Gerulata Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rusovce Castle
Alternative name a) Gerulata
b) Gerulates
limes Upper Pannonia
section Route 2
Dating (occupancy) 1st to 4th century AD
Type Cohort and Alenkastell,
square complex with rounded corners surrounded by a double pointed moat, Burgus of late antiquity
unit a) Legio XIV (?),
b) Cohors V Callaecorum Lucensium ?,
c) Ala I Cannanefatium ,
d) Equites Sagittarii
size a) Wood and earth fort, width: 113 m
b) Stone fort I, width: 133–166 m,
c) Burgus: 39 × 30 m
Construction a) Wood-earth construction
b) Stone construction
State of preservation Not visible above ground, the
foundation walls of the Burgus were preserved and made accessible in a display area
place Rusovce
Geographical location 48 ° 3 '21.6 "  N , 17 ° 8' 58.3"  E
height 130  m nm
Previous Small fort Stopfenreuth (northwest)
Subsequently Fort Ad Flexum ( Mosonmagyaróvár ) (southeast)
Limes4.png
Sketch of the location of the forts in Rusovce / Bergl
Excavation sketch of the barracks rooms with furnace systems
Wall remains of the late antique fort
Chronology of the construction phases on the Flur Bergl and floor plan of the late antique Burgus
Preserved remains of the Burgus
Fountain surround in the courtyard of the Burgus
Cautopates relief at the entrance to the museum

The Gerulata fort was part of the chain of fortresses on the middle Danube Limes in what is now Slovakia . His remains are in Rusovce , a district of the Slovak capital, Bratislava . The cavalry camp was probably occupied by Roman troops from the 1st to the 4th century AD.

In addition to Iža ( Iža-Leányvár Castle ) on the left bank of the Danube, Gerulata is the only known Limes fort in Slovakia to date. An exhibition building of the Bratislava City Museum is located directly at the former warehouse location.

Surname

Gerulata is mentioned under this name in the Itinerarium Antonini , on the Tabula Peutingeriana as Gerulatis . In the Notitia Dignitatum , in the troop list of the Dux Pannoniae Primae et Norici Ripensis , it is mentioned under the name Gerolate .

location

Today Rusovce is one of the three districts in the south of Bratislava. The fort area is located on a slightly profiled, right-angled alluvial terrace (height 130 to 136 meters) on the bank of the Danube, in the immediate vicinity of the so-called Rusovce arm (Rusovské rameno) , a former branch of the Danube. The distance to the main stream of the Danube is approx. 1.3 kilometers.

On the Slovakian border, the Danube passes the narrow part of the Theben Gate between the Little Carpathians and the Hundsheimer Mountains , slowing down its course. This leads to extensive gravel deposits that force the stream to split into multiple arms. The March also flows into the Danube here. Behind Bratislava there are two large river islands (south: Kleine Schütt , Hungarian. Szigetköz , Slovak. Malý Žitný ostrov ; north: Große Schütt, Hungarian. Csallóköz , Slovak. (Veľký) Žitný ostrov ). The Kleine Schüttinsel was probably partially under Roman control at that time, while the Große Schüttinsel was populated by Germanic quadrupeds . The hydrographic conditions played a major role in the distribution of the Roman forts. The left bank of the Danube was regularly flooded, which made a direct connection Carnuntum-Bratislava-Devin impossible. Because of these conditions, the Limes Road did not run along the banks of the Danube. If you followed the Limesstraße from Carnuntum to the east, it soon split into two strands. A junction led along the Hundsheimer Berge after about 23 kilometers to the Fort Ad Flexum ( Mosonmagyaróvár ), after about 20 kilometers one reached Gerulata after about 20 kilometers . No more is known about the Limes main and side streets east of Carnuntum than what Maximilian von Groller-Mildensee discovered around 1900. In his opinion, other branches must have existed. The chain of the Roman border fortifications connected by this Limes road was almost without exception on the right side of the main stream. In the region around the Great Schüttinsel between Hungary and Slovakia, the border of the Roman Empire turned a little further south towards the Moson arm of the Danube due to the swampy terrain . As a result, most of today's Slovakia remained beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. Only a very small section on the right bank of the Danube belonged to the province of Pannonia superior .

