Groß-Gerau fort

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Groß-Gerau fort
limes ORL NN ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Upper German Limes ,
rear fort
Dating (occupancy) around 70 AD
to 110/120 AD
Type Cohort fort
unit ?
size 1.9 ha
Construction a) Wood and earth fort.
b) Stone fort
State of preservation Ground monument not visible
place Gross-Gerau
Geographical location 49 ° 54 '12.1 "  N , 8 ° 28' 48.9"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 54 '12.1 "  N , 8 ° 28' 48.9"  E
height 87  m above sea level NHN

The Groß-Gerau fort was a Roman fort southwest of Groß-Gerau in Hesse . The camp located at the back of the Limes existed from around the 70s of the first century AD until the time of Emperor Trajan . After the troops withdrew, there was a civil vicus at an important traffic intersection until the time of the Limes falls .

View of the unbuilt fort area from the south in 2011, in the background the Fasaneriemauer.

location

The Roman systems are located in the "Auf Esch" corridor southwest of Groß-Gerau and north of Berkach on a flood-free sand dune north of the Landgraben , an old course of the Neckar . The moat was probably navigable in Roman times or even built by the Romans as a waterway. In addition, the settlement was on important Roman roads , especially the right-bank route of the Roman Rhine Valley Road , about a day's march away from the provincial capital Mainz ( Mogontiacum ). A significant cross-connection to the Roman Dieburg and the Main Limes branched off from the Rheintalstraße . There was also a connection to the north to the Roman Nida , capital of the neighboring Civitas Taunensium , which crossed the Main at Schwanheim .

history

Due to its topography, the flood-free hill always offered people a preferred settlement area. The Neolithic Age left its traces here in the 6th millennium BC. In the early Bronze Age a large burial ground of the so-called Adlerberg culture was created. Younger Bronze Age cultures buried between 1700 and 1300 BC. Their dead here. There are Iron Age finds from the Hallstatt period from the 8th to the 6th century BC. And the Latène period from the 5th century BC. Until the birth of Christ. An ensemble of finds that dates back to the early first century AD and comes from the nearby parcels of "Schindkaute" and "Sandschluessel" contains Germanic finds and Roman imported goods. It refers to Germanic federations that were settled in the run-up to the Roman imperial border and the legion camp.

In the course of the reorganization of the imperial border under Emperor Vespasian , the occupation of the so-called Decumatland on the right bank of the Rhine , the Romans built a wood and earth fort in the area of ​​the southern end of today's Groß-Gerauer Fasanerie . This may have been preceded by a smaller and more short-lived camp in the area of ​​the later civil settlement, which accommodated the troops who built the fort. The unit stationed in the fort remains unknown due to the lack of sources.

The fort was evacuated during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) between about 120 and 130 AD. Before that, many rear garrisons ( Ladenburg , Nida-Heddernheim, Heldenbergen ) had already been disbanded in Trajan times . South of the Main, this probably happened a little later, which is related to the establishment of the Civitas Auderiensium in the main town of Dieburg . A civil settlement had developed west of the fort, for which the withdrawal of the troops to the Limes meant a serious turning point. Due to the favorable traffic situation, however, one of the more important vici of the region developed in the course of the 2nd century .

The civil settlement existed until the time of the Limes falls around 260 AD. It is unclear whether it was destroyed during the Alemanni invasions of the 3rd century or whether it was cleared according to plan. In any case, no clear signs of destruction have been found so far. The area was visited again as early as the 4th century: Alemannic settlers settled in the west of the former Roman settlement. Remnants of the Roman settlement must have been visible and usable at this point in time. This is documented by numerous broken walls and other disrupted findings, often in the course of metal recycling. The foundations served as a quarry, first for the nearby Dornberg Castle , and later for the pheasantry wall. The "Auf Esch" area was used for agriculture in the Middle Ages and modern times.

exploration

Roman finds have always been known to the local population in the "Auf Esch" corridor. The discovery of the fort goes back to Eduard Anthes , who examined the defenses in the autumn of 1898 and 1899.

Since the 1960s, the area around the pheasantry has been designated as building land (mainly for residential areas) in three stages. Even the area, which is known to encompass the “Roman settlement”, was not spared despite many years of local political disputes. Although the fort was to remain excluded from modern development, not least because it is largely under the pheasantry that is now used as a recreation and wildlife park, it was soon after the development plans "Auf Esch" became known in 1962/1963 by the office for Soil monument preservation investigated in the Darmstadt administrative region. Little was known about the civil settlement to the west until then. Another excavation in 1985 by Ernst-Friedrich Roß was also about the fort. When the development plan “Auf Esch III” took shape in 1988, the area became the focus of monument conservation activities in the southern administrative district of Darmstadt. From 1989 to 1992 excavations by the State Office for Monument Preservation ( Norbert Hanel , Ralf Klausmann) took place in the civil settlement. In 1997 excavations were carried out by the Saalburg Museum.

