Fort Oberdorf
| Fort Oberdorf | |
|---|---|
| Alternative name | Opia or Opie |
| limes | ORL 67b ( RLK ) |
| Route (RLK) | Alblimes |
| Dating (occupancy) |
Domitian (or early Trajan ) up to a maximum of the Antonine period Vicus up to the 3rd century |
| Type | Cohort fort |
| unit | unknown cohort |
| size | approx. 153 × 118 × 160 × 137 m (= approx. 1.7 ha) |
| Construction | Wood and earth fort |
| State of preservation | overbuilt |
| place | Bopfingen -Oberdorf |
| Geographical location | 48 ° 52 '7 " N , 10 ° 20' 30" E |
| Previous | ORL 66b Fort Heidenheim (southwest) |
| Subsequently | ORL 68a Munningen Castle (east) |
The Oberdorf fort , the ancient Opia or Opie , is a Roman border fort in the Alblimes . The complex built during the principality is located with the associated fort vicus as a ground monument in a largely built-up area of Oberdorf am Ipf , a district of the city of Bopfingen in the eastern Alb district of Baden-Württemberg .
location
The Fort Opia is located on the north-western outskirts of Oberdorf under the modern buildings. It is located in the “Oberer Lehen” corridor, north of the cemetery of the Christ-Königkirche. Its center is roughly where the “Panoramastraße” joins the “Vohbühlweg”.
Topographically, it is located on a sloping ridge between the Eger and Sechta rivers , which also ensured the water supply to the fort. From the elevated position, the river valleys can be overlooked over a length of around four kilometers.
In ancient times three, later four Roman roads met here . Alblimesstraße led up from Aquileia ( Heidenheim ad B. ), a good 28 kilometers away . Another road came from Ponione ( Faimingen ) on the Danube . The third connection led to the northeast to the Munningen fort . A fourth street was only built after the completion of the Raetian Limes on the line Fort Lorch - Fort Gunzenhausen , it connected Opia with Fort Buch .
Research history
A Roman military presence in the Bopfingen area was suspected as early as the 19th century. The speculations revolved primarily around the mountain Ipf and the former moated castle in Bopfingen. It was only Friedrich Hertlein who considered the Oberdorf area after some Roman finds were made in cemeteries here in 1910. During a first archaeological excavation in 1912, he immediately succeeded in proving the fort ditches. In 1913 the excavations continued mainly in the interior of the fort. The comprehensive report of both excavation campaigns was published in 1915 in the series of publications of the Reich Limes Commission .
It was not until 1974 that the Baden-Württemberg State Monuments Office used the last opportunity to conduct a final investigation, after the fort area had been almost completely built over between 1968 and 1974 and the final building was now threatened. The fort's fortifications were once again exposed and examined over a length of around 22 meters.
The ancient name "Opia" or "Opie", which is recorded on the Tabula Peutingeriana and is in all probability identical to the Roman settlement in Oberdorf, probably refers to the mountain Ipf, according to linguistic studies.
Fort
The findings were greatly damaged in part by quarrying even before the first excavations. The fort covers a trapezoidal area, the south and west sides of which are at right angles to each other. The lengths are about 153 m on the west side, about 118 m on the northern front, about 160 m on the eastern side and about 137 m in the south. This results in a total area of around 1.7 ha including the fencing, corresponding to an inner usable area of 1.4 ha. The four-gate military camp consisted of a single defensive trench with a width of 7.5 to 8.5 m and a depth of 2 , 5 to 2.9 m. The orientation of the camp is not clear, but it was probably oriented to the south.
The fortification had only a single construction phase using wood and earth technology. The outside of the wood-earth wall was faced with tufa-lime blocks, inside it was stabilized with piled turf or wooden cladding. The gates were flanked by wooden defensive towers, which could be detected in a total of three gates. Traces of two corner towers could also be found at the rounded corners of the fence.
Little is known of the interior of the fort. Essentially only fragments of the screed floors of two buildings and a pit with a volume of 8 m³ could be identified. The backfilling of the pit could be dated to Domitian times thanks to a stamped sigil plate . The interior development, like the defense, was probably only made of wood.
The fort was probably built in the last two decades of the 1st century AD. A more precise dating is currently hardly possible, although the potter's stamp suggests that the camp existed in Domitian times. With the final expansion of the Raetian Limes , the fortification probably lost its importance at the beginning of the second half of the 2nd century. It was abandoned and the area was included in the vicus.
Vicus
Similar to the fort, there is also a lack of reliable information for the vicus , the civilian settlement, which is located near almost every Roman military camp, in order to make precise statements about its structure. The found material spreads north and south of the camp over a length of 0.5 km each. Part of the southern vicus can still be seen well on aerial photographs of an agricultural area between Hertleinweg and Mühlenweg. On the photos you can see the course of the Roman street and the contours of stone striped houses , the narrow sides of which are aligned at right angles to the street. In contrast to the fort, the vicus also has a stone construction phase. Houses heated by means of a hypocaust system could also be detected. After the troops withdrew, the abandoned fort area was integrated into the vicus. Whether the settlement, like the one in Heidenheim and Munningen, was affected by the Marcomann Wars cannot be answered. The end of the settlement can only roughly be narrowed down to the first half of the 3rd century.
Troop
Should Dietwulf Baatz and Dieter Planck's assumption be correct that the crew of Opia had been moved to the Buch fort, which was built around 130/140 AD, a partially mounted unit would have to be assumed in Oberdorf.
Monument protection
The Bodendenkmal Kastell Oberdorf is protected as a registered cultural monument within the meaning of the Monument Protection Act of the State of Baden-Württemberg (DSchG) . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.
See also
literature
- Jörg Heiligmann : The Oberdorf fort, "Opia", municipality of Bopfingen (Ostalbkreis). In: Ders .: The Alb Limes. A contribution to the history of the Roman occupation of southwest Germany. Theiss, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8062-0814-X , p. 122ff.
- Jörg Heiligmann: The "Alb-Limes": a contribution to the history of Roman occupation. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 380620814X .
- Friedrich Hertlein : The history of the occupation of the Roman Württemberg. (Friedrich Hertlein, Oscar Paret , Peter Goessler : The Romans in Württemberg. Part 1). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1928, pp. 43, 80, 95, 99.
- Friedrich Hertlein, Peter Goessler: The streets and fortifications of the Roman Württemberg. (Friedrich Hertlein, Oscar Paret, Peter Goessler: The Romans in Württemberg. Part 2). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1930, pp. 223f., 248, 250, 2ff., 256, 272, 284.
- Friedrich Hertlein: Fort Opie - Oberdorf near Bopfingen. In: Festschrift to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Royal Collection of Antiquities in Stuttgart. Stuttgart 1912.
- Oscar Paret: The Settlements of Roman Wuerttemberg. (Friedrich Hertlein, Oscar Paret, Peter Goessler: The Romans in Württemberg. Part 3). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1932, pp. 23, 231, 353.
- Dieter Planck : Bopfingen-Oberdorf / Ipf. Fort. In: Dieter Planck (Ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg. Theiss, Stuttgart, 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1555-3 , p. 48f.
- Dieter Planck: Bopfingen-Oberdorf / Ipf. Fort. In: Philipp Filtzinger, Dieter Planck and Bernhard Cämmerer (eds.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg. 3rd edition, Theiss, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-8062-0287-7 , pp. 253f.
Excavation report of the Reich Limes Commission:
- Friedrich Hertlein in the series The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roman Empire (eds. Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey ): Department B, Volume 6, Fort No. 67b (1915).
Remarks
- ↑ a b Stamp of the South Gallic potter FLAVIVS GERMANVS on a smooth sigillata. According to Jörg Heiligmann: The "Alb-Limes": a contribution to the history of Roman occupation . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 380620814X , p. 130 as well as List 10, No. 4 and Plate 154, Fig. 16.
- ^ Friedrich Hertlein: Fort Opie - Oberdorf near Bopfingen . In: Festschrift to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Royal Collection of Antiquities in Stuttgart in 1912 . DVA, Stuttgart 1912. pp. 65ff.
- ^ Friedrich Hertlein: Fort Opie - Oberdorf near Bopfingen. Dig from March 26th to April 1st . In: Find reports from Swabia, 21 . Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 1913. P. 61ff.
- ↑ All dimensions are to be considered with a certain reservation due to the disturbances.
- ↑ At 48 ° 52 '0 " N , 10 ° 20' 24.5" O .
- ^ Jörg Heiligmann: The "Alb-Limes": a contribution to the history of Roman occupation . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 380620814X , Fig. 60.
- ↑ Dietwulf Baatz: The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube . Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3786117012 . P. 260
- ↑ Dieter Planck: New research on the Upper Germanic and Raetian Limes . In: Hildegard Temporini (ed.): The rise and fall of the Roman world . Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3110066904 , p. 445.
- ^ Jörg Heiligmann: The "Alb-Limes": a contribution to the history of Roman occupation . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 380620814X . P. 198.