function

The special importance of the area around the Preßburger Tor lay mainly in its function as the intersection of transcontinental roads with the Amber Road . His military occupation - in addition to border surveillance - therefore had primarily economic reasons. In the region there were only two Danube crossings - used since the Bronze Age - at Hainburg and Rusovce. The ford near Rusovce was of particular importance as it also enabled a connection with the castles in the Barbaricum . The crew probably monitored the mouth of the March , the Limes road from Brigetio to Carnuntum and the Danube crossing, but this - like the port of the fort - has not yet been archaeologically proven. Gerulata also covered the eastern flank of Carnuntum (in the west, the Schwechat fort and possibly also one near Fischamend took care of this ). Due to the approximately 480 meter high Hundsheimer Berg , no direct visual contact between the camps was possible. Both wings of the legionary base and the administrative center of Upper Pannonia were secured by cavalry units. The impassable area, traversed by wide swamps, to the east of the large Schüttinsel probably did not require separate surveillance by the border troops. Only one passage opened between the densely forested eastern slopes of the Little Carpathian Mountains and the Great Schüttinsel, narrowing like a funnel towards the Danube (today the city ​​center of Bratislava ). Blocking this region towards the southeast is likely to have been the main task of the crew. The importance of this transit corridor is also attested by numerous Germanic finds from Bratislava.

development

A Celtic oppidum existed in the Bratislava area as early as the Latène period (level LC). At the same time, the Celts held the castle hill of Devin and the Braunsberg near Hainburg. When the Romans invaded the Danube in the 1st century AD, the region around Bratislava was the first to be occupied by them. In the course of this, the fortress line Carnuntum - Ad Flexum was expanded. The earliest military facilities on the Upper Pannonian border were built under Claudius (41–54 AD), but the large-scale construction of the camps did not begin until Domitian (81–96 AD). At that time the Romans founded the camp of Gerulata southeast of Carnuntum , based on the finds , probably the first auxiliary troop camp east of the legionary camp. On the Glacis of the Limes, two additional military bases were established in Bratislava-Devin and Bratislava-Old Town in the 2nd century AD. The first wood-earth store was probably burned down as planned after the arrival of the Ala I Cannanefatium in the course of necessary reconstruction work and - initially again using wood-earth technology - rebuilt, but archaeologically not yet clearly proven. In the Antonine period (138–161 AD) the camp was rebuilt in stone. Judging by the ceramic finds (secondary fired Terra-Sigillata shards), Gerulata is not likely to have been spared from the turmoil of the Marcomann Wars and destroyed in the process. Other similar systems in Stupava , Bratislava- Dúbravka , Cífer -Pác, Veľký Kýr (formerly Milanovce) and also in Bratislava-Devín date from the 2nd to the late 4th century AD. From the reign of Aurelian (270-275 AD) or - more likely - the Diocletian / Constantinian military reforms, the conversion into a fortification according to late antique standards (attachment of horseshoe and fan towers?), the area of ​​the fort was considerably reduced. Presumably on the occasion of the last large-scale border security measures by Valentinian I (364–375 AD), the apparently already greatly reduced crew withdrew to a so-called "residual fort" ( burgus ) and left - as with some other forts on the Noric-Pannonian Limes could be observed (e.g. Cannabiaca , Fort Wallsee , Fort Arrabona ) - the rest of the walled area of ​​the civilian population, which thus lost its military function and turned into a civilian oppidum . At the latest with the cession of Pannonia to the Huns around 433 AD, Gerulata was also given up and abandoned by its Romanesque inhabitants.

Research history

Early observations

In 1737 the two Englishmen Richard Pococke and Jeremiah Milles traveling down the Danube mentioned old wall remains in Rusovce in their notes.

The first archaeological excavations were carried out from 1889 to 1891 by the manager of the historical-archaeological society of the Mosongau and curator of the museum in Mosonmagyaróvár , Ágoston Sőtér (1837-1905). The remains of the Burgus were also discovered here. In the courtyard of house no. 196, a Roman age crypt was examined, which was built from bricks, some of which also had stamps. During search cuts, Sőtér came across other graves, and skeletal graves and a stone grave were discovered in the same year.

20th century

A sarcophagus is said to have been excavated in the garden of the school building in 1930, but details are not known. András Graf directed the archaeological excavations from 1932 to 1933. In the early 1940s, Aladár Radnóti (1913–1972) from the National Museum in Budapest also attempted to determine the exact storage area for the first time. However, he could only rely on reading finds, the topography of the site and a Roman wall discovered in a cellar.

In 1947 the numismatist and historian Vojtěch Ondrouch (1891–1963) worked out the first complex plan for the Roman settlement of Rusovce on the basis of finds made during agricultural and construction work. In 1949 excavators from the Slovak Museum discovered a child's grave at the local cemetery, which also contained objects.

In the 1960s, the pillars of a late Roman building were uncovered during earthworks in the Flur Bergl. Then the archaeologist Łudmila Kraskovská (1904–1999) began again with major archaeological investigations. In 1965 these were continued by the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences under Ján Dekan and lasted until 1972.

