Fort Heldenbergen

The Fort Heldenbergen is a former, multi-phase Roman camp with civil vicus in the district of Heldenbergen , a district of Nidderau in the Main-Kinzig district in Hesse ( Germany ).

location

The site is located on the right bank of the Nidder above a bulging slope on a flood-free loess terrace in the village of Heldenbergen. Today the Konrad-Adenauer-Allee (the former Bundesstraße 45) cuts through the area of ​​the ground monument . In ancient times , the square was located about eight kilometers behind the Upper German-Raetian Limes in the area of ​​the Roman province Germania superior (Upper Germany).

Research history

Due to the location at the intersection of several Roman highways, Georg Wolff suspected the remains of Roman military installations in Heldenbergen at the end of the 19th century. During his search, Wolff finally discovered two pointed trenches in 1896, which obviously had to belong to two different camps. The Friedberg grammar school teacher Paul Helmke made another discovery in 1904/05 when he uncovered a Roman burial ground on the road to Okarben . After that, public interest in the site dwindled. Until 1970, larger parts of the fort area and the vicus were tacitly built over, without any reports of find to the responsible monument authorities. At the beginning of the 1970s, further building plots in this area were initially designated without any monument law requirements, although the site was already known. Numerous Roman artifacts came to light when the first building plots were being laid out. When the then Hessian State Office for Monument Preservation (LfDH) did not take action despite repeated reports of finds, a group of interested citizens under the leadership of Rolf Hohmann began in autumn 1972 to secure and document the ground monuments exposed during the construction work. The group, which later joined together to form the “Archaeological and Folklore Working Group on the Southern Wetterau” (Wetterau AG), discovered well-preserved wells, pottery kilns, cellars and the foundations of buildings. It was only with increasing public pressure that the State Office for Monument Preservation initiated the first so-called emergency rescue under the direction of Gerd Rupprecht in 1973 , during which the discovery of a third phase of the fort became official. Further observations were made by voluntary members of the Association for Prehistory and Early History in the Lower Niddertal eV under the direction of Gretel Callesen . Between 1975 and 1979 the German Research Foundation (DFG) financed several excavation campaigns in Heldenbergen under the direction of Wolfgang Czysz , who now worked closely with the working group. Apart from a brief overview published in 1989, Csysz did not present the results of this research until 24 years later in 2003, which meant that Fort Heldenbergen went unnoticed for a long time.

Storage and occupancy

According to the current state of research, three Roman military camps of different times and sizes can be identified in Nidderau-Heldenbergen.

Heldenbergen I ("Polygonal Camp"): The oldest facility at the Heldenbergen site is a wood-earth warehouse with an unusually large area of ​​around 8.5 hectares and the shape of a trapezoid open towards the Nidder. The steep slope towards the river was evidently sufficient to protect the camp on its northern flank. It was probably built under Domitian in the course of the Chat Wars or shortly thereafter and was only occupied for a short time. Since an interior development has not yet been proven either, an interpretation as a marching camp is obvious.

Heldenbergen II : The second camp in the chronological order was a also only temporarily occupied wood-earth fort, which has an approximately square floor plan with a side length of 127 meters × 117 meters, which corresponds to an area of ​​around 1.5 hectares. This second camp was probably created in the course of the reoccupation of the weather station soon after the uprising of Saturninus in 89 AD. It was defined by Rupprecht in 1973. The camp was fenced with a single-phase pointed ditch, which was still up to 2.50 meters deep during the excavations, with the upper width being found at 1.70 to 1.90 meters. Czysz could not prove any traces of interior development.

Heldenbergen III ("Small Earth Fort"): The youngest camp is a small wooden fort with a side length of 91 meters by 94 meters, ie an area of ​​0.86 hectares. It was discovered by Wolff in 1896. It is also fenced with a single-phase pointed ditch, which was still up to three meters deep during the excavations and had an upper width of about 2.50 meters. The archaeological findings indicate that the trench was repaired several times. Czysz only partially demonstrated an interior construction in timber construction, without the excavator being able to recognize an interior structure. After the establishment of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the Heldenbergen III camp lost its strategic function and was abandoned by the Roman troops. It was probably built only a few years earlier and served as a depot and rear base during the expansion of the Limes. During the investigations at the end of the 19th century, Wolff came across a larger stone-built building outside the fortifications that was about 180 meters in front of the north-west gate of the fort. Found stamped bricks bear the stamps of the Legio XXII Primigenia Pia Fidelis, which was moved to Mainz in the last decade of the 1st century. Wolff interpreted the findings as a fort bath based on the discovery of hypocaust bricks. Czysz doubts Wolff's speech and suggests an interpretation as a military watchtower that maintained a military presence at this location after the camp crew had left.

In all three camps, it has so far not been adequately clarified which troops had built and used the respective facilities. The stamps of the Legio XXII Primigenia Pia Fidelis found at the Heldenbergen III camp are no indication of a stationing of troops of this unit. Rather, the XXII. Legion after its relocation to Mainz Bricks on a large scale for various state and civil structures in Upper Germany.

Camp village

To the west of the southwest corner of the Heldenbergen III camp there was a typical street vicus consisting of 50 to 70 strip houses , which were lined up along the Roman road to Okarben. During the excavations, handicrafts, namely pottery and blacksmiths and at least two bronze foundries, were found that shaped the character of the settlement as a commercial vicus. In particular, the at least five proven pottery companies were of regional importance. A potter is known by name through stamps found. It's a villager named Lucius Primus . Another potter's name is only fragmentarily preserved as [.] - S - [.]. The vicus took up an area of ​​about 2.5 hectares. The associated grave field with around 230 documented graves was discovered by Paul Helmke in 1904/05. The camp village came into being around shortly before the year 100 and continued to exist as a pure civilian settlement within the civitas Taunensium after the withdrawal of the troops stationed in the Heldenbergen III camp . The excavation results suggest that the industrial estate prospered soon after it was founded, but experienced a rapid decline from the middle of the 2nd century onwards. In connection with the Germanic raids of 233, the village was finally evacuated before it was attacked and destroyed. During the excavations, skeletal parts of about a dozen men were found who had fatal combat injuries in the form of sword blows and stab wounds. The dead are possibly Germanic fighters slain by a Roman cavalry. Anthropologically proven traces of feeding by dogs and wild animals suggest that the men killed in the attack were not buried and that the vicus was not rebuilt after the destruction.

Monument protection

The fort and vicus areas are ground monuments within the meaning of the Hessian Monument Protection Act . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.

literature

• Wolfgang Czysz : Nidderau-Heldenbergen HU. In: Dietwulf Baatz , Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (Hrsg.): The Romans in Hessen. Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8062-0599-X , pp. 450–455.
• Wolfgang Czysz: Heroes mountains in the Wetterau. Camp, fort, vicus. Mainz 2003, ISBN 3-8053-2834-6 ( Limes research 27 ).
• Peter Jüngling: Nidderau-Heldenbergen. Roman castles and civil settlement . In: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, 27. Hanau and the Main-Kinzig district . Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8062-1119-1 , pp. 221-225.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Czysz 2003. p. 38.
2. ↑ Czysz 2003. p. 40.
3. ↑ Czysz 2003. p. 40.
4. ↑ Czysz 2003. p. 44.
5. ↑ Czysz 2003. p. 48.
6. ↑ Czysz 2003. pp. 129-140.
7. ↑ Czysz 2003. p. 70.
8. ↑ Czysz 2003. pp. 183-193.

Coordinates: 50 ° 13 ′ 58.9 ″  N , 8 ° 51 ′ 51.6 ″  E