Bodegraven fort

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Bodegraven fort
limes Lower Germanic Limes
Dating (occupancy) A) around 40/50 (?)
B) from 61 (possibly already 40/50?)
To around 160 (?)
C) around 160 (?)
Type Cohort or vexillation fort
unit after 100:
Cohors II Asturum pf (?)
size approximately 120 m × 70 m
Construction A) Temporary tent camp
B) Wood and earth fort
C) Stone fort
State of preservation overbuilt
place Bodegraven
Geographical location 52 ° 4 '59 "  N , 4 ° 44' 48"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 4 '59 "  N , 4 ° 44' 48"  E
height 0  m NAP
Previous Laurium (east)
Subsequently Nigrum Pullum (northwest)
Bodegraven in the course of the Lower Germanic Limes

The Bodegraven fort was a Roman auxiliary fort on the Lower Germanic Limes . Today's mostly overbuilt, ancient relics are located in the area of Bodegraven , a small town in the municipality of Bodegraven-Reeuwijk in the Dutch province of South Holland .

Location and research history

The fort area of ​​Bodegraven was immediately south of the Oude Rijn at a point where it was necessary to lead the Roman Rhine Valley Road over a bridge or a dam, and where watercourses branched off, over which it was possible to run parallel to the Rhine to Nigrum Pullum to arrive. Today's soil monument is located in the center of the village, on both sides of Willemstraat and Oud Bodegraafseweg .

The area of ​​Bodegraven came into the focus of provincial Roman archeology late . In 1974, when the first standard work on the Lower Germanic Limes by Jules Bogaers and Christoph B. Rüger appeared, there was no mention of Bodegraven. Although the city was known as a site of Roman relics since the 1940s at the latest and in the 1960s a layer of fire rubble was repeatedly encountered in various places, considerations about a military use, a possible garrison location were initially only based on the hypothesis that a military Monitoring of this area could have been necessary due to the geographic traffic situation (especially the existing waterways). This hypothesis was corroborated by finds in 1977 and 1994 that apparently came from a military context, including brick stamps with the inscriptions TRA , LXG and VEX EX GER .

Up until a few years ago, amateur archaeologists from the organization AWN (Vereniging van Vrijwilligers in de Archeologie) were almost exclusively volunteers who took care of the archaeological and monument preservation concerns of Bodegraven. The investigations remained partially patchwork and were published in summary for the first time in 2016.

Findings

The findings in total speak for three different phases of expansion: a (possibly only temporary) camp (Bodegraven 1) followed a fort in wood and earth construction (Bodegraven 2), which was eventually replaced by a stone fort (Bodegraven 3). For all findings, it should be noted that these could only be detected in isolated places and not across the board. The wood-earth fort could be researched best. Its floor plan and structure were initially reconstructed based on two secured positions, the position of Porta Praetoria (on a plot of land at the corner of Willemstraat / Oud Bodegraafseweg ) and the position of a team barracks (west of Oud Bodegraafseweg ). The structure of the fort is similar to that of the Nigrum Pullum and Albaniana camps and therefore seems to have had a floor plan of around 120 m by 70 m. According to Roman standards, the Porta Praetoria was oriented towards the Rhine, i.e. towards the enemy.

Assumed tent construction phase (Bodegraven 1)

Wooden
tent pegs from Bodegraven AO: Erfgoedhuis Zuid-Holland

A tent camp (with earth wall) preceding the earliest timber construction phase is suggested by only one single indication. This consists of the discovery of over sixty different wooden tent pegs that were made in 1995/1996. The herrings are made of ash, alder, oak and maple and were not completely preserved in all cases. There are no leather fragments to be expected in this context, and no iron pegs, such as those otherwise known from early Roman military camps, could be found.

Timber construction phase (Bodegraven 2)

The dimensions of the Porta Praetoria in the timber construction phase were 10.70 m by 6.10 m, which roughly corresponds to the main gates of Albaniana, Praetorium Agrippinae and Nigrum Pullum. Of this total area, the two gate towers each account for 3.20 m by 6.10 m. On both sides of the main gate, a three-meter-thick wood-earth wall was detected over a distance of four meters. One finding that can possibly be referred to as a defensive trench (around five meters wide) (which was filled with material containing tent pegs from the first construction phase) was only found at one point west of the Oud Bodegraafseweg , other traces of defensive trenches were not found. Dendrochronologically , the year 61 was determined as the felling date for the wood used to erect the gate. However, since it cannot be ruled out that it is younger pieces of wood that were subsequently brought in for repair purposes, it is also quite conceivable that the first wood fortification, analogous to all forts that lie from Traiectum to the west, already in the Years between 40 and 50.

From the interior, at least the westernmost crew barracks of the Praetentura (front half of the camp) with its contubernia and a lane leading past it ( spatium conversantibus ) are secured. The crew barracks in Bodegraven run in a north-south direction, while the contubernia are oriented from east to west. Most of the armories ( armae ) could not be identified because they were outside the investigated area. The remainder of a hearth was found in a contubernium.

Assumed stone construction phase (Bodegraven 3)

Very little is known of the stone construction phase in Bodegraven, analogous to the neighboring fortifications. At least one indication is a dense accumulation of around 15 cm diameter wooden piles about ten meters north of Porta Praetoria, which perhaps served as the foundation of a stone wall that was later completely demolished and secondarily used, if one does not want to address them as a possible quay. There was insufficient material for a dendrochronological analysis and the less precise radiocarbon method produced contradicting results. Only one sample could be assigned reasonably reliably to the beginning of the second half of the second century, which can be assumed for a stone construction phase.

Finds and Findings Interpretations

A special find from Bodegraven is a rolled-up inscription tablet discovered by an amateur archaeologist in 2000. It is made of lead and has a rectangular shape measuring 17 cm by 7 cm and a thickness of two millimeters. The inscription lists over 20 different personal names in three columns.

Clodium / Cabrunum / Lupum / Placidum / Campanum / Casticium / Atrectun / Protum // Cattium / Boebium / {S} Scantium / Iulium / Pastorem / Silium / Telesinum / [Pr] iscum / Ingenum // Saturninum / Alcimum / Escingum / Etsigum / Avern [ales] / sic TSI V IIO ro [go (?)] / Quom [odo 3] / UT [

Jan Kees Haalebos took just one day before his sudden death, the possible key to the meaning of the panel by the word Avern the d'Averno Lago referring, in Roman times, not least because of its location in the midst of the Campi Flegrei as access to Underworld was true. According to this, the table is a so-called tabula defixionum (also tabula devotionum or tabula exsecratio ), an escape table with which the punishment of the gods should be conjured up on the named persons even after their death. Such tablets were rolled up so that only the gods could read them.

The names themselves are of mixed origins and could come from different areas of the empire. However, five of the names appear to be native to the Iberian Peninsula . This in turn correlates with another inscription find in the form of two fragments of a brick stamp, which possibly refers to the Cohors II Asturum pf (or the Cohors VI Asturum ), even if this interpretation cannot be considered certain.

Top center:
Parade helmet from Bodegraven in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden , Leiden

As early as 1937, a parade rider's helmet was found around 2.5 km to the east of Wierickerschans fortress from the 17th century. The helmet is made of silver-plated and gold-plated bronze and is richly decorated. On the inside of his neck protector are the incised inscriptions of two former owners, QV (intus) SALONIVS T (urma) IONI POPNIS TI CASSIS IVSTI (freely translated: "Quintus Salonius from the tower (squadron) of Ionus" and "Popnus, who made the helmet rightly owns "). The helmet could be dated from the last quarter of the second to the first quarter of the third century.

Lost and found and museum presentation

There is no Roman museum in Bodegraven itself. The finds are distributed among the municipality of Bodegraven, the Provinciaal Archeologische Depot Zuid-Holland, the Rhine section of the AWN, various private collections and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in the city of Leiden, only 20 km away as the crow flies . The escape plaque was acquired by the Het Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen in 2007 .

See also

literature

Web links

  • Bodegraven on cultuurwijzer.nl, an official website for the cultural heritage of the Netherlands, (Dutch)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annemarie Luksen-IJtsma: De Limesweg in West-Nederland. Inventory, analysis and synthesis of archeological onderzoek naar de Romeinse weg tussen Vechten en Katwijk. Basic report archeology 40 . Cultuurhistorie, gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2010, ISBN 978-90-73448-41-4 , pp. 45–50.
  2. ^ Julianus Egidius Bogaers and Christoph B. Rüger: The Lower Germanic Limes. Materials on its story . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7927-0194-4 .
  3. ↑ Pieter Cornelis Beunder: Tussen Laurum (Woerden) en Nigrum Pullum (Zwammerdam?) Was nog een castellum . Westerheem 29-1 (1980), pp. 2-33.
  4. ^ Wilfried AM Hessing: The Dutch coastal area . In: Tilmann Bechert and Willem J. H. Willems (eds.): The Roman border between the Moselle and the North Sea coast . Theiss, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1189-2 , p. 90.
  5. ↑ Official website of the AWN - Vereniging van Vrijwilligers in de Archeologie ( Dutch ), accessed on May 12, 2018.
  6. ↑ Dick van der Kooij, Suus Sprey, Menno FP Dijkstra and Henk Postma: Romeinen in Bodegraven. AWN-opgravingen in the period from 1995-2002 . Westerheem 54 (2005), pp. 275-306.
  7. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016.
  8. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016, p. 94f.
  9. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016, pp. 91–94.
  10. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016, p. 76f.
  11. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016, p. 67.
  12. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016, pp. 48–53.
  13. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016, pp. 55–62.
  14. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016, pp. 63–67.
  15. ↑ AE 2007, 01029
  16. ^ Julianus Egidius Bogaers: Een afdeling Romeinse hulptroepen in Bodegraven? Westerheem 29 (1980), ISSN  0166-4301 , pp. 33-36, also digitized as pdf .
  17. ↑ Jan Kees Haalebos and Marinus Polak: Een lijst met Romeinse namen uit Bodegraven. Vloektafeltje informs about soldiers coming from here . Westerheem 56 (2007), ISSN  0166-4301 , pp. 114-122.
  18. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016, pp. 72–74.
  19. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016, pp. 74–76.
  20. ↑ Description and illustration of the parade helmet from Bodegraven on the website romeinen.info, ( Dutch ), accessed on May 12, 2018
  21. ^ Wouter Vos, Joris Lanzing and Hans Siemons: Romeins Bodegraven. An overzicht van en visie op de archeological habitation remains. Vos Archaeo, Oosterbeek 2016, p. 72.
  22. ↑ Report on the purchase of the escape board from June 20, 2007 on nieuws.nijmegenonline.nl, ( Dutch ), accessed on May 12, 2018.