At the same time, Łudmila Kraskovská and Magda Pichlerová also examined the Roman burial ground. In 1976 the excavations were continued under the direction of Ladislav Snopko, Viktor Ferus and Jana Geržová from the Municipal Monuments Office. In connection with archaeological excavations in the St. Vitus Church, the medieval archaeologist Michal Slivka (* 1948) also researched a Roman burial site.

From 1990, after the construction ban on a monument zone on the main street, the construction of single-family houses and the modernization of the infrastructure began in Rusovce. Several institutions (Archaeological Museum of the Slovak National Museum , Juraj Halagan, the City Museum in Bratislava, Jaroslava Schmidtová, the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Science in Nitra , Vladimir Varsik and the University of Bratislava , Eduard Krekovič) took part in the rescue excavations required . The systematic monitoring and documentation of this construction work produced a wealth of new finds and information, which made it necessary to reassess the previous views on the settlement history of the fort and the vicus of Gerulata .

During the conservation measures of the Burgus walls, some spoils from tombstones and altars were discovered in the masonry . Underneath there was a relief depicting Daedalus and Icarus , the multicolored painting of which was still well preserved. The inscriptions also tell of the existence of a Jupiter Dolichenus temple near the fort.

21st century

From 2006 to 2007, as part of the renovation of the monument, soil soundings were carried out directly in the museum area. In the recent past archaeological excavations in Rusovce were carried out by the Bratislava City Museum (Jaroslava Schmidtová) and the Slovak National Museum (Igor Bazovský).

Fort

Above ground there are no visible remains of the fort, with the exception of the late antique Burgus , as it is largely built over in modern times.

Wood-earth period

Camp I (older wood-earth phase) was located on the west bank of today's Rusovc Canal, in the northeast of the Rusovce municipality, on a terrace with a three-meter-deep slope above the river bed of the Danube. The area of ​​the early wood and earth fort was mainly determined on the basis of the grave fields and the course of its double pointed ditch system (distance: five meters, depth: 1.3 and 1.8 meters). The north-western course of the rift could be examined on the mountain. Its south-western section was 27 meters long, the southern corner could be located in Madarska Street. The north side and the east corner were removed by the Danube. Otherwise, only individual explorations were possible, with a very limited area due to the modern development. From the ceramic shards found in the trenches (e.g. northern Italian and southern Gallic sigillates as well as a Loeschke IXc type lamp) it can be concluded that the camp was built at the time of Domitian . According to the Slovak archaeologist Klára Kuzmová , these trenches were filled in again under the rule of Antoninus Pius . The actual extent of the first wood-earth store is still unknown. The maximum width of the warehouse is estimated to be around 113 meters.

barracks

Only part of a barracks building from the Domitian or Trajan period at 65 Gerulatska Street could be observed from the interior . Its walls consisted of a timber frame construction with clay plastering that had been plastered with mortar and painted with lime. A total of four rooms in two parallel rows and two smaller furnace systems could be detected. They were oriented vertically along the course of the Rusovc Canal. It could not be determined whether there were further rooms to the east or west. The barracks fell victim to a fire, as could be seen from a leveled layer of fire.

Room 1 measured 3.10 to 3.12 meters in width and 2.20 to 2.70 meters in length. The plaster was preserved up to a height of ten centimeters, in the northeast corner even up to 40 centimeters. The light gray lime plaster (mix ratio 5: 1, lime and sand) was applied in three layers one on top of the other. Strangely enough, this plaster could only be found on the inside of the wall. Its floor was only solid earth. Between rooms 1 and 2 there was also an approximately 0.60 to 0.80 meter wide corridor in which rubble stones had been laid as door sills. The wall between rooms 1 and 4 was 25 centimeters wide.

Room 2 measured 3.02–3.10 × 3.60 meters. The plaster was still up to 15 centimeters high. The wall to room 3 was 14 centimeters wide. In addition to various post holes for subsequent support measures, the imprints of the wooden framework construction on the south wall of room 2 were particularly noticeable. The load-bearing elements were square beams between which one and a half to two centimeters thick rods (probably fir wood) were woven. In this room, the flooring had also been done more carefully. It consisted of a layer of gravel on which a layer of lime mortar had been poured with mixed brick dust ( Opus signinum ) .

An excellently preserved furnace system (oval floor plan, 20 centimeters deep, opening: diameter 40 cm, area: 62 × 52 centimeters) was found on the west wall of room 2. It had been rebuilt at least once. The remains of Ofen I were partly used for the sole paving of Ofen. II reused. The four to five centimeters thick walls were made of clay (admixture of limestone, quartz, resin and mica) and had a brick-like color. Its body was preserved up to a height of 30 centimeters. The floor in front of its furnace opening was paved with brick slabs and fragments from furnace I (field 52 × 3 centimeters). It was probably comparable (except for the chimney) with those of Fort Heidenheim .

