Brețcu Castle

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Brețcu Castle
Alternative name Angustia
limes Dacian Limes
section A / VIII / 39
Dating (occupancy) 2nd to 3rd century
Type Auxiliary fort
unit A) unknown
B.a) Cohors I Hispanorum or Cohors IV Hispanorum (?)
Bb) Cohors I Bracaraugustanorum
size A) 135 m × 172 m = 2.32 ha
B) 141 m × 179 m = 2.52 ha
Construction A) Wood and earth warehouse
B) Stone fort
State of preservation easily visible soil deformations
place Brețcu / Covasna County
Geographical location 46 ° 3 '3.6 "  N , 26 ° 18' 46.2"  E Coordinates: 46 ° 3 '3.6 "  N , 26 ° 18' 46.2"  E
height 614  m
Previous external fort upstream to the east on the border with Barbaricum , no other fort in front of it
Subsequently Boroșneu Mare Castle
(southwest, A / VIII / 40)
Comolău Castle
(southwest, A / VIII / 41)
Earth wall of the former fortification of Brețcu fort (2011)

Fort Brețcu , with the ancient name Angustia , was a Roman auxiliary troop camp in the municipality of Brețcu , Covasna district in the Romanian region of Transylvania .

location

The soil monument is located in today's settlement about one kilometer northeast of the village in the "Var" or "Veneturnevar" corridor. Topographically, it is located on a sloping high plateau on the right bank of the Dorfbach, north of the Brețcu river, a tributary of the Râul Negru . It is clearly visible in the area through the up to four meter high earth walls of the former fort defenses. In ancient times, its crew had the task of monitoring the narrow, eastern Oituz pass leading into the Barbaricum . Felix Marcu describes the fort as one of the most important Roman fortifications in Dacia because of this strategically important position.

Archaeological evidence

Archaeological excavations were carried out in 1925 under the direction of Emilio Panaitescu, and in 1950 under the direction of Mihail Macrea . Two construction phases could be differentiated. Nicolae Gudea published some additional information and the finds 30 years after the excavations.

Wood-earth warehouse

Little is known of the wood and earth fort. It could only be determined that its sides were aligned with the four cardinal points and that its circumference was 135 × 172 m. Nicolae Gudea assumed that the military complex had already been built under Trajan , but a more precise dating is difficult to achieve.

Stone fort

The stone fort had a rectangular floor plan with rounded corners. Its axis dimensions were 141 m by 179 m, which corresponds to 2.52 hectares. It had the same orientation as the wood-earth bearing. It was surrounded by a 1.50 m thick wall, which was built using the technique of Opus incertum . According to Gudea (1997), a simple pointed ditch 10 m wide and 2.5 m deep ran in front of the defensive wall as an obstacle to approach . In contrast, the excavator Macrea (1951) described two trenches on three sides of the fortification and the lack of a defensive trench on the south side, where instead there was a nine-meter-wide layer of gravel, which he interpreted as the remainder of a road. The lack of the southern ditch could possibly be explained by the fact that in ancient times the Brețcu flowed closer to the fort, directly below the described gravel terrace. Marcu adds that this would also explain the fact that the Porta Praetoria (main gate, side gate) was on the south side (see the following paragraph) and the gate towers of the Porta decumana (rear storage gate) were twice as large as those of the other gates.

The praetorial front of the fort with the Porta Praetoria faced south. The corner towers of the defense had unusual, round floor plans, the diameter of which varied between six and eight meters and which also differed from one another in terms of construction. The four gates had a comparable floor plan and were flanked by slightly protruding rectangular towers measuring 5.00 m by 5.5 m. The porta decumana had a passage width between 4.00 m and 4.80 m. In the interior of the fort, a building with a rectangular floor plan (possibly a horreum ) and parts of the camp streets were identified.

In a later, unspecified time, the fortification was reinforced by the construction of a second, inner wall, so that a double wall was created, explains Gudea on the further history of the fort. It is noticeable that the outer and inner walls were not connected to each other. Mihai Macrea and Dumitru Protase concluded that the inner wall had been installed as reinforcement for the battlements, Felix Marcu agreed in 2009 with this view. The distance between the inner and outer walls was usually between four and six meters and widened to up to ten meters in the area of ​​the gates. These extensions were interpreted by Protase as "battle platforms".

Inside the fort, the Via sagularis (Lagerringstrasse) was discovered on the north side and a drainage ditch 0.90 m to 1.00 m wide on three sides. Despite two search cuts diagonally crossing the entire camp, which Emilio Panaitescu made in 1925, and another three probing cuts that Macrea dug in the center of the fort in 1950, there were no traces of the typical main building of a Roman military camp. It must be noted here that Panaitescu's original documentation was unfortunately lost in the turmoil of time and only some basic data from Gudea could be reconstructed.

Progress in the knowledge about the internal structures of the fort could only be made within the framework of an interdisciplinary and international research project by the Roman-Germanic Commission in Frankfurt, the Institute for Archeology and Art History in Cluj-Napoca , the National Museum of the Eastern Carpathians in Sfântu Gheorghe and the National Museum of the History of Romania in Bucharest from 2010 onwards, during which the interior of the fort was examined using geomagnetics , georadar and phosphate analysis. The typical fort structure with around 680 m² principia (staff building), an around 620 m² praetorium (commander's residence), an around 140 m² horreum (storage building), two other large buildings and an above-average number of crew barracks could be differentiated. The six to eight meter wide via principalis (warehouse cross street), the only four meters wide via praetoria (warehouse main street) and via decumana (rear warehouse street ) and a six to eight meter wide via sagularis were also found.

troops

According to Nicolae Gudea, the

the crews of the stone fort.

