Cohors V Delmatarum
size 2.9 ha
Construction A) Wood-earth warehouse
B) Wood / stone wall
C) Mortar stone wall
State of preservation Ground monument, partially reconstructed
place Lich
Geographical location 50 ° 29 '14 "  N , 8 ° 47' 4"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 29 '14 "  N , 8 ° 47' 4"  E
height 175  m above sea level NHN
Previous Small fort Hainhaus (southwest)
Subsequently Small fort Langsdorf (southeast)

The Arnsburg Fort , including the site name, also known as Arnsburg-Alteburg Fort , existed as a Roman cohort fort in the northernmost Limes arc west of the city ​​of Lich in the Wetterau in Hesse from before 90 to 260 AD. It was built under Emperor Domitian and Occupied with various cohorts in the course of its function as an exposed military base.

Almost 1000 years after the Romans gave up the fort, Benedictine monks tried to build a monastery on the site. The construction work on the monastery church, which began with material from the abandoned fort, was stopped after 22 years and the Benedictines were replaced by Cistercians , whose buildings were built less than 1000 meters from the fort on the site of today's Arnsburg monastery .

location

Course of the Limes near Butzbach and Arnsburg

As the northernmost cohort fort on the Limes, the ground monument with its few visible, reconstructed foundation walls is located on a plateau 15 meters above the mouth of the Welsbach in the Wetter at the intersection of several Roman roads. The strategically favorable location of the fort can be seen in the arrangement of the watchtowers on the defense, from which the Limes border wall, which runs about 1.5 kilometers northeast of here, could be seen unhindered over a long distance.

From the federal highway 488 in the direction of Lich, a few kilometers after the exit 39 of the federal highway 45, the road branches off in the direction of Muschenheim . After about 500 meters the street crosses the Welsbach. Behind the bridge there is a small parking lot on the roadside, from which a footpath leads up to the fort plateau. The small cemetery that you reach first belongs to Hof Güll and is already on the site of the former fort. To the right of the cemetery gate are the visible excavations of the north gate of Arnsburg Castle.

Research history

On July 15, 2005, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes was added to the list of world cultural heritage by UNESCO . The work for the application for membership also included the inspection of the aerial photo archive in the State Office for Monument Preservation in Wiesbaden in order to document the Limes stretches in Hesse as completely as possible.

Site plan of the Arnsburg-Alteburg fort

In addition to known earlier findings of the Solms-Laubach rent clerk Fabricius, who became aware of the differences in vegetation and color in the former Kleeacker as early as 1842 , measured them and thus verified the existence and exact location of the cohort fort on the Alteburg , which was built before 90 AD , Several new findings were discovered and registered on recordings around the fort made in the summers of 1986 and 1990 by the aerial archaeologist Otto Braasch . To the northwest of the fort one recognized the outlines of two large, non-contiguous Roman camps, one of them with a 5.6 hectare area almost twice as large as the 2.9 hectare large later fort. However, no traces of gates or other internal structures could be seen in these pictures.

A geophysical survey was then carried out on a total of ten thousand square meters in order to find out more about the extent of the camps. It was possible to locate the northern ditch and two corners of the larger camp, which made it possible to create a hypothetical camp plan. No interior structures could be detected by this investigation either.

Although the historical classification remains problematic with such a finding due to the lack of chronological criteria, it is assumed that the two camps separated in time and were only set up for short-term use with tents. The size of the second camp suggests an occupancy of up to 1000 soldiers who were probably involved in military operations in the Wetterau during the German wars under the emperors Augustus and Tiberius between 12 BC. BC and AD 16 were involved. However, the intensity and spatial extent of the acts of war are unclear.

Archaeological research in the area of ​​the fortified fort brought to light finds that also point to a military camp from the time of the German Wars, so that the fort site must also be considered as a pre-Limestone storage site, i.e. it existed before the year 90.

First north gate excavations from 1893

The renewed inspection of the aerial photographs also provided evidence of a bathing building on the site of the extensive camp village ( vicus ) built as accommodation for the relatives of the soldiers on the south-facing Roman highway immediately in front of the south gate of the fort. The recognizable contours clearly indicated the outline of a Roman fort bath. Similar structures within the foundation walls of an estate to the east of the fortification had already been localized in photographs, so that there must have been two bathing establishments in the area of ​​the Arnsburg Castle, but not necessarily at the same time. Evidence that the building on the street was a bath was provided by the discovery of a brick block weighing 875 grams , the surface of which was coated with sinter of lime due to constant contact with water . A little further from the south gate there was an amphitheater within the camp village .

In 1893, the Reichs-Limeskommission (RLK) carried out archaeological investigations on the north side of the fort and unearthed the foundation walls of both towers of the north gate, which a few years later were probably partially bricked up by the Upper Hessian History Association in Gießen and thus made visible. In the following 100 years, drifting sand increasingly covered the excavations. At the end of 2006, the buried foundation walls of the gate were restored again and the western corner of the enclosure was bricked up close to the ground. The reconstructions were erected on concrete slabs sunk into the ground in order not to make researchers of future generations believe that the masonry was Roman originals.

In the summer of 2008, the site of the fort was again archaeologically examined on behalf of the Archaeological Society in Hesse with the aim of gaining a more precise picture of the only insignificantly overbuilt complex. The entire fort area, the fort bath, the vicus, the amphitheater and a burial ground were examined with non-destructive prospecting methods, using a combination of different geophysical prospecting methods such as geomagnetics , geoelectrics and georadar . The measure was related to the closure of the total area of ​​7 hectares that had already been carried out. In addition to the fort, the camp village was also examined. A large part of the internal structure could be documented. A ditch was also discovered that completely enclosed the vicus south of the fort . The finding of a fortified camp village is so far rare on the Limes, although something similar has been observed at the nearby Ober-Florstadt fort .

Fort

Reconstructed north gate

Erected in the second half of the 1st century as a wood and earth warehouse, the Arnsburg-Alteburg fort was secured by enclosing walls at the beginning of the 2nd century, which followed the Roman rectangular scheme with four gates each secured with two towers. The main gate, created as a double gate by two additional towers, was on the eastward narrow side. In addition, the system was protected by 14 additional towers on the fence.

The area with sides of around 185 and 160 meters and a circumference of 699 meters was only marginally behind the Saalburg with 737 meters and the Fort Butzbach with 732 meters. This area provided space for a Roman cohort, i.e. a troop of around 600 men, and all the necessary stone interior structures such as the staff building ( Principia ), the commandant's house ( Praetorium ) and the warehouse ( Horreum ) . In the vicinity of the main gate there were remains of a large building, probably an estate or an inn ( mansio ) .

The remains of an armored strap were found in the Principia ; In the fort area, fragments of clothing came out of the ground. All these remains belonged to one or two large bronzes which date to the 1st half of the 3rd century.

history

Fort and Limes

The history of Fort Arnsburg-Alteburg begins in the second half of the 1st century at the time of the Roman Emperor Domitian, i.e. in the time when the Chattas from northern Hesse advanced southwards and established a strong position for themselves against the Rhine border of the Roman Empire . Domitian, still keen on the expansion of the Roman Empire, then led a campaign against the Chatti with great military commitment in the year 83 with the result that they could not be overcome but pushed back. The now unprotected Wetterau again offered the Romans the opportunity to advance far to the north and northeast from their Mainz base and thus keep chatting away from their area. A large number of simple military camps along the newly created borderline served them for this purpose, including at the confluence of the Welsbach and the Wetter river, which gives the landscape its name. In the more peaceful decades that followed, numerous manors were built in the fertile Wetterau so that the area could also be used for agriculture. The military camp on the Wetter was initially greatly enlarged and finally relocated to a neighboring high plateau called Alteburg and fenced off.

In the course of the final drawing of the border around the year 90, the Romans fortified the military camps located in strategically favorable locations and, in accordance with the requirements of the Limes, expanded them into forts, including the Alteburg camp. The Limes, the course of which in the Wetterau can still be clearly seen in the terrain, protruded in a wedge shape to the north from the Taunus over the Saalburg and Butzbach to Grüningen , where it reached its northernmost point on the right of the Rhine. From here it ran in a south-easterly direction past the Alteburg castle to the Inheiden castle and on to the Main river to the Großkrotzenburg castle .

The Limes was subject to constant expansion. In the vicinity of the Alteburg fort there were widening of the trenches and fortifications of the ramparts over long distances in the 3rd century. In the years 250 to 260 the Romans gave up the Limes and the associated facilities ( Limesfall ). The Alteburg fort was abandoned and slowly decayed. The area disappeared from the historical field of vision at the time of the Great Migration and did not reappear until 1151, but then under the name Arnsburg .

Reuse

Cemetery on the fort area

After the Limes had been abandoned, Franconians settled the Wetterau. The Roman Fiskalland was systematically recorded and numerous new settlements arose along the old Roman roads by 800. This resulted in a concentration of Königsgut in the former Limes area.

In the immediate vicinity of the abandoned Alteburg Fort, two castles were built one after the other: a smaller one to the northeast of the fort, which dates back to around 800, and a second, 600 meters southeast of the remains of the fort on the Hainfeld , which is expected to be built around 1000. The latter was given up in favor of Munzenberg Castle, and the castle and the surrounding land, including the castle ruins, were left to the Benedictine order for the establishment of a monastery, which they undertook on the castle grounds, but gave up again in 1174. In the same year, Kuno I von Munzenberg transferred Arnsburg Castle , the fort with the monastery church that had been started, and all of the land in the Wetter Valley to Eberbach Monastery , which sent monks who immediately started building a new monastery church, but this time in the bottom of the Wetter, below Arnsburg Castle. The Arnsburg monastery was built here .

All users of the area following the Romans used the Roman fort as a quarry. In 1904 the Butzbach-Licher Railway - which has since been closed again - was relocated to the edge of the fort area. The central findings were largely passed by.

Troop

The fort's crew consisted of partly mounted units. The first troop in Arnsburg from is Aquitaine originating Cohors II Aquitanorum equitata (second cohort of teilberittene Aquitanians) known. The earliest evidence of their existence is secured by two military diplomas, which they attest for 19 September 82 and 27 October 90 in the province of Germania superior (Upper Germany), to which Arnsburg belonged. Between 107 and 116 the unit was relocated to the province of Raetia ( Raetia ) and moved into the Regensburg Fort Kumpfmühl until the Marcomann Wars (166-180). It was followed in Arnsburg at the beginning of the 2nd century by the Cohors I Aquitanorum veterana equitata (1st partially mounted veteran cohort of the Aquitaine). As these veterans cohort after the middle of the second century in the castle Stockstadt were mixed, also from the increased -Böckingen Heilbronn fort known Cohors V Delmatarum (fifth cohort of Dalmatians) their place in Arnsburg. A soldier of the 5th Dalmatian cohort gave the Municipium Doclea in present-day Montenegro as his hometown . This city was then part of the province of Dalmatia .

The named auxiliary troops, as their names explain, were assembled in Aquitaine and Dalmatia and had to do duty far from their homeland. Later these units also recruited soldiers from among the male population in the provinces in which they were stationed. The cohorts were subordinate to the Legio XXII Primigenia in Mainz .

Monument protection and perspectives

As a section of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the Arnsburg Castle has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2005 . It is also a ground monument in the sense of the Hessian Monument Protection Act . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.

In 2005 the Archaeological Society in Hesse succeeded in the course of land consolidation in buying up the entire fort area, including the vicus, for 120,000 euros, removing it from agricultural use and thus securing the cultural monument permanently. Since then, several display boards have been explaining the ground monument .

