Brâncoveneşti Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brâncoveneşti Castle
limes Dacian Limes
section A / VII / 32
Limes Porolissensis
Dating (occupancy) 2nd to 3rd century
Type Alenkastell
unit A) unknown
B) Ala I Illyricorum
size A) undefined
B) 144 m × 177 m = 2.55 ha
Construction A) Wood and earth warehouse
B) Stone fort
State of preservation barely visible ground monument
place Brâncoveneşti
Geographical location 46 ° 51 '41.5 "  N , 24 ° 45' 57.8"  E Coordinates: 46 ° 51 '41.5 "  N , 24 ° 45' 57.8"  E
height 428  m
Previous Orheiu Bistriței fort
(north-north-west,
Limes section VI)
Subsequently Călugăreni Castle
(south, A / VII / 33)
The Dacian Limites

Fort Brâncoveneşti was a Roman auxiliary troop camp in the municipality of Brâncoveneşti (Wetsch) , Mureş district in the Romanian region of Transylvania .

location

In ancient times, the fort was located on the Via militaris (Roman military road) on the northeast border of the province of Dacia Porolissensis and was part of the Limes Porolissensis . It had the task of monitoring the Deda pass to the east of the military camp, which led from the province to the Barbaricum . Topographically, it was on a river terrace of the Mureș . In today's settlement image, the soil monument , which is barely noticeable on the surface of the earth, is located on the northern edge of Brâncoveneşti and is partly overbuilt by the modern Kemény Castle (16th century).

Archaeological evidence

In the fort examined between 1970 and 1978 under the direction of Dumitru Protase and Andrei Zrinyi, a total of two construction phases and one repair phase could be differentiated. In 2011/2012 these results were supplemented by geophysical and surveying investigations.

Wood-earth warehouse

In its first construction phase, the fort was a wood and earth warehouse with a rectangular floor plan, the eastern side of which has not yet been determined, so that no statements can be made about the total area. Its sides were roughly oriented in the four cardinal directions. The military camp was surrounded by a ten-meter-wide and 1.20-meter-high wood and earth wall, in front of which a simple, five to seven meter wide and an average of 1.50 meter deep pointed ditch ran as an obstacle to the approach. The fort was built in the Trajan period and nothing is known about its occupation.

Stone fort

The orientation of the stone fort corresponded to the preceding camp. It had a rectangular floor plan measuring 144 meters by 177 meters (equivalent to 2.55 hectares) and its praetorial front (front of the fort) was oriented towards the east, towards the enemy. The military camp was surrounded by a one meter thick wall in the technique of Opus incertum , the corners of the fort were rounded. The south wall was reinforced with buttresses in a repair phase around the middle of the third century. On the north side was the Porta principalis sinistra (left side gate), which was flanked by two rectangular, slightly outwardly projecting gate towers with a floor plan of 5.75 m by 4.75 m and 6.00 m by 4.50 m. The Porta decumana , the gate towers of which were not fully exposed, was on the western side of the fort. While Dumitru Protase (1977) and Nicolae Gudea (1997) described trapezoidal corner towers that protruded slightly outwards, these were no longer mentioned by Szilamér-Péter Pánczél (2012). In front of the wall, after a two to two and a half meter wide berm, there were two ditches as approach obstacles, of which the inner ditch was nine meters wide and two and a half meters deep, the outer one eight meters wide and two meters deep. The two trenches were separated by a two and a half meter wide earth sill. There were no trenches on the west side of the fort facing the river. Inside the camp, a building with a previously unknown function was found in the latus sinistru (left side of the fort) of the retentura (rear part of the fort) . Due to the relatively small amount of finds, it is not yet possible to make any definite statements about the exact dates of the construction and closure of the fort. As evidenced by inscribed finds, the Ala I Illyricorum is referred to as the main occupation of the camp .

Vicus and burial ground

The camp village ( vicus ) stretched about 150 meters south of the fort , in which the living quarters of the relatives of soldiers, veterans, craftsmen, traders, innkeepers, prostitutes and other service providers were located. In addition, a burial ground was discovered in this area.

Lost property and monument protection

The finds from the excavations in the area of ​​the Brâncoveneşti fort are kept in the Muzeul Judecean Mures (Mures District Museum ) in Târgu Mureş .

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 entered in the national list of historical monuments (Lista Monumentelor Istorice) with the LMI code MS-IsB-15351 . 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

  • Nicolae Gudea : The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story . In: Yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz 44 (1997), p. 56f., ( Digitized version ).
  • 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. 118f.
  • Szilamér-Péter Pánczél: Updating our Knowledge about the Roman Fort from Brâncoveneşti, Mureş County . Marisa, 32 (2012), pp. 105-116, ( digitized version ).
  • 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 pp. 206f., ( 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, pp. 9f., ( Digitized ).
  • Dumitru Protase : The Roman camp of Brâncoveneşti and its importance for the defense of the northeast border of Dacia . In: Studies on Rome's Military Borders II. Lectures at the 10th International Limes Congress in the Germania Inferior, Cologne – Bonn 1977, pp. 379–386.
  • Dumitru Protase and Andrei Zrinyi: Castrul roman şi aşezarea civilă de la Brâncoveneşti (Jud. Mureş). Săpăturile din anii 1970–1987. Le camp et l'établissement romain de Brăncoveneşti (département de Mureş) . In: Marisia, 23-24 (1994), pp. 75-169.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Route / section / fort number (based on Nicolae Gudea , 1997).
  2. ↑ a b CIL 03, 06284 : Al (a) I n (umeri) Il (l) yr (icorum) , AE 1994, +01488 : Aurel (ius) Vale (n) s sesq (uiplicarius) alae / I <l = N> lyri (corum) vix (it) anni (s) XLV Zetzi (s) coniux con / iugi bene me (renti) p (osuit) and EDCS online  : Al (a) Il (l) yr (icorum) n (ova?) .
  3. ↑ Nicolae Gudea: The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story . In: Yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz 44 (1997), p. 56, ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Dumitru Protase and Andrei Zrinyi: Castrul roman şi aşezarea civilă de la Brâncoveneşti (Jud. Mureş). Săpăturile din anii 1970–1987. Le camp et l'établissement romain de Brăncoveneşti (département de Mureş) . In: Marisia, 23-24 (1994), pp. 75-169.
  5. ↑ a b Szilamér-Péter Pánczél: Updating our knowledge about the Roman Fort from Brâncoveneşti, Mures County . Marisa, 32 (2012), pp. 105-116, ( digitized version ).
  6. ↑ Nicolae Gudea: The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story . In: Yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz 44 (1997), p. 56f., ( Digitized version ).
  7. ↑ Dumitru Protase: The Roman camp of Brâncoveneşti and its importance for the defense of the northeast border of Dacia . In: Studies on Rome's Military Borders II. Lectures at the 10th International Limes Congress in the Germania Inferior, Cologne – Bonn 1977, pp. 379–386.
  8. ↑ a b c Nicolae Gudea: The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story . In: Yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz 44 (1997), p. 56f., ( Digitized version ).
  9. ↑ List of historical monuments on the website of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage