Small fort Ferbach

Small fort Ferbach
limes	ORL NN ( RLK )
Route (RLK)	Upper German Limes , ; route 1 (Rhine-Lahn)
Dating (occupancy)	Antonine (?) to 259/260 AD (?)
Type	Small fort
unit	Vexillatio of the Cohors VII Raetorum equitata
size	31.60 m × 21.20 m (= 0.07 ha)
Construction	stone
State of preservation	invisible ground monument
place	Höhr-Grenzhausen
Geographical location	50 ° 25 '49.4 " N , 7 ° 39' 8.2" E Coordinates: 50 ° 25 '49.4 " N , 7 ° 39' 8.2" E
height	190 m above sea level NHN
Previous	Small fort Anhausen (northwest)
Subsequently	Hillscheid small fort (southeast)

Ground monument and notice board (2020)

The small fort Ferbach (in the older literature also with the spelling Kastell Fehrbach occurring) was a Roman fort in the Upper German Limes , which in 2005 achieved the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site . The current soil monument is located on the border on the south-eastern edge of today's town of Höhr-Grenzhausen in the Rhineland-Palatinate Westerwaldkreis . Most of its area is already in the area of the community of Weitersburg in the district of Mayen-Koblenz .

Today the Ferbach fortifications are located in a designated archaeological reserve. Apart from minor deformations caused by the former excavation activities, no traces can be seen above ground after the findings from 1894 were covered with earth again. However, the corners and the gate of the fort have been marked with stakes and an information board indicates the importance of the place.

location

Fort Ferbach in the course of the Limes with the guard posts 1/62 to 1/65 at the time of the investigation by the Reich Limes Commission in 1894/95

In today's townscape and landscape, the small fort Ferbach is located directly next to the Höhr-Grenzhausen sewage treatment plant under a wasteland between Landstrasse 308 (Rheinstrasse) leading from Höhr-Grenzhausen to Vallendar and the left bank of the Ferbach .

Topographically, it is located on a narrow, level terrace that slopes down towards the Ferbach. In terms of traffic geography and strategy, from this point one had control over the valley that the Ferbach forms between the Weitersburger and the Vallendar forest. On the route on which traffic on the L 308 moves today, there was a trade route as early as Roman and pre-Roman times that gradually rose from the Rhine plain towards the Westerwald and crossed the Limes in the area of the Ferbach military post. The control of this route and the border crossing was presumably incumbent on the small garrison.

Research and construction history

The small fort Ferbach was archaeologically excavated and documented in 1894 by the Imperial Limes Commission under the local direction of Otto Dahm .

The fortification was probably built in the Antonine period, possibly around the year 150 AD, and was possibly occupied until the abandonment of the area on the right bank of the Rhine as a result of the Franks attacks until 259/260 AD ( Limesfall ).

It is a stone fort that, with its sides of 31.60 × 21.20 meters, took up an area of over 0.07 hectares. The fort was secured with a 0.80 meter thick wall. In front of the defensive wall was - after a berm only 0.80 meters wide - a 1.80 meters deep and 4.80 meters wide pointed ditch . The wall was not covered with defense towers, and the only gate consisted only of a simple, towerless passage. With this gate, the fort was facing away from the Limes, facing south-west. The gateway itself was also paved with gravel in the investigated area outside the fort.

The interior of the warehouse was dominated by a central stone building consisting of two rooms, which with its sides of 11.50 × 8.50 meters covered an area of 99.25 square meters. Immediately on the inside of the defensive wall, entirely on the north-west wall, and in places on the north-east and south-west walls, remains of simple, wooden crew barracks were found. According to the findings, these had been destroyed by fire.

Terra Sigillata

The most important individual find was a Terra Sigillata shard with the inscription COH VII , which indicates the occupation of the fort. This was the vexillatio ( detachment ) of the Cohors VII Raetorum equitata ("7th partially mounted cohort of Raeter ") stationed in the nearby Koblenz fort Niederberg . The crew probably consisted of two towers (Latin, Singular Turma , "swarm") of 30 riders each under the command of a Decurio .

Limes course between the small fortifications Ferbach and Hillscheid

In the short section between the two fortifications, the Limes and its buildings have been preserved in different states. In places it was completely destroyed, in particular by the mining of the clay minerals and pumice sands that occur in this area , partly it is only visible in aerial photographs , especially on agricultural areas , partly it has become, especially in the more inaccessible, wooded areas, however can also be excellently preserved. The citizens and associations of the communities on whose soil the Limes extends in this section, Höhr-Grenzhausen and Hillscheid , are doing their best to do justice to the significance of the historical relics on their soil by creating hiking trails, setting up information boards and reconstructing the findings and to present them to the public.

