Oberhochstatt Fort

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Oberhochstatt Fort
limes ORL NN ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Rhaetian Limes,
route 14
Dating (occupancy) by no later than 260 AD
Type Numerus fort
unit unknown number
size a) Wood-earth store: approx. 80 m × approx. 80 m
b) Stone fort: approx. 80 m × approx. 80 m
Construction a) wood-earth
b) stone
State of preservation not visible, geomagnetically recognizable
place Oberhochstatt
Geographical location 49 ° 2 '2.7 "  N , 11 ° 3' 3.9"  E
height 580  m above sea level NHN
Previous Wood-earth fort on the spread in Weißenburg (west)
Fort Ellingen (north-west)
Subsequently Burgus Burgsalach (east)
Upstream Small fort Gündersbach
(north-west)
Small fort Raitenbuch (east- south- east)

The Oberhochstatt Fort is one of the least known former Roman castles that was built near the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes and is located northeast of the village of Oberhochstatt in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district in Bavaria . The fortification, perhaps built for a numerus , went under with the Limes fall in AD 259/260 at the latest .

location

Site plan of the forts and the vicus according to the research results up to 2011.

In 2006, traces of settlement from the Neolithic Age were found east of the stone fort . Further Neolithic prehistoric finds come from the valley slope northwest of the Roman fortifications, a Mesolithic open-air station and settlement remains from prehistory were also found southwest of the fort on the valley slope there. Roman finds also came to light at this point.

The Roman fortifications, which were only suspected for a long time, lay directly on the edge of a slight terrain spur, the steep slope of which descends into the Rohrbach valley, which begins here and which reaches just before the nearby Weißenburg . The occupation of Oberhochstatt Fort was able to see from their garrison location across the Roman Weissenburg across the country to Hesselberg 40 kilometers to the west . With the help of the long suspected signaling station on this mountain, Oberhochstatt could have kept in contact with forts far away such as Ruffenhofen and Dambach . The northwestern fort Theilenhofen was also visible in the area when the visibility was good. Burgus Burgsalach is located around two and a half kilometers to the south-east as the crow flies . Among other things, this topographical situation underlines the strategic value of the Oberhochstatt location.

Today the invisible find area can be found immediately south of the intersection of Indernbuch – Burgsalach near the “Burgstall” corridor. The road leading from this intersection to the northeastern exit of the village of Oberhochstatt cuts through the fort area, the slope immediately northwest of this road has slipped since antiquity, which largely destroyed the fortification.

Research history

The name of the corridor "Burgstall" referred Limes research to Oberhochstatt relatively early. But in particular a lost report by the then Oberhochstätter pastor Langheinrich from June 21, 1833 shaped the history of the fort square for almost 200 years. The dignitary reported that the farmer Michael Hemeter had "found among other things large Roman letters on his field in the Burgstaller Flur and sent some to Ansbach" . This dispatch was done through the pastor himself. In addition to the letters, a Roman copper coin with the inscription "Antoninus Augustus" on the obverse and a seated figure with "Salus Augusti S. C." on the reverse was found by Hemeter. The bronze letters that have survived through the Ansbach collection, which could have belonged to a building or honorary inscription, secured the presumption over generations that a stone fort could be found in Oberhochstatt. The archaeologist Barbara Pferdehirt thought of bringing the eight to ten centimeter large letters of this type, with a few exceptions, in connection with similar bronze letter inscriptions from the reign of Emperor Caracallas (211-217), who in 213 - after his victory over the Alamanni - on the Limes was. Letters made of bronze were discovered at the fort sites Schirenhof , Böbingen , Kösching , Pförring , Pfünz , Eining , Faimingen , Steinkirchen , Saalburg and Feldberg . Her colleague Thomas Fischer shared the same idea .

In 1983 the aerial archaeologist Otto Braasch believed to have determined the exact location of the fence. A geophysical investigation by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (BLfD), which was carried out in 2009, made it clear, however, that this was geological structures. This investigation was nevertheless a success, as the fort could now finally be discovered around 170 meters from Oberhochstatt. In order to get an impression of the civil settlement (vicus) surrounding the garrison and to determine its size, the area around the fortification was also developed in 2010 and 2011 by the Institute for Prehistory of the University of Kiel as part of a cooperation with the BLfD extensively investigated geomagnetically, with the focus mainly on the southern area. Surprisingly, the scientists found a wood-earth store in 2011 to the southwest of the stone fort, in continuation of the road leading to Oberhochstatt - also partially intersected by this and damaged by the sloping slope. A new building that has already been erected on the southern area of ​​this complex makes the threatened situation of the archaeological zone clear.

