Fort Marköbel
| Fort Marköbel | |
|---|---|
| limes | ORL 21 ( RLK ) |
| Route (RLK) | Upper German Limes, route 5 (eastern weather route) |
| Dating (occupancy) | late Domitian or Trajan up to the Limesfall |
| Type | Cohort fort |
| unit | unknown |
| size | 198 × 165 m = 3.3 ha |
| Construction | Stone fort |
| State of preservation | overbuilt |
| place | Hammersbach -Marköbel |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 13 '21.4 " N , 8 ° 59' 3.3" E |
| height | 140 m above sea level NHN |
| Previous |
Small fort "Auf dem Buchkopf" (north) |
| Subsequently | ORL NN: small fort Langendiebach (south) |
The Marköbel fort was a Roman fort on the Wetterau line of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes in today's Marköbel , a district of the Hammersbach community in the Main-Kinzig district . Apart from a few reconstructions, nothing is visible of the complex today.
location
Marköbel is located in the Ronneburg hill country , which, as the western branch of the Vogelsberg, forms the eastern edge of the Wetterau . The medieval town center and the fort are located on a hill that runs from west to east and rises between 10 and 25 meters above the Krebsbach and its tributaries.
A path already passed this area in pre-Roman times, leading from the Untermaing area along the southern edge of the low mountain range into the Fulda basin, where a large Germanic settlement area was located at the time of the Romans . Even in the Middle Ages , this was known as the Hohe Straße as part of the Via Regia .
At the crossing of the road over the Krebsbach there was also a Limes crossing, for the control of which the fort was built at this location. Its eastern part is located under the medieval and modern town center of Marköbel and is almost completely built over.
Findings
Due to the favorable location, a search for a fort was started early in the 19th century. The field names “large” and “small castle” outside the medieval city wall and the ridge west of Marköbel, where Georg Wolff and August von Cohausen carried out field inspections in 1881, aroused interest. After Wolff was able to prove the fort near the village in 1884, it was evident that the remains of the fort vicus had been examined beforehand . Excavations followed under Wolff's leadership by the Reichs-Limeskommission (RLK) in 1892 and 1893.
In the 20th century, large parts of the fort and the civil settlement were built over without further archaeological investigations having taken place. In 1951, the foundations of the bathing building were discovered by Hugo Birkner while installing a heater under the Protestant church . Karl Dielmann partially excavated these between 1963 and 1965.
The last still undeveloped fort area in the northwest was examined in 1983 by the State Office for Monument Preservation of Hesse and the Hanau History Association in front of the new cemetery.
Fort
Enclosure and interior development
The stone fort documented by Wolff had a size of 3.3 hectares and was oriented to the east, towards the Limes. Of the gates, the rear (porta decumana) and the left side gate (porta principalis sinistra) were uncovered by the Imperial Limes Commission. The fort was surrounded on all sides with a double pointed ditch, the inner one with a width of nine, the outer eleven meters with a depth of two meters. Evidence of one corner and one intermediate tower would result in a regular arrangement of four corner and ten intermediate towers. Tin capping stones made from Büdinger sandstone prove that the Limes foreland was controlled by the Roman troops. The 1.20 to 1.30 m wide wall was made of cast masonry.
The layout of the fort can still be seen in the townscape based on the course of the main road and the north road. Today's Römerstraße leads just past the porta decumana and joins Lindenstraße in the area of the staff building ( principia ) . During the excavations in the flag sanctuary of the principia , the index finger of a larger than life bronze statue was still found. This probably belonged to the imperial statue once erected here. The fragment is dated to the 2nd to the middle of the 3rd century AD.
Significant parts of the interior development are only present from the rear area of the staff building, which was uncovered in the area of the confluence of Römerstrasse / Lindenstrasse. The flag sanctuary and three adjoining rooms with porticus were examined . Other remains of the interior development, which probably consisted mostly of half-timbered buildings, could only be examined to a lesser extent. A piece of the Roman wall stands today without any explanation of the connection in the New Cemetery, where there are also two display boards.
The excavations in 1983 gave evidence of a previous building in wood and earth construction, which was congruent under the wall of the stone fort. A corner tower and several intermediate towers have been identified from this.
The occupation of the fort cannot be inferred from the finds, especially due to a lack of inscriptions. Due to the size (for comparison: the stone fort of the Saalburg 3.2 ha), a partially mounted cohort or an Ala with a strength of 500 men would be assumed .
Dating
In addition to the wood-earth fort, there are various indications that the Marköbel fort dates back to the early Limes, i.e. H. in the time of Emperor Domitian or Trajan . The kilometer-long dead straight courses of the Limes north and south of Marköbel up to the bend at the transition east of the fort are striking. They suggest that the facility already existed when the Limes was built and surveyed.
Finds of South Gallic Terra sigillata as well as brick stamps of Legio XIIII Gemina , which was withdrawn from Mainz to the Danube around 97 AD , support an early dating approach. New discoveries of two forts near Hanau-Mittelbuchen show that there were still minor border shifts at the Wetterau Limes in the early days.
The stone fort would then have been built under Emperor Hadrian (117-138). This approach would fit in with the construction of the wooden Limes palisade, the time of which, through the use of dendrochronology, can probably be set as early as 120 AD. The woods were felled in winter 119/120 and in spring 120.
Bath building
The location of the fort bath, which was partially excavated from 1963 to 1965, was indicated in the courtyard behind the Evangelical Church with natural stones and provided with information boards. Above all, the heated bath rooms are visible outside, the cold bath (frigidarium) is located under the church choir. Due to a large number of brick stamps found, the construction could be dated to the beginning of the 2nd century. A major renovation can be proven towards the end of the 2nd century.
Civil settlement and burial ground
Only a few findings from the fort vicus have been excavated according to plan. It was located along the arterial roads to the west and south of the fort. This includes a hall construction on the western edge of today's village, which could have served as a sanctuary, as well as four stone cellars below the southern fort gate.
A brick kiln was discovered in Römerstrasse in 1884, but the bricks were not stamped.
Towards the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th century, a total of 45 cremation graves were found in Urnenstrasse during construction work, which occupy the only known burial ground in the fort.
Limes to Langendiebach
| ORL | Name / place | Description / condition |
|---|---|---|
| 21st | Fort Marköbel | see above |
| Wp 5/1 | In the Krebsbach lowlands, presumed. In the area between the outskirts of Hammersbach and the Krebsbach, which had been kept moist since ancient times, six wooden stumps of the palisade with a diameter between 0.27 and 0.37 m were still preserved when they were found. In order to set the palisade, the Roman builders dug a 0.4 m wide trench and anchored the piles in the ground at a relatively wide distance of 0.25 to 0.35 m. Remnants of wood resulting from this work were also uncovered in the palisade trench. | |
| Wp 5 / 1a | not received. | |
| Wp 5/2 | On the stone | Wood and stone tower location proven by excavations. The area is used intensively for agriculture. Not visible. There is a small sign on site. This watchtower gave the Roman soldiers a comprehensive view of the Krebsbach valley and beyond the Marköbel fort to the north-facing Wp 4/107. |
| Wp 5/3 | At the Gelnhausen cave | Excavated stone tower, reference to wooden tower. Invisible, intensively agriculturally used area. |
| Wp 5/4 | At the cow den | Excavated stone tower foundation 1 m wide; 5.50 × 5.50 m (middle of the 2nd century to the first decade of the 3rd century). Two wooden tower locations (wooden tower 1: 110 to 135 AD; wooden tower 2: around 135 to 150 AD) verified by geophysical prospecting. Excavations in 2004 led to the discovery of ovens and earth cellars. In addition, the course of the Limes, which had previously only been assumed in this area, could be corrected during this research. |
| Wp 5/5 | supposed | |
| Wp 5/6 | supposed | |
| ORL KK | Small fort Langendiebach | see separate article Small fort Langendiebach |
Monument protection
The Marköbel fort and the facilities mentioned have been part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes since 2005 as part of the UNESCO World Heritage . There are also ground monuments according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.
See also
literature
- Dietwulf Baatz , in: D. Baatz and Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (eds.): The Romans in Hessen . 3. Edition. 1989. Licensed edition Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , pp. 429-431.
- 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. 168f.
- Karl Dielmann and Dietwulf Baatz: The Roman fort bath of Marköbel . In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 20 (1965) pp. 9–44.
- Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (Hrsg.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreiches / Abt. A , Vol. 2.1. P. 153f.
- Marcus Jae: Hammersbach-Marköbel. Roman fort . In: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, 27. Hanau and the Main-Kinzig district . Theiss, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8062-1119-1 , pp. 150-156.
- Peter Jüngling: Excavations in the Roman fort and medieval local area of Hammersbach-Marköbel . In: New Magazine for Hanau History 8.3 (1984) pp. 161ff.
- Peter Jüngling: The time of the Romans . In: Chronicle 1150 years Marköbel - 850 years Baiersröderhof (1989) p. 15ff.
- Ferdinand Kutsch : Hanau. Part 2 , Frankfurt a. M. 1926 (catalogs of West and South German antiquity collections 5) pp. 113–127.
- Egon Schallmayer : The Limes, Marköbel and Emperor Hadrian. New scientific results on the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes and their high-profile presentation. In: Denkmalpflege und Kulturgeschichte 2, 2003 pp. 12–21.
Excavation report of the Reich Limes Commission :
- Georg Wolff : The fort Marköbel . ORL B II, 2 No. 21 (1913) pp. 1-22 and tables.
Web links
- Fort Marköbel on the side of the German Limes Commission
Remarks
- ↑ ORL = numbering of the Limes structures according to the publication of the Reich Limes Commission on the O bergermanisch- R ätischen- L imes.
- ↑ Wp = W oh p east, watch tower. The number before the slash denotes the Limes section, the number after the slash denotes the respective watchtower.
- ↑ KK = unnumbered K linseed K astell.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Baatz 1989, p. 429.
- ↑ Photo and short text on the pages of the Hanau History Association .
- ↑ Photo and short text on the pages of the Hanau History Association
- ^ Anne Johnson (German adaptation by Dietwulf Baatz ): Römische Kastelle . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1987, ISBN 3-8053-0868-X , p. 131.
- ↑ Martin Kemkes : The image of the emperor on the border - A new large bronze fragment from the Raetian Limes . In: Andreas Thiel (Ed.): Research on the function of the Limes , volume 2. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2117-6 , p. 144.
- ↑ a b c Jae 1994, p. 153.
- ↑ Baatz 1989, p. 429: "around the year 100 AD"
- ↑ Wolff 1896, p. 16; Baatz 1989, p. 429; Jae 1994, p. 151 and 153.
- ↑ Marcus Reuter : The small Roman fort of Hanau-Mittelbuchen and the course of the eastern Wetterau Limes under Domitian. In: E. Schallmayer (Ed.): Limes Imperii Romani. Contributions to the specialist colloquium “World Heritage Limes” November 2001 in Lich-Arnsburg . Bad Homburg v. d. H. 2004 (Saalburg-Schriften 6, 2004), pp. 97-106. Also internet source ( memento of the original from November 15, 2016 in the internet archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Jörg Fündling: Commentary on Hadriani's Vita from the Historia Augusta. Publishing house Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 2006, p. 610.
- ^ Margot Klee : The Roman Limes in Hesse . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2009. ISBN 978-3-7917-2232-0 . P. 165.
- ^ A b Margot Klee: The Roman Limes in Hessen . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2009. ISBN 978-3-7917-2232-0 . P. 166.
- ↑ Egon Schallmayer : Soldiers' life at a sentry on the Wetteraulimes . In: hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2004, pp. 103-108.
- ^ Egon Schallmayer: Archaeological excavations at Wp. 5/4 "At the old Rüdigheimer cave" near Ravolzhausen, Neuberg community . In: Andreas Thiel (Ed.): Research on the function of the Limes, Volume 2 . Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2117-6 , (= 3rd specialist colloquium of the German Limes Commission February 17/18, 2005 in Weißenburg i. Bay.), Pp. 57–81.
- ↑ Angela Kreuz: Porridge and Bread? Archaeobotanical studies on the nutrition of the guards of Wp. 6/4 Neuberg am Limes . In: Andreas Thiel (Ed.): Research on the function of the Limes, Volume 2 . Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2117-6 , (= 3rd specialist colloquium of the German Limes Commission February 17/18, 2005 in Weißenburg i. Bay.), Pp. 83-89.
