Rückingen Fort
| Rückingen Fort | |
|---|---|
| Alternative name | Alteburg Castle |
| limes | ORL 22 ( RLK ) |
| Route (RLK) | Upper German Limes, route 5 (eastern weather route) |
| Dating (occupancy) | 110/125 to 260 AD |
| Type | Cohort fort |
| unit | Cohors III Dalmatarum pia fidelis |
| size | 140 × 180 m = 2.5 ha |
| Construction | Stone fort |
| State of preservation | The foundation walls of the fort bath have been preserved |
| place | Erlensee- Rückingen |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 9 '14.9 " N , 8 ° 58' 54.7" E |
| height | 112 m above sea level NHN |
| Previous | Small fort Langendiebach (north) |
| Subsequently | Neuwirtshaus small fort (south) |
The fort Rückingen (also Castle Old Castle or Altenburg ) is a former Roman fort at Rückingen, a district of Erlensee in Main-Kinzig-Kreis . The fort is located on the Wetterau line of the Upper German-Raetian Limes , which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005 .
location
Rückingen Fort was at the southeastern end of the Wetterau on the Kinzig . The first elevations on the opposite side of the river already belong geographically to the Spessart . To the south-east, along the Limes, the Bulau , the Doppelbiersumpfs and the Rote Lache swamp area . The Limes leaves the Wetterau here and runs through marshy terrain to the Main . The Kinzig flows 200 meters south of the fort. Since it was navigable for small ships in Roman times, this may have been the decisive factor in building the fort at this point. From here, large parts of the Wetterau Limes could be supplied via the Main and the Kinzig , since transport on ships was much more effective in antiquity than land transport.
The Limes runs 350 meters to the east approximately in a north-south direction, the main gate of the fort was oriented towards the ONO. A bridge, the stumps of oak stumps of which were found in 1883, ran parallel to the Limes over the Kinzig and led the associated patrol path across the river.
Today nothing is visible of the fort itself. Only today's Leipziger Strasse (L 3268) and Römerstrasse avoid the fort area in the west with slight curves - an indication that the fort walls could still be seen upright for a long time. The section of the former federal road probably goes back to a Roman road that formerly ran exactly towards the western gate.
Above all, the fort baths located south of the Kinzig remind of the fort, of which most of the foundation walls have been reconstructed. Today it is integrated into a children's playground (corner of Römerstraße / Am Römerbad). There are also information boards on the site.
history
The cohort fort was built between 110 and 125 AD and thus falls at the end of the reign of Emperor Trajan or the first years of Emperor Hadrian's reign . The end of the Hanau-Salisberg fort gives a term post quem for the time Rückingen was built , as the Limes was moved forward on the southeastern Wetterau stretch at the beginning of the 2nd century, which became known through the discovery of two small Roman fort in Hanau-Mittelbuchen .
In addition to the stone fort, which has been proven by excavations, a smaller, wooden predecessor building was suspected on the basis of early ceramic finds, which is still unoccupied.
The Cohors III Dalmatarum pia fidelis is documented as a unit in the fort , a 500 man strong unit on foot that was originally set up in the Balkans. Between 82 and 90 AD it came from the Lower Germanic army to the Roman province of Germania superior and is occupied here in quick succession at the garrison locations Wiesbaden ( Aquae Mattiacorum ), Rottweil and Oberscheidenthal , before it came to Rückingen, where it was until the fall of the Limes around 260 AD.
The civilian population settled in a camp village ( vicus ) north and west of the fort.
Fort and settlement were cleared or destroyed in the turmoil of the 3rd century with the abandonment of the Limes . Medieval Rückingen (first mentioned in 1173) was further to the east and the area remained uninhabited until the 20th century.
exploration
The first investigations of the fort bath took place between 1802 and 1804 under Prince Carl von Isenburg-Birstein , which even correctly interpreted the building as a “Roman bath”. Investigations of the grave fields west of the fort were carried out in 1872 by the Hanau History Association under Albert Duncker and Reinhard Suchier .
It was not until 1883 that excavations by the Hanau History Association under Otto Dahm and Georg Wolff led to the discovery of the stone fence. Only the stone-walled west wing of the staff building ( principia ) and the flag sanctuary were excavated from the interior . The other buildings seem to have been built mainly in half-timbered construction, which was difficult to identify and document with the excavation methods of the time. A follow-up investigation on the occasion of the development in 1969 confirmed these results.
Nevertheless, the Reich Limes Commission (RLK) used Dahms and Wolff's results for the Limes work in 1913.
Between 1951 and 1962, one of the two grave fields on both sides of Leipziger Strasse, with 325 excavated burials, was almost completely examined.
investment
Fort
The rectangular defense system of the fort measured about 140 × 180 meters on the 1.50 m wide outer walls, which corresponds to an area of 2.5 hectares. Rückingen Fort thus occupies a medium-sized position compared to other cohort fort. The wall was surrounded by two circumferential, 7 m wide pointed trenches, which were only 1.50 m deep, possibly because of the high groundwater level near the Kinzig.
The interior development could only be determined in small parts; large parts of it probably consisted of half-timbering. Above all, the principia in the middle of the fort should be mentioned here, which was made of massive stone. In addition, the flag sanctuary was uncovered during the excavations in 1883, which was noticeable through its round apse. Wolff found numerous bricks near the gate towers, many of them bearing the stamp of the 3rd Dalmater cohort.
Fort bath
Today only visible from the entire complex are the exposed foundation walls of the fort bath south of the fort towards the Kinzig. It has a size typical for cohort forts (length 33 m) and belongs to the so-called row type. The rooms of the bath are lined up in a row along a longitudinal axis according to their use. There were mostly water basins in the round apses.
The apodyterium , the undressing room , could not be proven . It probably consisted of a wooden or half-timbered construction on the north side of the complex. Also, not all of the walls that were excavated in the 19th century are visible today.
Vicus
A civilian settlement was formed to the west and north of the complex, in which mostly craftsmen, innkeepers, but also relatives of the soldiers lived. The vicus thus occupies the area along the (western) main arterial roads opposite the Limes, which presumably led to the vicus on the Hanau Salisberg or to Heldenbergen.
The cohort's brickworks must have been in the vicus itself, Wolff suspected it was northwest of the fort. In 1950, a cult image of Mithras was discovered on the edge of a Roman well in this area on the edge of today's Hainstrasse . There were more stone monuments in the backfilling of the well. A sanctuary of the cult, a so-called mithraeum , is likely to have been located in the fort vicus .
Limes course from Rückingen fort to Neuwirtshaus small fort
The Limes passes the Rückingen fort about 350 m to the east in an almost exact course from north to south. The pile stumps of a Roman bridge were found at the river crossing. South of the Kinzig, the Limes is hardly preserved in the meadow area, in smaller sections in the adjacent forest.
Larger sections of the Limes are visible again south of the Hanauer Kreuz junction parallel to the A 45 , especially south of the Doppelbierumpfes , where the Limes has one of the best conditions of preservation on the Wetterau line. The swamp was crossed by a stick path, in later times a wattle fence ran in front of it instead of the palisade.
| ORL | Name / place | Description / condition |
|---|---|---|
| ORL 22 | Rückingen Fort | see above |
| Wp 5/9 |
Crossing of the Limes over a branch of the pool near the presumed Wp 5/9. Facing south. At 1.50 m, the wall has one of the best state of preservation along the route. The trench to the left is only very faintly visible.
|
|
| Wp 5/10 | Remains of a stone tower ruin that were destroyed during the construction of the Hanau Cross. | |
| Wp 5/11 | Stone tower foundation proven, only digs from the excavations can be seen in the area. The double beer sump connects to the south. | |
| Wp 5/12 | "At the double beer sump" |
First guard post south of the swamp, of which the wooden tower site is believed to have been excavated and preserved in 1883. In 1984 the tower site was examined again by the Hanau History Association because it was affected by a robbery . The remains of the stone tower and the local course of the Limes at the double beer sump are clearly visible. The Limeswall jumps back a few meters to merge into the Knüppelweg that was formerly there. |
| Wp 5/13 | "Peat house" |
Two hills about one meter high and 12.50 to 13.00 m in diameter are faintly visible in the terrain. The northern hill belongs to a former stone tower, the southern one to an older wooden tower. The hills are only about five meters apart and about 30 meters from the Limes palisade moat. The traces of the former excavations are visible on both hills. For the square stone tower, excavations in the 19th century found a foundation with a side length of 5.50 m by 5.50 m and about one meter thick foundation walls. The rising masonry consisted of mortared limestone. |
| KK | Neuwirtshaus small fort | see separate article Small fort Neuwirtshaus |
Monument protection and remains
As part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the Rückingen Fort has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2005 . It is also a ground monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.
Most of the finds from the excavations were brought to the Steinheim Castle Museum by the Hanau History Association , including the Mithras cult image. Some finds, mainly ceramics, are exhibited in the local museum in the moated castle .
See also
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. 170.
- The same, in: Dietwulf Baatz and Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (eds.): The Romans in Hessen³ . Pp. 466-468. Licensed edition of the 1989 edition, Nikol, Hamburg 2002 ISBN 3-933203-58-9
- Hugo Birkner : Monuments of the Mithras cult from the Rückingen fort . Germania 30, 1952, pp. 349-361.
- Karl Dielmann, Peter Jüngling : The Roman burial ground in Erlensee-Rückingen. In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 30, 1988, p. 113 ff.
- Peter Jüngling: Erlensee-Rückingen. Roman Limes fort with bath and camp village. In: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany, 27. Hanau and the Main-Kinzig district . Pp. 115-119. Theiss, Stuttgart 1994. ISBN 3-8062-1119-1
- Ferdinand Kutsch : Hanau. Part 2 , Frankfurt am Main 1926 (catalogs of West and South German antiquity collections 5) pp. 134–142.
- Jörg Lindenthal: Cultural Discoveries. Archaeological monuments in Hessen. Jenior, Kassel 2004, p. 63f. ISBN 3-934377-73-4
Excavation report of the Reich Limes Commission :
- Georg Wolff : The Rueckingen fort. In: Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreiches Abt. B II, 2 No. 22 (1913).
Web links
- Rückingen fort on the side of the German Limes Commission
Remarks
- ↑ ORL = numbering of the Limes structures according to the publication of the Reich Limes Commission on the O bergermanisch- R ätischen- L imes
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ KK = unnumbered K linseed K astell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Eckoldt: Shipping on small rivers in Central Europe in Roman times and the Middle Ages. Writings of the German Maritime Museum 14, Oldenburg, Hamburg, Munich 1980 pp. 84–86.
- ↑ D. Baatz in Baatz / Hermann 1989 (see list of references), p. 467.
- ↑ Marcus Reuter : The small Roman fort of Hanau-Mittelbuchen and the course of the eastern Wetterau Limes under Domitian. In: E. Schallmayer (Ed.), Limes Imperii Romani . Contributions to the specialist colloquium “Limes World Heritage Site” in November 2001 in Lich-Arnsburg. Saalburg-Schriften 6, 2004 (Bad Homburg v. D. H. 2004), pp. 97-106. Also internet source ( memento of the original from November 15, 2016 in the internet archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Barbara Oldenstein-Pferdehirt : The Roman auxiliary troops north of the Main. Research on the Upper Germanic Army I. In: Yearbook of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums 30, 1983, pp. 303-348, especially p. 337.
- ↑ Albert Duncker, Reinhard Suchier: The Römercastell and the Todtenfeld in the Kinzigniederung near Rückingen. Hanau 1873 ( communications from the Hanau district association for Hessian history and regional studies 4 ).
- ^ Georg Wolff, Otto Dahm: The Roman border wall near Hanau with the forts at Rückingen and Marköbel. Orphanage, Hanau 1885 ( reports from the Hanau district association for Hessian history and regional studies 9 ).
- ↑ Birkner 1952 (see list of references).
- ↑ D. Baatz in Baatz / Herrmann 1989 p. 412 f.
- ^ Peter Jüngling : Investigations on the Roman watchtower 5/12 in the Hanauer Bulau . Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 30, 1988 pp. 147–155; Internet source .
- ↑ ORL A, Volume 2.1, pp. 168f; Limit development plan p. 607.