Building history

The geomagnetic prospecting carried out up to 2011 can only be guessed at. Concrete statements and dates will probably only make excavations possible. Perhaps the fort area already belongs to the first phase of the Limes advance into the area north of the Franconian Jura . It would have been founded in the Domitian epoch (81 to 96 AD) at the same time as Weißenburg , Gnotzheim and Unterschwaningen . Much more frequently, however, the thesis was put forward in the past that Oberhochstatt, together with the numerus forts Ellingen (Sablonetum) and Böhming, initially emerged as a wood-earth system. The prospection of 2011 has now probably confirmed this scenario with the around 80 × 80 meter fortification. Such a foundation could be estimated for Ellingen around 120 AD, when the Limes in Raetia was brought on its final line. Quintus Spicius Cerialis , who as the Rhaetian governor built the Böhming and Sablonetum castles in stone in 181 and 182 , could be responsible for the same construction work in Oberhochstatt.

Troop

The department assigned to Oberhochstatt, whose name was unknown, was probably a numerus (Eng. "Unit"). These units belonged to the Roman auxiliary forces, but were not as standardized as the auxilia , which were already an integral part of the Roman army in the founding days of the Numbers . The numbers were created at the end of the 1st century when the first Limes routes were established. The need for smaller units for border surveillance grew enormously, which also had financial consequences for the empire. For example, young locals were recruited regionally and assigned to newly established locations with lower pay and less strict standards. The Numbers were like the Auxilia named after their original ethnic origin and have not received seemingly at discharge Roman citizenship.

Vicus and fire burial ground

The alleged fort village may have been recorded, at least in part, between 2010 and 2011, mainly south of the stone fort. Apparently, however, there were civil buildings north of the garrison as well. Without excavations, it is difficult to interpret the geomagnetic inventory, as the buildings and their arrangement do not correspond to the scheme adopted by scientists and known from many types of garrison. The typical elongated strip houses that accompanied the arteries of the forts are completely missing . In fact, in Oberhochstatt there is no clear orientation of the buildings at all. Some of the recognizable wooden houses, which are reminiscent of Celtic constructions, overlap, i.e. they come from different construction phases. There are single-aisle eight-post structures as well as at least three-aisle types with over 20 posts. Due to the complete lack of Celtic finds, there is still no evidence of a pre-Roman period of the buildings. The buildings may also come from the pioneering phase when the first wood-earth warehouse was built.

Instead, a very specific Roman finding was found in 2006 only a little further to the east than the area examined up to 2011. This year a biogas plant was built there . Due to the state of research at the time, the building was at best ascribed to the outskirts of the fort vicus and interpreted as Villa Rustica . It is possible, however, that the beginning of the actual camp village can only be expected in this zone.

The Roman fire grave field is believed to be in the center of Oberhochstatt around the listed former village inn.

Limes wall

The Limes wall, made of largely unworked stones, with a foundation of mostly inclined stones and one of the wall projections near the road from Weißenburg to Burgsalach in 1894

The investigations of the Limes wall carried out in 1894 by the responsible route commissioner of the Reich Limes Commission, Wilhelm Kohl (1848–1898), brought only a little west of the Limes-cutting road from Oberhochstatt to Indernbuch on a 40-meter-long dug section on the one facing the Roman Empire Side four rectangular wall projections standing in association with the wall, which were at a clear distance of 11.6, 12.35 and 11.55 meters from one another. All projections were 0.40 meters deep and between 0.65 and 0.70 meters wide and, according to the Limes Wall, between 0.60 and 0.70 meters high. Not far from the road from Weißenburg to Burgsalach, two further wall projections were found at two other investigated locations. Here the clear distance was 17.23 and 8.90 meters. The total of four protrusions in this investigation section were between 0.30 and 0.40 meters deep and between 0.70 and 0.80 meters wide. The wall heights obtained was 0.70 meters each.

Monument protection

The Oberhochstatt fort and the facilities mentioned have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage as a section of the Upper German-Rhaetian Limes since 2005 . In addition, they are protected as registered ground monuments within the meaning of the Bavarian Monument Protection Act (BayDSchG) . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to authorization, accidental finds must be reported to the monument authorities.

See also

literature

  • Dietwulf Baatz : The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube . 4th edition, Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-786-12347-0 , p. 299.
  • Jörg Faßbinder, Roland Linck, Lena Kühne: Next to the track - the Oberhochstatt numerus fort. In: The Archaeological Year in Bavaria 2009. Stuttgart 2010, pp. 90–92.
  • Eveline Grönke: News from the Roman numerus fort in Oberhochstatt, city of Weißenburg, district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen. In: Contributions to archeology in Middle Franconia. Volume 5, Dr. Faustus, Büchenbach 1999, p. 181 ff.
  • Carsten Mischka : An unknown fort and an unusual vicus in Oberhochstatt . In: Der Limes 1, 2012 / Issue 1. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission. Pp. 4-7. ( online pdf )
  • Johann Schrenk, Werner Mühlhäußer: Land on the Limes. In the footsteps of the Romans in the Hesselberg - Gunzenhausen - Weißenburg region. Schrenk, Gunzenhausen 2009, ISBN 978-3-924270-57-5 , p. 115.
  • Günter Ulbert , Thomas Fischer : The Limes in Bavaria. Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0-351-2 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Carsten Mischka : An unknown fort and an unusual 'vicus' in Oberhochstatt. In: The Limes. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission. Volume 6, 2012, Issue 1, pp. 4–7; here: p. 7 ( PDF , accessed on September 6, 2012).
  2. ↑ a b c Carsten Mischka: An unknown fort and an unusual 'vicus' in Oberhochstatt. In: The Limes. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission. Volume 6, 2012, Issue 1, pp. 4–7; here: p. 4 ( PDF , accessed on September 6, 2012).
  3. ^ Günter Ulbert , Thomas Fischer : The Limes in Bavaria. Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0-351-2 , p. 63.
  4. ^ Oscar von Sarwey, Felix Hettner, Ernst Fabricius, Friedrich Leonhard: The Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes of the Roman Empire. Vol. 7, published by O. Petters, 1927. p. 89.
  5. ↑ Year Report of the Historical Society in Rezat circle. Vol. 4, 1835, p. 3.
  6. ↑ Markus Scholz : Ceramics and history of the Kapersburg fort - an inventory. In: Saalburg yearbook. 52/53, 2002/2003, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2003, ISBN 978-3-8053-3636-9 , p. 55.
  7. ^ Günter Ulbert, Thomas Fischer: The Limes in Bavaria. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0-351-2 .
  8. ↑ Werner Zanier : The Roman fort Ellingen (= Limes research. Volume 23). Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-805312644 , p. 12.
  9. ↑ wood-ground storage Oberhochstatt at 49 ° 1 '57.34 "  N , 11 ° 3' 3.47"  O .
  10. ↑ Werner Zanier: The Roman fort Ellingen (= Limes research. Volume 23). Zabern, Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-8053-1264-4 , p. 171.
  11. ^ Anne Johnson (German adaptation by Dietwulf Baatz ): Römische Kastelle . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1987, ISBN 3-8053-0868-X , pp. 36-37.
  12. ↑ Carsten Mischka: An unknown fort and an unusual 'vicus' in Oberhochstatt. In: The Limes. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission. Volume 6, 2012, Issue 1, pp. 4–7; here: pp. 5–7 ( PDF , accessed on September 6, 2012).
  13. ↑ biogas plant Oberhochstatt at 49 ° 1 '55.9 "  N , 11 ° 3' 17.29"  O .
  14. ↑ Former inn Oberhochstatt at 49 ° 1 '48.76 "  N , 11 ° 2' 54.33"  O .
  15. ^ Wilhelm Kohl : Middle Franconia. The Limes from Ellingen to Kaldorf . In: Limesblatt. Notices from the route commissioners to the Reichslimeskommission . No. 20 (September 30, 1896). Sp. 402-408; here: col. 403–404.