Unterschwaningen Castle

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Unterschwaningen Castle
limes ORL –– ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Rhaetian Limes,
route 13
Dating (occupancy) around 90 AD
shortly before, around or after the middle of the 2nd century (161/176 AD)
Type Numerus fort
unit number
size 80 × 85 = 0.7 ha
Construction Wood earth
State of preservation Not visible; used for agriculture; Spitzgraben partially prepared; the corners of the fort are marked by trees
place Unterschwaningen
Geographical location 49 ° 4 '10.3 "  N , 10 ° 37' 20.5"  E
height 441  m above sea level NHN
Previous Ruffenhofen Fort (west)
Subsequently Gnotzheim Fort (southwest)
Backwards Fort Munningen (south-southwest)
Upstream Fort Dambach (northwest)

The fort Unterschwaningen was a Roman military camp that close to the Rhaetian Limes, a part of the World Heritage Site collected Upper German-Rhaetian Limes was built, and today unüberbaut, but not visible under the agricultural plains of the community Unterschwaningen in Ansbach in Bavaria is .

Unterschwaningen according to the corrected findings plan of the Reich Limes Commission and the magnetometer scan published in 2010

location

The fort, 4.8 kilometers behind the Limes, was founded on a small hill slope gently sloping to the north, west and south in a hilly landscape. At the tip of this spur, the waters of the Arrabach coming from the north-east collide with the larger Mühlbach coming from the north-west and flow south to the Wörnitz . From the square you can see the Spielberg in a south-easterly direction , at the foot of which the important Roman pass road emerged from the northern end point of the Franconian Jura . This road came from the Munningen Fort in the Ries basin , ran over the pass and after around 2.5 kilometers in a north-easterly direction passed Gnotzheim Fort . As it continued to the north, the route reached an important Altmühlfurt at the Gunzenhausen border fort . There were Limes crossings into Free Germania at the Schloßbuck . To the west, from the Unterschwaningen fort, you can make out the striking Hesselberg , stretching west-east , on whose southern flank the Wörnitz flows past. Research suspects a Roman signal station on this mountain. In front of the western tip of the Hesselberg, where the Wörnitz makes an almost right-angled bend to the southwest and at the same time absorbs the waters of the Sulzach , the Ruffenhofen fort is located nearby . Marching in a north-westerly direction, the soldiers of the Unterschwaningen fort were able to reach the Limes and the Dambach numerus fort located in a poorly visible hemisphere directly at the border facilities of the Limes. A post on the Hesselberg would have been the best option for telecommunication between Dambach and Unterschwaningen and with the Ruffenhofen fort. The easily accessible Gnotzheim Castle was certainly responsible for Unterschwaningen. Today's village of Unterschwaningen is about one kilometer north of the facility in a depression. The underground in the fort area has remained relatively moist since ancient times.

Research history

The small fortification was discovered in 1929 in the Rueth corridor (also Ruth) by the former route commissioner of the Reich Limes Commission (RLK) Heinrich Eidam (1849-1934) when he was examining Roman roads. In the same year he began the partial investigation of his discovery. As early as autumn 1926, there were wall remains, hypocaust and roof tiles as well as fragments of sigillates , which at that time were assigned to a Villa Rustica .

It was not until the early 21st century that research in the form of geophysical prospecting by Jörg Faßbinder from the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation took place again at the fort , which was published in 2010. Still outstanding new excavations to clarify open questions were considered important decades ago.

In the past, the importance of the Unterschwaningen fort lay in particular in its early position, which gives many insights into the construction of such a small complex in the late 1st century. Due to the undeveloped condition, there are only a few places in the Rhaetian Limesinland where such a fortification can be studied relatively undisturbed, especially since the damp subsoil has preserved both wood and other organic materials very well.

Building history

Due to the abundance of small finds, it is possible to date the single-phase fort founding for the foundation. Research assumes that the wood-earth fortification, including the surrounding earth wall, 80 × 87 meters (= 0.7 hectares), was built around 90 AD during the reign of Emperor Domitian (81–96 AD). was built at the same time as the Gnotzheim fort. As far as we know today, both facilities would have been the first in the area north of the Franconian Jura alongside the Weissenburg fort in the east . The end dating of the fortification is more problematic. According to the archaeologist Dietwulf Baatz , Unterschwaningen may already have been abandoned in 144 AD, when Gnotzheim was built in stone, according to a datable building inscription. The quartered by Baatz in Unterschwaningen number should magnified at this time already in arrears, younger fort Dambach have been quartered. Due to the datable find material such as the final coin belonging to the years AD 161/176, however, the scenario set up by Baatz remains uncertain.

