Small fort "Auf dem Dörsterberg"

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Small fort "Auf dem Dörsterberg"
Alternative name Small fort Dörsterberg
Wp 2/43
limes ORL NN ( RLK )
Route (RLK) Upper German Limes ,
route 2 (western Taunus route)
Dating (occupancy) until 259/260 AD
Type Small fort
unit unknown vexillatio
size a) 23 m × 25 m = 575 m²
b) 15 m × 18 m = 270 m²
Construction a) wood-stone
b) stone
State of preservation noticeable traces
place Heidenrod - Huppert
Geographical location 50 ° 11 '50.9 "  N , 7 ° 59' 42.1"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 11 '50.9 "  N , 7 ° 59' 42.1"  E
height 442  m above sea level NHN
Previous ORL 6: Holzhausen Fort , (northwest)
Subsequently Small fort "Auf dem Pohl near Kemel"
ORL 7: Kemel fort
(both south)

The small fort "Auf dem Dörsterberg" (often abbreviated only small fort Dörsterberg , in the documentation of the Reich Limes Commission also listed as watchtower Wp 2/43 ) was a Roman border fort of the Upper German Limes , which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005 . The former military camp is now a ground monument between the municipalities of Laufenselden and Huppert , both districts of the municipality of Heidenrod in the Hessian Rheingau-Taunus district .

location

The soil monument that can still be seen in the area is located below the summit on the slope of the Dörsterberg, which slopes down to the south. From here there was a very good line of sight, reaching west to the watchtower Wp 2/41 and to the east or SSE to the small fort "Auf dem Pohl bei Kemel" .

Research history

The former Roman fortification was discovered by Ludwig Pallat in 1897 . In 1902 the archaeological excavations began by the Reichs-Limeskommission, but were not completed on schedule due to the unexpected death of Felix Hettner .

Findings

In the course of the archaeological investigations, several construction phases could be differentiated. The older of the two plants was built using wood and stone. It was surrounded by a double pointed ditch. The outer trench was still 1.45 meters wide and 1.10 meters deep in the natural ground. The interior reached a depth of 1.80 meters with a width of 2.25 meters. The fort area enclosed by the trenches had the shape of a slightly irregular square with rounded corners and sides of around 23 × 25 meters. So the inside area was about 575 square meters. Immediately (without any noteworthy berm ) on the inside of the inner ditch there were traces of palisades and walls of the former defense. The excavation methods of the time could not be used to determine whether these were two distinct construction phases, an earthwork with wooden palisade and a stone walled fort, but it is considered likely. Behind this fence was an earth wall, which had already been heavily worn at the time of the excavations and which had originally supported the battlement.

Inside the older facility, shifted a little to the south and rotated from the axis of the older camp, was a rectangular wall with rounded corners. The side lengths were 18 × 15 meters. Traces of a stone building and a few post holes within the wall suggest that the inner area was formerly built on.

The Limes palisade passes the camp in a northerly direction, about 20 m from the outer edge of the outer trench.

Nothing is known about the occupation of the fort. It should have been the vexillatio of a larger auxiliary group or a legion. The fort came to an end in connection with the abandonment of the Limes by 259/260 AD ( Limesfall ).

  • Findings and modern presentation

  • Floor plan of the small fort Dörsterberg (1898)

  • The complex has been preserved as a ground monument (2010).

  • The former enclosing walls are marked with wooden beams (2010).

  • Reconstruction of the Limes Palisade at the small fort (2010)

Limes course between the small forts "Auf dem Dörsterberg" and "Auf dem Pohl bei Kemel"

On its way between the two small forts, the Limes initially moves at an almost constant height to the west-southwest until it reaches the watchtower Wp 2/45. It essentially runs through the agricultural areas north of Huppert. At Wp 2/45 it bends sharply to the south and runs first through the agricultural areas east of Huppert, then through forest and finally through the fields north of Kemel. After crossing a shallow depression east of Huppert, it rises significantly on its way to the small fort "Auf dem Pohl bei Kemel". Overall, the difference in altitude between the two forts is around 95 meters. As in Wp 2/35, the Limes continued to consist only of the palisade until Wp 2/47; the Limes moat was not built here.

Traces of the Limes structures between the small forts on the Dörsterberg and Auf dem Pohl near Kemel
ORL Name / place Description / condition
KK "On the Dörsterberg" see above
Wp 2/44 "Im Gewann Dicker Busch"
SS 2/44 was marked by the Heimatverein Heidenrod
No longer visible tower part of a stone tower that was discovered and examined by Ludwig Pallat and Hans Lehner in 1898 . The tower, made with unusually large slabs of slate, had a square floor plan. With a side length of 4.50 meters, the thickness of its walls was 1.12 meters. The Limes palisade passed the tower to the north, at a distance of about ten meters. During geophysical investigations in winter 2006/2007 there were indications that the tower might have been surrounded by a moat.
Wp 2/45 "On the Elbert" The stone tower excavated in 1898 was strategically located in an exposed position. Here the Limes changed its course abruptly and, coming from WNW, bends in a southerly direction. On this hilltop with its 460 meters of altitude, the view extended to WNW over the Dörsterberg to Wp 2/41 and the "Grauen Kopf". To the south, the view extended to the small fort on the Pohl near Kemel, in a south-easterly direction to the crests with the watchtowers Wp 2/50 and Wp 2/51, still east of the fort Kemel . The stone tower, which had been identified by Pallat at this point in 1898, had already erupted heavily at the time of the Reich Limes Commission, as its material had been used to fortify the dirt road passing here. Through geophysical prospecting in winter 2006/2007, the older wooden tower, already suspected by Pallat, which was surrounded by a double ring ditch, could be detected. At least one of the trenches is exposed on the side facing the Limes and forms a footbridge. The diameter of the tower point to the outer ring trench is about 22 meters. Today, a paved ring on the dirt road marks the outer moat of the stone tower.
Wp 2/46 "Im Gewann Rödern" The site of the tower was only suspected by the Reichs-Limeskommission due to the surface concentration of stones in an otherwise stone-free area, but has not been archaeologically proven. Even geophysical prospecting in winter 2006/2007 did not provide evidence of a tower location in the suspected area.
Wp 2/47 "At the Erlenhof"
ORL A 02 tab 11 pic 01a Wp 47 Lage.jpg
ORL A 02 tab 11 pic 01b Wp 47 Grundriss.jpg
WP 2/47 in 2010
Very clearly visible tower part of a stone tower. It is the best preserved tower in this section of the Limes, although the masonry that was preserved by the Imperial Limes Commission has since crumbled.

The tower, which was built from partly lying, partly inclined slabs in clay mortar, had an approximately equilateral floor plan of 3.97 to 4.00 meters, but was not laid out exactly at right angles. The thickness of the walls varied between 0.55 and 0.70 meters. Four post holes with a diameter of about 0.45 meters in the inner corners of the tower were addressed as those of a possible wooden predecessor building. The tower was built without compensating for the gently sloping terrain and was not surrounded by a drainage ditch. Its distance from the Limes palisade to the east was 39.50 meters.

Wp 2/48 "On the Kemeler Heide"
ORL A 02 tab 11 pic 02a Wp 48 Lage.jpg
ORL A 02 tab 11 pic 02b Wp 48 Grundriss.jpg
No longer preserved tower part of a stone tower, which was identified by Pallat in 1897 and excavated in 1898. At that time, the rising masonry was still up to a height of 80 cm. The tower had an irregular floor plan of 4.22 / 3.89 meters (NS) by 3.97 / 4.15 meters (OW). The wall thickness varied between 0.57 and 0.65 meters. Inside the crooked corners were post holes with a high concentration of charcoal. On the outside of the corners, depressions 0.57 meters in diameter were found, which were found on the outside of the corners. They can be addressed as the remains of scaffolding. Inside, the grown soil was followed by a fine layer of clay, over it a culture layer and over it a layer of fire debris, which was closed off at the top by the humus cover. A (drainage) ditch could not be found. The distance to the Limes palisade passing the tower in an easterly direction was 22.12 meters, and to the middle of the Limes ditch 18.40 meters.
Wp 2/49 = KK "On the Pohl near Kemel" see main article small fort "Auf dem Pohl bei Kemel"

Monument protection

The small fort on the Dörsterberg and the adjacent Limes facilities have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage as a section of the Upper German-Raetian Limes since 2005 . In addition, they are ground monuments within the meaning of the Hessian Monument Protection Act . 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. 114 f.
  • Dietwulf Baatz: Limes. Western Taunus route (Rheingau-Taunus district). Line 2, Wp 35–55 and Line 3. Wp 1–35 . In: Dietwulf Baatz and Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: The Romans in Hessen. Licensed edition of the 1982 edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , p. 378.
  • 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).
  • Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich . Section A, Volume 1: The routes 1 and 2 (1936), pp. 75 ff. As well as panels 10, Fig. 7 and 11, Fig. 1 and 2.
  • Margot Klee : The Roman Limes in Hessen. History and sites of the UNESCO World Heritage. Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2232-0 , p. 67 f.
  • Margot Klee: The Limes between Rhine and Main. Theiss, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8062-0276-1 , p. 62 f.
  • Markus Scholz : Reduction from the late Limes period versus medieval installation in Limes forts. 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. 135-145. (Saalburg writings 6).

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ W ach p ost, watchtower. The number before the slash denotes the Limes section, the number after the slash denotes the respective watchtower.
  2. ↑ ORL = numbering of the Limes structures according to the publication of the Reich Limes Commission on the O bergermanisch- R ätischen- L imes
  3. ↑ KK = unnumbered K linseed K astell
  4. ↑ Wp 2/44 at 50 ° 11 '40.03 "  N , 8 ° 0' 21.26"  O . Source: Entry on Limes watchtower Wp 2/44 at Heidenrod-Huppert in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Association , accessed on July 20, 2017.
  5. ^ Egon Schallmayer : Geophysical prospection on the Limes in Hesse . In: Andreas Thiel (ed.): New research on the Limes . Theiss, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8062-2251-7 , (Contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 3), p. 60 f.
  6. ↑ Wp 2/45 at 50 ° 11 '32.08 "  N , 8 ° 0' 50.38"  O . Source: Entry on Limes watchtower station Wp 2/45 at Heidenrod-Huppert in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Association , accessed on July 20, 2017.
  7. ^ A b Egon Schallmayer : Geophysical prospection on the Limes in Hesse . In: Andreas Thiel (ed.): New research on the Limes . Theiss, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8062-2251-7 , (Contributions to the Limes World Heritage Site, 3), pp. 61–63.
  8. ↑ Wp 2/46 at approximately 50 ° 11 '12.02 "  N , 8 ° 0' 44.4"  O .
  9. ↑ Wp 2/47 at 50 ° 10 '44.77 "  N , 8 ° 0' 33.52"  O .
  10. ↑ Wp 2/48 at 50 ° 10 '24.36 "  N , 8 ° 0' 46.44"  O .