Ennetach Castle

Ennetach Castle
limes	ORL NN ( RLK )
Route (RLK)	Raetian Limes , ; older Danube line
Dating (occupancy)	around 40/45 AD to around 75/85 ; Vicus around 70 to around 260
Type	unknown
unit	unknown vexillations
size	around 0.5 to 3.0 ha
Construction	Wood earth
State of preservation	Ground monument
place	Quantities - Ennetach
Geographical location	48 ° 3 ′ 7 " N , 9 ° 18 ′ 47" E
height	600 m above sea level NHN
Previous	Fort Tuttlingen (west)
Subsequently	Emerkingen fort (east north-east)

Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

The Ennetach fort is an early Roman border fort on the older Danube line of the Raetian Limes . It is located as a ground monument in a largely undeveloped area of Ennetach , a district of Mengen in the Sigmaringen district in Baden-Württemberg .

location

The Ennetach fort was part of a chain of forts with which the Romans secured the “Donausüdstraße” and the Danube itself as part of the northern border of the empire in Claudian times. Ennetach is located within this line in a geographically and strategically favorable position. Immediately after the present-day village of Scheer , the Danube valley widens here and meets the Ablach valley coming from the south . A Roman road led through the latter into the Lake Constance area.

Information boards at the location of the Ennetach fort

In this area, the military camp was built on the plateau-shaped, flattened "Ennetacher Berg", which rises like a spur over the site. In today's townscape, this place is in the fields on the southwestern edge of the municipality. Even in pre-Roman times, this place was repeatedly fortified. Bronze Age and Hallstatt or La Tène settlements can also be found here .

Research history

A Roman settlement with a military presence in the Ennetach area was suspected as early as the 19th century. On the slope above the Hipfelsberg farm, a Roman consecration stone in honor of the healing god Apollo Granus and coins were found in 1810 . The inscription reads: APOLINI / GRANNO / ET NIMPH / IS. C. VIDIVS./ IVLIVS PRO / SE ET SVIS / VS LLM .

Archaeological excavations that were carried out in the years 1850, 1888 and 1949/50 were unsystematic and therefore remained without significant results and without echo in the archaeological literature. Isolated surface finds repeatedly gave rise to speculations, which were never pursued further. Although the fort had already been cut during the excavations of 1850, the place was forgotten again.

It was not until 1997 that the site was again localized through the site inspection by volunteers from the soil conservation department , who brought together numerous pre-Flavian surface finds . As a result, the aerial photographs taken remained without results, but in the same year the fort was confirmed by geophysical measurements. The excavations of the Tübingen branch of the Baden-Württemberg State Monuments Office, which began in 1998, then provided final certainty .

Fort

The first finds date from the time of the conquest of the foothills of the Alps as part of the Alpine campaign under Emperor Augustus. The construction of the military installation on the Ennetacher Berg did not take place until the Claudian period, probably around the years 40 to 45 AD. The military use of the area ended after the Limes was shortened and moved forward in the early Dominian period on the line of the Alblimes.

Unlike other forts, this one has the shape of a triangle.

Since the excavations were resumed in 1998, a total of four fort construction phases (as of 2005) have been reliably verified. Another is suspected based on geomagnetic measurements.

According to the current state of research, no reliable statements can be made about the units stationed here. Based on the finds, it can be assumed that it was a mixed association of foot soldiers, horsemen, archers and possibly also legionary soldiers. All of the camps were made of wood and earth. So far no stone buildings have been found, as they are often to be found in other forts during the construction after the turmoil of the Four Emperor's year 68/69 AD. Due to the coin finds and the datable ceramic fragments, the period of occupation can be limited to the period between 40/45 and 70/75 AD. Other literature speaks of an occupancy from 35 to 75 AD.

Fort construction phases A and B

Construction phase A may be the 0.5 hectare site, which was surrounded by a simple ditch . The Claudian fort B extends over an area of around one hectare. It had a double and a single pointed ditch. The inner pointed ditch was still 2.5 to 3.0 m wide and 1.5 m deep under the arable surface.

