Halheim Castle
Map with all coordinates: | Halheim Castle | |
|---|---|
| limes | ORL 67a ( RLK ) |
| Route (RLK) | Rhaetian Limes, route 12 |
| Dating (occupancy) | around 125/150 AD or 205 AD up to a maximum of 260 AD |
| Type | Numerus fort |
| size | 80 × 82.5 m = 0.67 ha |
| Construction | stone |
| State of preservation | Rubble wall with planted bush hedge |
| place | Ellwangen , Pfahlheim / Halheim |
| Geographical location | 48 ° 58 '59.5 " N , 10 ° 17" 8.5 " E |
| height | 528 m above sea level NHN |
| Previous | Wp 12/81: Limestor Dalkingen (southwest) |
| Subsequently | ORL 68 Ruffenhofen Castle (northeast) |
The fort Halheim is a Roman frontier fort close to the Rhaetian Limes , the status since 2005 UNESCO world cultural heritage has. The former numerus fort is now near Pfahlheim / Halheim, a district of Ellwangen in the Ostalb district , Baden-Württemberg .
location
Celts settled in the area of Halheim in pre-Roman times . Remnants of settlements from the Latène period , mostly ceramics, have been found in the “Berg” corridor . The 80 × 82.5 meter fort was founded on a slight hill south of the Sonnenbach in what is now the agriculturally used "Buschelacker" corridor and was only 35 meters southeast of the Rhaetian Wall, which crosses the districts from southwest to northeast. The village of Halheim is one kilometer to the southwest of the fort.
Research history
As the field name "Buschelacker" ("Buschel" = South German for Burgstall ) indicates, the knowledge of an old fortification was never completely lost. Finds from the fort area have been known since the beginning of the 19th century. In 1819, the Justice Secretary Maximilian Buzorini and the high school professor Johann Georg Freudenreich, two early Limes researchers in Ellwang, described the area. In 1884 two other local researchers, the Ellwang grammar school professor Karl Kurtz (1817–1887) and the chief clerk Hugo Steinhardt, dug in several places in the fort and camp village area. In 1891 the well-known theologian, natural scientist and cartography historian Konrad Miller was in the area with Kurtz to measure the fort and enter it on the map. In 1894, Major Heinrich Steimle carried out excavations on behalf of the Reichs-Limeskommission (RLK), which mainly dealt with the observation of the wall and the size of the fortification. At that time, the level of knowledge about this camp, which was valid until the first decade of the 21st century, was achieved, because no excavations have taken place there since Steimle. In October 2010, a first campaign began with geophysical investigations in the fort area and was completed in February 2011 by the geophysicist Harald von der Osten.
For the visitor, the storage area, which has been excluded from intensive agricultural use, is clearly visible in the area through the surrounding rubble wall of its walls and a bush hedge.
Building history
A previously unknown number of 100 to 200 men or another, larger unit may have built the fort as early as 125 AD or as late as 205 AD, in the course of the construction of the Rhaetian Limes Wall. Dendrochronological data from Fort Dambach are available for this stone extension of the Limes wall . There the wood of the pile grid on which the wall was founded was felled in the winter months of 206/207 AD. However, there is also an attempt to interpret Halheim to date before the stone extension of the Raetian wall, since the Limes makes an arc around the fort. Taking into account all previously obtained dendrochronological data, this founding date would have to fall in or before the time around 160 AD. At that time the construction of the wooden Limes palisade in Raetia obviously began. Two dendrochronologists were able to assign eleven samples to the year 165 AD from material of the palisade from western Schwabsberg . The sampling from eastern Mönchsroth was ascribed to the year 160 AD.
The 1.2 meter wide defensive wall of the almost square, 80 × 82.5 meter large fort has four rounded corners (playing card shape), each with a watchtower. The facility had two single-lane gates, each flanked by two gate towers. One entrance, the Porta praetoria , rose north in the middle of the Praetorial Front , the side of the fortification facing the enemy. A second passage, the Porta decumana , was exactly opposite the north gate on the rear, southern defensive wall. An intermediate tower was installed in the middle of each of the two flanks of the fort. Behind the defensive wall, inside the camp, an earth ramp had been raised on which the soldiers could patrol. There was a 6.5-meter-wide pointed ditch in front of the garrison to prevent it from approaching.
According to the report by Buzorini and Freudenreich from 1819, the place where Roman ruins were apparently still found was half an hour wide and just as long. The two stated the height of the preserved fort wall with an average of four shoes. On the east side they came across fragments of columns. The area inside the garrison contained many remains of the wall after they were discovered. In addition, people would always find coins here. The excavation of 1894, which explored the historical soil with the means available at the time , did not provide any ideas about the interior of the fort. However, since the research assumes on the basis of investigations that the Roman fort expansion followed a generally applicable standard plan, which was adapted to the local conditions and the planned number of crews, the development will have followed this plan.
The Numerus stationed in the fort had to guard a section of the Limes. The history of the square ended with the Limes Falls up to 260 AD. The circumstances are unknown in Halheim. The camp was under the command of the Ala II Flavia milliaria pf in the Aalen fort .
Troop
The department assigned to Halheim, whose name was unknown, was a numerus (Eng. "Unit"). These units belonged to the Roman auxiliary troops, but were not as standardized as the auxilia , which were already an integral part of the Roman army in the founding days of the Numbers . The numbers were created when the first Limes routes were established. The need for smaller units for border surveillance grew enormously, which also had financial consequences for the empire. For example, young locals were recruited regionally and assigned to newly established locations with lower pay and less strict standards. The Numbers were like the Auxilia named after their original ethnic origin and apparently have not received the Roman citizenship upon discharge. The soldiers in Halheim may have been armed with bows, at least for a time, as an armory discovered in the fort area in 1884 suggests (see also under “Finds”).
Vicus and fort bath
To the south of the entrenchment, in the “Hornfeld” corridor, wall sections were discovered that are associated with the fort vicus . Readings were also found there.
The bath of the fort could have been located to the west of the numerus fort, as there is a concentration of stones in this area.
Finds
From the area of the vicus comes a hollow cast Roman bronze hand that was pulled out of the ground by unauthorized probers. The roughly 15.5 centimeters high and 8.5 centimeters wide fragment is holding a tubular container between the index finger and thumb. Intended to be melted down, it was cut off at metacarpal level and bent upwards. The ring finger and little finger have also been removed. A saw mark on the preserved thumb indicates the arbitrariness of the damage. The typology and design could suggest a hand-made candle holder. The bronze hand is now in the Archaeological State Museum (ALM) in Rastatt .
Monument protection
The Halheim Fort and the aforementioned ground monuments have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage as a section of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes since 2005 . In addition, the facilities are cultural monuments according to 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
- Dietwulf Baatz : The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube . 4th edition, Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2347-0 , p. 266 f.
- Dieter Planck , Willi Beck: The Limes in Southwest Germany . 2nd edition, Theiss, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0496-9 , pp. 148-149.
- Britta Rabold, Egon Schallmayer , Andreas Thiel : Der Limes , Theiss, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-8062-1461-1 , p. 110.
- Heinrich Steimle : The Halheim fort. In: Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (eds.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreiches B VI No. 67a (1901).
Web links
- Halheim Fort on the side of the German Limes Commission
Remarks
- ↑ Kurt Böhner u. a .: Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments 22. von Zabern, Mainz 1982, p. 47
- ↑ Kurt Böhner: Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments. Volume 22, von Zabern, Mainz 1982, p. 3.
- ^ A b Konrad Miller: The Roman castles in Württemberg. J. Weise, Stuttgart 1892, p. 39.
- ↑ Continuation of the geophysical investigations in the Roman fort in Halheim ( Memento of the original from January 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . www.archaeologie-online.de, February 4, 2011; accessed on January 26, 2017.
- ^ Walter E. Keller, Walter Grabert: The Romans on the Limes from the Ostalb to the Danube. Keller, Treuchtlingen 1998, ISBN 3-924828-49-0 , p. 25.
- ↑ C. Sebastian Sommer: On the dating of the Raetian Limes . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes from the Lower Rhine to the Danube. 6th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2466-5 , (= contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 6), pp. 137–147; here: p. 138.
- ^ Ernst Hollstein : Central European Oak Chronology. von Zabern, Mainz 1980. ISBN 3805300964 . P. 115; Philipp Filtzinger (Ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg . 3. Edition. Theiss, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-8062-0287-7 , p. 488.
- ↑ Wolfgang Czysz, Frank Herzig: New dendrodata from the Limes Palisade in Raetia . In: Andreas Thiel (Ed.): Neue Forschungen am Limes , Volume 3. Theiss, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8062-2251-7 , pp. 183-194.
- ^ Anne Johnson : Roman castles. von Zabern, Mainz 1987, ISBN 3-8053-0868-X , p. 58.
- ↑ Marcus Junkelmann: The riders of Rome. Part II, von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1139-7 , p. 84 f.
- ^ Anne Johnson (German adaptation by Dietwulf Baatz ): Römische Kastelle . von Zabern, Mainz 1987, ISBN 3-8053-0868-X , pp. 36-37
- ↑ untitled report by Jutta Ronke, Claudia Pankau. In: Find reports from Baden-Wuerttemberg 28 , part volume 2. Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Wuerttemberg, Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-8062-2008-7 , pp. 204-205.
- ↑ untitled report by Jutta Ronke, Claudia Pankau. In: Find reports from Baden-Wuerttemberg 28 , part volume 2. Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-8062-2008-7 , p. 205.