Of chamber 3 during the excavations only a small portion could be detected. There, too, there was an almost identical furnace system, which was located on the partition wall to room 2. However, it was not so well preserved, dimensions: 52 × 35 centimeters. Only a tile slab could be recovered from its paving. There were no more traces of the interior plastering of room 3. As in room 1, the floor was made of tamped earth.

Due to lack of time, room 4 could only be recorded at its northwest corner. Similar rooms were also found in building 3 of Oberstimm Castle , they were addressed as accommodation for craftsmen and medical soldiers (capsuari) .

In summary, it can be said that two possibilities can be considered for the diagnosis of this building: It is either two separate buildings with rear walls facing each other, or a building whose rooms are separated by a central corridor.

According to Vladimir Varsik, the fact that the walls were obviously only plastered on the inside suggests the latter option.

Stone period I

A total of three construction phases could be identified. Due to the burial of the wood-earth trenches, the time of origin of the first stone camp is estimated to be the time of Antoninus Pius . The stone warehouse I was probably also rebuilt again. In 1991 part of its southern defensive wall - about one meter wide - on the bank of the Rusovce Canal was exposed. An earth wall could also be found on the inside. Judging by the ceramic finds ( Terra Sigillata from Rheinzabern ), it was also built in the Antonine period. In the direction of the Rusovc Canal, however, no further footprints were found. The north-eastern storage area seems to have actually been washed away by the Danube (see also above). The north corner has only recently been found on the mountain. A section of its north-western double moat was uncovered at St. Magdalena Church. In the area of ​​Irkutsk Square, stone buildings and a 10 to 20 centimeter thick layer of broken bricks came to light, which were leveled here in the second construction phase of the fort. A 40 to 60 centimeter wide wall, which could be observed in the area of ​​the late antique remainder of the fort, probably also belonged to the interior of Steinlager I. The width of this camp, which existed from the 2nd to the 3rd century AD, could only be roughly estimated (133 to 166 meters).

Between 1982 and 1984, two trenches (width: 6-7 meters, depth: 2.5 meters, distance: 4.5-5 meters) were cut in the street Ulica Pohranicnikov during dredging work. They were about 300 meters away from the wood and earth store on the canal bank. A coin of Marcus Aurelius suggests its leveling for the time after the end of the Marcomannic Wars. Magda Pichlerova counts it as a defensive wall of the western vicus, but Vladimir Varsik sees it as part of a military installation.

Stone period II

In contrast to the early and middle imperial complex, which is heavily overbuilt in modern times, the interior of the late antique fort could be examined relatively well. As can be seen from the examinations of the defensive wall, the fort was significantly reduced in area at this time and probably also completely redesigned. Remains of the defense were discovered under the parish warehouses south of the museum area. Since the layers of late antiquity were almost completely destroyed by medieval and modern interventions, only a coin of Aurelian (270–275) discovered in a collapse of the wall can be used for a vague date of the possible start of the conversion to stone camp II. It is assumed that there was a ford near the camp and presumably also a ship berth, but both have not yet been located.

Burgus

The best preserved structure of stone camp II is the massive, square burgus . This tower-like remaining fort was built into a corner of the fort as a reaction to the large-scale troop withdrawals in the 4th century, as is often observed on the Danube Limes.

It had rounded corners and was 30 x 29 meters; twelve pillars grouped around an atrium (12 × 12.40 meters) supported the roof structure. Its foundations extended to a depth of three to four meters, and walls made of cast masonry up to 2.40 meters thick enclosed the complex. It is therefore assumed that this Burgus was up to three stories high. The ground floor was kept open to the inside, presumably only the upper floors were inhabited. In the middle of the inner courtyard there was also an eight meter deep well set in stone. In the pillars and surrounding walls of the remaining fort there were also used spolia from the first construction phase of the stone fort (military steles, consecration altars, reliefs), which can be viewed in the museum's lapidary . Some of them were also built into the well surround. The last construction work of the Romans in Rusovce could also be verified in the Burgus, in the southwest wing the openings between the pillars were walled up and behind them a grain store was built.

