Langenhain Castle

Langenhain Castle
limes	ORL 13 ( RLK )
Route (RLK)	Upper German Limes, ; route 4 ; (Wetterau route)
Dating (occupancy)	from Trajan times to about AD 260
Type	Cohort fort
unit	Cohors I Biturigum Aquitanorum equitata
size	198 × 161.5 m = 3.2 ha
Construction	stone
State of preservation	Ground monument
place	Ober-Mörlen - Langenhain-Ziegenberg
Geographical location	50 ° 21 '53.9 " N , 8 ° 38' 36.9" E Coordinates: 50 ° 21 '53.9 " N , 8 ° 38' 36.9" E
height	230 m above sea level NHN
Previous	Small fort "Am Eichkopf" ; (south-south-west)
Subsequently	Small fort Hunnenkirchhof ; (north-north-west)

The Langenhain fort was a Roman fort on the Upper German Limes (route 4, Hochtaunus and western Wetterau ) east of Langenhain-Ziegenberg , municipality of Ober-Mörlen in the Wetterau district in Hesse . Nothing can be seen of the fort today above ground.

location

The Limes runs largely from south to north in the area of the fort. It leaves the vicinity of the Taunus ridge and, after crossing the United States, enters the westernmost area of the Wetterau , the Mörlener Bucht . The fort is located about 350 m behind the Limes crossing over the river, which cuts deep into the Taunus here, which means a favorable traffic situation for connections to the Usinger basin and the Limburg area. The modern place extends west of the fort, so that the complex on the southern slope above the river valley is not built over, apart from an Aussiedlerhof in the south of the fort area.

Inscription stone walled up vertically in the south-east corner of the Langenhain church with naming of the 22nd legion

Fort area with display board, status 2013

history

Little is known about the history of the fort. The discovery of a bronze owner's mark points to the Cohors I Biturigum Aquitanorum equitata as a unit stationed here . The partially mounted, 500-man cohort was originally dug up in the province of Aquitania from the Biturigen tribe with the main town of Avaricum . There is also a fragmentary brick stamp of this troop from Langenhain. In Flavian times it was in Rottweil ( Arae Flaviae ) . Possibly it came to Langenhain with the restructuring under Emperor Trajan (dissolution of rear garrisons, establishment of a civil administration). The initial maximum of the coin series points to a beginning around 115 AD, probably from the beginning as a larger auxiliary store.

The finds suggest that the Langenhain fort existed until the Limes Falls around 260 AD. After the Romans withdrew, the fort became a quarry for the neighboring towns, and some material was used to build the Gothic Langenhain church. In the south-east corner of the church, a walled-in inscription stone with the name of Legio XXII Primigenia indicates.

Fort and fort vicus

As early as 1843, Johann Philipp Dieffenbach suspected a fort here. He was followed by Karl August von Cohausen . Due to the stone robbery in post-Roman times, Friedrich Kofler , the route commissioner of the Imperial Limes Commission , found only heavily damaged walls of the fort in 1892. The dimensions of the fort were largely identical to those of the Stockstadt fort , a cohort fort on the Main Limes . A date in the Trajan period like in Stockstadt seemed obvious. In the aerial photo, two upstream ditches and in the area of the stone fort an older wood and earth fort can be seen.

A fort vicus stretched west, north and especially east of the fort, where a pottery furnace, a larger stone building (probably the fort bath) and a burial ground, the latter through illegal private excavations, were located. In 1987/88 the Roman-Germanic Commission excavated two earth cellars east of the fort. From one of the cellars comes an important research crockery depot from the 3rd century.

The Langenhain crockery depot

The excavations in the two cellars were made necessary by previous robbery excavations . The discoveries that became known in the process from the eastern cellar 1 already indicated that they had been found in a depot . Both cellars were on the road leading to Friedberg , about 150 m from the porta principalis sinistra of the fort.

Basement 1 had an area of 28 m² and a level, clay-coated floor. Traces of wooden buildings from the surrounding area suggest that there was an earlier or contemporary strip house . On the south wall of the basement there was a massive sandpit as a place for amphorae . In the cellar, large quantities of supplies or merchandise were also stored in wooden barrels.

The total inventory of pottery finds - in addition to the finds from robbery graves, large amounts of broken pottery from the fire rubble of the cellar - point to a local dealer who cannot be compared with the wholesalers (negotiatores artis cretariae) that are occasionally mentioned in inscriptions . The depot contains Terra Sigillata and functional ceramics in almost all common vessel shapes. There are comparable product ranges in the crockery depots in Oberwinterthur , Burghöfe and Eschenz . The composition of the terra sigillata indicates the local character of the trade . Goods from Rheinzabern ( Tabernae ) slightly outweigh those from Trier ( Augusta Treverorum ) . This composition is typical for numerous fort locations in the region and can also be found in the Langenhain readings. The Langenhain ceramics dealer is more likely to have obtained his goods from various wholesalers who delivered them to the Civitas Taunensium region . The ceramics came from pottery in the region, probably from Nida-Heddernheim or Echzell . The Urmitzer ware typical for the time of the resignation is not included.

