Petersbuch small fort

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Small fort Petersbuch
(Small fort Kaldorf)
limes ORL - ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Rhaetian Limes,
route 14
Dating (occupancy) by no later than 260 AD
Type Small fort
size 20.20 × 20.20 m
(= 0.04 ha)
Construction stone
State of preservation slight blurry elevation
place Titting , Petersbuch
Geographical location 48 ° 59 ′ 0.4 ″  N , 11 ° 9 ′ 4 ″  E
height 574  m above sea level NHN
Previous Raitenbuch small fort (northwest)
Subsequently Small fort Biebig (east)
Backwards Burgus Burgsalach (north-west)
Fort Pfünz (south-south-east)

The fortlet Peter Buch , also known as fortlet Kaldorf is known, belongs to the chain of former Roman military camps that are close to the World Heritage Site collected Rätische wall was built. The fortification is now west of the villages of Kaldorf and Petersbuch in the Eichstätt district in Bavaria .

Location and research history

Location to the Limes
KK Petersbuch (top left) with its eastern Limes area
The small fort based on the dimensions initiated by Friedrich Winkelmann in 1920

The small complex, which is now hidden in a forest, was built on a piece of the Rhaetian Wall running to the south-west, shortly before it bends in a westerly direction 200 meters away. Immediately next to the small fort there are two deep sinkholes .

At the time of its first description by the Pappenheim dean and consistorial councilor Michael Redenbacher (1764-1816) and then by the archeology pioneer Franz Anton Mayer (1773-1854), the cohesive masonry of the small fort protruded a few feet above the ground. The remains of the building were known to the locals as the abandoned manor.

Friedrich Ohlenschlager (1840–1916), who ran down the entire Limes in Bavaria in the years 1875, 1879, 1880 and 1886, reports that he saw a square stone wall half a meter high in the Grammetsäckern, with a side length of around 18 Meters.

When Friedrich Winkelmann (1852-1934), a route commissioner for the Reichs-Limeskommission (RLK), excavated the facility in 1920, the farmer on whose property the small fort was located claimed that the ruins were the remainder of his original courtyard, which later came after Kaldorf was relocated. During his excavation, Winkelmann limited himself to being able to describe the location, size and enclosure. An official surveyor carried out the measurement of the findings . After the investigation, the foundations were covered again. A slight wall was then still visible from the square. The fort has been preserved in this form to this day.

Building description

The stone complex was built on level ground. It has a square, 20.20 × 20.20 meter (≈ 400 square meter) floor plan and its praetorial front was oriented to the northeast to the Limes, around 28 meters away. The only remaining single-lane driveway was on the northeast side. This was still preserved when Winkelmann was excavated. A tower-like structure rose above the 2.50 meter wide gate, which had projecting cheeks one meter wide and two and a half meters deep. The surrounding wall was 0.90 meters thick and probably had a parapet walk around it. All four corners of this wall were made at right angles. As an obstacle to the approach, a circumferential pointed ditch should be addressed, which stopped at the passage. Winkelmann did not examine the interior of the small fort. The deepening that Redenbacher had found in the middle of the complex was explained to him by the residents as a former cellar. Since there have been no further investigations since 1920, many details of the facility remain unknown. It can be assumed that the interior construction, which was probably grouped around an inner courtyard, was made of wood.

Limes course between the small forts Petersbuch and Biebig

Traces of the Limes structures between the small forts Petersbuch and Biebig.
ORL Name / place Description / condition
KK Petersbuch small fort see above

From the small fort to the next tower, the preservation of the debris dam of the Teufelsmauer remains “excellent”. When it emerges from the forest, shortly before the Limes bend, it is "overlaid by reading stones, overgrown with hedges and widely recognizable as the dominant landmark on the Alb plateau".

Wp 14/56 "At the Limesecke near Petersbuch"
Limes bend at Wp 14/56, location
Limes bend at Wp 14/56, floor plan
Already Ohlenschlager could not see anything at this Limes bend during his Limes ascent. The RLK later dug a 6.40 × 6.33 meter stone tower to which the stone wall was subsequently added. In the palisade, which was also buckled, she recognized a passage. The wattle fence was also found. There is nothing to be seen there today. The rubble wall of the Limes Wall, on the other hand, can be seen from here for a length of almost three kilometers to behind Wp 14/59 as a dead straight, clearly visible, overgrown dam in the open landscape.
Wp 14/57 Tower site is suspected.
Wp 14/58 Tower site is suspected.
Wp 14/59 "At Petersbuch"
Wp 14/59, location
Wp 14/59, floor plan

Redenbacher saw an unusually huge heap of rubble here, but no determination could be made without an excavation. However, the residents of Petersbuch assured him that the structure there had already been severely demolished. Ohlenschlager, on the other hand, was unable to enter the place because it was overgrown by almost impenetrable hazel trees. When it was excavated by the Reich Limes Commission, the stone tower without a base was 6.5 meters wide and 5.60 to 5.70 meters deep. The wall thickness was 0.85 meters. On its enemy-facing northern outer front, the tower was still 0.85 meters high, the inside of the northern wall was even 1.12 meters high. A single and a double opus spicatum could be seen on the north wall . On its poorly preserved southern rear, the building was only one row high inside. The existence of a ground level access could neither be proven nor denied due to the poor state of preservation of the back, especially since the outside of the masonry could not be exposed either. The building material consisted of broken and picked stones, which were roughly prepared and irregularly built. It became clear that the 1.07 meter thick Limes wall at this point had been added to the tower at a later date. Inside the tower there was a fireplace in the southwest corner. The same finding was to be made on the east side of the tower. Ceramic shards were also found at the fireplaces. Today there is nothing to be seen in this place. The palisade moat lay here in front of the Limes wall.

Wp 14/60 Tower site is suspected.
Wp 14/61 "West of Eckertshofen"
Location and floor plan

As far as it was not covered by the driveway that led over it, the tower could be opened by Winkelmann. Despite the fact that the excavation had to be limited to the southern part of the watchtower, its full extent could be determined. It was 5.90 x 7.50 meters. The 0.82 meter thick walls were still up to 0.75 meters high. The tower had no skirting board and obviously no ground level access in the south. The Limes itself was oriented to the north. The broken stone material of the rising masonry is bricked in even layers. On the eastern exterior of the tower, the floor was strikingly black. A number of ceramic shards were also found there. Redenbacher had the Limes wall dug up at this point and measured it to be four feet wide (≈ 1.17 meters). According to his investigations, the tower was attached to the wall. When Mayer later came to this point, he found a round, fairly high heap of rubble with a funnel-shaped depression in its center. Ohlenschlager made the same statement. The palisade moat was found 12 meters in front of the tower. Today there is nothing to be seen in the square.

Wp 14/62 Tower site is suspected.
Wp 14/63
The reconstructed watchtower 14/63
The memorial stone between Wp 14/63 and Wp 14/64
The tower site is only assumed. However, a stone reconstruction was erected in this area in 1992, a good 100 meters east of the presumed location. The stone Limes watchtowers were plastered white in antiquity. With a red joint line then applied, ashlar masonry was simulated. In addition to this attempt at reconstruction, a parking lot with information boards was also created in 1992 and a 3.5 kilometer long Limes nature trail was opened. The memorial stone erected in the second half of the 19th century between Wp 14/63 and Wp 14/64 was restored by the Nuremberg Natural History Society.
Wp 14/64 "In the Herlingsharder Wald"
Location and floor plan

Mayer saw a "considerable, round pile of stones" at this place. It only became clear in 1926 that there was a wooden tower hill next to the rubble hill on the left side of the Limes wall. At that time the wooden tower hill was still 1.30 meters high and surrounded by a half-meter deep, rectangular ring moat with rounded corners. From floor to floor, this trench was 11 meters in diameter. Due to the existing forest, only the two northern pits of the wooden tower could be dug in 1926. From center to center they were 4.60 meters apart and one meter wide. Their depth was 0.75 meters. There were some large wedge stones in the post pits and charcoal remains in the excavation. The stone wall cuts through the older wooden tower hill about 400 meters further. To the east is the 6.45 × 5.77 meter stone tower, restored by the Natural History Society of Nuremberg , inside of which two fireplaces were found. As usual, the tower was placed directly on the wall. The palisade moat still runs in front of the Limes wall, the rubble wall of which is clearly visible in this area. At the place of Wp 14/64 only faint traces can be seen today.

Wp 14/65 "In the Emsingen community forest"
Location and floor plan

Around 600 meters further there is a wooden tower hill and - to the west of it - the remains of a stone tower 18 meters behind the Limes wall. Redenbacher found only a pile of stones from the free-standing stone tower and described the tower hill as a "tumulus" overgrown with moss and grass from 10 to 11 feet high. The position of the stone tower is extremely inconvenient to control the area in front of the Limes from here.