Enclosure

With its praetorial front (front), Unterschwaningen showed the slope down to the Arrabach to the southeast. Eidam found an earth ramp stiffened by wood on the outside as a wall, which was interrupted by the two gates in the north-west and south-east. A wooden tower was positioned in each of the rounded corners of the warehouse. The excavator was able to identify a pointed ditch as an obstacle to the approach, which was suspended at the two single-lane driveways in the north and south. Two gates, each flanked by two wooden towers, secured these entrances. The width of this circumferential trench varied as did its depth. Measured from trench bottom to trench bottom, the fortification had a total area of ​​85 × 92 meters.

Interior development

The also wooden principia , the staff and administration building of the camp, were discovered on the main axis between the two gates. Inside this principia traces of various wooden buildings, drainage ditches and pits could be observed. The geomagnetic investigation revealed, among other things, an elongated crew barracks between the Principia and the western fence. The area in the south-west corner, which was already very humid in antiquity, and the bathroom were drained through a drainage channel that led from the south end of this barrack to the south gate. Immediately at the southern end of the barrack was the only 5.5 meter wide rectangular stone building of the camp, which, like the barrack, was aligned in a north-south direction. The building was a bath, the familiar appearance of which was supplemented by geomagnetic prospection.

Post-pastoral use

The findings of the baths made by Eidam through excavations in 1929 deviate significantly from the geophysical results (see drawing above). In particular, the southern boiler room, characterized by its characteristic appearance, remained invisible during the magnetometer scan.

Baatz assumed that the garrison - like Munningen - only existed for a short time. After the abandonment of Unterschwaningen, in his opinion, a villa rustica, largely made of wood, was built within the preserved walls . With a view to the historical parallels, the ancient historian Kurt Stade (1899–1971) was able to prove in his processing of the Unterschwaninger relief sigillata that the garrisons of Unterschwaningen and Munningen were founded at the same time. For the end of both fortifications, the archaeologist Barbara Pferdehirt, after looking through the sigillates , saw it as provable that Unterschwaningen existed a little longer than Munningen. After studying the historical excavation documentation of Unterschwaningen, Baatz reckoned that a number of post holes did not belong to the fort, but to the context of the presumed villa. The only 10.6 x 5.5 meter stone building, a bath, that was slightly turned from the axis of the fort, was probably built in the course of the villa. It was located near the southwest corner tower and its length was oriented in a northerly direction. All recent finds from this fort place after the middle of the 2nd century were in the past more likely to belong to this villa rustica . The stone building had three rooms connected one behind the other, of which at least two could be heated according to Eidam's investigation. The heating system ( Praefurnium ) with the hot water boilers (Vasa) was in the south. As usual, the adjoining room to the north that required the greatest heat would have been the warm water bath ( caldarium ) , followed by the leaf bath ( tepidarium ) . All recent finds from this fort place after the middle of the 2nd century probably belonged to this Villa Rustica . The fort area was finally destroyed in the course of a devastating fire disaster.

number

The detachment assigned to Unterschwaningen, whose name was unknown, was most likely a 100 to 200 strong number (Eng. "Unit"), which was most likely under the Gnotzheim fort . These units belonged to the Roman auxiliary troops, 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 apparently have not received the Roman citizenship upon discharge.

Finds

A terra sigillata shard decorated in relief comes from the moat of the fort, probably from the pottery of the early Rheinzabern producer Ianu I. His goods are also known from the fort places Pfünz and Buch . Overall, however, only very small amounts of sigillates were recovered from this site. The idea advocated by the prehistorian Rolf Nierhaus that the final coins from the filling of the ditch ended "around or shortly after 150 AD" must be reconsidered in a more recent light (final coin 161/176 AD; see above). A preserved strap end , which was part of a soldier's cingulum militare , is said to come from the final phase of the fort "around 150" .

Monument protection

The Unterschwaningen fort as a section of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2005 . In addition, this ground monument is protected as a registered cultural monument within the meaning of 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