Fort construction phase C

The following fort C was built in the early Flavian period and covers an area of around two hectares. It was surrounded by a double pointed ditch system and reinforced with an average of just under 3.5 m wide wood-earth wall. A total of five defense towers were found on the Danube side of the camp, as well as a gate system flanked by two towers on the southwest side. The passage width of this gate system was almost five meters.

Only faint remnants of the interior development could be identified, in particular an approximately 22.5 m long building of unspecified use with an open inner courtyard and a basement room located in it.

Fort construction phase D

Fort D was probably also built in the early Flavian period and was possibly documented up to the early Dominian period, as a Domitian coin from the year 81 AD suggests. The camp extends over an area of approximately three hectares and was secured by two pointed trenches, each three to four meters wide.

Fort construction phase E

A possible construction phase E has so far only been located through geomagnetic measurements. In about eight to ten meters to the west of Fort D, these investigations revealed traces of further trenches. Archaeological evidence is still pending.

Vicus

The vicus , the fort village, is not located on the mountain spur itself, but at the foot of the "Ennetacher Berg" within the present-day town. Here it is based on the course of the Ablach in ancient times and thus takes an elongated, curved shape. It is noteworthy that there are no pre-Flavian finds in the finds from the vicus, so that the beginning of settlement did not begin at the same time as the earliest military presence, but only around the year 70 AD at the earliest. There may be another, as yet undiscovered, Claudian-Neronian vicus west of the fort on the high plateau. Individual finds were also made there, but these could also have come from the fort area and have been brought there over the centuries through agricultural use.

What is certain, however, is that the civil settlement came to an end during the domestic, foreign and economic crisis associated with the Germanic invasions around 250 AD and at the latest with the retreat of the Romans behind the Danube-Iller-Rhine-Limes around the year Abandoned in AD 260.

A building that was partially uncovered in 1962 is remarkable and, based on the findings and findings, can probably be referred to as a thermal bath ( 48 ° 3 ′ 2.3 ″ N , 9 ° 18 ′ 53.3 ″ E ). Unlike ceramics, glass or bones, organic materials such as leather can only be preserved under extremely favorable conditions. Textiles, leather and wood objects can occasionally be found in the absence of air in damp floors. Also elsewhere in the area of the Roman settlement of Mengen-Ennetach there was this stroke of luck that in the area of an ancient stream, possibly the Ablach, remains of leather and shoes (shoe soles) from the 2nd century AD have been preserved. The finds possibly point to a shoemaker's workshop in the Roman settlement. 48.050638888889 9.3148055555556

At the end of the 19th century, a 3 meter wide, 1.20 meter deep ford through the Ablach with traces of Roman antiquity was excavated on the south side of Ennetach , probably a crossing point of the Roman road in the direction of Mengen.

Not least due to the fact of the overbuilding, the vicus of Ennetach has not yet been investigated as planned or only halfway fully investigated. There is currently little knowledge of the exact extent and structure of the settlement. A prosperous place can always be assumed against the background of the favorable geographical location.

Lost property

The Roman Museum in Ennetach

The finds from the older Ennetach excavations are in the Provincial Roman Department of the Archaeological Collection of the Württemberg State Museum . The finds from the excavations in the fort since 1998 are in the Tübingen Regional Council - Archaeological Monument Preservation (including a cupid riding a dolphin, from the Ennetacher Berg from the 1st century AD) and in the Roman Museum Mengen-Ennetach .

The Roman Museum was opened in 2001 and is located in the center of Ennetach. A five-kilometer long archaeological circular hiking trail leads from the museum to the relevant sites of the site, which, however, are no longer above ground due to the lack of stone construction.