The Eichstätter study director Sebastian Mutzl was present in June 1846 at the opening of a supposed burial mound close to the devil's wall. Workers rummaged through the ground, while the studied society, which was in the forest, hoping for the spectacular, always rushed to the excavation site when the workers found something. In addition to Redenbacher, Mayer had already recognized the place as a watchtower, but Mutzl and the friends of antiquity who were present wanted to see a burial mound in the wooden tower hill. Apart from the shards of a reddish-gray pot from the 12th to 13th centuries, nothing was discovered. The director of studies, however, associated the pottery with a prehistoric cremation. Out of curiosity, after breaking through the wooden tower hill, the workers began to tear apart the rubble pile from the stone tower. They discovered human bones in the rubble. A skull was pulled out, which Mutzl believed was of Mongolian race. After Mutzl withdrew with his skull, the excavations were obviously stopped. Months later, the pastor of Erkertshofen digged again at the stone tower and, according to his testimony, found another, allegedly Caucasian skull with a triangular hole on the right parietal bone and an iron knife blade.

Both parts of the tower were examined more closely by Winkelmann. The loose stone material was removed from the stone tower and, after the investigations to protect the masonry and to calculate its mass, placed around it. The 6.40 × 5.60 meter building had no base and was built from roughly trimmed stones. The walls were 0.80 meters thick and were still 0.90 to 1.00 high when they were excavated. There was no level access. The remains of a mortar line could be found inside the tower and there were fire places in the south-west and north-east corners. Skeletal remains and ceramic shards were recovered on the west side. This included the lower jaw fragment of a juvenile human whose teeth had not yet erupted.

The wooden tower hill is close to the stone tower and about seven meters behind the Limes wall. When Winkelmann examined it, it was still 1.70 meters high. Its rectangular ring trench measuring 10 × 10 meters had rounded corners and was still 0.60 meters deep. Apparently it had been cut through lengthways once during the excavation in 1846. The forest here only allowed the excavation of the two eastern post pits. They were eight feet wide and almost as deep. The palisade moat was not examined by Winkelmann.

The archaeologist Wilhelm Schleiermacher (1904–1977) wrote in 1961 that “there are still significant remains” of the stone tower. The Natural History Society of Nuremberg has restored the well-preserved stone tower foundations.

Wp 14/66 "In the Biebig Forest District"
Layout
In this area, the Limes wall is initially used by a forest path on an ascending slope as a substructure up to 1.50 meters high. The rubble wall becomes visible again in the upper part of the slope. The terracing that is now visible to the south, parallel to the forest path, could have belonged to an old path, possibly from the Limes period. On the ridge, the roughly 0.20 to 0.40 meter high rubble wall with a width of five to six meters can be seen. Shortly before the edge of the slope down into the eastern Wassertal, the now overgrown rubble hill of the 4.90 × 6.90 meter stone tower was excavated by the Imperial Limes Commission. It can be seen as a weak elevation, especially in times of no vegetation. The linear deepening of the former palisade is also visible in the slope. Wp 14/66 is ten meters behind the stone Limes wall.
KK Biebig The Biebig small fort is located around 100 meters further south .

