Marienfels Castle

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Marienfels Castle
limes ORL 5a ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Upper German Limes ,
route 2 (Lahn-Aar)
Dating (occupancy) Trajan to Antonine
was replaced by the Hunzel fort .
Vicus: until the middle of the 3rd century.
Type a) Numerus fort
b) Numerus fort,
(possibly cohort fort)
unit unknown units
size a) 117 m × 98 m = 1.1 ha
b) about 150 m × 190 m = 2.8 ha
Construction a) Wood-earth
b) Wood-earth with partly stone interior structures
State of preservation partially overbuilt ground monument
place Marienfels
Geographical location 50 ° 14 '25 "  N , 7 ° 48' 38.8"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 14 '25 "  N , 7 ° 48' 38.8"  E hf
Upstream Fort Hunzel
(northeast; following in time)

The fort Marienfels was a Roman frontier fort of the Upper Germanic Limes , the status since 2005 UNESCO world cultural heritage has. The former numerus fort is now a largely overbuilt ground monument within the settlement area of Marienfels ( Verbandsgemeinde Nastätten ), a municipality in the Rhineland-Palatinate Rhein-Lahn district .

Location and research history

Site plan (1896–1903)
Floor plan of the fort in the townscape (1896–1903)

The Marienfels fort was located a good one and a half kilometers south of the Limes on a north-eastern slope that slopes towards the Mühlbach , the only significant flowing water between Bad Ems (on the Lahn ) and the Aar , which the Limes crosses in its course. The Mühlbach, a tributary of the Lahn, creates a striking change in the topographical conditions and digs itself clearly into the terrain, in places almost like a gorge.

In today's townscape, the ground monument is largely built over in the center of Marienfels. The thermal baths and most of the vicus are - also not visible - under the agricultural areas on the outskirts of the village.

The Roman remains in Marienfels were known early on. The first excavations in the immediate area of ​​the fort were carried out in the years before 1830 on behalf of the Nassau Antiquities Association by the Miehlen pastor Brinkmann. In 1849, also on behalf of the association, under the direction of Friedrich Gustav Habel , the fort thermal baths that had only been discovered at that time were examined for the first time . A hoard of almost 1500 denarii dates from 1861 . The archaeological investigations of the Reichs-Limes Commission (RLK) finally were in the years 1896, 1897 and 1903 under the direction of Robert Bodewig performed.

Further excavations were necessary in the winter of 1983/84 and in the summer of 1986 as emergency excavations as a result of construction work in the vicus area. They were carried out by the Koblenz Archaeological Monument Preservation under the direction of Hans-Helmut Wegner .

Findings

The excavations were made very difficult by the fact that the fort area - even at the time of the RLK - was built over in large areas. So no large-scale exposures could be made, only individual smaller cuts could be made, with which the outer boundaries of the fort could primarily be determined in its two construction phases. The situation was and is better in the area of ​​the vicus and the fort thermal baths , which are either entirely (thermal baths) or largely (vicus) under agricultural areas.

Fort construction phases

The older fort described the shape of a rectangle with sides of 117 m by 97.5 m. It was surrounded by a simple pointed ditch whose width was determined to be 5.60 m and whose depth was 2.40 m. The corners were rounded, resulting in an effective enclosed area of ​​a good 0.9 hectares. There was an earth wall on the inside of the trench, possibly reinforced with wooden paneling. No traces of a palisade could be found. The camp was probably facing east, but the only documented gate was on the south side. Here the trench exposed to a width of seven meters and access to the fort was made possible via a fortified earth ramp. A camp road began at this gate, presumably Via Pricipalis , which connected the left and right side gates and was about seven meters wide.

Not long after the older fort was built, probably between 115 and 125 AD, it was replaced by the younger one. Only the moat on the north and south sides of the defense of the younger fort could be seen. If the fort can be reconstructed on the basis of these findings, it had an extension of more than 190 m in an east-west direction and around 150 m in a north-south direction. This results in an area of ​​over 2.8 hectares. The trench was more than 5 meters deep and approximately 2 meters wide. Its sole was made in the form of a 20 cm wide and 20 cm deep groove. On the inside of the north trench, traces of a 0.65 m wide and 1.33 m deep palisade trench were found. The only inner building of both forts was an elongated rectangular building 39 m long and 7 m wide, which can be assigned to the younger camp. The wall that was only preserved in the area of ​​the foundation was 50 cm thick. The high number of heated bricks found indicates that the building was probably equipped with a hypocaust system. Due to its size, the younger fort may have to be addressed as a cohort fort.

Thermal baths

Floor plan of the fort bath (1896–1903)

The thermal baths , the fort baths of the Marienfels garrison, were of the row type with a sudatorium on the side (sweat bath). They were located about 30 m north of the younger fort and were probably built at the same time as it between 115 and 125 AD. It was entered through the Basilica Thermarum , a large vestibule 10.50 m wide and 18.70 m long, and first came into the apodyterium (changing room). To the right of the apodyterium was the water basin of the frigidarium (cold bath), to the left the sudatorium . In the longitudinal axis of the building, the apodyterium was followed by the tepidarium (leaf bath) and the caldarium (hot bath), which consisted of two rooms . The tepidarium , caldarium and sudatorium were provided with hypocausts which were heated by a total of four prefurniums (firing points). The main boiler room with two separate heating points was to the side of the first caldarium . From there, both the caldarium and the tepidarium were heated. There were kettles above the prefurnia. A well for the water supply was attached to the side of the sudatorium on the outside of the building complex.

Fort baths of this type can be found in almost every major Roman border garrison. They were primarily used for personal hygiene and leisure activities for the soldiers, but were also open to the civilian population.

Vicus

The vicus , the civilian settlement that can be found in almost every Roman border garrison and in which the relatives of the soldiers as well as innkeepers, brothel operators, other service providers and craftsmen settled, takes up an extraordinarily large extent in Marienfels and is arched around the forts. The number of documented buildings on the east side of the camp is particularly high. Numerous cooking areas and cellar pits as well as traces of the buildings show a dense settlement up to a distance of 500 m from the fort. Hypocausted rooms indicate a certain level of comfort, foundation thicknesses of up to 1.40 m speak for the existence of larger buildings, one of which was 15 m wide and more than 17 m long west of the fort in the "Kalteborn" . Even after the Marienfels garrison was abandoned, the vicus continued to exist . The former military buildings were integrated into the vicus and used by the population for residential and business purposes. The architectural features and the quality of the found material suggest a certain economic prosperity. The civil settlement came to an end no later than the time of the Limes falls, when the area on the right bank of the Rhine was cleared by the Romans. The coin series of the treasure find with approximately 1,500 denarii from the year 1861 allows the conclusion that this reached the earth either in the 240s or at the latest in the early 250s and speaks at least for turbulent conditions in these years. Up to two meters thick layers of fire rubble indicate a possibly violent end of the vicus .

Streets and graves

The street of the younger fort that begins at Porta Praetoria (front gate, main gate) could still be clearly demonstrated by the Imperial Limes Commission. It led in an east- south- east direction through the vicus and probably turned in its further course to the south-west, in the direction of the area of ​​today's village Miehlen ( small fort Pfarrhofen ). The bottom layer of the building, which arched towards the middle of the street, consisted of a pack of clay in which slate rubble was embedded horizontally. Above it was a layer of gravel embedded in sand. Overall, the road body was 20 cm thick.

Only a few of the burial grounds, which, given the length and size of the vicus , must have existed on a large scale, were discovered west of the fort. These were urn graves lined with slate.

Interpretation of findings and history

Find material from the excavations of the RLK 1896–1903

According to the finds, the Marienfels fort was built at the end of the first century AD, in the Trajan period , possibly even in the Domitian period, making it one of the forts from the early phase of the Roman occupation of the area on the right bank of the Rhine. Probably in the period from 115 to 125 AD, the younger fort replaced the older camp. The fort baths were also built during this time. The younger fort lasted until the middle of the second century and was - presumably in Antonine times - replaced by the Hunzel fort, which is closer to the Limes . The vicus existed after the military camp was closed. It seems to have achieved some prosperity and existed until the middle of the third century. The names of the troops stationed in Marienfels are not known. The older fort will certainly have been occupied by a number , the younger fort perhaps also by a number, but - in view of its size - possibly also by a cohort .

Monument protection

As a section of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, the Marienfels Fort has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2005 . In addition, this ground monument is protected as a registered cultural monument within the meaning of the Monument Protection and Maintenance Act (DSchG) of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. 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, Gebr. Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2347-0 , p. 109.
  • Richard Heimann: Marienfels, the Roman town behind the Limes . In: Rhein-Lahn-Kreis (Ed.): Heimatjahrbuch 2005 . Rhein-Lahn-Kreis, Bad Ems 2005, p. 56 ff.
  • Cliff Alexander Jost: The Roman Limes in Rhineland-Palatinate . State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate , Koblenz 2003, ISBN 3-929645-07-6 (Archeology on the Middle Rhine and Moselle, Volume 14), p. 175ff.
  • Cliff Alexander Jost: The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes with its forts in Neuwied-Heddesdorf, Bad Ems, Marienfels and Hunzel . In: Hans G. Kuhn (Ed.): Professor Dr. Robert Bodewig . Vol. 2: Smaller writings, life and work. Imprimatur, Koblenz 2005, ISBN 3-9807361-7-2 , p. 310 ff.
  • Margot Klee: The Limes between Rhine and Main. Theiss, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8062-0276-1 , pp. 55f.

Excavation reports of the Reich Limes Commission:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brinkmann: Report on the investigation of the Roman castrum at Marienfels . In: Nassauische Annalen 1 (1827), p. 40 ff.
  2. ↑ Brinkmann: Excerpt from a report on the investigation of the Roman castrum near Marienfels . In: Nassauische Annalen 2 (1830), p. 159 ff.
  3. ↑ Principal curator at the Archaeological Monument Preservation Koblenz of the State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate and member of the German Archaeological Institute .
  4. ↑ a b ORL p. 7, after Emil Ritterling , Westdeutsche Zeitschrift 17, p. 217.
  5. ↑ Of the nearly 1,500 coins, only 126 remained, of which 115 could be determined: 2 × Faustina the Younger , 1 × Commodus , 1 × Pertinax , 1 × Didius Julianus , 12 × Septimius Severus , 16 × Julia Domna , 12 × Caracalla , 4 × Fulvia Plautilla , 16 × Geta , 3 × Macrinus , 2 × Diadumenianus , 6 × Elagabal , 1 × Julia Paula , 2 × Julia Maesa , 15 × Severus Alexander , 1 × Orbiana , 15 × Julia Mamaea and 12 × Maximinus Thrax .
  6. ↑ ORL, p. 8, after Ritterling in Westdeutsche Zeitschrift 15, p. 267.
  7. ↑ Among other things, Terra Sigillata of the types Drag. 18, 18/31, 27, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 43, 44 and 45 salvaged.
  8. ↑ ORL, p. 7, in analogy to Ritterling's dating of the thermal baths.
  9. ↑ DschG or DSchPflG RP