Emerkingen fort

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Emerkingen fort
limes ORL NN ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Raetian Limes ,
older Danube line
Dating (occupancy) around 45 AD to 85/90 AD
Type Cohort fort
unit unknown cohort
size not safe
Construction a) wood-earth
b) stone
State of preservation invisible ground monument
place Emerkingen
Geographical location 48 ° 13 ′ 7 "  N , 9 ° 38 ′ 54"  E
height 525  m above sea level NHN
Previous Ennetach Fort (west-southwest)
Subsequently Fort Riißissen (east north-east)

The Emerkingen fort is an early Roman border fort on the older Danube line of the Raetian Limes . It is located with the associated vicus as a ground monument in the area of ​​today's village Emerkingen , a municipality in the Alb-Danube district in Baden-Württemberg .

location

The fort is located on a slight hill around 600 m NNW of Emerkingen, under the fields to the west of the road leading to Munderkingen . A road connection ran roughly parallel to this in ancient times, leading out of the fort to the geographically and strategically important Roman highway along the Danube, the so-called " Donausüdstraße ". This could be monitored well from the exposed location of the Emerking military camp. The crew was also probably responsible for monitoring a Danube ridge near Munderkingen.

Research history

Numerous surface finds made it possible to suspect a Roman settlement north of Emerkingen with a military presence as early as the middle of the 19th century. The discovery of the camp was not made until 1913 through a small excavation . Further archaeological excavations in the fort area were carried out in 1949. In that year, an associated vicus was also found .

In the following decades there were repeated smaller investigations, mostly in the form of emergency or rescue excavations, which had become necessary due to the gravel mining taking place at this point. In the meantime, the eastern part of the fort has been largely destroyed by the dismantling. Another threat to the archaeological monument was and still is the emerging technique of deep plowing for the warehouse, which is only just below the surface of the earth. Therefore, since the beginning of the 1980s, excavation activities have increased.

Findings

The Emerking military camp is an at least two-phase cohort fort. The fort was probably built as a wood and earth fort in the Claudian era around 45 AD. A second, stone construction phase falls in the Vespasian period and can be associated with the reorganization of the Danube border after the events of the Four Emperor's Year around the year 70. The military use of the place came to an end in the last quarter of the 1st century AD, probably in connection with the relocation of the Limes to the Alb border after the completion of the Kinzigtalstraße under Domitian around the year 85.

The distribution area of ​​the scattered and harvested finds reveals an expansion of the vicus north and west of the fort. The cemetery, however, is likely to have been in a southerly direction, but has not yet been located. Inside the vicus, a structure over 1000 m² was uncovered, which, like the fort, has a wooden and a stone phase. The interpretation of the building has been controversial since then, with public warehouses, market halls and sacred buildings being the most frequently presented theories.

At a distance of about 2.5 km south of the fort and 1.5 km southwest of Emerkingen, a large pottery was discovered as early as 1860. It is located directly on a Roman road on a gently sloping south-facing terrace. A total of eleven pottery kilns were uncovered. The pottery product spectrum ranged from coarse mortars to finely glazed Terra Nigra . The pottery business existed from the middle of the 1st to the middle of the 2nd century AD.

Confirmation of findings and remains

Of all the Emerkinger findings, nothing can be seen on the surface today. Most of the recovered finds are in the magazines of the Württemberg State Museum and in the Emerkingen local history museum, which is housed in the so-called “Römerturm” and also contains a room devoted to the site's Roman past. Despite its name, the tower itself is not of Roman origin, but the former keep of a castle from the 14th century.

Monument protection

The Emerkingen fort and the ground monuments mentioned are protected as cultural monuments under the Monument Protection Act of the State of Baden-Württemberg (DSchG) . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.

See also

literature

  • Philipp Filtzinger : Emerkingen. In: Dieter Planck (Ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg . Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1555-3 , p. 74 ff.
  • Philipp Filtzinger: Emerkingen . In: Filtzinger, Planck, Cämmerer (ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg. 3. Edition. Theiss, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-8062-0287-7 , p. 285 f.
  • Philipp Filtzinger: Emerkingen fort (Kr. Ehingen) . In: Württembergischer Geschichts- und Altertumsverein (Hrsg.): Find reports from Swabia. New episode, 16 . Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1962, p. 83 ff.
  • Günther Wieland: The Danube fort Emerkingen and its surroundings . In: Reinhardt, Wehrberger (ed.): The Romans on the Danube and Iller . Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1996, ISBN 3-7995-0410-9

Remarks

  1. ↑ After Jörg Heiligmann: Emerkingen. Pottery. In: Dieter Planck (Ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg . Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1555-3 , p. 75 f.