Fort Seckmauern

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Fort Seckmauern
limes ORL 46b ( RLK )
Route (RLK) ORL route 10
Neckar-Odenwald-Limes
Odenwald line
Dating (occupancy) trajanic
up to max. 138 AD
Type Numerus fort
unit unknown number
size 0.6 ha
Construction Wood-earth wall
State of preservation hardly any traces
place Lützelbach - Seck walls
Geographical location 49 ° 47 '56.5 "  N , 9 ° 7' 2.5"  E
height 278  m above sea level NHN
Previous ORL 36 Fort Wörth (east)
Subsequently ORL 46 Fort Lützelbach (southwest)

The Seckmauern fort was a Roman numerus fort that belonged to the older Odenwald line of the Neckar-Odenwald-Limes .

location

Location of the fort (1901)
Fort floor plan
(excavation 1901)
Profiles of the fort trenches
(excavation 1901)
View above (northwest) the village of Seckmauern in the Main Valley near Wörth and Erlenbach. The Odenwald Limes runs on the wooded ridge in the foreground, at the eastern foothills of which (in the picture on the right) was the Seckmauern Fort.
Old identification board in the middle of the fort area

Today's ground monument is named after Seckmauern , a district of the municipality of Lützelbach in the Odenwald district in Hesse . The fort is located very close to this town, but not in its area, but about 200 to 300 meters beyond the Bavarian border in the area of ​​the city of Wörth am Main in the Miltenberg district .

The fort is located a good kilometer north of the center of Seckmauern on a wooded ridge east of the upper end of the “Pfitschengraben”, a gorge-like deep forest valley that creates a direct connection to the Main. Fort Seckmauern is the northernmost secured point of the older Limes line in the Odenwald.

Nowadays the fort is only perceptible to the trained eye as a weak plateau in the area. The antique heaps of rubble that can be found in the immediate vicinity and the individual stones lying around, on the other hand, belong to three post-castle buildings of a villa rustica west of the military camp.

Research history

The Seckmauern Fort was discovered in 1901 by Eduard Anthes , the route commissioner of the Reichs-Limeskommission (RLK), when he was looking for the northern end of the Odenwald Limes or its connection to the Main line of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes . Although the first investigations had already been carried out in the 1870s and 1880s in the area known as the "Moist Wall", in which one had suspected a desertion , these had remained rather unsuccessful and also insufficiently documented. The archaeological excavations of the commission finally brought to light a wood and earth fort with half-timbered buildings in the interior, which, however, could only be partially uncovered, identified and documented.

Findings

The military camp was in the shape of a slightly shifted rectangle. The side lengths were 73.75 m on the Praetorial Front , 70 m on the Dekuman Front and 84.80 m each on the flanks. It thus covered an area of ​​around 6000 m². The fortification was a pure earthwork , only earth, turf and wood were used to fortify it . A pointed ditch served as an approach obstacle, the average width of which was 7.20 m and its depth varied between 2.00 m and 2.67 m. In front of the Porta Praetoria (main gate) the moat was interrupted for a length of nine meters, in front of the Porta Decumana (rear gate) for a length of four meters. On the inside of the ditch, after a berm about a meter wide, the wooden palisade followed . Finally, behind this was an earth wall five to six meters wide. No towers could be found at the rounded corners of the fence. The fort had a total of four gates and its praetorial front was oriented to the south, towards the Limes, which passed the camp about 250 m away. At the gates flanking watchtowers or gate structures are suspected. In the rear part of the camp a few traces of contubernia could still be found, the more detailed examination and documentation of which, however, had to be omitted due to the time pressure under which the excavation of the commission took place.

A 12.6 m long half-timbered building discovered in the middle of the fort did not belong to the camp, but to a Villa Rustica, which was only built on the site in the second half of the 2nd century and was inhabited until the 3rd century . The same applies to the stone buildings about 100 meters west and northeast of the fort. The latter is the villa's bathing building, which consists of five rooms, was built in the block type and heated from just one praefurnium .

history

The fort was built in the Trajan period and offered space for a numerus , an auxiliary troop unit of around 160 men. Nothing is known about the unit. The camp must have been abandoned as early as the Hadrianic period (117 to 138), as the Limes palisade built in this epoch runs right through the camp. It is possible that the Seckmauern fort was replaced by the Wörth fort .

Almost nothing of the fort itself can be seen in the area, but the remains of the post-fort period Villa Rustica stand out from the surroundings as mounds of earth. According to the report by Ernst Fabricius , an aureus Vespasian was found in the remains of the terrace of the Villa Rustica "Feuchte Mauer" .