Monument protection

The Petersbuch small 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

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ A b Günter Ulbert , Thomas Fischer: The Limes in Bavaria . Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0351-2 , p. 88.
  2. ^ Friedrich Ohlenschlager : The Roman border mark in Bavaria . In: Treatises of the Philosophical-Philological Class of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences 18, Munich 1890, p. 59 ff .; here: p. 63.
  3. ^ A b Friedrich Ohlenschlager: The Roman border mark in Bavaria . In: Treatises of the Philosophical-Philological Class of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences 18, Munich 1890, p. 59 ff .; here: p. 120.
  4. ^ A b Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich . Section A, Volume 7: Lines 14 and 15. Petters, Heidelberg 1933, p. 95 and Plate 10, Figs. 1 and 2.
  5. ↑ Dietwulf Baatz ( The Roman Limes. Archaeological Excursions Between the Rhine and the Danube , p. 253), 1974: “The fence can be seen. It left a flat wall of rubble. ”; Hermann Bierl ( Archeology Guide Germany. Bodendenkmäler und Museen , p. 521), 2006: "South of the Limes at two sinkholes the weak walls of a small fort can be seen."
  6. ↑ ORL = numbering of the Limes structures according to the publication of the Reich Limes Commission on the O bergermanisch- R ätischen- L imes
  7. ↑ KK = unnumbered K linseed K astell
  8. ↑ Dietwulf Baatz : The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube , Mann, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-7861-1064-6 , p. 253.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ Wp 14/56 at 48 ° 58 '55.55 "  N , 11 ° 9' 16.14"  O
  11. ↑ Wp 14/57 at approximately 48 ° 58 '53.44 "  N , 11 ° 9' 54.27"  E
  12. ↑ Wp 14/58 at approximately 48 ° 58 '51.06 "  N , 11 ° 10' 39.51"  O
  13. ^ Friedrich Ohlenschlager: The Roman border mark in Bavaria . In: Treatises of the Philosophical-Philological Class of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences 18, Munich 1890, p. 59 ff .; here: p. 119.
  14. ↑ Wp 14/59 at 48 ° 58 '48.67 "  N , 11 ° 11' 24.17"  O
  15. ^ Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich . Section A, Volume 7: Lines 14 and 15. Petters, Heidelberg 1933, p. 99.
  16. ↑ Wp 14/60 at approximately 48 ° 58 '46.92 "  N , 11 ° 11' 57.88"  E
  17. ↑ Wp 14/61 at 48 ° 58 '45.6 "  N , 11 ° 12' 25.02"  O
  18. ^ A b Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich . Section A, Volume 7: Lines 14 and 15. Petters, Heidelberg 1933, p. 100.
  19. ^ Friedrich Ohlenschlager: The Roman border mark in Bavaria . In: Treatises of the Philosophical-Philological Class of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences 18, Munich 1890, p. 59 ff .; here: p. 118.
  20. ↑ Wp 14/62 at 48 ° 58 '43.98 "  N , 11 ° 13' 0.56"  O
  21. ↑ Wp 14/63 at approximately 48 ° 58 '41.49 "  N , 11 ° 13" 48.9 "  E
  22. ↑ Thomas Fischer, Erika Riedmeier Fischer: The Roman Limes in Bavaria. Pustet, Regensburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-7917-2120-0 , p. 130.
  23. ↑ Wp 14/63 (reconstruction) at 48 ° 58 '41.07 "  N , 11 ° 13' 54.35"  O .
  24. ↑ Dietwulf Baatz : The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube. 4th edition, Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2347-0 , p. 302.
  25. ^ Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich . Section A, Volume 7: Lines 14 and 15. Petters, Heidelberg 1933, p. 101.
  26. ↑ Wp 14/64 (wood) at 48 ° 58 '38.71 "  N , 11 ° 14' 36.97"  O
  27. ↑ Wp 14/64 (stone) at 48 ° 58 '38.7 "  N , 11 ° 14' 37.56"  O
  28. ↑ Dietwulf Baatz : The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube , Mann, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-7861-1701-2 , p. 303.
  29. ↑ Wp 14/65 (Stein) at 48 ° 58 ′ 36.41 ″  N , 11 ° 15 ′ 10.31 ″  E
  30. ↑ a b c d Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich . Section A, Volume 7: Lines 14 and 15. Petters, Heidelberg 1933, p. 101.
  31. ^ Britta Rabold, Egon Schallmayer , Andreas Thiel : Der Limes. The German Limes Road from the Rhine to the Danube . Theiss, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-8062-1461-1 , p. 133.
  32. ↑ Sebastian Mutzl: About a skeleton of a monolic race found on the Teufelsmauer In: 16th Annual Report of the Historical Association for Middle Franconia , 1847, pp. 103–111; here: pp. 103-104.
  33. ↑ Sebastian Mutzl: About a skeleton of a monolic race found on the Teufelsmauer In: 16th Annual Report of the Historical Association for Middle Franconia , 1847, pp. 103–111; here: p. 104.
  34. ↑ Sebastian Mutzl: About a skeleton of a monolic race found on the Teufelsmauer In: 16th Annual Report of the Historical Association for Middle Franconia , 1847, pp. 103–111; here: p. 105.
  35. ↑ Wp 14/65 (wood) at 48 ° 58 ′ 36.88 ″  N , 11 ° 15 ′ 11.12 ″  E
  36. ^ Wilhelm Schleiermacher : The Roman Limes in Germany. An archaeological guide for road trips and hikes . Mann, Berlin 1961, p. 196.
  37. ^ Günter Ulbert , Thomas Fischer: The Limes in Bavaria . Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0351-2 , p. 90.
  38. ↑ Wp 14/66 at 48 ° 58 '34.62 "  N , 11 ° 15' 56.85"  O
  39. ↑ Small fort Biebig at 48 ° 58 ′ 30.92 ″  N , 11 ° 15 ′ 57.42 ″  E