The location of the shop in the vicus of one of the less important forts in the Wetterau was not favorable for a larger trading company. In neighboring Friedberg there was an important crossroads and a larger fort than in Langenhain with a 1000-strong troop of horsemen. The one at Fort Butzbach seems to have had more significance than the Langenhain Limes crossing . Nida-Heddernheim, the main town of the Civitas, is difficult to reach from Langenhain. Even the neighboring Kapersburg fort was easier to reach via Friedberg than from Langenhain. It can therefore be assumed that a local crockery dealer supplied the soldiers, the residents of the fort vicus and the surrounding villae rusticae .

Limes course from Fort Langenhain to the small fort Hunnenkirchhof

The Limes runs for long stretches north of the fort through heavily agricultural or built-up areas and is not visible. North of the United States, it ran just west of today's town in front of the fort. It is followed by a wavy plateau to the north, where centuries of farming in the area of the villages of Fauerbach vor der Höhe and Hoch-Weisel have completely destroyed the remains of the Limes. The tower locations Wp 4/20 to 4/28 are suspected, reliable archaeological evidence is not available for any of them. The wall is only visible again in the area of the small fort Hunnenkirchhof .

Monument protection

The Langenhain Fort and the facilities mentioned have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage as a section of the Upper German-Rhaetian Limes since 2005 . It is also a ground monument in the sense 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

Dietwulf Baatz : Obermörlen-Langenhain FB. Cohort fort. In: D. Baatz, Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (ed.): The Romans in Hessen. Licensed edition of the 3rd edition from 1989. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , pp. 456f.
Dietwulf Baatz: The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube. 4th edition. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2347-0 , pp. 150f.
Margot Klee: The Limes between Rhine and Main. Theiss, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8062-0276-1 , p. 94.
Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Koehler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain (= materials for Roman-Germanic ceramics. 11). Roman-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute in Frankfurt am Main, Habelt, Bonn 1992, ISBN 3-7749-2556-9 .
Vera Rupp , Heide Birley: Hikes on the Wetteraulimes. Archaeological hikes on the Limes from the Köpperner Tal in Taunus to the Drususeiche near Limeshain (= guide to Hessian prehistory and early history. 6). Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1551-0 , pp. 94-103.

Excavation report of the Reich Limes Commission :

Friedrich Kofler : The Langenhain Castle. ORL B IIa No. 13 (1897).

Web links

Commons : Kastell Langenhain - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Fort Langenhain on the side of the German Limes Commission

Individual evidence

↑ AE 1893, 38 .
↑ CIL 13, 12422 .
↑ ^a ^b Baatz 1989, p. 456.
↑ Klaus Kortüm : On the dating of the Roman military installations in the Upper German-Raetian Limes area. In: Saalburg-Jahrbuch 49, 1998. Zabern, Mainz 1998, pp. 5-65, here: pp. 30f.
↑ CIL 13, 7435 .
^ Johann Philipp Dieffenbach: To the prehistory of the Wetterau. Leske, Darmstadt 1843, p. 207 ( online ).
^ Karl August von Cohausen: The Roman border wall in Germany. Kreidel, Wiesbaden 1884, pp. 90f. ( online ).
↑ Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992; Ingeborg Huld-Zetsche , Bernd Steidl : The two new crockery depots from Echzell and Langenhain. In: Munster contributions to ancient trading history 13, 2, 1994, pp. 47–59.
↑ Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992, p. 3.
↑ Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992, p. 10f.
↑ Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992, p. 107 u. 111.
↑ Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992, pp. 111-115.
↑ Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992, p. 109.

[1] AE 1893, 38 .

[2] CIL 13, 12422 .

[baatz-3] Baatz 1989, p. 456.

[4] Klaus Kortüm : On the dating of the Roman military installations in the Upper German-Raetian Limes area. In: Saalburg-Jahrbuch 49, 1998. Zabern, Mainz 1998, pp. 5-65, here: pp. 30f.

[5] CIL 13, 7435 .

[6] Johann Philipp Dieffenbach: To the prehistory of the Wetterau. Leske, Darmstadt 1843, p. 207 ( online ).

[7] Karl August von Cohausen: The Roman border wall in Germany. Kreidel, Wiesbaden 1884, pp. 90f. ( online ).

[8] Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992; Ingeborg Huld-Zetsche , Bernd Steidl : The two new crockery depots from Echzell and Langenhain. In: Munster contributions to ancient trading history 13, 2, 1994, pp. 47–59.

[9] Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992, p. 3.

[10] Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992, p. 10f.

[11] Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992, p. 107 u. 111.

[12] Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992, pp. 111-115.

[13] Hans G. Simon, Heinz J. Köhler u. a .: A crockery depot from the 3rd century. Excavations in the camp village of Fort Langenhain. Habelt, Bonn 1992, p. 109.