Limes course between the castles Seckmauern and Lützelbach

A few hundred meters southwest of the Seckmauern Fort, the course of the Limes crosses today's border between Bavaria and Hesse. Just behind it is the first archaeologically proven watchtower of the Odenwald Limes (Wp 10/5), of which nothing can be seen today. From there, the Limes gently curves in a south-westerly direction through mainly agriculturally used terrain to the Lützelbach Castle. In total, the difference in altitude between the castles Seckmauern and Lützelbach is around 50 meters. The course of the Limes can still be seen in aerial photographs directly north of the L3259 state road crossing between Wp 10/6 and Wp 10/7.

ORL Name / place Description / condition
ORL 46b Fort Seckmauern see above
Wp 10/4 "By the damp wall" Presumed, but not archaeologically proven, tower site in the immediate vicinity of the Seckmauern fort. If it existed, it could only have been built after the fort was abandoned.
Wp 10/5 "On the Seckmaurer Höhe"
Information board for Wp 10/5 which was in the field on the right in the picture. View in west direction to Wp 10/6. The course of the Limes lay slightly to the right of the path. Line of sight was only guaranteed at tower height.
Wp 10/5 only suggests loose stone piles

Discovered by the Seckmaur pastor Seeger in 1876 and excavated in 1883 by the Reich Limes Commission under Wilhelm Conrady , a square stone tower with a side length of 6.80 m. The excavation results of the commission were confirmed by geophysical surveys in September 2007. The tower was in a very favorable position: from here the view extended far into the Main valley and in the south to Wp 10/11 “Auf der Sellenplatte” . In the past, the place was still recognizable by a flat mound of rubble, today only a few stones lying around loosely can be made out.

Wp 10/6 "In the Hannsbatzenfeld"
Magnetogram of the tower point, below = southeast
(Posselt & Zickgraf prospections)
Location of Wp 10/6 in the area, view to the west along the Limes

For a long time it was only suspected due to the topographical conditions and the average distance between two watchtowers, but not archaeologically proven.

In 2004, the site was discovered during a site inspection and in 2007 it was confirmed by a geophysical survey. The measurements showed the structures of a tower site consisting of two wooden towers and one stone tower.

The two wooden towers were surrounded by circular trenches. The outer diameter of the trench to the southwest was 17.5 m with a trench width between 2.0 m and 2.5 m. The northeastern trench was 18.5 m in diameter and three meters wide. Between the two wooden towers, about 10 meters from the north-eastern and about seven meters from the south-western wooden tower, a stone tower could be made out, the side length of which varied between 5.0 m and 5.5 m. The northern measured wooden tower point showed a dark measuring zone to the south inside, which is defined as an extensive fire trail. Accordingly, this first tower burned down and was replaced by the second wooden tower to the south, before the stone tower was built in the middle. At the second wooden tower there was another semicircular track to the east (see the prospectus photo), which is interpreted as an additional defense in the form of a wooden fence , as it was proven in the excavations at Wp 10/8 "Im Lützelbacher Bannholz" .

Since the tower site is actually in a slightly different location than was originally assumed, namely roughly in the middle between Wp 10/5 and Wp 10/7, the additional watchtowers Wp 10 / 6a and Wp 10 / 6b once postulated appear through the new ones Investigations as unlikely.

Wp 10/7 "In the courtyard" The Reichs-Limeskommission found a square wall foundation with a side length of 5.60 m. Geophysical measurements in 2005 also showed an older wooden tower, which was surrounded by a circular moat, the width of which was 2.0 m to 2.5 m.

Today only a few stones can be seen in the area, which is heavily affected by agricultural use.

ORL 46 Fort Lützelbach

Monument protection

Ceramic finds
(excavation 1901)

The Seckmauern Fort and the adjacent Limes structures are ground monuments according to the Bavarian Monument Protection Act (BayDSchG). Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.

See also

literature

  • Eduard Anthes , J. Jacobs In: The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich . (Eds. Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey ): Department B, Volume 5, Fort No. 46b (1903).
  • Dietwulf Baatz : The alleged Principia of the castles Neckarburken-Ost and Seckmauern . In der .: Fort Hesselbach and other research on the Odenwald Limes. (Limes Research Volume 12). Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3-7861-1059-X , p. 124ff.
  • Dietwulf Baatz: Seck walls. In: The Romans in Hesse. License issue. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , p. 476f.
  • 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. 182.
  • Ernst Fabricius, Felix Hettner, Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich. Department A, Volume 5: Route 10 (The Odenwald Limes from Wörth am Main to Wimpfen am Neckar), 1926, 1935.
  • Margot Klee: The Roman Limes in Hessen. History and sites of the UNESCO World Heritage. Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2232-0 , pp. 183f.
  • Egon Schallmayer : The Odenwald Limes. Along the Roman border between the Main and Neckar. Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2309-5 , pp. 76-79.
  • Egon Schallmayer: The Odenwald Limes. Latest research results. Contributions to the scientific colloquium on March 19, 2010 in Michelstadt . (Saalburg writings, 8). Saalburg Museum, Bad Homburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-931267-07-0
  • Egon Schallmayer: Geophysics at the Odenwald Limes. First insights since the Reich Limes Commission. On the appearance of the Roman guards 10/5, 10/6 and 10/7 at Lützelbach, Odenwaldkreis . In: hessenARCHEOLOGIE. 2007, Stuttgart 2008, p. 88ff.