While the presence of the Cohors I Bracaraugustanorum is halfway undisputed, the inscriptions of the Spanish cohort are read from the Clauss-Slaby epigraphic database as those of the Cohors IV Hispanorum (the fourth cohort of Spaniards).

Felix Marcu notes that the Cohors I Hispanorum was stationed in Moesia in 92, 99 and 105 , and further that, as evidenced by inscriptions and diplomas, she was stationed in 129, 129/130, 118/140, 140 and 146 would have stayed in the province of Dacia inferior . Another brick stamp from Castra Traiana / Fort Arutela shows them there during or shortly after the Dacian Wars . Furthermore, the Spanish cohort is also identified there by a silver medallion. Gudea agreed to the localization in Arutela, but objected that Arutela was too small for the entire cohort, so that only one vexillatio could have been stationed there.

Overall, the questions about the troops stationed in Brețcu and whether they were stationed there at the same time or one after the other, and if one after the other, in which order they were stationed there, cannot yet be conclusively clarified at the present time. On the other hand, it seems clear that the fort with its size was designed too large for only one of the troops in question, which are only proven to be quingenariae (480 men strong units). The camp would have been sufficient to accommodate two Cohortes quingenaria , a Cohors miliaria (800-strong infantry unit) or an Ala (cavalry unit).

Vicus and thermal baths

Around the fort there was an extensive auxiliary vicus and the fort thermal baths , both of which were only rudimentarily examined. The vicus was a civil settlement that can be found at almost every Roman military camp and in which the living quarters of the relatives of soldiers, veterans, artisans, traders, innkeepers, prostitutes and other service providers were located. The balneum , the fort's thermal baths, which were part of the standard equipment of every Roman military camp, were located within the vicus, around 100 meters west of the fort.

Lost property and monument protection

The excavation finds were given to the Muzeul de Istorie a Transilvaniei (Historical Museum of Transylvania), today's Muzeul Naţional de Istorie a Transilvaniei (National Historical Museum of Transilvania) in Cluj-Napoca .

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-13050 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

  • Nicolae Gudea : Castrul roman de la Breţcu. In: Acta Musei Porolissensis 4, 1980, pp. 255-334.
  • Nicolae Gudea: The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz. 44, 2, 1997, pp. 62f., Digitized .
  • Nicolae Gudea: The Lower Moesian Danube Limes and the defense of the Moesian north and west coast of the Black Sea . Special print from the yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Maiz , 52nd year 2005, p. 499.
  • 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.
  • Mihail Macrea et al .: Despre rezultatele cercetărilor întreprinse de şantierul arheologic Sf. Gheorghe Brețcu . In: SCIV 2/1 (1951), pp. 285-311.
  • 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. 189-192 and plate 29.
  • 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. 210f., ( 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, ISBN 978-606-543-755-5 , pp. 7-24, in particular pp. 13f., ( Digitized version ).
  • Alexandru Popa: Interdisciplinary research in the auxiliary fort of Breţcu in south-eastern Transylvania . In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies, Ruse, Bulgaria, September 2012 . Pp. 829-838.
  • Dumitru Protase : Angvstia (Breţcu). In: Angustia 1, 1996, pp. 85-88.
  • Ovidiu Ţentea and Britta Burkhardt: Baths on the Frontiers of Roman Dacia / Băile de pe frontierele Daciei romane. Bucharest 2017, p. 33f.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Route / section / fort number (based on Nicolae Gudea , 1997).
  2. ↑ a b AE 1912, 00071b and CIL 03, 08074.17 .
  3. ↑ a b CIL 03, 08074.09a , CIL 03, 08074.09b and ILD 00435b .
  4. ↑ Nicolae Gudea: The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz. 44, 2, 1997, p. 62, digitized .
  5. ^ A b 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. 189.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g Nicolae Gudea: The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz. 44, 2, 1997, p. 62, digitized .
  7. ↑ Mihai Macrea et al .: Despre rezultatele cercetărilor întreprinse de şantierul arheologic Sf. Gheorghe Brețcu . In: SCIV 2/1 (1951), p. 289.
  8. ↑ Mihai Macrea et al .: Despre rezultatele cercetărilor întreprinse de şantierul arheologic Sf. Gheorghe Brețcu . In: SCIV 2/1 (1951), p. 291.
  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. 190.
  10. ↑ Mihai Macrea et al .: Despre rezultatele cercetărilor întreprinse de şantierul arheologic Sf. Gheorghe Brețcu . In: SCIV 2/1 (1951), p. 289; and Dumitru Protase: Roman camps with double walls in Dacia . In: Files of the XI. International Limes Congress (Székesfehérvár, 31 August - 6 September 1976) , Budapest 1977, p. 201.
  11. ↑ Dumitru Protase: Roman camps with double enclosing walls in Dacia . In: Files of the XI. International Limes Congress (Székesfehérvár, 31 August - 6 September 1976) , Budapest 1977, p. 195.
  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. 189-191, and plate 29.
  13. ↑ Alexandru Popa: Interdisciplinary research in the auxiliary fort of Breţcu in south-eastern Transylvania . In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies, Ruse, Bulgaria, September 2012 . Pp. 829-838.
  14. ↑ CIL 3, 12602 .
  15. ↑ CIL 3, 12603 .
  16. ↑ Nicolae Gudea: Castrul roman de la BRETCU. In: Acta Musei Porolissensis 4, 1980, pp. 255-365.
  17. ^ 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. 191f., And plate 29.
  18. ^ Ovidiu Ţentea and Britta Burkhardt: Baths on the Frontiers of Roman Dacia / Băile de pe frontierele Daciei romane. Bucharest 2017, p. 33f.
  19. ↑ Muzeul Naţional de Istorie a Transilvaniei , official website of the museum (Romanian), accessed on January 19, 2019.
  20. ↑ List of historical monuments on the website of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage