Benningen Fort

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Benningen Fort
limes ORL 58 ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Neckar-Odenwald-Limes
Neckar line
Dating (occupancy) around 85 AD
to the middle of the 2nd century
Vicus to the middle of the 3rd century
Type Cohort fort
unit a) Various numbers
b) Cohors XXIV voluntariorum civium Romanorum
size 163 m × 134 m = 2.2 ha
Construction a) Wood and earth fort.
b) Stone fort
State of preservation Terrain deformations
place Benningen am Neckar
Geographical location 48 ° 56 ′ 38 "  N , 9 ° 14 ′ 47.8"  E
height 210  m above sea level NHN
Previous ORL 57 forts of Walheim (north)
Subsequently ORL 59 Cannstatt Fort (south)

The Benningen fort was a Roman military camp on the Neckar line of the Neckar-Odenwald-Limes . It is located as a ground monument in a largely undeveloped area on the eastern edge of what is now Benningen am Neckar , a municipality in the Ludwigsburg district in Baden-Württemberg .

Research history

Studion's castle drawing (1597)

The fort was examined and described for the first time at the end of the 16th century by the Marbach preceptor Simon Studion . It then fell into oblivion for more than two hundred and fifty years, until the interest of educated bourgeois classes in the 19th century turned to ancient evidence in Germany.

From 1877 to 1888 the Württemberg government set up a state Limes Commission to research the Roman military installations in the country. In addition to historians, it also included officers. It was particularly General Eduard von Kallee who recognized in 1886 from the notes of Simon Studion that the walls indicated there must be a fort. After the Romans built such a facility at a distance of about 15 km, the missing fort on the Neckar line from Koengen-Cannstatt-Benningen-Walheim-Böckingen-Wimpfen was found.

The first modern archaeological research was undertaken in 1898 by the Reich Limes Commission by Adolf Mettler. Since then, excavations have been carried out repeatedly , more recently under the supervision of the Baden-Württemberg State Monuments Office . Most of them were emergency or rescue excavations, since the Roman military camp of Benningen is the only fort on the Neckar line that has not been built over and is to be preserved largely untouched for posterity as a ground monument.

Findings

Fort floor plan at the time of the excavation in 1898

Only a few traces of an early wood and earth fort could be found during an investigation by the State Monuments Office. The later stone fort covers an area of ​​around 2.2 hectares with dimensions of 163 × 134 meters. The four-gate camp was surrounded by a 7.5 m wide and 2.5 m deep pointed ditch and reinforced with a wall 1.5 m thick, rounded at the corners. All four corners of this defensive wall were provided with towers, two more towers were located on each side of the gates. The fort was oriented with its Porta praetoria (main gate) to the northeast, towards the Neckar.

In the center of the interior of the fort, parts of the Principia (staff building) could be detected, in the northeast area, on both sides of the Via praetoria (arterial road) and only separated from the wall by the Via sagularis (Lagerringstraße), two Horrea (storage buildings). The remaining inner area of ​​the warehouse has not yet been examined. Gilded fragments of a large bronze come from the fort area, which date to the 2nd century AD and possibly belong to an image of the emperor, as it was placed in the flag shrine. At the time of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, this flag shrine was part of every fort in which an independent troop was stationed.

The vicus , the civil camp village, which developed around the fort, has hardly been systematically researched until now. Its center is likely to be located to the west and southwest of the camp. There were extensive grave fields along the connecting roads to the neighboring garrisons in Cannstatt and Walheim .

Building history

Site plan at the time of the excavation in 1898

The Benningen fort was initially built as a wood and earth structure in the Domitian era, probably around the year 85 AD. It belonged to a series of a total of six military installations with which a stretch of around 60 km along the Neckar was militarily secured, which stretched from the Wimpfen fort in the valley to the Köngen fort .

Benningen was the location of the auxiliary unit Cohors XXIV voluntariorum civium Romanorum ("24th cohort of voluntary Roman citizens"). This troop may have been relocated here under Emperor Domitian (81–96). It is possible that the unit was in the meantime before moving into Benningen until the Sulz fort on the Neckar-Odenwald-Limes was abandoned . In the early 2nd century, the unit built a system with massive stone walls instead of the old wood and earth fort. Around 159/160 AD the Limes was pushed forward to the east, the fort was abandoned and the garrison was moved to Murrhardt fort .

In addition to this unit, various numbers are also documented. The Numerus Brittonum Murrensium ("Unit of the Brittons on the Murr ") was possibly stationed here before the 24th cohort, before it was transferred to the Heilbronn-Böckingen fort and in Benningen by the Exploratores Triboci et Boi ("Reconnaissance unit of the Tribocians and Boier “) Was replaced.

Vicus

As with every long-term Roman military camp, a vicus has also formed in Benningen , in which the relatives of the soldiers, as well as traders, craftsmen and innkeepers, who covered the needs of the soldiers and their relatives, settled. The finds made in the vicus show that the Benninger camp village was a very important "middle center" for the surrounding area. The inhabitants are passed down by inscription stones as Vicani Murrenses ("Vicus inhabitants of the Murr "). Not least because of its convenient location on the Neckar, the vicus survived the withdrawal of the military and existed until the 3rd century. After all, it is likely to have been abandoned or destroyed during the internal and external political and economic crisis of the empire around the middle of the 3rd century.

Lost property

The finds that came to light during the excavations are located in the Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart and in the Roman Museum Benningen, which is housed in the town hall. Immediately next to the town hall is a small archaeological zone, in which a section of one of the vicus streets has been exposed and preserved. There are also some inscription stones and a replica of the Jupiter giant column from Walheim .
Another small museum in Benningen, which also deals with the Roman history of the place, is the "Museum im Adler", housed in a former farm and inn from 1630.

Monument protection

The ground monument Kastell Benningen is protected as a registered cultural monument within the meaning of the Monument Protection Act of the State of Baden-Württemberg (DSchG) . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, random finds must be reported to the monument authorities.

The Benningen fort and the aforementioned ground monuments have also been part of the UNESCO World Heritage as a section of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes since 2005 .

See also

literature

  • Dietwulf Baatz : The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube. 4th edition, p. 210, Gebr. Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2347-0 .
  • Karlheinz Eckhardt: Benningen am Neckar. Fort, vicus, museum. 2nd edition, Gentner, Stuttgart 1985.
  • Karlheinz Eckhardt: The Romans in Benningen. On the fate of the 24th cohort of volunteer Roman citizens. EC-Verlag, Benningen am Neckar 2004.
  • Oskar Paret : Benningen am Neckar. Prehistory and early history. 2nd edition, Remppis, Marbach am Neckar 1977.
  • Dieter Planck : Benningen . In: Dieter Planck (Ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg. P. 35 ff., Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1555-3 .

Excavation report of the Reich Limes Commission:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Simon Studion: Vera origo illustrissimae et antiquissimae domus Wirtenbergicae etc. 1597, manuscript no. 57, pages 75ff. State Library Stuttgart
  2. Website of the community Benningen am Neckar: 'Römerkastell' ( Memento of the original from November 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.benningen.de
  3. 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.
  4. ^ Gabriele Wesch-Klein : A mortar fragment with graffito from Heidelberg-Neuenheim. In: Find reports from Baden-Württemberg. Vol. 16. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1992. p. 530.
  5. Dietwulf Baatz: The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1993. ISBN 3786117012 . P. 210.
  6. ^ Philip Filtzinger: Hic saxa loquuntur. This is where the stones talk. Edited by the Society for Pre- and Early History in Württemberg and Hohenzollern, Stuttgart 1980, p. 41.

Remarks

  1. After Dietwulf Baatz: The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube. 4th edition, p. 210, Gebr. Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2347-0 , p. 210.
    According to Dieter Planck: Benningen . In: Dieter Planck (Ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg. P. 35 ff., Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1555-3 , p. 36 there may be a smaller, previously undiscovered numerus fort in addition to the well-known Benningen fort, similar to the situation at the Neckarburken fort . The presence of the numbers would therefore be assumed to coincide with the 24th Roman cohort.