Boroșneu Mare Castle

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Boroșneu Mare Castle
limes Dacian Limes
section A / VIII / 40
Dating (occupancy) 2nd to 3rd century
Type Auxiliary fort
unit Ala I Flavia Gaetulorum (?)
Ala Palmyrenorum
Ala I Asturum
Ala I Claudia Gallorum Capitoniana
Cohors III Gallorum
Cohors I Bracaraugustanorum
size 130 m × 198 m = 2.6 ha (?)
Contradicting data
Construction Stone fort
State of preservation clearly visible ground monument
place Boroșneu Mare / Covasna County
Geographical location 45 ° 50 '37.9 "  N , 26 ° 1' 1.1"  E Coordinates: 45 ° 50 '37.9 "  N , 26 ° 1' 1.1"  E
height 533  m
Previous Fort Brețcu (Angustia)
(northeast, A / VIII / 39)
Subsequently Comolău Castle
(west, A / VIII / 41)
Former defensive moat of the Boroșneu Mare fort (2011)

Fort Boroşneu Mare was a Roman auxiliary troop camp in the municipality of Boroşneu Mare (Groß-Weindorf), Covasna district in the Romanian region of Transylvania .

location

In today's settlement image, the soil monument is on the northern edge of the village of Boroșneu Mare in the "Vir" corridor. It can be clearly seen in the terrain due to its conspicuous, rectangular soil deformation. It was partly built over by a modern mansion. Topographically, the former fort is located on a ridge above the lower terrace of the Pârâul Negru stream . In ancient times, the fort crew was responsible for monitoring the Limes Road.

Archaeological Findings and Contradictions in Romanian Research

During the archaeological investigations in 1911 (under Vilmos Csutak and Ferenc László), 1943, 1947 and 1972 to 1975, most recently under the direction of Zoltan Szekely, only a single construction phase could be identified.

Contradicting information in the fort documentation

According to Nicolae Gudea , it is a stone fort with a rectangular floor plan and rounded corners that are oriented in the four cardinal directions. The axis dimensions are 130 m by 198 m, which corresponds to a total area of ​​2.6 hectares. It is surrounded by a 1.50 m thick wall in the technique of Opus incertum . A simple pointed ditch seven meters wide and one and a half meters deep served as an obstacle to the approach. No towers were found in the east or west corners. A side gate had been examined and found flanking, slightly protruding gate towers, each with a floor plan of ten by eleven meters. The relatively small amount of finds does not allow for a reliable beginning and end date.

Felix Marcu, on the other hand, states that the excavator Zoltan Szekely identified two gates, the Porta praetoria (main gate) and the Porta decumana (rear gate), and could not find any further gates, while Gudea, who was not involved in these excavations was, curiously, of only one gate, namely the Porta principalis sinistra (left side gate), but I have drawn two Portae principalis . The wall was also not, as stated by Gudea, 1.50 m, but only 1.35 m wide. Ultimately, the excavators would have determined axis dimensions of 90 m by 70 m, while Gudea would give contradicting information in different places. On the one hand, he described axis dimensions of 130 m by 198 m, and on the other side graphically represented those of 120 m by 150 m.

Identification of the troops

During the excavations, a large number of inscriptions were found, which could prove the presence of several units in Boroșneu Mare. The majority of them were cavalry troops.

The most common inscription was the Ala I Flavia Gaetulorum (1st Ala of the Gaetulians , nicknamed the Flavian ). The brick stamps of this unit were initially read as those of an Ala I Latobicorum (Szekely, 1975) or those of the Ala I Batavorum ( Ioan I. Russu , 1978), and were only correctly identified later (Piso, 1999). The Ala I Flavia Gaetulorum was an Ala quingenaria , a 480-man cavalry unit that was originally recruited in the area south of the High Atlas .

Other cavalry troops attested to in inscriptions were an Ala Palmyrenorum , which was initially incorrectly identified as Ala I Pannoniorum (Szilágyi, 1946), a troop that was originally set up in Palmyra , and the Ala I Asturum from Asturias, in the northwestern part of the Hispania province ulterior .

The fourth inscription of a cavalry unit documented in Boroșneu Mare proves the presence of the Ala I Claudia Gallorum Capitoniana (1st Gallic Ala of the Capito with the honorary name of the Claudian ). The identity of this troop was consistently recognized in Romanian provincial Roman archeology , except by Szekely (1975), who wanted the inscriptions to be read as that of Ala I Gallorum Flaviana .