Mainly in the years 1998-2000 the University of Frankfurt am Main carried out extensive excavations in the area of ​​the vicus threatened by destruction (Carsten Wenzel, Jörg Lindenthal). In 1997/98 and 2006, around 10 hectares of the area were geomagnetically prospected. The aim was to document the size and structure of the settlement before it was finally destroyed. Today this is completely built over with the exception of a few remaining areas. A selection of finds from Roman times is shown in the Groß-Gerau City Museum .

Fort

According to the results of the excavation of the fort in 1962/63, there were three construction periods. The first - probably built in the Vespasian times - was built in the form of a wood-earth store with two pointed ditches in front of it. The second construction phase apparently consisted of a wall with a defensive moat, possibly in connection with the expansion to the stone fort of the 3rd period. This also had only a single upstream ditch, which was a whole 9 meters away from the fort wall. These peculiarities are probably explained by the geology of the soil. This consists of extremely fine-grained quartz sand in the entire “Auf Esch” area, which makes the ditches, but also wells and other structures sunk into the ground, unstable.

The fort bath could only be identified in 2001 through an excavation in a building that had already been partially cut in earlier and was located in front of the south-western front of the fort near the Landgraben.

Copies of Roman stone monuments from Groß-Gerau, placed on the market square

Vicus

The civil vicus was only extensively explored when it was built over. It developed on the flood-free dune area west of the fort between two tangents of the highway leading south of the fort. A dense development with strip houses was proven . As in many settlements in the Limes hinterland, these were built in stone from the 3rd century onwards. Probably due to the sandy soil, the settlement had a large number of wells that were not very deep due to the proximity to the moat.

The economically important for the Vicus location at the intersection of the Rhine valley road with a to Dieburg and the Main Limes leading Roman road has a dedication for the road gods Biviae, Triviae, Quadruviae . One of the most important finds on stone monuments is the so-called giant relief with the sculptor's inscription ( Xysticus scalpsit ). A mithraium was discovered to the west of the settlement . Three important stone monuments were found in the backfill: an altar stone, a statue of Mercury and a statue of a lion. Several pottery kilns on the southern edge of the settlement produced in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries to supply the troops.