By 2015, technical methods such as ground penetrating radar should initially be used to search for further hidden remains of the fort buildings. There will be no excavation activity on the area until this prospecting is complete. It is also conceivable to leave the ground monument as such after it has been completely recorded.

See also

literature

  • Dietwulf Baatz : The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube . Gebr. Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2347-0 .
  • The same in: Dietwulf Baatz and Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (eds.): The Romans in Hessen. Licensed edition of the 3rd edition from 1989. Nikol, Hamburg 2002 pp. 228–230. ISBN 3-933203-58-9 .
  • Thomas Becker: The Limes fort "Alteburg" near Arnsburg . Archaeological monuments in Hessen 170. Wiesbaden 2009. ISBN 978-3-89822-170-2 .
  • Anne Johnson : Roman forts of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD in Britain and in the Germanic provinces of the Roman Empire. Zabern, Mainz 1987, ISBN 3-8053-0868-X (cultural history of the ancient world, vol. 37).
  • Hans-Markus von Kaenel and Carsten Wenzel: Arnsburg "Alteburg". Fort and vicus with a monumental center and enclosure . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): Perspektiven der Limesforschung. 5th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2465-8 , (= contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 5), pp. 105–121.
  • Hans-Markus von Kaenel, Norber Buthmann and Benno Zickgraf: Arnsburg “Alteburg”. Report on the continuation of geophysical prospecting in 2010/2011 . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes from the Lower Rhine to the Danube. 6th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2466-5 , (= contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 6), pp. 58–65.
  • Margot Klee : The Limes between Rhine and Main . Theiss, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8062-0276-1 .
  • Friedrich Kofler , in: Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roman Empire . Section B, Vol. 2a, Fort No. 16, The Arnsburg Fort (1902).
  • Bernd Steidl : Early imperial finds from the area and vicus "Alteburg" near Lich - Arnsburg monastery, district of Gießen . Saalburg-Jahrbuch 47, 1994, pp. 65-70

Web links

Commons : Kastell Arnsburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Dietwulf Baatz: The Roman Limes , p. 138.
  2. ↑ Stephan Bender: Roman camps again - new findings north of the Arnsburg fort near Lich-Muschenheim In: hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2001. Theiss-Verlag, Stuttgart 2002 p. 72f.
  3. ↑ Thomas Becker, Stephan Bender, Martin Kemkes , Andreas Thiel , The Limes between the Rhine and the Danube. A soil monument on the way to the UNESCO World Heritage Site , Stuttgart 2001.
  4. ↑ a b c d Gießener Anzeiger from August 8, 2007: The special topic .
  5. ↑ For the first results of the prospecting, see Hans-Markus von Kaenel / Benno Zickgraf / Torsten Riese and Thomas Becker: Sustainably secured - and richly rewarded! In: hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2008 pp. 86–89.
  6. ^ Karl Ernst Demandt : History of the State of Hesse , p. 77.
  7. ^ Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: Archaeological Monuments in Hessen 6, 1989.
  8. ↑ Martin Kemkes: The image of the emperor on the border - A new large bronze fragment from the Raetian Limes . In: Andreas Thiel (Ed.): Research on the function of the Limes , volume 2. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2117-6 , p. 144.
  9. ^ Karl Ernst Demandt: History of the State of Hesse , pp. 72–73.
  10. ^ Walter Kröll: Investigations on the Limes near Arnsburg Castle . In: 800 years of Arnsburg monastery. Pp. 15-18.
  11. ↑ CIL 16,00036
  12. ↑ Nicole Lambert, Jörg Scheuerbrandt : The military diploma: source for the Roman army and documents. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2002. ISBN 3-8062-1726-2 . P. 54.
  13. ↑ Volker crown Mayer: contributions to the social history of the Roman Mainz. Verlag Peter Lang 1983. ISBN 3-8204-7777-2 . P. 77.
  14. ^ Panel 2 of the Archaeological Society in Hesse, on the object, 2006.