Legion camp Albing

Legion camp Albing
Alternative name	unknown
limes	Limes Noricus
section	Route 1
Dating (occupancy)	Antonine, AD 170–205
Type	Legion and Alenkastell
unit	a) Legio II Italica b) Ala Antoniniana
size	568 × 412 m (23.3 ha)
Construction	Stone construction
State of preservation	Square system with rounded corners, NW front washed away by the Danube, three gate systems, some intermediate towers and a corner tower have been archaeologically proven, no longer visible above ground
place	St. Pantaleon-Erla
Geographical location	48 ° 13 '35 "  N , 14 ° 32' 59"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 13 '35 "  N , 14 ° 32' 59"  E
height	242  m above sea level A.
Previous	Legion camp Lauriacum (west)
Subsequently	Fort St. Pantaleon-Stein (east)

Area of ​​the legionary camp, view from the northeast (2010)

The Danube near Albing, at the top left the confluence of the oxbow lake which today covers the northwest front of the camp

Floor plans of the Albing gate systems

Excavation plan of the legionary camp, 1904–2007

Attempted reconstruction of the Porta Praetoria of Fort Pfünz , the Porta Principales Dextra (east gate) of the Albing camp could have looked something similar

Attempted reconstruction of the north gate of Favianis , this is how the Porta Decumana of the Albing camp could have looked

Conglomerate of the Albingen fort wall

The legionary camp Albing was the base of a Roman legion and a cavalry unit on the Danube Limes in Austria , federal state Lower Austria , district Amstetten , municipality St. Pantaleon-Erla / district Albing.

As the headquarters of the newly established Legio II Italica , it was for a short time the military and political power center of the province of Noricum and the seat of the Legatus Augusti pro praetore provinciae Norici , the governor and commander of the Legion. It is the largest known Roman fort in Austria. However, the fortification was given up shortly before its completion, as the legion was relocated to the more favorably located Lauriacum camp near today's Enns .

Surname

The ancient name of the camp is unknown. The attempts to identify with Mariniainum , Elegio (possibly from e (x) legio (ne)) ( Tabula Peutingeriana Segmentum III / 5) or Claudivium ( Claudius Ptolemaeus 2, 13) cannot be scientifically proven. It may also have been referred to simply as the Legio (i.e. the Legion), as were other camps in the Empire such as B. León , the location of the Legio VII Gemina in Spain. Today's place and field names such as B. Marksee, Moosmühle suggest earlier large-scale swamps in the area.

location

The site is about two kilometers east of the current mouth of the Enns and is located a little off the Limes road on a slightly elevated terrace, which was surrounded by arms of the Danube and marshy lowlands in the middle of the imperial era. Maximilian von Groller-Mildensee noted in his excavation report at the beginning of the 20th century that only a few hundred steps inland there were still gravel layers under the humus and referred to traces of - today silted up - branches of the Danube around the fort area. He assumed that in ancient times the camp could have been located on a kind of alluvial gravel island or that it was partially surrounded by arms of the Danube, since no weir ditches could be detected.

Research history

After Roman-era walls and finds (coins, brick stamps) had already come to light around 1900, E. Schmidel reported in 1902 (after experimental excavations) the discovery of the remains of a wall that stretched over a kilometer along the road from Enns to St. Pantaleon. The first scientific excavations took place at the beginning of the 20th century. Colonel Maximilian von Groller-Mildensee and Maximilian Nistler examined large areas of the fortifications.

In the years 1904 to 1905, in connection with the excavations in Lauriacum , the surrounding wall, three gates and some towers were exposed or cut and their location was determined by soundings. This also made it possible to precisely determine the total extent of the warehouse. In the last days of the excavation, Roman masonry was excavated at the intersection of the assumed streets, from the rubble of which brick stamps of the legio II Italica could be recovered.

In 1985 Erwin M. Ruprechtsberger documented the foundations of the fort wall at a depth of 1.3 to 1.5 m during construction work. The boulder stones of the masonry connected by lime mortar ran in a southwest-northeast direction and sat on a layer of pebbles. It was concluded that the camp was never completed. In some cases, the foundations were only half-finished, and the camp was apparently abandoned before the curtain wall was completed. Also, no small finds could be made, as Max von Groller had already pointed out. That part of the wall that ran through the excavation pit was recovered and set up at the sports field of secondary school 1 in Enns.

During the construction of a house on a neighboring property, the wall was again observed at a depth of 2.5 m, exactly at the point where Groller had last seen its course in a flood zone that he judged to be empty. The break-off edge corresponds to the course of the road that runs along the Danube Altarm.

In 2006, a resident pointed out to the archaeologists a low-growth strip in the surrounding fields (so-called heat bar), which - as later found out during a subsequent excavation - marked the course of the fort wall and the position of an intermediate tower. In a cooperation with the Institute of Mediterranean Heritage at the University of Koper and the Pokrajinski muzej Celje in Slovenia, the entire area of ​​the camp that was still undeveloped was geophysically examined using magnetic technology and radar in 2008. The entire floor plan of the principia , the fortifications and the inner surface of the camp could be documented. Since then, the complex (also for chronological questions) has hardly been adequately researched. The cohort fort discovered in 2017, about ten kilometers east of Enns in St. Pantaleon (Lower Austria) in the Stein district , had existed since the middle of the 1st century and proved that the first fort in the region was located there and not in Albing, as previously assumed has been.

development

The Legio II Italica was around 165 n. Chr. Of Emperor Marcus Aurelius to reinforce the Danube army against the Marcomanni excavated and was the first stationed in Noricum Legion since inclusion of the province in the Roman Empire under Claudius . 170 n. Chr. It was during the Marcomanni wars moved to the Norican Danube border, where the soldiers at Albing began construction of the camp. An auxiliary fort may have stood here since the 2nd century. A large part of the Marcomannic invaders who had advanced through the valley of the Aist to the south had probably crossed the Danube at this point. The permanent stationing of a legion in Noricum brought profound changes for the province. The most important of these was certainly the legionary legate's takeover of the agenda of a governor .

However, the warehouse could only be used for a few years. When devastating floods repeatedly occurred, the legion's move to Lauriacum had probably become inevitable. The reason for this may have been a climate change that began in the late 2nd century, which led to an increase in such flood disasters, and inevitably to a continuous rise in the groundwater level and a backwater of the Enns. Whether the Albingen camp was actually only abandoned because of the risk of flooding has not yet been satisfactorily clarified by research. The Regensburg legion camp was also built on hydrologically unfavorable terrain. However, the engineers of that time had effective technical possibilities at their disposal to make the area buildable anyway, in the case of Regensburg by filling a 1.10 m high gravel terrace. Nevertheless, in a rainy season, the bank area could have been partially washed away, which although not yet directly threatened the camp, but for the near future there was a permanent risk of part of the camp area being washed away and slipping. This could be observed at several forts on the Noric Limes. In any case, Max von Groller's excavation reports indicate that the camp could have been abandoned before the construction work was completed:

• No road gravel could be detected at the southwest and southeast gates,
• the trench system and the inner earth ramp (battlements), which were obligatory for military camps at that time, were missing,
• apart from a few stamped bricks and a belt buckle, hardly any small finds could be recovered and
• The walls and towers are clearly recognizable in the aerial photographs, but - apart from the remains of the command building - there are no traces of other internal structures.

Hannsjörg Ubl also believes it is possible that the order to establish an administrative center for the province, i.e. also a larger civil settlement, was only given at a later point in time, as Albing's location on the slope of the Strengberge was not suitable for this. Ultimately, the convergence of the road connections at Lauriacum, the prerequisites for the construction of a Danube port at the mouth of the Enn or perhaps more favorable religious omens were also decisive for the relocation of the legion. During the construction phase, the two camps could have existed side by side for some time.

The start of construction of the new camp near Enns is to be set for the years around 190 AD, the Legio II Italica moved there at the latest after the completion of the infrastructure between 201 and 205 AD. Possibly, however, the construction activity in the Albingen camp area revived in the middle of the 4th century, as there u. a. the presence of a brick factory could be proven. Herma Stiglitz believes (in connection with found brick stamps) that a smaller fortification also existed there at that time. During the construction of the underwater canal (1859), graves from the 4th century were also observed.

The main task of the crew was to control trunk roads that led south from the valley of the Aist and met other east-west connections there. The proximity to the mouth of the Traun made it possible to connect to other important Roman roads.

Fort

The approximately 23.3 hectare legion fortress is comparable to that of Locia / Lotschitz in today's Slovenia . Albing was therefore considerably larger than the camps at Lauriacum (21.4 ha) and Carnuntum (approx. 17 ha).

During the excavations in 1904/1905 only parts of the defensive wall could be uncovered. The north corner and almost half of the northwestern front of the area were washed away by the river over the centuries. The ground plan of the camp formed an elongated rectangle with its pretorial front facing south-west-north-east and its long side against the direction of flow of the Danube. About 40 meters north of the main gate, a now silted arm of the Danube could be detected, in front of which a terrain edge of six to eight meters was determined.

The structures of the fort wall with its numerous corner and intermediate towers are still clearly visible in the fields and are particularly easy to see on aerial photographs. The excavations, which were only carried out in individual sections, uncovered a total of three gates and some of the intermediate towers placed inside, which receded from the line of the wall to different degrees. The course of the main street of the camp, the Via praetoria , could be followed over a length of 80 meters. The western corner of the camp was reinforced by a trapezoidal tower; here the camp wall was 3.10 meters wide.

In summary, the reconstruction results in a rectangular warehouse with an area of ​​568 × 412 meters, four gate systems and up to 28 intermediate towers. The finding also shows the rounding (radius 34 m) typical of Roman camps of that time at the corners (playing card shape, western and southern corners have been excavated).

Fort wall

The wall, which is 1.80 and 3.15 meters thick, is set on roll gravel and consists mainly of rubble stones and river pebbles, in places there were also fragments of wooden piles in the cast mortar core. Since it was mostly only around 80 centimeters high, Groller initially only interpreted it as a stone base on which a wall made of more transitory building material was placed. The foundations were excavated in sections on all four sides. The thickness of the enclosing walls varies greatly, they were about 3 meters in the northeast, but only about 1.8 meters thick in the southwest.

• The south-western wall ( Decumana ) is also 1.8 meters thick and was almost completely uncovered,
• the northeastern, the Praetorial Front, has a thickness of 3.00-3.15 meters,
• the south-eastern wall was partially excavated with its thickness of up to 2.95 meters, but is otherwise only known from soundings.
• the north-western section was also recognized in two places only by probing between groups of houses.

During subsequent excavations in the area of ​​the camp wall, it was found between 1985 and 1987 that it had never been completed or that construction had not even started. Often one only came across layers of stone that had been tamped and bound with casting mortar.

Gates, towers and internal structures

Up to six intermediate towers were observed on the narrow sides, three on each side of the gate, eight on the long sides and four on both sides of the gate. They were exactly on the line of the wall and had a square floor plan and a side length of 3.55 to 3.70 meters (wall thickness 1.80 m). They protrude completely or largely inward. In addition to the 18 secured intermediate towers, a trapezoidal corner tower with a wall thickness of approx. 3.1 meters was excavated in the northwest, its counterpart in the south was localized by soundings. The foundations of towers IX, X and XII on the southeastern camp wall were built on pilots . Tower XII stood on a 0.80 meter thick plate made of unusually hard cast concrete. An intermediate tower was also recorded in the middle of the excavation cut on parcels 884 and 889 in St. Pantaleon. The walls of this square tower, which protruded only 0.6 meters from the inner wall, were 2.1 meters thick. No construction joints could be observed.

All three previously uncovered gates (despite some small differences) had the same floor plan. Except for the porta praetoria , the other gates were not on gravel or cobbled thoroughfares.

The Porta praetoria (main gate) is exceptionally wide (37.65 m) and had a total of three passages. The wall thickness was usually around three meters, only the inside of the gate towers was only two meters wide. The floor plans of the narrowly protruding gate towers are almost square (about 10 × 9.50 m), the middle passage was 4.50 meters, the two sides each 3.50 meters wide. The gatehouse was flush with the flank towers both on the outside and on the inside of the gate. The middle, gravel passage of the gate could still be followed up to 80 meters into the interior of the camp.

The Porta decumana (south-west gate) had only a single passage and the same projection of the flank towers as the Porta Principalis Dextra . It was no longer possible to tell whether the archway was in the front of the towers or set back. It was examined on an area of ​​24 m × 16 m. The rising walls were only 0.8 mater high. The western gate tower (9 m × 8.6 m) and the adjoining camp wall, 2 to 2.5 meters thick, were also exposed. In the passage (width 3.3 m), however, no traces of a threshold or a road were found, as is known from the findings of the Porta praetoria .

The double- gate Porta principalis dextra (south-east gate) had two square side towers that protruded by 2.60 m, while the arches receded by almost two meters from the line of the wall. Their passages were of different widths: 4.10 and 3.90 meters. The gate was also built on pilots. The posts were stuck in a cast mortar plate up to 80 centimeters thick, which lay under the masonry on sandy soil and a layer of gravel. The pilots' prints showed that they were obtained from unsplit logs up to 15 centimeters in diameter, the branches of which had only been roughly chopped off. The proximity of a branch of the Danube in the southeast of the camp was probably the reason for this complex foundation.

The position of the Porta principalis sinistra is only known through probing.

It is believed that the fortress was never fully completed due to the fact that there were hardly any traces of internal development. In the middle of the camp, only a few remains of buildings could be observed, one of which was probably a corner of the wall of the Principia .

garrison

The most popular garrison troops are the Legio II Italica , but also a cavalry unit, the Ala Antoniniana . In general, Albing is undisputed as the first location of the II. Italica on the Danube border . Due to the somewhat larger area of ​​the camp area (23.3 ha) in contrast to the camp near Enns (21.5 ha), it is assumed that the cavalry troops should be barracked together with the legionaries in Albing. Their prefect allegedly defeated the Narist chief Valao in a duel. After moving to the Lauriacum camp, the ala appears to have either been dissolved or relocated.

Military brick

Brick stamp of the Legio II Italica from Albing

Brick stamp from Ziegelfeld, found in 1964, combination imprint LEGIIITALSAB

In 1964 a Roman brick kiln was excavated in the municipality of Sankt Pantaleon-Erla, district of Ziegelfeld. Ancient bricks were found on the Erla in earlier years . The name of the corridor, brick field, also goes back to these finds. During regulation work, a few meters above the course of the river, on the western embankment, the remains of an ancient brick kiln were cut and reported to the archaeologist Gustav Melzer.

The emergency excavation carried out afterwards was led and documented by Gustav Melzer and Herma Stiglitz. When it arrived, the findings had already been largely destroyed by the dredging work; only the substructure with the vault of the furnace remained. The furnace walls were made of rubble, clay material and bricks. The seven-meter-long and 2.6 to 6.5-meter-wide system was oriented north-south and the loading opening was oriented towards the north towards the valley. The original height was estimated at 1.3 meters. The Y-shaped combustion chamber (systematics II 3c according to Ronald Risy), which had been placed directly in the loam soil, which still showed clear traces of heat in the vicinity, was clearly recognizable.

The bricks found on site bore the stamps of a privately operated brick factory, Figlina Sabiniana , but also that of Legio II Italica . Combinations of both stamp types (LEG II ITAL SAB) were also recovered. Presumably the brick factory was taken over entirely by the Legion in Lauriacum in the 4th century .

museum

The Lauriacum Museum, founded in 1892, is housed in the old town hall on the main square of Enns. The extensive collection of Roman finds is presented in several showrooms, starting with the finds from the two legionary camps. Behind Hauptschule 1 in Enns a conglomerate fragment from the Albingen fort wall has been erected and is generally accessible.

Monument protection

The facilities are ground monuments within the meaning of the Monument Protection Act. Investigations and targeted collection of finds without the approval of the Federal Monuments Office are a criminal offense. Accidental finds of archaeological objects (ceramics, metal, bones, etc.) as well as all measures affecting the soil must be reported to the Federal Monuments Office (Department for Ground Monuments).

See also

• List of forts in Noricum and Upper Pannonia

literature

• Max v. Groller : Overview of the excavations carried out in 1904. In: The Roman Limes in Austria. Volume 7, 1906, p. 1 ff., Here p. 41 ff.
• Max v. Groller: The excavation in Fort Albing. In: The Roman Limes in Austria. Volume 8, 1907, p. 157 ff.
• Thomas Aumüller: The Porta Praetoria and the fortification of the legion camp in Regensburg. Unpublished dissertation, Technical University of Munich 2002, p. 239 f.
• Manfred Kandler and Hermann Vetters (eds.): The Roman Limes in Austria. A guide. Vienna 1989, p.?.
• Erwin M. Ruprechtsberger : Lauriacum under Roman rule. In: Willibald Katzinger , Johannes Ebner, Erwin M. Ruprechtsberger: History of Enns. 1996, pp. 11-62.
• Gerhard Winkler: Legio II Italica, the "house regiment" of Lauriacum. In: Jutta Leskovar , Christine Schwanzar and Gerhard Winkler (eds.): What we stand on, archeology in Upper Austria. 2003, catalogs of the Upper Austrian State Museum, new series; 195, pp. 131-136.
• Gerhard Winkler: Lorch in Roman times. In: Land Oberösterreich, Office of the Upper Austrian Provincial Government (Hrsg.): Severin. Between Roman times and the Great Migration. Linz 1982, pp. 135-146.
• Thomas Fischer : Noricum. Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2829-X ( Orbis Provinciarum / Zabern's illustrated books on archeology ), p. 41.
• Kurt Genser: The Austrian Danube Limes in Roman times, a research report. Publishers of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1986 (The Roman Limes in Austria, 33), pp. 166–176.
• Hans Petrovitsch: Legio II Italica (= research in Lauriacum 13). Linz 2006, pp. 303-307, ISBN 3-902299-04-5 .
• Erwin Ruprechtsberger: Find observations in the legionary camp of Albing. Municipality of St. Pantaleon / Lower Austria, in: Pro Austria Romana 35, 1985, pp. 13–15.
• Erwin Ruprechtsberger: The legion camps Albing / Lower Austria and Lauriacum / Lorch-Enns. In: Upper Austria border region of the Roman Empire. Linz 1987, pp. 71-78.
• Hannsjörg Ubl: Legio II Italica. History of the Lauriacese garrison troops. In: MMV Lauriacum 21, 1983, pp. 16-23.
• Herma Stiglitz: A brick oven on the Erla. In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Volume 114 / I, 1969, pp. 69-74 ( digitized on ZOBODAT ).
• Ronald Andreas Risy: Roman-era kilns in Noricum. Unpublished diploma thesis from the University of Vienna, 1994.
• Christian Gugl: Albing - Legion camp. In: Verena Gassner, Andreas Pülz (Hrsg.): The Roman Limes in Austria. Guide to the archaeological monuments. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-7001-7787-6 , pp. 178–181.
• Kira Lappe: St. Pantaleon-Erla - military bricks - settlement (?) - military installation. In: Verena Gassner, Andreas Pülz (Hrsg.): The Roman Limes in Austria. Guide to the archaeological monuments. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-7001-7787-6 , pp. 181–183.
• René Ployer: The Norwegian Limes in Austria. Find reports from Austria. Material booklet series B 3, Austria. Federal Monuments Office, Vienna 2013.

Web links

• Legion camp location on Vici.org
• Legion camp Albing - The Roman Limes in Austria
• Albing in AEIOU (English)
• Landscape archeology / Limes hinterland / Albing project
• Website of the parish of St. Pantaleon: The Roman legion camp Albing

Remarks

1. ↑ Hans Petrovitsch 2006, p. 306
2. ↑ Kurt Genser 1986, p. 168
3. ↑ Gerhard Winkler, 2003, p. 133
4. ↑ Max v. Groller 1906, column 46.
5. ↑ Maximilian von Groller: The excavations in Fort Albing . In: The Roman Limes in Austria 8, 1907, pp. 157–172.
6. ↑ Erwin M. Ruprechtsberger: Fund observations in the military camp of Albing / St. Pantaleon / Lower Austria . In: Pro Austria Romana 35, 1985, p. 13.
7. ↑ Erwin M. Ruprechtsberger: The Legion Camps in Albing and Lauriacum , in: Exhibition catalog Upper Austria - Grenzland des Roman Empire (catalogs of the Upper Austrian State Museum), 1986, pp. 71-78.
8. ^ Find reports from Austria 45, 2006, p. 33.
9. ↑ R. Harreither 2003, p. 128.
10. ↑ Gerhard Winkler 1982, p. 137.
11. ↑ Johann Offenberger 1983, pp. 152-154.
12. ↑ Hans Petrovitsch 2006, p. 306.
13. ↑ Hannsjörg Ubl: personal communication from July 1998.
14. ↑ Max von Groller 1907, column 44.
15. ↑ Hannsjörg Ubl 1983, p. 20.
16. ↑ Thomas Fischer 2002, cf. Building inscriptions from Lauriacum, p. 41.
17. ↑ Hermann Vetters 1965, p. 16 and 1975, p. 20.
18. ↑ Herma Stiglitz in: Handbook of the historic sites of Austria , Volume 1, Stuttgart 1970, p. 517.
19. ↑ Erwin Ruprechtsberger 1985, pp. 13–15 and 1987, p. 73 and Fig. 1–4.
20. ↑ Groller: The Legion camp Lauriacum. In: The Roman Limes in Austria. 7, 1906, pp. 5-46.
21. ↑ Groller 1907, p. 168 f.
22. ↑ Hans Petrovisch 2006, p. 305.
23. ↑ Kurt Genser 1986, p. 174.
24. ↑ Herma Stiglitz 1969, pp. 69-74.
25. ↑ Ronald Risy 1994, p. 133.
26. ↑ Rezsõ Pusztai: Ad Flexum (Mosonmagyaróvár). In: Jenő Fitz (ed.): The Roman Limes in Hungary. István Király Múzeum. Székesfehérvár 1976, p. 15.
27. ↑ Monument Protection Act ( Memento of the original dated November 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the side of the Federal Monuments Office.