literature

  • Norbert Hanel : Groß-Gerau III. The relief-decorated Terra Sigillata from the excavations 1989–1992 in the Roman vicus of Groß-Gerau "Auf Esch". Habelt, Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-7749-3639-3 (= Frankfurter Archäologische Schriften 12 ).
  • Markus Helfert: Groß-Gerau II. The Roman pottery of Groß-Gerau, "Auf Esch": Archaeological and archaeometric investigations into ceramic production in the fort vicus. Habelt, Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-7749-3638-6 (= Frankfurter Archäologische Schriften 11 ).
  • Werner Yearling: Groß-Gerau, "Auf Esch" - Roman fort, vicus and grave fields. Leaflet for the fort and camp village. Excavations in the Roman burial grounds 1978–1984. State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen, Wiesbaden 1987 (=  Archaeological Monuments in Hessen 57 ).
  • Werner Jorns , Hartmut Lischewski, Hans-Günther Simon : The Groß-Gerau fort after the excavations in 1962/63. In: Saalburg-Jahrbuch 22, 1965, pp. 28–37.
  • Hans-Günther Simon , Egon Schallmayer : Groß-Gerau GG. Fortress, Rom. Civil settlement and stone monuments, local history museum of the Gerauer Land. In: Dietwulf Baatz , Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (Hrsg.): The Romans in Hessen. Licensed edition of the 3rd edition from 1989. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , pp. 322-324.
  • Carsten Wenzel: Groß-Gerau I. The Roman vicus of Groß-Gerau, "Auf Esch": building findings of the fort vicus and the settlement of the 2nd-3rd centuries. Century. Habelt, Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-7749-3637-9 (= Frankfurter Archäologische Schriften 9 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Maurer: The early Roman Empire (1st century AD). In: Britta Ramminger , Alexander Heising , Thomas Maurer: The Trebur area in prehistory, Roman times and the Middle Ages. Burials from the Middle Neolithic, the Bronze and Iron Ages - military camps and civil settlement in Roman times - the royal palace. Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-89822-705-6 (=  Topics of Hessen Archeology 5), p. 12.
  2. ^ Egon Schallmayer in: Dietwulf Baatz / Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (eds.): The Romans in Hessen. Licensed edition of the 1989 edition, Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , p. 323.
  3. ↑ Andrea Faber, Vera Rupp, Paul Wagner: The villa rustica in the "Heftgewann" near Frankfurt am Main-Schwanheim. In: Find reports from Hessen 32/33, 1992/93 (2000) pp. 130f.
  4. ^ Egon Schallmayer: Local history museum of the Gerauer country. In: Dietwulf Baatz / Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: The Romans in Hesse. Stuttgart 1989, p. 324f.
  5. ↑ Thomas Maurer: The Trebur area in Roman times - an overview. In: Britta Ramminger , Alexander Heising , Thomas Maurer: The Trebur area in prehistory, Roman times and the Middle Ages. Burials from the Middle Neolithic, the Bronze and Iron Ages - military camps and civil settlement in Roman times - the royal palace. Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-89822-705-6 ( Subjects of Hessen Archeology 5), pp. 10–17, here: pp. 10 f.
  6. ↑ Norbert Hanel : New results on the Roman settlement near Groß-Gerau. In: Denkmalpflege in Hessen 2, 1992, p. 25f.
  7. ↑ Dietwulf Baatz in: D. Baatz, Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: The Romans in Hessen. Stuttgart 1989, p. 210f.
  8. ^ Quarterly pages of the Historical Association for the Grand Duchy of Hesse NF 2, 1896–1900 (1900), p. 520ff. u. 676ff .; Eduard Anthes: The Gross-Gerau fort . Wittich, Darmstadt 1899.
  9. ^ Hans-Markus von Kaenel , Carsten Wenzel: Geophysical prospections and excavations in the fort vicus of Groß-Gerau. Preliminary report on activities in 1997–1999. In: Denkmalpflege und Kulturgeschichte 2, 2000, pp. 56–60.
  10. ↑ Werner Jorns , Hartmut Lischewski, Hans-Günther Simon : The Groß-Gerau fort after the excavations in 1962/63. In: Saalburg-Jahrbuch 22, 1965, pp. 28–37.
  11. ↑ Holger Göldner, Carsten Wenzel: Bathing joy. Roman military bath discovered in Groß-Gerau (Groß-Gerau district). In: Hessen-Archäologie 2001 , pp. 74–77.
  12. ↑ Carsten Wenzel: Groß-Gerau I. The Roman vicus of Groß-Gerau, "Auf Esch": building findings of the fort vicus and the settlement of the 2nd – 3rd centuries. Century. Habelt, Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-7749-3637-9 (= Frankfurter Archäologische Schriften 9 ).
  13. ^ Marion Mattern: Roman stone monuments from Hesse south of the Main and from the Bavarian part of the Main Limes (= Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani Germany. Vol. 2.13). Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz, on commission from Habelt, Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-88467-091-3 , p. 174; Helmut Castritius , Manfred Clauss , Leo Hefner: The Roman stone inscriptions of the Odenwald (RSO). Contributions to the investigation of the Odenwald 2 , 1977, pp. 237-308. No. 53; Egon Schallmayer in: Dietwulf Baatz / Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (ed.): The Romans in Hessen. Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , p. 322f.
  14. ↑ CIL 13, 6428 ; Marion Mattern: Roman stone monuments from Hesse south of the Main and from the Bavarian part of the Main Limes (= Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani Germany. Vol. 2.13). Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz, on commission from Habelt, Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-88467-091-3 , pp. 171f.
  15. ^ Marion Mattern: Roman stone monuments from Hesse south of the Main and from the Bavarian part of the Main Limes (= Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani Germany. Vol. 2.13). Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz, on commission from Habelt, Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-88467-091-3 , p. 172.
  16. ^ Marion Mattern: Roman stone monuments from Hesse south of the Main and from the Bavarian part of the Main Limes (= Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani Germany. Vol. 2.13). Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz, on commission from Habelt, Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-88467-091-3 , pp. 172f.
  17. ^ Marion Mattern: Roman stone monuments from Hesse south of the Main and from the Bavarian part of the Main Limes (= Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani Germany. Vol. 2.13). Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz, on commission from Habelt, Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-88467-091-3 , p. 173.
  18. ↑ Markus Helfert: Groß-Gerau II. The Roman pottery of Groß-Gerau, "Auf Esch": Archaeological and archaeometric investigations into ceramic production in the fort vicus. Habelt, Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-7749-3638-6 (= Frankfurter Archäologische Schriften 11 ).