Ems fort

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Ems fort
Alternative name Bad Ems fort
limes ORL 4 ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Upper German Limes ,
route 1 (Rhine-Lahn)
Dating (occupancy) Trajan / Hadrian
until 259/260 AD
Type Numerus fort
unit unknown number
size about 90 mx 140 m = 1.3 ha
Construction stone
State of preservation completely built over
place Bad Ems
Geographical location 50 ° 20 '9.3 "  N , 7 ° 42' 46.8"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 20 '9.3 "  N , 7 ° 42' 46.8"  E hf
Backwards ORL 2a: Niederberg Fort (northwest)
Upstream ORL 3: Arzbach fort (north-northeast)
small fort on the Schanz (east-southeast)

The Ems fort (also known as Bad Ems fort ) was a Roman border fort of the Upper German Limes , which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005 . The Numerus is now considered archaeological monument in the Middle Ages densely built-up area of Bad Ems , a town in the Rhineland-Palatinate Rhein-Lahn-Kreis . It is the larger of the two Roman auxiliary camps in the city of Emser.

location

Findings in 1895

Topographically, the Ems fort is located on a flat scree deposit that the Emsbach has formed at the point where its valley opens up to the valley of the Lahn ( laugona ). The fort, which is located a good 1200 m to the west of the Limes, is located slightly to the rear. In ancient times, it probably had the task of monitoring the transition from the Limes to the Lahn valley and the Lahn valley itself. Numerous old ways met here. Natural fords and probably a bridge near the fort "Auf der Schanz" served to cross the Lahn.

In today's cityscape, the former military camp is roughly in the area formed by the streets “Marktstraße”, “Fronhof”, “In den Bachgärten” and “Koblenzer Straße” (= B 261 ). The "Kirchgasse" cuts through the former Retentura (rear storage area), the Principia (command office) is likely to have been located roughly between it and the Martinskirche .

Research history

The area of ​​today's Bad Ems, which, apart from all strategic considerations, had to appear attractive to the Romans as a settlement area due to the hot springs located there , has been handed down as a site of Roman remains since the second half of the 18th century. A more specific report about the discovery of Roman graves dates from 1816. Such reports of finds accumulated in the following decades and since 1845, when the discovery of Roman bricks with legion stamps became known, experts assumed that there was also a military Roman presence in Bad Ems, which, however, was initially only assumed to be south of the Lahn, in the area of ​​the small fort “Auf der Schanz” , until 1872, during road construction work in Koblenzer Strasse, bricks of the Legio XXII (“22nd Legion”) and the Cohors IIII Vindelicorum (“4th cohort der Vindeliker ”) were recovered. The discovery of a consecration stone of the Fortuna Conservatrix at the same place in 1883 finally confirmed the assumption that the military settlement might be there and directed the localization attempts to this area.

South-west corner of the fort during the excavations in 1904

The Reichs-Limeskommission (RLK) under the local direction of the route commissioners Otto Dahm and Robert Bodewig began the systematic archaeological excavations in the fall of 1894 , which were continued in the spring of 1895. In the course of these investigations, which turned out to be very difficult in the densely built-up area overlaid with post-Roman settlement layers, the southern, rear fort gate, the Porta Decumana , was finally discovered. In 1904 construction work led to the discovery of the south-western corner of the fort. As a result, extensive follow-up examinations were carried out in 1905 and 1909 by the RLK with Robert Bodewig as the local excavation manager.

Furthermore, on the Lahn, around 2.5 km north of the fort, a Roman lead smelter with mining pits and miners' tack was discovered and found by Dahm.

In autumn 2002 archaeological investigations were carried out again by the "Archaeological Monument Preservation Koblenz", when a new parsonage was built for the evangelical parish of Bad Ems southeast of the choir of St. Martin's Church.

The "Kur- und Stadtmuseum Bad Ems" also presents the Roman past of the city and the surrounding area in part of its premises. There is nothing left of the fort itself in the cityscape.

Findings and interpretations

The findings of the Ems fort are very difficult due to the very high density of buildings in the area since the Middle Ages. Really significant findings could only be unearthed in a few places, so that a complete picture cannot be reconstructed.

The military camp, as is shown in the majority of the findings that have been preserved, is a stone fort which, with its sides of 90 m by 147 m, covered an area of ​​over 1.3 hectares. The defense wall, on average 1.3 m thick, had rounded corners that were not occupied by towers. There could have been a maximum of two intermediate towers, but they have not been proven beyond doubt. With its praetorial front (front), the fort was oriented to the north, i.e. facing away from the Lahn. At most three of the four gates were flanked by defensive towers. The Porta principalis sinistra (left side gate) did not have any towers, but rather had recessed cheek walls. Little is known of the internal structure of the camp.

In the Trajan or Hadrian times, the Ems fort was probably first occupied by a vexillatio ( detachment ) of the Niederberg fort . From the vexillatio an independent number later developed . The name of this unit has not been passed down, nor is the ancient name of the garrison town of Bad Ems.

A simple wall and a pointed ditch, which could be determined with remaining widths of 5.50 m and 2.50 m respectively, may belong to an earlier construction phase. A pointed ditch with a depth of 3.00 m, presumably to be assigned to a later camp, was only discovered in the recent past during the investigations in 2002.