According to the excavators, the construction of the building is not uniform, as the southern and western enclosing walls at the corners are not connected to the rest of the building. However, the Burgus is in principle very similar to the post-Valentine fortress types in Noricum and Pannonia. Typical of such systems was their installation in the left corner of the front storage area (praetentura) , which also seems to apply to gerulata .

garrison

The following crew units are known for Gerulata :

Time position Troop name comment
1st century AD Legio quartae decimae Gemina (the fourteenth twin legion) Due to the brick stamps found there, in the early phase of the fort, a vexillation of this legion stationed in Carnuntum could have formed the fort garrison at short notice.
Brick Temple of the XIIII Legion (Museum Bratislava)
1st to 2nd century AD Cohors quinta Callaecorum Lucensium (the fifth cohort of Callaecers) In 1965 a hobby researcher picked up a brick fragment with the imprint " OHVLVC " in the area of ​​the warehouse area . The cohort has been awarded military diplomas since the reign of Nero in Pannonia. By 133 AD at the latest, the troops were stationed in the Upper Pannonian fort Crumerum , a little further east of the Brigetio legionary camp . The archaeologists Barnabás Lőrincz (1951–2012) and Zsolt Visy believed that the unit had been there since 110 AD. It is not known where she was in Pannonia before that time. According to the archaeologist Vladimir Varsik, its location could have been Gerulata in the Domitian-Early Trajan times . The ancient historian Karl Strobel is of the opinion that the unit could also have earned Roman citizenship when it was deployed in the Dacer Wars , although nothing is known about this force being deployed in these campaigns. According to Varsik, the brick stamp of the cohort found in Rusovce in 1965 is conclusive evidence of the presence of the troops in Gerulata , since bricks from this cohort have not yet been found in any other location. It is also assumed that the troops built the early wood-earth fort. In Varsik's opinion, it is unlikely that the unit would have delivered their bricks from another camp, since Lörincz was of the opinion that the auxiliary troops in Pannonia would only have bricked for their immediate vicinity.
Brick stamp of the cohors V Callaecorum Lucensium from Rusovce, on the right the symbol of an ivy leaf ( hedera )
1st to 3rd century AD Ala prima Cannanefatium (the first Cannanefat squadron) The name of the unit can be found on several dedicatory inscriptions found in Gerulata. An inscription discovered in the wall of the Burgus mentions a Flavius ​​Attius from Trier, who had served as a rider in the unit for seven years and suggests that - at least since the Trajan times - these riders formed the garrison of the fort. She was recruited (after their submission by Tiberius ) from the Lower Germanic tribe of the Cananefates . In 28 AD she took part in a campaign against the Frisians . After its service in the Lower Germanic Army, the unit was assigned to Lopodunum , in the Germania superior . This is evidenced by military diplomas from AD 82 and 90. The presence of the unit in the Pannonian Exercitus is first known from a diploma from 116. In Rusovce, the cavalry troop (with a possible interruption due to a campaign in the African Mauretania Caeseriensis in the middle of the 2nd century) has been documented by diplomas and inscriptions up to the 240s since 90 AD. According to a theory by Ernst Stein, the Ala could also have been transferred to Gerulata after the end of the Dacian wars of Trajan around 106 AD .
from 4th century AD Equites Sagittarii (mounted archers) This unit is indicated in the troop list of the Noric and Pannonian Dux in the Notitia Dignitatum for "Gerolate" as an occupation force.

Vicus

Roman onion button fibulae from the Rusovce burial ground
Antique brick-plate tomb in the Rusovce Museum
Early Christian cross from Rusovce

Little is known about the exact location and extent of the civil settlement of Gerulata. It is believed to be northwest and southwest of the camp. The only small-area rescue excavations did not allow for the determination of closed floor plans.

The western part of the vicus extended on a small hill, the eastern part merges into a shallow basin. Lime and brick kilns could also be uncovered here, not far from burial ground II. The north and west sides of the settlement were enclosed by a branch of the Danube. The oldest part of the settlement originally consisted of simple mine huts or buildings with walls made of adobe bricks that could be seen in Madarska Street. The remains of the Flavian settlements have been observed in Pohranicnikov Street. Emergency excavations carried out in 1998 confirmed that the vicus reached to Balkanska Street. The vicus in front of the western gate of the fort, where the workshops and several cultural layers could be excavated and examined , probably took up the largest area . The center with the most representative buildings stretched north of the camp. The vicus spread out along the arterial road and was easy to document on the basis of numerous stone foundations. A carefully executed building with floor heating ( hypocaust ) stands out among these . The stone construction also has at least one conversion phase. After its destruction, simple wooden huts were built here in the late 4th century.

Another Roman settlement could be found about 2.5 kilometers southwest of the camp, a villa rustica was about three kilometers south of the camp. It consists of up to six buildings and dates from the time of the Severians . Due to the uncovered building remains there, dug into the ground, with pile construction and saddle roofs, it is assumed that in the 2nd century an indigenous, largely Celtic population still lived there. In the 3rd century, the settlement area was divided into plots by creating rectangular channels. In addition, two buildings with stone foundations were built.