In addition to these four pure cavalry units, two cohortes equitatae (partially mounted cohorts ) have been identified as crews of the Boroșneu Mare fort. The first is the Cohors I Bracaraugustanorum , a troop originally raised in Bracara Augusta , in the province of Lusitania , which was also stationed in the nearby Brețcu fort . The second is the Cohors III Gallorum (3rd Gallic Cohort).

Lost property and monument protection

The archaeological finds from the Boroșneu Mare fort were given to the Muzeul Judetean Covasna (Covasna District Museum ) in Sfântu Gheorghe , from which today's Muzeului Naţional Secuiesc (Székely National Museum) emerged.

The entire archaeological site and in particular the castle are protected as historical monuments according to Law No. 422/2001 passed in 2001 and are registered with the LMI code CV-IsA-13047 in the national list of historical monuments ( Lista Monumentelor Istorice ) . Responsible is the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Ministerul Culturii şi Patrimoniului Naţional), in particular the General Directorate for National Cultural Heritage, the Department of Fine Arts and the National Commission for Historical Monuments and other institutions subordinate to the Ministry. Unauthorized excavations and the export of ancient objects are prohibited in Romania.

See also

literature

  • Lorand Bordi and Alexandru Popa: Castrul roman de la Boroşneu Mare. O sută de ani de la prima cercetare arheologică sistematică . Acta Siculica 2012-2013, pp. 261-308, digitized .
  • Nicolae Gudea : The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz. 44, 2, 1997, pp. 62f., Digitized .
  • Kurt Horedt: The southern Transylvanian Limes route Dacia . In: Dorothea Haupt and Heinz Günter Horn (Red.): Studies on the military borders of Rome. Lectures of the 10th international Limes Congress in the Germania inferior . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-7927-0270-3 , pp. 331–338.
  • Felix Marcu: The Internal Planning of Roman Forts of Dacia . (= Bibliotheca Mvsei Napocensis XXX), Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca 2009, ISBN 978-606-543-058-7 , pp. 185-189 and plate 28.
  • Florian Matei-Popescu: Trupele auxiliare pe limesul estic al Daciei. Stadiul problemei . ANGVSTIA, Studii şi cercetări de Arheologie 17–18 (2014), pp. 205–216, here p. 211, ( digitized version ).
  • Florian Matei-Popescu and Ovidiu Ţentea: The Eastern Frontier of Dacia. A Gazetteer of the Forts and Units . In Vitalie Bârcă (ed.): Orbis Romanus and Barbaricum. The Barbarians around the Province of Dacia and Their Relations with the Roman Empire . Mega Publishing House, Cluj ‑ Napoca 2016, p. 14f., ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Castra of Boroșneu Mare  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Route / section / fort number (based on Nicolae Gudea , 1997).
  2. ↑ a b AE 2011, +01088 and AE 2011, +01089 .
  3. ↑ a b AE 1974, 00565b .
  4. ↑ a b AE 2011, +01089 .
  5. ↑ a b AE 1967, 00419 and AE 1974, 00565a .
  6. ↑ a b AE 1974, 00565c .
  7. ↑ a b AE 1974, 00565d .
  8. ↑ a b c d Nicolae Gudea: The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz. 44, 2, 1997, p. 64, digitized .
  9. ^ Felix Marcu: The Internal Planning of Roman Forts of Dacia . (= Bibliotheca Mvsei Napocensis XXX), Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca 2009, ISBN 978-606-543-058-7 , p. 185 and plate 28.
  10. ^ Felix Marcu: The Internal Planning of Roman Forts of Dacia . (= Bibliotheca Mvsei Napocensis XXX), Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca 2009, ISBN 978-606-543-058-7 , pp. 185f.
  11. ^ Felix Marcu: The Internal Planning of Roman Forts of Dacia . (= Bibliotheca Mvsei Napocensis XXX), Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca 2009, ISBN 978-606-543-058-7 , p. 186.
  12. ^ Felix Marcu: The Internal Planning of Roman Forts of Dacia . (= Bibliotheca Mvsei Napocensis XXX), Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca 2009, ISBN 978-606-543-058-7 , pp. 186-189.
  13. ^ Felix Marcu: The Internal Planning of Roman Forts of Dacia . (= Bibliotheca Mvsei Napocensis XXX), Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca 2009, ISBN 978-606-543-058-7 , pp. 188f.
  14. ↑ List of historical monuments on the website of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage