Kops plateau

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Kops Plateau between 1769 and 1779, ink drawing by Hendrik Hoogers (1747–1814)

The Kops Plateau (also called Kopse Hof ) is a plateau in the east of Nijmegen in the Dutch province of Gelderland , which is known for its archaeological , especially Roman, finds.

location

The Kops Plateau is located on the southern bank of the Waal , at the foot of a steeply towering, glacial compression moraine from the Saale Ice Age , which extends from southeast to northwest through the Lower Rhine plain to the knee of the Waal near Nijmegen. With its northern steep slope, the moraine forms a natural barrier belt that drops from a height of 65 m NAP in the southeast to around 10 m NAP in the northwest. This created a plateau-shaped relief with smaller incisions on the north and a valley on the south. From this ridge, the Rhine-Maas delta unfolds to the west. Only the southeastern part of the ridge is called the Kops Plateau, the northwestern part is the so-called Hunnerberg .

History and meaning

The topographical features of the Kops Plateau, which provide protection and control, were already used intensively in prehistoric times . Our knowledge of this prehistoric period is limited. It is mainly based on grave finds, which means that while a great deal is known about burial customs, little is known about the daily life of this early peasant population. The occupation of the graves begins in the late Neolithic and then extends from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age . The native population consisted of the Batavians , who are considered to be a Germanic tribe related to the Eburones and Chatti .

The Romans recognized the military-geographical favorable nature of the plateau and built around the years 12 to 10 BC. Their headquarters on the plain. The northern steep face made the camp almost invulnerable and the altitude provided a far-reaching view of the apron and thus enabled a quick reaction to approaching attackers. Research assumes with a high degree of probability that Drusus personally or, after him, other high-ranking members of the imperial house or high-ranking personalities who are very close to the imperial house, moved there. The found material is of exquisite quality and exclusivity.
With the change of the Roman politics of Germania away from offensive occupation plans to a defensive strategy, a normal auxiliary fort for an ala milliaria , a cavalry unit with a crew of around 1000 soldiers , was built on the Kops Plateau in place of the headquarters . During the Batavian uprising (69/70) the fort was abandoned and not rebuilt afterwards. The later garrisons were built on the neighboring Hunnerberg. The city of Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum , the forerunner of today's Nijmegen, was built around one and a half kilometers away .

For the Provincial Roman Archeology of the Netherlands, the plateau is a first-rate research site due to the complexity of its findings and the variety and high quality of its finds , of which large areas have been placed under protection as Rijksmonumente .

Literature (selection)

  • Frank Stephan Beijaard: The Roman Fort on the Kops Plateau. A chronological and spatial analysis of its contexts . Radboud University, Nijmegen 2015, ( digitized version ).
  • Harry LH Enckevort, Katja Zee and David Robert Fontijn: Het Kops Plateau. Prehistoric grafheuvels en een Romeinse legerplaats in Nijmegen . Uniepers, Amersfort 1996.
  • D. Teunissen and HGCM Teunissen-Van Oorschot: The Development of the Environment of the Kops Plateau, near Nijmegen, since Roman Times . Reports van de Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek , 30 (1980), pp. 255-275.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johan HF Bloemers: The Augustan camps and the Flavian-Trajan canabae legionis in Nijmegen . In: Dorothea Haupt and Heinz Günter Horn : Studies on the military borders of Rome II. Lectures of the 10th International Limes Congress in the Germania inferior . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-7927-0270-3 , p. 87.
  2. ↑ a b c Lendert P. Louwe Kooijmans: Een grafheuvelgroep uit het laat-neolithicum en de bronstijd in het terrein van de Romeinse castra te Nijmegen . In: Willem Albertus van Es (Ed.): Archeologie en historie. Opgedragaan H. Brunsting at the zijn zeventigste verjaardag . Fibula-Van Dishoeck, Bussum 1973, pp. 87–125, ( also digitized as pdf ).
  3. ^ Harry van Enckevort, Katja Zee and David Robert Fontijn: Het Kops Plateau. Prehistoric grafheuvels en een Romeinse legerplaats in Nijmegen . Uniepers, Amersfoort 1996.
  4. ↑ Erik Drenth and Carmen Harmsen: Een klokbekergraf te Nijmegen (province of Gelderland, NL). Notae Praehistoricae 33 (2013), pp. 217-230.
  5. ^ Mark Driessen: Bouwen om te blijven. De topography, bewoningscontinuïteit en monumentaliteit van Romeins Nijmegen. RACM Rapportage Archeologische Monumentenzorg 151, RACM, Amersfoort, 2007, p. 97.
  6. ↑ a b Paul van der Heijden: Grens van het Romeinse Rijk. De Limes in Gelderland . Matrijs, Utrecht 2016, ISBN 978-90-5345-327-8 , especially pp. 89-93.
  7. ↑ Rijksmonument 45809, Castle grounds in the Official Directory of the imperial monuments of the Netherlands (Dutch) accessed on 9 November 2018th
  8. ↑ Rijksmonument 45810, burial ground in the Official Directory of the imperial monuments of the Netherlands (Dutch) accessed on 9 November 2018th

Coordinates: 51 ° 50 ′ 15 "  N , 5 ° 53 ′ 36"  E