Web links

Commons : Kastell Seckmauern  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Limeswachturm Wp 10/5  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Limeswachturm Wp 10/6  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Limeswachturm Wp 10/7  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Egon Schallmayer: The Odenwald Limes. Along the Roman border between the Main and Neckar. Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2309-5 , pp. 76f.
  2. ↑ Eduard Anthes and J. Jacobs in the series Der Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roman Empire (Eds. Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey ): Department B, Volume 5, Fort No. 46b (1903)
  3. ↑ a b c Margot Klee: The Roman Limes in Hessen . Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2232-0 , p. 183.
  4. ↑ Egon Schallmayer: The Odenwald Limes. Along the Roman border between the Main and Neckar . Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2309-5 , p. 67.
  5. ↑ Report on the work of the Reichslimeskommission in 1901 in the yearbook of the Imperial German Archaeological Institute , Volume XVII, Berlin 1902, p. 70 yearbook text on www.archive.org
  6. ^ A b Egon Schallmayer: The Odenwald Limes. Along the Roman border between the Main and Neckar. Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2309-5 , p. 77.
  7. ↑ a b c Egon Schallmayer: Geophysics at the Odenwald Limes. First insights since the Reich Limes Commission. On the appearance of the Roman guards 10/5, 10/6 and 10/7 at Lützelbach, Odenwaldkreis . In: hessenARCHEOLOGIE. 2007, Stuttgart 2008, p. 88 ff.
  8. ↑ Egon Schallmayer: The Odenwald Limes. Along the Roman border between the Main and Neckar. Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2309-5 , p. 78
  9. ↑ Egon Schallmayer: The Odenwald Limes. Along the Roman border between the Main and Neckar. Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2309-5 , p. 77 f.
  10. ↑ Egon Schallmayer: The Odenwald Limes. Along the Roman border between the Main and Neckar. Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2309-5 , p. 78 f.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b The conventional starting date of the year 100 (± 5) is based on the results of the excavations that Dietwulf Baatz carried out in the Hesselbach fort between 1964 and 1966 . It is essentially based on the evaluation of the sigillates found in the process (cf. the corresponding section in the Hesselbach article and Dietwulf Baatz: Fort Hesselbach and other research on the Odenwald Limes . (Limes research, volume 12). Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3- 7861-1059-X , pp. 85-96). In more recent literature, the Hesselbach fort as well as the entire Odenwald Limes are initially dated to the period 107/110 resp. 110/115 given preference. This dating approach is not based on new excavation findings, but on a statistical reassessment of the coin finds from all forts of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, which the archaeologist Klaus Kortüm presented for the first time in 1998 and on which some authors of the more recent literature now rely. (cf. Klaus Kortüm: On the dating of the Roman military installations in the Upper German-Raetian Limes area . In: Saalburg-Jahrbuch. 49, 1998. Zabern, Mainz 1998, pp. 5–65, Egon Schallmayer : Der Limes. History of a border . Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-48018-7 , pp. 49–52 as well as pp. 54f. And Ders .: The Odenwald Limes. Along the Roman border between Main and Neckar. Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062- 2309-5 , pp. 24f. And 35)
  2. ↑ The actual beginning of the Odenwald Limes on the Main is still being discussed. For a long time the Wörth Castle was the starting point for this section of the Limes, but the Obernburg Castle has been discussed as an alternative in recent literature as a possible beginning.
  3. ↑ This building was interpreted as a praetorium by the Imperial Limes Commission.
  4. ↑ ORL = numbering of the Limes structures according to the publication of the Reich Limes Commission on the O bergermanisch- R ätischen- L imes
  5. ↑ ORL XY = consecutive numbering of the forts of the ORL
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ Coordinates Wp 10/5: 49 ° 47 '47.3 "  N , 9 ° 6' 30.15"  E
  8. ↑ coordinates Wp 10/6: 49 ° 47 '29.75 "  N , 9 ° 5' 56.12"  O
  9. ↑ coordinates Wp 10/7: 49 ° 47 '10.25 "  N , 9 ° 5' 38.39"  O
  10. ↑ 49 ° 46 '46 "  N , 9 ° 5' 19"  E