Burial grounds

The ancient cemeteries of Gerulatas were used by both the military and civilians. They surrounded the populated area in an arc from northwest to west. The finds allowed some conclusions to be drawn about the material culture, burial methods and religious ideas of the local population. In the first two centuries the fort also functioned as a regional trading center. A total of over 300 graves were uncovered in two separate burial fields. Judging by the research so far, there are a total of five larger grave fields that could be located around the camp:

  • Field Ia / Ib, (on the school premises), 2nd to 4th century, contains mainly biritual burials,
  • Field II (local cemetery), biritual necropolis , 1st to 2nd century, for the residents of the wood-earth fort and the associated canabae ,
  • Field III, (area around St. Veit Church), 4th century, perhaps part of II and possibly laid out along the main strand of the Limesstrasse,
  • Field IV (area around St. Vitus Church) and
  • Field V (at the train station).

From the early period, there are mainly biritual burials; in late antiquity, body burials predominated. Furthermore, cremation graves ( ustrinum and bustum burials) could be detected. Simple pits and brick-plate graves were found at the grave sites . Finds of steles and fragments of tombstones also suggest more elaborate burials. The oldest graves in Gerulata can be found in field II at the cemetery (coin finds: Galba, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian). Fields I and V were occupied in Trajan times.

The graves at today's cemetery, west of the camp (II), and the graves south of the camp (V) date from the wood-earth period and the stone period I of the fort. In late antique Gerulata , the grave fields were created at the school (Ib), southwest of the fort (III) and in the vicinity of the St. Vitus Church (IV). One of the most recent findings there is the discovery of a skeleton grave northwest of the fort. This burial site is probably also on the border with the oldest part of the settlement of the vicus.

Finds

Evidently colonists from all parts of the empire came to Gerulata with the soldiers in Flavian times. The finds show no connection whatsoever between the newcomers and the Celtic indigenous population. The nearby Carnuntum and the highways leading by here also brought a modest prosperity with them. The trade connections with the south of the empire are documented by imported goods. These were mainly bronze vessels, amber amulets, a gold amulet with a depiction of Victoria, an iron vessel with a bronze base, a mirror frame with a depiction of the Dioscuri , a beaker with facet cut, brooches, company lamps, an oil amphora with inscription and dimensional symbols. On a relatively small area there was also a large amount of Terra Sigillata sherds from the time of Domitian, which come from La Graufesenque , partly also from east and central Gaulish pottery as well as from Rheinzabern and Raetia. The fragment of a marble cornucopia fragment was produced in northern Italy, probably part of a larger than life marble statue depicting a fortune .

One of the spolia reliefs found in Rusovce shows a rider with a lance and blacksmith tools, another shows an eagle with a rosette between two horns of plenty. A richly decorated parade helmet (1st to 2nd century AD), lance tips, ring daggers, belt fittings and amulets and the head of a silver-plated statuette were recovered from militaria. In the south of the camp, near cemetery II, a few horse skeletons and a single body burial were found. The grave contained a bronze and an iron knee fibula, tweezers and shoe nails. The grave was embedded in a layer of brick waste, presumably a privately operated brick factory from the first phase of the fort's construction was here. A lime kiln and a glass kiln were also discovered in the immediate vicinity.

Limes course from Fort Gerulata to Fort Ad Flexum

Name / place Description / condition
Burgus
Gerulata 1 (Rajka) 		Archaeologically not proven, apart from Terra Sigillata also brick temples of the Legio XIIII Gemina were found here, which indicate a Roman watchtower. I. Kováts suspects it is under the tower of the parish church.
The watchtowers on the Carnuntum - Ad Flexum road , drawn by Maximilian von Groller-Mildensee at the beginning of the 20th century
Burgus
Gerulata 2 		Archaeologically not proven, bricks, building stones, pieces of clay and Roman ceramic shards were found on a hill. Kováts suspects the Roman watchtower at the parish church of Bezenye.
Burgus
Gerulata 3 		In the 19th century, Sőtér found Roman roof tiles and ceramic shards on a small hill south of Bezenye. The archaeologist István Paulovics (1892–1952) later observed Roman walls in the same place .
Burgus Gerulata 4
(Bezenye-Corridor Büsdöskut) 		At Bezenye , a plain spreads out to the southwest and is crossed by some watercourses. Here, around 200 meters from the Carnuntum - Ad Flexum road, the archaeologist Rezsõ Pusztai (1926–2004) came across the remains of massive ancient walls. In 1961 they were partially exposed. It was a building that measured 6.95 by 7.20 meters square, the width of the walls was 1.45 to 1.75 meters. Some of the rising masonry still rose three meters. The entrance of the tower was in the east, its width was 2.30 meters. The eastern corner of the tower was not excavated. The exact depth of the foundations could not be determined either. All we know is that they lay on top of a layer of river debris. It is not known whether the tower was also surrounded by a ditch, as the surrounding area has not been investigated. The most important finds include brick stamps of the Legio X Gemina , stamps of the same type were also found in Vindobona and came from the 2nd century AD.Probably, the tower was also built by this legion at the beginning of the reign of Hadrian and served the function of a signal tower . The findings inside the tower (charred wood, fragments of roof tiles and broken mortar) suggest that it fell victim to a fire.
Excavation sketch WT Bezenye-Büdöskut after Rezsõ Pusztai, 1961

Monument protection

The fort and vicus area as well as the burial grounds are protected objects within the meaning of the Monument Protection Act of the Slovak Republic passed in 2001, unauthorized excavations are prohibited, excavations in the ground are to be reported.

See also

literature

  • Jenő Fitz : Gerulata. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplementary volume IX, Stuttgart 1962, Col. 72 f.
  • Łudmila Kraskovská: Gerulata Rusovce. Rímske pohrebisko I (The Roman burial ground I). (= Fontes. Slovenské Národné Múzeum, Archeologický Ústav vol. 2). Osveta, Bratislava 1974.
  • Łudmila Kraskovská: The Roman cemetery at Gerulata Rusovce, Czechoslovakia. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford 1976.
  • Magda Pichlerová, Gerulata Rusovce. Rímske pohrebisko II. (The Roman burial ground II). Národné múzeum Bratislava 1981.
  • Titus Kolník: Roman stations in the Slovak section of the northern Pannonian Limes foreland . In: Archeologické Rozhledy 38, 1986, pp. 411-434 u. Pp. 467-472.
  • Veronika Plachá, Karol Pieta: The Roman Age Settlement of Bratislava - Devín. In: Archeologické Rozhledy 38, 1986, pp. 339-357.
  • Zsolt Visy : The Pannonian Limes in Hungary. Theiss, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 963-13-2431-1 , pp. 39-40.
  • Magda Pichlerova: The position of Gerulata to Carnuntum. In: Hermann Vetters , Manfred Kandler (ed.): Files of the 14th International Limes Congress 1986 in Carnuntum. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1990. ISBN 3-7001-1695-0 . Pp. 657-664.
  • Klara Kuzmova , Ján Rajtár : Gerulata I. Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Nitra 1996.
  • Vladimir Varsik with contributions by Eva Kolnikova and Klára Kuzmová: The Roman camp of Rusovce-Gerulata. A contribution to localization and beginnings. In: Yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz 43, 1998, pp. 531-589.
  • Karol Pieta, Veronika Plachá: The first Romans in the northern Central Danube region in the light of new excavations in Devín . In: Teutons on both sides of the late antique Limes . Cologne 1999, pp. 179-205.
  • Eduard Krekovič: Rusovce-Gerulata. In: Herwig Friesinger, Fritz Krinzinger (Hrsg.): The Roman Limes in Austria. Guide to the archaeological monuments. 2nd Edition. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-7001-2618-2 , pp. 277-280.
  • Jaroslava Schmidtova: Rusovce-Gerulata. Auxiliary fort - vicus. In: Verena Gassner, Andreas Pülz (Hrsg.): The Roman Limes in Austria. Guide to the archaeological monuments , publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-7001-7787-6 , pp. 295-299.
  • Jaroslava Schmidtova: The pre-Roman and early Roman settlement of Gerulata. In: Franz Humer (Hrsg.): Legion eagle and druid staff. From the legionary camp to the Danube metropolis. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government - Department of Culture and Science, St. Pölten 2006, ISBN 3-85460-229-4 ( Catalog of the Lower Austrian State Museum NF 462), (Exhibition catalog, Archaeological Museum Carnuntinum, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, March 21, 2006 to March 11, 2006) November 2007), text volume pp. 133-137.
  • Jaroslava Schmidtova: The Roman military camp and the civil settlement Gerulata in Bratislava-Rusovce. In: Franz Humer (Ed.): Carnuntum. Reborn city of the emperors. Darmstadt 2014, pp. 47–50. ISBN 978-3-8053-4718-1
  • Zsolt Visy: The ripa Pannonica in Hungary. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 2003. ISBN 963-05-7980-4 .

Web links

Commons : Gerulata  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Itinerarium Antonini 247, 3.
  2. ↑ Tabula Peutingeriana Segmentum VI .
  3. ↑ Notitia Dignitatum, Occ. XXXIV, 21 .
  4. ↑ Groller suspected Gerulata in Jarovce , Der Römische Limes in Österreich , 1, Vienna 1900, pp. 55–56.
  5. ↑ Magda Pichlerova 1990, pp. 657-658.
  6. ↑ A Roman military post presumably also existed in the area of ​​today's old town, but this has not yet been clearly proven, Varsik 1998.
  7. ↑ Magda Pichlerova 1990, p. 657.
  8. ^ "Signs of an old enclosure, part of which has been washed away by the Danube." According to Wilhelm Kubitschek : Older reports on the Roman Limes in Pannonia. In: Seat reports of the Academy of Sciences. Phil.-hist. Class 209, 1 (1929) p. 39.
  9. ↑ Relief at ubi-erat-lupa.org  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ubi-erat-lupa.org  
  10. ↑ B. Cichy: Das Roman Heidenheim , 1971, ill. On p. 28.
  11. ^ Hans Schönberger: Fort Oberstimm. The excavations from 1968 to 1971 . Limesforschungen 18 (1978), p. 70, Fig. 32 middle.
  12. ↑ Varsik 1998 S. 550th
  13. ↑ Magda Pichlerova 1990, p. 661.
  14. ↑ Sándor Soproni : Nachvalentinianische fortresses on the Danube limes . In: Studies on the military borders of Rome III , research and reports on the prehistory and early history of Baden-Württemberg, 20 (1986), p. 409 ff.
  15. ↑ Ludmilla Kraskovska: A brick stamp of the “Coh. V Lucensium “from Bratislava-Rusovce . In: Archeologické Rozhledy 41, 1989, p. 576 ff.
  16. ↑ CIL 16, 4 and CIL 16, 31
  17. ↑ CIL 16, 76 .
  18. ↑ Varsik 1998, pp 584-585.
  19. ^ Karl Strobel: Investigations into the Dacer Wars Trajan. Studies on the history of the middle and lower Danube region in the High Imperial Era. Habelt, Bonn 1984, ISBN 3-7749-2021-4 , p. 126.
  20. ↑ Jan Beneš ( Auxilia Romana in Moesia atque in Dacia. In: Study Archeologického Ústavu Československé Akademie Věd v Brně 4/2, 1978, pp. 43–44) knows only the Coh. II Luc. equ . The coh is undetectable . V Luc. also for Ion I. Russu ( Auxilia provinciae Dacia. In: Studii si Cercetari de Istorie Veche si Arheologie 23, 1972, p. 63 ff.)
  21. ↑ Jaroslava Schmidtova 2007, p. 134.
  22. ^ Barnabás Lőrincz, Dénes Gabler, Klára Szabó: Stamped Tiles. Garrisons of the Fort. Deposits in the Roman Fort at Ad Statuas. In: Dénes Gabler (ed.): The Roman Fort at Ács-Vaspuszta (Hungary) on the Danubian limes. British Archaeological Reports 531. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford 1989, pp. 417-425; here: p. 422.
  23. ↑ Radislav Hošek: Ala I Cannanefatium . In: Radislav Hošek (ed.): Tituli Latini Pannoniae Superioris Annis 1967–1982 in Slovacia reperti. Univerzita Karlova, Prague 1984. p. 116 ff.
  24. ↑ CIL 16, 20 , CIL 16, 28 and CIL 16, 36 .
  25. ↑ CIL 16, 64 .
  26. ↑ Ernst Stein: The imperial officials and troops in Roman Germany under the principate. Vienna 1932, pp. 125-126; Radislav Hošek: Ala I Cannanefatium . In: Radislav Hošek (ed.): Tituli Latini Pannoniae Superioris Annis 1967–1982 in Slovacia reperti. Univerzita Karlova, Prague 1984. p. 120.
  27. ↑ Occ. XXXIV, 21.
  28. ↑ Magda Pichlerova 1990, p. 663.
  29. ↑ Route = The numbering follows Zsolt Visy: The Pannonian Limes in Hungary. Stuttgart 1988 and Zsolt Visy: The ripa Pannonica in Hungary. Budapest 2003.
  30. ↑ Burgus Gerulata 1 at 47 ° 59 '53.31 "  N , 17 ° 11' 52.1"  O .
  31. ↑ a b c Zsolt Visy 2003, p. 16.
  32. ↑ Burgus Gerulata 2 at 47 ° 57 '45.7 "  N , 17 ° 12' 59.03"  O .
  33. ↑ Burgus Gerulata 3 at 47 ° 57 '22.1 "  N , 17 ° 12' 52.11"  O .
  34. ↑ Burgus Gerulata 4 at 47 ° 56 '18.67 "  N , 17 ° 11' 24.86"  O ; Zsolt Máté (Ed.): Frontiers of the Roman Empire - Ripa Pannonica in Hungary (RPH), Nomination Statement, Vol. 2 , National Office of Cultural Heritage, Budapest 2011, p. 441.
  35. ↑ Zsolt Visy 2003, pp. 16-17.
  36. ↑ English version of the Slovak Monument Protection Act ( Memento of May 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive )