Mehadia Castle

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Mehadia Castle
Alternative name Praetorium
limes Dacian Limes
section A / IV / 15
Dating (occupancy) A) 106 to 1st half of 2nd century
Ba) 1st half of 2nd century to mid 3rd century
Bb) Mid / end of 3rd century
C) End of 3rd century to 4th century
Type AB) Auxiliary and / or vexillation
fort C) Late antique fortress
unit A) Vexillationes of the
* Legio VII Claudia
* Legio IIII Flavia Felix
B) Vexillationes of the
* Legio XIII Gemina
* Legio V Macedonica Cohors III Delmatarum
Cohors VIII Raetorum
size A) cannot be determined with certainty
B) 142.6 m × 116 m = 1.65 ha
C) slightly smaller than B)
Construction A) Wood-earth warehouse
B) Stone fort
C) Stone fort
State of preservation ground monument perceptible on the surface
place Mehadia
Geographical location 44 ° 55 '22 .4 "  N , 22 ° 21' 7.9"  E Coordinates: 44 ° 55 '22 .4 "  N , 22 ° 21' 7.9"  E
height 180  m
Previous Orșova Castle (Dierna)
(south, A / IV / 14)
Subsequently Fort Teregova
(Ad Pannonios)
(north of A / IV / 16)

Fort Mehadia (ancient name Praetorium ) was a Roman auxiliary troop camp in the municipality of Mehadia , Caraş-Severin district in the Romanian region of Banat .

location

Course of the Dacian Limites

The soil monument in today's settlement is located about one kilometer north of the village, west of national road 6 , in the “Zidina” corridor . Topographically, it is located in the Timiș-Cerna valley gorge on a flat high terrace , directly in the area of ​​the confluence of the Bolvașnita mountain stream with the Belareca river . The slightly shifted square of the fort and the wall of the former defense can still be clearly seen in the area. In ancient times, the castle crew had the task of monitoring the strategically important road connection from Dierna via Teregova to Tibiscum . The fort was initially in the province of Dacia superior , later in the Dacia Apulensis . In the late Roman period it was a forward post on the northern border of the province of Dacia ripensis .

Sources and research history

Depiction of the Roman fort (left) and the medieval castle Mehadia (right) on a map of the work Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus (1726) by Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (1658–1730)

Praetorium can be found on the Tabula Peutingeriana as praetorio . Some confusion is caused by the fact that there is also an Ad Mediam on the Peutinger map that can theoretically be equated with Mehadia . However, this refers to the Roman health resort Ad aquas Herculi sacras ad Mediam , today's Băile Herculane (Hercules bath) in the valley of the river Cerna, which runs further east .

The earliest known modern representation of the Mehadia fort can be found in the work Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Observationibus geographicis, astronomicis, hydrographicis, historicis, physicis perlustratus by the Italian scholar Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli , first published in 1726.

Archaeological excavations took place in 1909 by Nikolaus Cena and from 1942–1943 under the direction of Mihail Macrea . In 2000 the investigations, which had been under the direction of Doina Benea since 2003/2004, were resumed, which among other things led to the reliable identification of the late Roman fortress and the clarification of the stratigraphy of the fort square.

Archaeological evidence

In the archaeological investigations of the 20th century, a wood and a stone construction phase as well as a repair phase were differentiated within the latter. At the beginning of the 21st century, the fortifications from late antiquity were identified.

Wood-earth warehouse

Although the existence of an early Trajan wood-earth camp could be proven, which was probably already established in the first phase of the Roman occupation, sufficient data is lacking to make valid statements about the shape of the fort during this time and to provide an overall plan to reconstruct the same. Possibly it corresponded in its dimensions to the following stone fort. On the basis of brick stamp finds, this period could be assigned to vexillations of the Legio IIII Flavia Felix and the Legio VII Claudia (see below).

Stone fort

Presumably in the first half of the second century, the wood-earth camp was replaced by a stone fort, of which, however, apart from the course and structure of the defense, no reliable information is available. Accordingly, it is a castle with a rectangular floor plan and rounded corners, the sides of which were oriented in the four cardinal directions. The axis dimensions are 142.6 m by 116 m, which corresponds to a built-up area of ​​1.65 hectares. It was surrounded by a 1.30 m thick defensive wall in the technique of Opus incertum , in front of which a six meter wide and two meter deep pointed ditch ran as an approach obstacle . The corners of the fort were provided with trapezoidal corner towers, the four gates were flanked by rectangular, slightly outwardly projecting gate towers.

In the first half of the third century, under Severus Alexander (222-235), Gordianus III. (238–244) or Philip Arabs (244–249) some repairs had become necessary. Around the middle of the third century or soon afterwards, the fort was destroyed by a heavy flood and the fort was initially not used any further.

Late antique fortress

After the Dacian areas north of the Danube had initially been abandoned under Aurelian (270 to 275), the Dacia ripensis province was established in the period of the Tetrarchy (293 to 305) , combined with the construction or restoration of forts on and north of the Danube . In this context, the Mehadia Fort was also restored at the end of the third century as a border post that had been advanced to the north. Due to the flood (see above) the old fort site was covered with a layer of sediment. This was first leveled and then stabilized by the application of a 0.3 m to 0.5 m thick layer of rammed earth and a 0.15 m thick layer of gravel. A new defensive wall with a width of 1.4 m was built on the foundations of the old one, but slightly offset inward compared to this, so that the floor plan was slightly smaller.

troops

Various units are epigraphically attested as garrisons of Praetorium . The establishment and first joint occupancy of the camp was probably carried out by vexillationes of Legio VII Claudia and Legio IIII Flavia Felix . The conversion into a stone fort - if one follows Nicolae Gudea (1997) - possibly the Cohors III Delmatarum (3rd cohort of the Dalmater ). Other troops that are seen as garrisons of Fort Mehadia are Vexillationes of Legio XIII Gemina and Legio V Macedonica , as well as the Cohors VIII Raetorum (8th cohort of Raeter ). In addition, there is individual inscription evidence of a Vexillatio Dacia rum and the Cohors I Ubiorum , although these are probably not considered to be the regular crews of the fort.

Vicus and fort baths

Around the imperial fort there was an extensive fort vicus that has so far only been little investigated. The vicus was a civil settlement that can be found at almost every Roman military camp and in which the living quarters of the relatives of soldiers, veterans, craftsmen, traders, innkeepers, prostitutes and other service providers were located.

About one hundred meters east of the fort, Mihail Macrea succeeded in locating the fort's thermal baths and in some cases examining them. In this Balineum , the rooms were arranged along two parallel axes. The northern axis consisted of a single large room (probably a palaestra ) with an apse on the western and northern side. The southern suite consisted of a total of five rooms, two of which were also provided with apses (on the south side). The praefurnium of the suite was at the western end.

Lost property and monument protection

The archaeological finds from the Praetorium are kept in the Institutul de Arheologie si Istoria Artei (Institute for Archeology and Art History) in Cluj-Napoca .

The entire archaeological site and in particular the castle are protected as historical monuments according to Law No. 422/2001 passed in 2001 and are registered with the LMI code CS-ImB-10851.02 in the national list of historical monuments ( Lista Monumentelor Istorice ) . Responsible is the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Ministerul Culturii şi Patrimoniului Naţional), in particular the General Directorate for National Cultural Heritage, the Department of Fine Arts and the National Commission for Historical Monuments and other institutions subordinate to the Ministry. Unauthorized excavations and the export of ancient objects are prohibited in Romania.

See also

literature

  • Doina Benea et al .: Castrul şi vicus-ul militar de la Mehadia (Jud. Caraş-Severin) . CCA 2003 (2004), pp. 194-195.
  • Doina Benea et al .: Castrul şi vicus-ul militar de la Mehadia (Jud. Caraş-Severin) . CCA 2004 (2005).
  • Doina Benea: The Roman camp of Praetorium (Mehadia, Caraş-Severin County, Romania) . In Zsolt Visy (ed.): Limes XIX. Proceedings of the XIXth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies held in Pécs, Hungary, September 2003 University of Pécs, Pécs 2005, ISBN 978-963-642-053-6 , S 697-702,
  • Doina Benea: The camp of Praetorium (Mehadia) in late Roman times . Pontica 40 (2007), pp. 339-350, ( digitized version ).
  • Imola Boda and Csaba Szabó: Notes on a Dolichenian relief at Mehadia . Marisia XXXI (2011), pp. 273-282, ( digitized version ).
  • Nicolae Gudea : The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story. In: Yearbook of the Römisch Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz. 44, 2, 1997, p. 31f., ( Digitized version ).
  • Nicolae Gudea and Mihail Zahariade: Dacia Ripensis. Fortresses on the northern border of the province and their troops . Amsterdam 2016, p. 30, ( digitized version ).
  • Mihail Macrea , Nicolae Gudea and I. Moţu: Castrul şi aşezarea de la Praetorium (Mehadia) . Bucureşti 1992.
  • Felix Marcu: The Internal Planning of Roman Forts of Dacia . (= Bibliotheca Mvsei Napocensis XXX), Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca 2009, ISBN 978-606-543-058-7 , pp. 142f.
  • Ovidiu Ţentea and Britta Burkhardt: Baths on the Frontiers of Roman Dacia / Băile de pe frontierele Daciei romane. Bucharest 2017, p. 15f.
  • Călin and Carmen Timoc: Organizarea internă a castrului de la Mehadia (Praetorium). Reconstituirea datelor oferită de vechile bilete de săpătură . Banatica 18 (2008), pp. 75-80, ( digitized version ).
  • Simona Vlascici, Atalia Ștefănescu and Mariana Crînguș: Ateriul ceramic din castrul de la Praetorium (Mehadia). Contributii arheologice (I) . Apulum 42.1 (2005), pp. 157-162, ( digitized version ).

Web links

Individual evidence

Abbreviations:
AE = L'Année épigraphique (annual publication on Latin epigraphy )
CIL = Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
IDR = Inscriptiones Daciae Romanae (directory of inscriptions from Roman Dacia)

  1. ^ Route / section / fort number (based on Nicolae Gudea , 1997).
  2. ↑ a b Legio VII Claudia: CIL 03, 08071b .
  3. ↑ a b Legio IIII Flavia Felix: CIL 03, 01631 .
  4. ↑ a b Legio XIII Gemina: AE 1976, 00585 , CIL 03, 01560 (dating 260 to 268), CIL 03, 01569 (dating 211 to 222), CIL 03, 01629,01n , IDR-03-01, 00100c , IDR -03-01, 00101 , CIL 03, 01630kb and IDR-03-01, 00102a .
  5. ↑ a b Legio V Macedonia: CIL 03, 01566 , CIL 03, 01630ka , CIL 03, 01 630kb and IDR-03-01, 00102a .
  6. ↑ a b Cohors III Delmatorum: AE 2011, 01096 (dating 238 to 244), CIL 03, 01577 (dating 253 to 260), AE 1912, 00005 (dating 226 to 235), AE 1973, 00461 , IDR-03-01 , 00099 , IDR-03-01, 00100a , IDR-App-01-37, 00001 and IDR-App-01-37, 00002 .
  7. ↑ a b Cohors VIII Raetorum: IDR-03-01, 00102b .
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Nicolae Gudea: The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story. In: Yearbook of the Römisch Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz. 44, 2, 1997, p. 31f., ( Digitized version ).
  9. ↑ Tab. Peut. Segm. VII, 4.
  10. ↑ Praetorio (Mehadia) on tabula-peutingeriana.de, accessed on February 23, 2019.
  11. ↑ Florin Fodorean: “Spa” Vignettes in Tabula Peutingeriana. Traveling Ad Aquas. Thermal Water Resources in Roman Dacia . Ephemeris Napocensis 22 (2012), pp. 211-221.
  12. ↑ Ion Stoica: Tabula Peutingeriană 1850 on dacologica.wordpress.com (Romanian), accessed on February 23, 2019.
  13. ^ Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli: Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Observationibus geographicis, astronomicis, hydrographicis, historicis, physicis perlustratus . Vízügyi Múzeum, Budapest 2004, ISBN 963-217-033-4 (reprint of The Hague edition 1726).
  14. ↑ Nikolaus Cena: Despre descoperirea unui soclu din castrul roman ad Mediam . Editura Eurostampa, Timișoara 2002 (new edition by Gordian Verlag, Timișoara 2012).
  15. ↑ Mihail Macrea (posthumously) with Nicolae Gudea and Iancu Motu: Praetorium. Castrul şi aşezarea romană de la Mehadia . (= Biblioteca de arheologie, 51), Editura Academiei Republicii socialiste România, Bucureşti 1993.
  16. ↑ a b c d Doina Benea: The camp of Praetorium (Mehadia) in late Roman times . Pontica 40 (2007), pp. 339-350, ( digitized version ).
  17. ↑ Doina Benea: The camp of Praetorium (Mehadia) in late Roman times . Pontica 40 (2007), p. 339, ( digitized version ).
  18. ^ A b Felix Marcu: The Internal Planning of Roman Forts of Dacia . (= Bibliotheca Mvsei Napocensis XXX), Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca 2009, ISBN 978-606-543-058-7 , pp. 142f.
  19. ↑ Vevillatio Daciarum: CIL 03, 01633, 19 .
  20. ^ Cohors I Ubiorum: CIL 03, 01571 .
  21. ^ According to the Clauss-Slaby epigraphic database .
  22. ↑ a b Nicolae Gudea: The Dacian Limes. Materials on its story. In: Yearbook of the Römisch Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz. 44, 2, 1997, p. 32, ( digitized version ).
  23. ^ According to Gudea (1997) south.
  24. ^ Ovidiu Ţentea and Britta Burkhardt: Baths on the Frontiers of Roman Dacia / Băile de pe frontierele Daciei romane. Bucharest 2017, p. 15f.
  25. ↑ Institutul de Arheologie și Istoria Artei , official website of the Institutul de Arheologie și Istoria Artei (Romanian), accessed on February 22, 2019.
  26. ↑ List of historical monuments on the website of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage