Small fort "Auf der Schanz"

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Small fort "Auf der Schanz"
limes ORL NN ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Upper German Limes ,
route 2 (Lahn-Aar)
Type Small fort
size unexplained
Construction stone
State of preservation completely built over
place Bad Ems
Geographical location 50 ° 19 '42.5 "  N , 7 ° 43' 41.5"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 19  '42.5 " N , 7 ° 43' 41.5"  E hf
Previous ORL 3: Arzbach Castle (north)
Subsequently Small fort Becheln (south)
Backwards ORL 4: Ems fort (west-north-west)

The small fort "Auf der Schanz" was a Roman border fort of the Upper German Limes , which has had the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005 . The former auxiliary fort is now located in a completely built-up area of Bad Ems , a town in the Rhein-Lahn district in Rhineland-Palatinate . It is the smaller of a total of two Roman military camps in the city of Ems.

Location, research history and findings

Site plan (before 1900)

The small fort "Auf der Schanz" was topographically located directly on the southern bank of the Lahn (Laugona) . Here the valley of the "Braunebach", which runs between "Wintersberg" and "Malberg", widens, which was flanked in the west by the Limes that ran over the "Wintersberg" to Becheln , the section of which is referred to in the literature as "route 2" at this point started. It was connected to the so-called "Route 1" to the north via a bridge over the Lahn, which was presumed to be here, and passed through a narrow gorge in the "Buchwald" past today's Kemmenau to the Arzbach fort . The garrison was presumably responsible for monitoring this Lahn crossing and the river valley itself, which, coming from the south, bends west at this point.

In today's cityscape, the fort area is located in the area of ​​the Bahnhofsviertel in the “Spiess” district of Ems, under the dense buildings immediately north of the Bahnhofstrasse / Alexanderstrasse intersection. Nothing is visible anymore. In earlier times the spit belonged to the Electoral Mainz area of ​​the city of Oberlahnstein .

The exploration of the fort area was extremely difficult from the start due to the dense development. In the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, findings were occasionally documented and measured values ​​obtained, which leave a lot of room for interpretation, only selectively and in a very small space. Both Heinrich Hesse , Karl August von Cohausen (1812-1894) and Otto Dahm , the latter in connection with the investigations of the Imperial Limes Commission , carried out archaeological investigations that led to widely differing interpretations of the findings.

The small fort "Auf der Schanz" is a stone fort, the exact dimensions of which are not clear. The reconstruction attempts vary between a warehouse with sides of 44 × 30 meters, which would correspond to a storage area of ​​around 0.13 hectares, and a warehouse with sides of 73 × 58 meters, which would correspond to a floor area of ​​0.43 hectares. The consideration that there could be two different camps was also considered.

It is also difficult to locate the fort thermal baths and the vicus , both of which are assumed to be probable, but about which it is difficult to make any concrete statements due to the sparse evidence. The situation with regard to the burial ground is somewhat better. Individual burials were uncovered on the slopes of the Wintersberg.

Limes course between the small fort "Auf der Schanz" and Becheln

In its course between Bad Ems and Becheln, the Limes has been preserved in different states. While initially visible traces are only sporadically present, the section between the watchtower Wp 2/4 and the Becheln military camp is one of the best-preserved and most beautiful sections of the Limes route 2. Its course in this area coincides with that of a prehistoric mountain road.

Traces of the Limes structures between the small fort "Auf der Schanz" and the small fort Becheln
ORL Name / place Description / condition
KK Small fort "Auf der Schanz" see above
Wp 2/1 "On the Wintersberg" The approximately 214 m. ü. NN and about 140 meters above the Lahn watchtower was discovered in 1858 and exposed in 1860. It was a square stone tower with a side length of 5.49 meters. The stones of the approximately 0.76 meter thick masonry were extracted from the clay slate of the Wintersberg and carefully mortared. On the foundations of this original tower which now standing still there reconstruction was built in 1874 and the then German Emperor Wilhelm I paid. The replica of the tower on the Wintersberg is the first and oldest reconstruction of a Limes watchtower. Their design was based on the images of corresponding watchtowers on the Trajan Column in Rome .

The search for a wooden predecessor tower was not possible due to the structural conditions.

Wp 2/2 "At the Cross" Preserved wall sections of a square stone tower with a side length of 5.22 meters and a 0.74 meter thick wall made of mortared graywacke . The tower was about 20 meters behind the bottom of the trench of the Limes, which has a gap of at least four meters here.
Wp 2 / 2a Neuborn farm Due to the distance between Wp 2/2 and Wp 2/3 as well as the topographical conditions in this area, suspected but not proven tower location.
Wp 2/3 "Am Kirschenkopf" Clearly perceptible mound of rubble from a stone tower that was destroyed by robbery graves in the 19th century. Scientific excavations were not carried out after that. The tower point is around 42 meters behind the Limes ditch.
Wp 2/4 "In the brewing hedge" Recognizable rubble mounds of two stone towers in the middle of a prehistoric burial mound field . Excavations did not take place at this point, in the immediate vicinity of the "Forsthaus Wolfsbusch".
Wp 2/5 "On the Wolfsbusch"
Wp 2/5
Hardly noticeable traces of a square stone tower with a side length of 5.70 meters and a wall thickness of 0.90 meters. The facility was only 3.80 meters behind the top of the moat.

With its position just below the Wolfsbuschkuppe (415 m above sea level) at around 412 m above sea level. NN is Wp 2/5 the highest watchtower of this Limes section. The Limes line shows an angle of 150 degrees to the west, which, in addition to the altitude, may have been another reason for the positioning of the watchtower at this point.

Wp 2/6 east of Becheln
Wp 2/6
Perceptible rubble mound from two stone towers. Even before the start of the scientific investigations by the Reichs-Limeskommission, this site was in 1860 by a hobby researcher, the elementary school teacher Philipp Dönges (1825–1890) from Becheln, according to later knowledge, very unprofessional and incorrectly documented. During this time, Dönges excavated several tower sites in the corner between the Rhine and Lahn.

The two watchtowers with square ground plans were at a distance of 5.40 meters from each other and between 10.50 meters (western tower) and eight meters (eastern tower) from the crown of the Limeswall. The western stone tower, which had since been destroyed by road construction, had a side length of 5.30 meters with a wall thickness of 0.75 meters.

For the eastern stone tower, a side length of four meters with walls 0.75 meters thick could be determined. A pointed ditch discovered during follow-up examinations and the dating of the finds indicate an older, wooden predecessor tower at this point.

Wp 2/7 "In the Becheln Forest" Restored foundations of a stone tower twenty meters from the back of the wall. The tower had a square floor plan, the side length of which was 5.40 meters and the wall thickness was one meter. An older wooden tower could not be identified.
KK Small fort Becheln see main article small fort Becheln

Monument protection

The small fort on the Schanz 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.

See also

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b On the difficulties and the different views in detail: Robert Bodewig in: Ernst Fabricius, Felix Hettner, Oscar von Sarweyw (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreiches : Department B, Volume 1, Fort No. 4: Das Kastell Ems (1911), pp. 11-14.
  2. ^ Heinrich Hesse: On the history of the city of Ems. The pre-Roman, the Roman and the Merovingian times . OV, Bad Ems 1895.
  3. ^ August von Cohausen: The Roman border wall in Germany. Military and technical description of the same . Kreidel, Wiesbaden 1892. pp. 224 f.
  4. ^ With August von Cohausen: The Roman border wall in Germany. Military and technical description of the same . Kreidel, Wiesbaden 1892, p. 224.
  5. ↑ In Dahm, Archäologischer Anzeiger 1895, p. 214. Also with reservation in Dietwulf Baatz: Der Römische Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube. 4th edition, Gebr. Mann, Berlin 2000, p. 106.
  6. ^ With Robert Bodewig in: Ernst Fabricius, Felix Hettner, Oscar von Sarweyw (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roman Empire : Department B, Volume 1, Fort No. 4: Das Kastell Ems (1911), p. 13.
  7. ↑ Dietwulf Baatz: The Roman Limes. Archaeological excursions between the Rhine and the Danube. 4th edition, Gebr. Mann, Berlin 2000, p. 107.
  8. ^ After Margot Klee: The Limes between Rhine and Main. From the beginning of the Upper German Limes near Rheinbrohl to the Main near Grosskrotzenburg. Theiss, Stuttgart 1989, p. 52.
  9. ↑ ORL = numbering of the Limes structures according to the publication of the Reich Limes Commission on the O bergermanisch- R ätischen- L imes
  10. ↑ KK = unnumbered K linseed K astell
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ The measurement in Rhenish feet at the time explains the strangely precise dimensions. A Rhenish foot = 0.3138 meters.
  13. ↑ Wp 2/1, stone tower reconstruction, at 50 ° 19 ′ 23.9 ″  N , 7 ° 43 ′ 38.43 ″  E
  14. ↑ Wp 2/2, stone tower, at 50 ° 18 ′ 54.73 ″  N , 7 ° 43 ′ 19.65 ″  E
  15. ↑ Wp 2 / 2a at approximately 50 ° 18 '34.78 "  N , 7 ° 43' 4.21"  O
  16. ↑ Wp 2/3, stone tower, at 50 ° 18 ′ 15.63 ″  N , 7 ° 42 ′ 50.43 ″  E
  17. ↑ Wp 2/4, northern stone tower, at 50 ° 18 ′ 1.15 ″  N , 7 ° 42 ′ 57.84 ″  E , southern stone tower at 50 ° 18 ′ 0.44 ″  N , 7 ° 42 ′ 58.06 ″  O
  18. ↑ Wp 2/5, stone tower, at 50 ° 17 ′ 47.13 ″  N , 7 ° 43 ′ 8.78 ″  E
  19. ↑ Communications to the members of the Society for Nassau Antiquity and History Research 2, 1863, p. 1 (approximate date of the excavation).
  20. ^ C. Dönges: Philipp Dönges, teacher and folk writer (born September 26, 1825 in Nauroth, died November 21, 1890 in Dillenburg) . In: Altnassauischer Kalender 1915, pp. 59–60; Nassau Annals. Yearbook of the Society for Nassau Antiquity and Historical Research, Volumes 43–44, p. 411.
  21. ↑ Communications to the members of the Association for Nassau Antiquity and History Research 2, 1863, p. 1 (approximate dating of the excavation); P. 8.
  22. ↑ Wp 2/6, western stone tower, at 50 ° 17 '32.96 "  N , 7 ° 43' 39.06"  O
  23. ↑ = Wp 2/6, eastern stone tower, at 50 ° 17 '32.7 "  N , 7 ° 43' 39.68"  O
  24. ↑ Wp 2/7, stone tower, at 50 ° 17 ′ 22.21 ″  N , 7 ° 43 ′ 59.41 ″  E
  25. ↑ DschG or DSchPflG RP