Monument protection

The Ennetach fort and the above-mentioned ground monuments 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.

literature

Martin Kemkes : The Roman Ennetach . In: Dieter Planck (Ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1555-3 , p. 206 f.
Martin Kemkes: The early Roman fort and the vicus of Mengen-Ennetach . In: Archeology in the area around the Heuneburg. New excavations and finds on the upper Danube between Mengen and Riedlingen . Lectures from the 2nd Ennetach working discussion on March 18, 1999 and booklet accompanying the exhibition in the Heuneburg Museum, May 21 to October 31, 1999 (= archaeological information from Baden_Württemberg 40). State Office for Monument Preservation, ISBN 3927714380 , pp. 77–90.
Martin Kemkes: Roman military on the upper Danube. The Massen-Ennetach fort . In: New research on Roman settlement between the Upper Rhine and Enns. Lectures at the scientific colloquium from June 14th to 16th, 2000 in Rosenheim . Greiner, Remshalden 2003, ISBN 3-935383-09-6 , pp. 23-33.
Martina Meyr: Soldiers and traders on the upper Danube. A guide through the Roman Museum Mengen-Ennetach . Greiner, Remshalden-Grunbach 2003, ISBN 3-935383-22-3 .
Hartmann Reim : Ennetach. The castles. In: Dieter Planck (Ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1555-3 , pp. 208 f.
Hartmann Reim: Excavations in the Roman fort on the "mountain" near Ennetach, city of Mengen, Sigmaringen district . In: Archaeological excavations in Baden-Württemberg 1999. Theiss, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-8062-1406-9 , pp. 87 ff.
Hartmann Reim: Prehistoric hilltop settlements and early Roman forts on the "mountain" near Ennetach, city of Mengen, Sigmaringen district. In: Archaeological excavations in Baden-Württemberg 2005. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-2019-0 , pp. 114–117.

Web links

Quantum Ennetach Roman Museum

Remarks

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d In the footsteps of the Romans and Celts . In: Wanderbar ... the most beautiful routes. Experience the Sigmaringen district . District Office Sigmaringen , Druckerei Schönebeck, Meßkirch 2004, pp. 46–48.
^ Wirtemberg history in the Google book search
↑ This dating is based essentially on a single coin, an ace of Domitian, which was minted in 81 AD in Rome and was in a garbage dump at Castle D. According to rhyme: prehistoric hilltop settlements and early Roman forts. 2005, pp. 114-117.
↑ exhibition. "Roman" shoemaker explains shoe types . In: Schwäbische Zeitung . 4th July 2008.
^ Museum. Try out Roman shoes . In: Südkurier . July 12, 2008.
^ Felix Hettner: West German magazine for history and art . 1885, p. 194.
^ Edwin Ernst Weber: The prehistory and early history in the district of Sigmaringen . ed. from the district of Sigmaringen, department culture and archive, and Kulturforum district Sigmaringen eV 2009.
↑ Martina Meyr: Roman Museum Mengen-Ennetach. A modern museum in Upper Swabia. ( Memento from October 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 277 kB) in: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg, issue 3/2002, ISSN 0465-7519 , p. 193 f.

[Wanderbar_18-1] In the footsteps of the Romans and Celts . In: Wanderbar ... the most beautiful routes. Experience the Sigmaringen district . District Office Sigmaringen , Druckerei Schönebeck, Meßkirch 2004, pp. 46–48.

[2] Wirtemberg history in the Google book search

[3] This dating is based essentially on a single coin, an ace of Domitian, which was minted in 81 AD in Rome and was in a garbage dump at Castle D. According to rhyme: prehistoric hilltop settlements and early Roman forts. 2005, pp. 114-117.

[4] exhibition. "Roman" shoemaker explains shoe types . In: Schwäbische Zeitung . 4th July 2008.

[5] Museum. Try out Roman shoes . In: Südkurier . July 12, 2008.

[6] Felix Hettner: West German magazine for history and art . 1885, p. 194.

[7] Edwin Ernst Weber: The prehistory and early history in the district of Sigmaringen . ed. from the district of Sigmaringen, department culture and archive, and Kulturforum district Sigmaringen eV 2009.

[8] Martina Meyr: Roman Museum Mengen-Ennetach. A modern museum in Upper Swabia. ( Memento from October 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 277 kB) in: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg, issue 3/2002, ISSN 0465-7519 , p. 193 f.