Fort St. Pantaleon-Stein

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Fort St. Pantaleon-Stein
Alternative name unknown
limes Limes Noricus
section Route 1
Dating (occupancy) Flavian,
AD 69–205
Type Cohort fort
Construction Stone construction
State of preservation Square system with rounded corners,
part of the W front with an intermediate tower and the SW corner tower proven,
no longer visible above ground
place St. Pantaleon stone
Geographical location 48 ° 13 '10.2 "  N , 14 ° 34' 7.3"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 13 '10.2 "  N , 14 ° 34' 7.3"  E
height 242  m above sea level A.
Previous Legion camp Albing (west)
Subsequently Wallsee Castle (east)
Limes3.png
Findings sketch 2017-2018

The fort St. Pantaleon-Stein was probably the base of a Roman auxiliary troop unit on the Danube Limes in Austria, federal state Lower Austria , district Amstetten, municipality St. Pantaleon-Erla .

It is the only known storage area on the Noric Limes that is not impaired by continued use. For future research, it offers the unique opportunity to take a closer look at the early days of the military presence on the Roman Danube border. Its crew secured an important Danube crossing, so the Roman control of this ford is proven even before the Legio II Italica was stationed in this region.

Research history

Four Roman military installations were discovered in the confluence of the Enns and Aist in 2017 and 2018. The Stein fort and three temporary marching camps in Obersebern in Au an der Donau. The area of ​​the Limes fort is located 7 km east of the Lauriacum legionary camp (Enns) in the Stein district, of which numerous finds - mostly from the 2nd century AD - have long been known to researchers and probe users . The first investigations were carried out in 1906 and 1910 by Colonel Maximilian von Groller-Mildensee , but their findings were incorrectly assigned because they were seen in the context of the nearby Albing legionary camp . A Roman fortress has also been suspected for a long time, but has not yet been located. A research project initiated by Archaeo Publica (Association for the Promotion of Citizen Participation in Archeology) finally led to its discovery in October 2017. All related activities were carried out by the association in cooperation with the Upper Austrian Provincial Museum , the Lower Austrian Provincial Archeology and the Institute for Archeology at the University of Innsbruck . In the course of the preparation of a soil investigation (geophysical prospection with magnetometer and georadar) in Stein, the south-west corner of the defense of a Roman fortification was discovered with the help of a drone. In addition, the vegetation features on the aerial photographs also clearly showed the streets and walls of a civil settlement ( vicus ) belonging to the fort . The geophysical prospecting carried out between 2017 and 2018 finally confirmed the presence of ancient building remains. A second prospecting campaign was carried out due to the earlier crop rotation on September 28 and 29, 2018, during which the remaining inner surface of the warehouse could be scanned using ground penetrating radar and the southern apron could also be geomagnetically examined. In parallel to these investigations in autumn 2017, a first surface survey was carried out in order to gain further information on the intensity of use and the chronology of the square. The research results were published in February 2019. As part of a cooperation project between the above-mentioned institutions and actors, the discovery site in Stein-St. Pantaleon can also be examined in more detail archaeologically.

The spectrum of finds (Karl Kremslehner's private collection) included numerous remains of equipment (coat fibula) of the Roman army, including six military diplomas , the largest find of such written sources on the Noric Limes section. The large number of coins found there also proved a lively settlement activity, which probably lasted from the late 1st century to the Marcomann Wars. A total of over 1,000 antique metal objects and 400 coins were recovered.

development

The fort was probably built at the time of the Flavian emperors in the late 1st century AD. It served to secure the strategically important mouths of the Enns and Aist into the Danube . The region around Enns has been a crossroads of important trade routes since pre-Roman times. The east-west axis formed the Danube, into which two other navigable rivers flowed with the Enns and Traun . Through the Aist valley, there was also a heavily frequented traffic and trade connection to southern Bohemia . The assumptions point in particular to the endangerment of the area south of the Danube due to the possibility of approaching Germanic tribes along the Aist valley via Pregarten and thus confirm the previous strategic-operational assumptions for the military engagement of the Romans on the Danube Limes . Since the Transdanubian Germanic tribes broke through the Limes several times in the Marcomann Wars (166-180) , the legionary fort in Albing and finally the legionary camp in Lauriacum were built in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries , and in the course of this the auxiliary troop fort in Stein was built between 180 and 205 abandoned.

Fort and vicus

It is clearly an auxiliary troop camp in the fortress chain of the Noric Danube Limes , which was neither overprinted in late antiquity nor disrupted by modern developments. A weir ditch and a section of the western camp wall with a square intermediate tower and the southwest corner tower were particularly clear on the ground scans. The fort had the playing card-shaped floor plan with rounded corners, which is typical for mid-imperial fortresses, probably covered an area of ​​2 hectares and thus offered space for a crew of around 500 men. The camp village expanded west of the fort. So far, the remains of streets and long rectangular buildings with several rooms could be observed, which lay north and south of a main road and were oriented either from west to east or from north to south.

See also

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Military diplomas : AE 2009, 00993 , AE 2009, 00994 , AE 2009, 00995
  2. ↑ Web publication Geophysics and Survey Stein - St. Pantaleon, ArchaeoPublica discovers new Roman camp in Stein - St. Pantaleon-Erla.