  • Dietwulf Baatz : The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube . 4th edition, Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2347-0 , pp. 282 f.
  • Wolfgang Czysz , Lothar Bakker : The Romans in Bavaria . Theiss, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1058-6 .
  • Jörg Faßbinder: From Eining to Ruffenhofen. On the way to a magnetogram atlas of the Raetian Limes fort - results of the geophysical prospection in Bavaria. In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): Perspektiven der Limesforschung. 5th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2465-8 , (= contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 5), pp. 89-103; here: pp. 94–92.
  • Thomas Fischer , Erika Riedmeier Fischer: The Roman Limes in Bavaria . Pustet, Regensburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-7917-2120-0 .
  • Thomas Fischer: forts Ruffenhofen, Dambach, Unterschwaningen, Gnotzheim, Gunzenhausen, Theilenhofen, Böhming, Pfünz, Eining . In: Jochen Garbsch (Ed.): The Roman Limes in Bavaria. 100 years of Limes research in Bavaria . (=  Exhibition catalogs of the Prehistoric State Collection 22), 1992, p. 37 ff .; here pp. 40–41.
  • Walter E. Keller, Walter Grabert: The Romans on the Limes . 5th edition, Keller, Treuchtlingen 1998, ISBN 3-924828-49-0 .
  • 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 , in particular pp. 80-85.
  • Hermann Thoma: A new Roman road between the castles Gnotzheim and Unterschwaningen, Ldkr. Ansbach, Middle Franconia. In: Bayerische Prognistor Blätter 50 (1985), pp. 487-503.
  • Günter Ulbert , Thomas Fischer: The Limes in Bavaria . Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0-351-2 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Günter Ulbert, Thomas Fischer : The Limes in Bavaria . Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0-351-2 . P. 63.
  2. ↑ Dambach Fort at 49 ° 6 ′ 3.37 ″  N , 10 ° 34 ′ 49.89 ″  E
  3. ↑ Dietwulf Baatz: Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments. Volume 41. Nördlingen, Bopfingen, Oettingen, Harburg. Part 2: excursions . Guide to prehistoric and prehistoric monuments. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1979. ISBN 3-8053-0310-6 . P. 257.
  4. ↑ a b Jörg Faßbinder : From Eining to Ruffenhofen. On the way to a magnetogram atlas of the Raetian Limes fort - results of the geophysical prospection in Bavaria. In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): Perspektiven der Limesforschung. 5th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2465-8 , (= contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 5), pp. 89-103; here: p. 94.
  5. ^ Jörg Faßbinder: From Eining to Ruffenhofen. On the way to a magnetogram atlas of the Raetian Limes fort - results of the geophysical prospection in Bavaria. In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): Perspektiven der Limesforschung. 5th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2465-8 , (= contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 5), pp. 89-103; here: p. 102.
  6. ↑ a b c d Günter Ulbert, Thomas Fischer: The Limes in Bavaria . Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0-351-2 . P. 66.
  7. ^ The building inscription at ubi-erat-lupa.org , query on April 5, 2013.
  8. ^ Günter Ulbert, Thomas Fischer : The Limes in Bavaria . Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0-351-2 . P. 64.
  9. ↑ Werner Zanier , Angela von den Driesch , Corinna Liesau: The Roman fort Ellingen. von Zabern, Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-8053-1264-4 , p. 132.
  10. ^ Günter Ulbert, Thomas Fischer : The Limes in Bavaria . Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0-351-2 . P. 65.
  11. ↑ Barbara Pferdehirt : The Roman occupation of Germania and Rhaetia from the time of Tiberius to the death of Trajan. Investigations into the chronology of southern Gaulish relief sigillata. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum, 33, 1986, pp. 221–320; here: p. 291.
  12. ↑ Barbara Pferdehirt: The Roman occupation of Germania and Rhaetia from the time of Tiberius to the death of Trajan. Investigations into the chronology of southern Gaulish relief sigillata. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum, 33, 1986, pp. 221–320; here: p. 290.
  13. ↑ Barbara Pferdehirt: The Roman occupation of Germania and Rhaetia from the time of Tiberius to the death of Trajan. Investigations into the chronology of southern Gaulish relief sigillata. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum, 33, 1986, pp. 221–320; here: p. 313.
  14. ↑ Thomas Fischer, Erika Riedmeier Fischer: The Roman Limes in Bavaria . Pustet, Regensburg 2008. ISBN 978-3-7917-2120-0 . P. 92.
  15. ^ Jörg Faßbinder: From Eining to Ruffenhofen. On the way to a magnetogram atlas of the Raetian Limes fort - results of the geophysical prospection in Bavaria. In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): Perspektiven der Limesforschung. 5th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2465-8 , (= contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 5), pp. 89-103; here: p. 96.
  16. ^ Anne Johnson (German adaptation by Dietwulf Baatz ): Römische Kastelle . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1987, ISBN 3-8053-0868-X , pp. 36-37.
  17. ↑ Allard Wijnand Mees: Organizational forms of Roman pottery manufacturers using the example of Arezzo and Rheinzabern. Taking into account papyri, inscriptions and legal sources, Volume 2, Habelt, Bonn 2002. ISBN 3884670735 . P. 76.
  18. ↑ Barbara horse shepherd: The ceramics of the castle Holzhausen . Mann, Berlin 1976. ISBN 3-7861-1070-0 ( Limes research 16 ). P. 70.
  19. ^ Rolf Nierhaus : The Roman fire and body grave field "Auf der Steig" in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt. The excavations in 1955. Silberburg, Stuttgart 1959. P. 56.
  20. ↑ Jürgen Oldenstein : To equip Roman auxiliary units. Studies on fittings and ornaments on the equipment of the Roman auxiliary units of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes area from the second and third centuries AD. In: Reports of the Roman-Germanic Commission 57, 1976, pp. 49–284; here: p. 146.