Traces of the Limes structures between the small fort Ferbach and the small fort Hillscheid :

ORL	Name / place	Description / condition
KK	Small fort Ferbach	see above
Wp 1/63		Due to the average distance between the towers, a presumed but not proven watchtower not far from the small fort
Wp 1/64		Barely noticeable remains of a stone tower hill on the edge of a former quarry and the site of a wooden tower about 140 meters away that has been completely lost due to the construction of a modern settlement. The rectangular stone tower stood about ten meters from the moat of the Limes. It had sides of 5.40 × 5.10 meters and had walls of different thicknesses. The rear wall facing the demolition edge was made particularly stable with a thickness of 1.10 meters, the side walls were 0.90 meters thick, the front wall was only 0.80 meters thick. The wooden tower was largely covered by the Limes wall. It was surrounded by a four to five meter wide and up to 1.65 meter deep trench. The radius of the entire facility was about 13 meters. Ten meters southwest of the wooden tower and 5.5 meters from the middle of the Limes ditch, a Hallstatt burial with remains of bones and ceramic shards was discovered.
Wp 1/65	"In the Vallendar forest"	Visible rubble mound of a stone tower with an information board. The rectangular tower had sides of 6.60 × 5.90 meters with a masonry thickness of one meter. It was 15.50 meters from the center of the moat and 21.50 meters from the palisade. When the tower was built, the topography was used so skilfully that its gallery had a distant view from Wp 1/60 to Wp 1/71. The post holes of a previous wooden building were found under the foundations of the stone tower. The wooden tower, the dimensions of which are difficult to reconstruct, was surrounded by a three to four meter wide pointed ditch with a remaining depth of up to 1.90 meters, which was preserved at the time of the excavations. Immediately in front of the tower, the Limes was interrupted for a border crossing. The moat was about 14 meters wide and the palisade was provided with a narrow gate. Here was probably the Limes crossing of an older path that climbed from the Rhine plain near Vallendar to the ridges of the Westerwald.
Wp 1/66	"At the Bembermühle"	Hardly noticeable traces of a square stone tower with a side length of 5.20 meters and a wall thickness of one meter. Around eight meters behind the moat and 13 to 14 meters from the palisade, on the side spur of a ridge on a hillside. There was no search for a wooden predecessor at this point.
Wp 1/67		Tower location documented by the Reich Limes Commission, but no longer visible, in the middle of the agricultural areas northwest of the Hillscheid industrial estate. The square stone tower had the above-average side length of 5.60 meters and one meter thick walls. There was no search for a wooden previous building.
Wp 1/68		The presumed location of the watchtower was probably in the area of today's Kannenbäckerstraße on the northwestern edge of the Höhr-Grenzhausen industrial park and was completely destroyed during construction. A reconstruction is located 150 meters northwest of it. It is one of the rare, somewhat authentic attempts to reconstruct Roman border watchtowers, which was made under the professional guidance of the Saalburg Museum, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe , and completed in 1994. The entrance is not at ground level, but at the level of the first floor, but for security reasons a second entrance had to be created on the ground floor. On the outside it is painted in the white paint typical of Roman watchtowers and auxiliary camps with painted red false joints. The basic dimensions of the square tower are around 5 × 5 meters. In 1996 its interior was designed as a museum; There is also a small information pavilion built in 2002 in the immediate vicinity.
Wp 1/69	"In the Hillscheider sand pit"	Remains of a square stone tower with a side length of five meters and a wall thickness of one meter were documented during the excavations in 1894, but had already disappeared in 1902
Wp 1/70		only assumed, not proven tower location
KK	Hillscheid small fort	Main article : Hillscheid small fort

Monument protection

The small fort in Ferbach and the aforementioned ground monuments have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage as a section of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes since 2005 . In addition, the facilities are cultural monuments according to the Monument Protection and Conservation Act (DSchG) of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.

literature

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. 103.
Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich . Section A, Volume 1: Lines 1 and 2 (1936)
Christian Fleer: Typification and function of the small buildings on the Limes. In: E. Schallmayer (Ed.): Limes Imperii Romani. Contributions to the specialist colloquium “Limes World Heritage Site” in November 2001 in Lich-Arnsburg. Bad Homburg v. d. H. 2004, ISBN 3-931267-05-9 , pp. 75-92 (Saalburg-Schriften 6).
Cliff Alexander Jost: The Roman Limes in Rhineland-Palatinate . State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate , Koblenz 2003, ISBN 3-929645-07-6 , (Archeology on the Middle Rhine and Moselle, Volume 14), pp. 100–116
Margot Klee: The Limes between Rhine and Main. Theiss, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8062-0276-1 , pp. 47-48
Margot Klee: Limes. Course 1, SS 1 / 1–1 / 93 . In: Heinz Cüppers : The Romans in Rhineland-Palatinate. Licensed edition, Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-60-0 , pp. 444–446

Web links

Commons : Kleinkastell Ferbach - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

The Limes section between the forts Ferbach and Hillscheid in two detailed described and illustrated hiking tours ( Tour 3 and Tour 4 ) on the Limes route pages of the website of the Westerwald-Verein Höhr-Grenzhausen (WWV-HG)