Overall, a multi-period system can be assumed, which is also supported by the temporal spread of the datable finds.

During construction work in 1872, the fort thermal baths were located about 45 m in front of the Porta Decumana (rear camp gate). In June 2009, in the course of construction work on Koblenzer Strasse at the corner of Bachstrasse, southeast of the fort, further parts of the bathing facility were uncovered: a caldarium and praefurnium , as well as the associated hypocaust facility and wall tiles with stamps of the 22nd Legion; however, in the southern area of ​​Bachstrasse almost exclusively hypocaust tiles from the fourth Vindeliker cohort.

The extensive vicus of Ems, the civilian settlement to be found at every Roman military camp, in which veterans, members of the military, traders, craftsmen, bar and brothel operators and other service providers settled, has not been fully determined. Its development was concentrated in the area of ​​"Koblenzer Strasse" and "Marktstrasse". It extended as far as the Lahn, but its traces have also been proven on the slope of the "Ehrlich". The Roman military presence, like the vicus , was likely to have existed until around 259/260, when the entire area on the right bank of the Rhine was evacuated as a result of the Frankish offensive ( Limesfall ).

Roman mining in the Bad Ems area

In Tacitus there is the report that Quintus Curtius Rufus had already developed and mined silver deposits in the land of Mattiac in Claudian times . In the area around Bad Ems there are numerous references to this Roman ore mining in the form of pingen . The ore-bearing layers stretch from Bad Ems up to Arzbach . In particular silver, copper and lead ores were mined here. Traces of smelting could be found in the urban area on the "Blös-Kopf" and in the fort.

Lahn crossing of the Limes

The section known as “Route 1” of the Limes descends through a narrow gorge in the “Buchwald” north of the Lahn and ends there. Immediately on the southern side of the river, it is continued as "Route 2", which leads up to "Wintersberg" and in this area protected a Roman road connection rising through the valley of the "Braunebach". A second, smaller military camp , known as the small fort “Auf der Schanz” , on the southern Lahn side, in the area of ​​today's Ems district of “Spiess” - today's station district and surrounding streets - served to secure the Lahn crossing and the bridge that was suspected there . In earlier times the spit belonged to the Electoral Mainz area of ​​the city of Oberlahnstein .

Monument protection

As a section of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, the Ems fort has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2005 . In addition, this ground monument is protected as a registered cultural monument within the meaning of the Monument Protection Act of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.

See also

literature

  • Dietwulf Baatz : The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube. 4th edition, Gebr. Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2347-0 , p. 106.
  • Robert Bodewig In: The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreiches (Eds. Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey ): Department B, Volume 1, Fort No. 4: The Ems Fort (1911).
  • Ernst Fabricius, Felix Hettner, Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich. Section A, Volume 1: Lines 1 and 2 (1936).
  • Heinrich Hesse: On the history of the city of Ems. The pre-Roman, the Roman and the Merovingian times . In: Program of the Realprogymnasium in Bad-Ems , which is in the process of being converted to a Realschule , Bad Ems 1895, pp. 10–47.
    (This is the oldest, but also the most thorough summary of the Roman finds and findings in the Ems city area.)
  • Cliff Alexander Jost: The Roman Limes in Rhineland-Palatinate . State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate , Koblenz 2003, ISBN 3-929645-07-6 , (Archeology on the Middle Rhine and Moselle, Volume 14), pp. 140–145.
  • Cliff Alexander Jost: The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes with its forts in Neuwied-Heddesdorf, Bad Ems, Marienfels and Hunzel. In: Hans G. Kuhn (Ed.): Professor Dr. Robert Bodewig . Vol. 2: Smaller writings, life and work. Imprimatur, Koblenz 2005, ISBN 3-9807361-7-2 , p. 310 ff.
  • Cliff Alexander Jost, Jost Mergen: The Roman military fort with fort village in Bad Ems. In: Der Limes 4, 2010 issue 1, pp. 20-22.
  • Margot Klee: The Limes between Rhine and Main. Theiss, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8062-0276-1 , p. 51.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Carl Philipp Brückmann: New, improved and complete description of the healthy warm wells and baths in Ems . Fleischer, Frankfurt / Leipzig, 1772. p. 32.
  2. ^ Heinrich Christian Thilenius: Ems and its healing springs. Described for bathing and fountain guests and provided with instructions for their appropriate use . Schellenberg, Wiesbaden 1816. p. 16.
  3. ↑ The Vindeliker were a Celtic tribe from the Augsburg area (see also Augusta Vindelicorum ). Here the cohort was probably dug up. The garrison location of the Vindeliker cohort was initially the fort Heddernheim , later the fort Großkrotzenburg .
  4. ↑ CIL 13, 7733 ; with a link to an illustration.
  5. ↑ Otto Dahm: The Roman mining on the lower Lahn . In: Bonner Jahrbücher - yearbooks of the association of antiquity friends in the Rhineland, Volume 101 , 1897, pp. 117–127.
  6. ↑ Cliff Alexander Jost, Jost Mergen: The Roman troop fort with fort village in Bad Ems. In: Der Limes 4, 2010 issue 1, pp. 21-22.
  7. ^ Tacitus: Annales 9:20 .