Small fort "Auf dem Pohl near Kemel"
The small forts "Auf dem Pohl bei Kemel" are two former Roman garrison types on the Upper Germanic Limes , which since 2005 has had the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The remnants of the military camp are now located as ground monuments on the northern edge of Kemel , a district of the municipality of Heidenrod in the Hessian Rheingau-Taunus district .
Location and research history
At Kemel the Limes changes its course and swings in a large radius to the east from the previously followed direction, which tends to lead to the southeast. On the "Pohl bei Kemel" it reaches its highest point at 537 meters in the section between Bad Ems and the Aar . There is an excellent all-round view that extends from the “gray head” at the Holzhausen fort to almost the Zugmantel fort and far into the Limes area. The watershed between Aar and Wisper also runs at this point . Due to the exposed topographical location, this place is also exposed to very rough and cold winds, which may have been one reason why the later Kemel numerus fort was built in a sheltered but also somewhat deeper hollow a good 200 m further south.
In today's settlement geographical picture, the soil monuments are located under the agricultural areas north of the village of Kemel, between the outskirts and the federal road 260 .
The forts of Kemel were discovered in 1898 by Hans Lehner , the regional route commissioner of the Reichs-Limeskommission (RLK), and archaeologically excavated in two excavation campaigns (1898 and 1899) and a smaller excavation (1900) . In retrospect, Lehner's achievement can hardly be overestimated, since with the excavation methods of the late 19th century it was by no means a matter of course to detect and correctly interpret the traces of wood-earth forts, which essentially consisted of soil discoloration. The findings in the area of the largely overbuilt and profoundly disturbed numerus fort Kemel also represented an excavation challenge for the time, which Lehner solved brilliantly.
A small selection of the finds can be found in the Limes information center of the Rheingau-Taunus district at the Georgenthal estate .
Findings
Both small forts are simple wood-earth entrenchments that preceded the stone numerus fort Kemel , a good 200 m to the south . The forts overlap at the edge, with the larger, south-facing camp overlapping the smaller, north-facing camp.
Older hill
Map with all coordinates: | Small fort "Auf dem Pohl near Kemel" Older Schanze |
|
|---|---|
| limes | ORL NN ( RLK ) |
| Route (RLK) |
ORL , route 2 (western Taunus route) |
| Dating (occupancy) | ( Domitian or) Trajan to Hadrian |
| Type | Small fort |
| unit | Unknown vexillatio |
| size | 39 m × 39.5 m |
| Construction | Wood earth |
| State of preservation | Ground monument |
| place | Kemel / Heidenrod |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 10 ′ 4 " N , 8 ° 0 ′ 59.6" E |
| height | 537 m above sea level NHN |
| Previous | Small fort "Auf dem Dörsterberg" |
| Subsequently | Small fort Adolfseck (east) |
| Backwards | ORL 7: Kemel fort (south; chronologically following) |
The older ski jump was at a distance of 15.5 m south of the Limes trench (bottom of the trench). It was an approximately square earthwork with sides 39 m by 39.5 m. The camp was surrounded by a double pointed ditch with strongly rounded corners. The two trenches bordered hard against each other and were each four meters wide. No traces of a palisade or any other type of fencing were found on the inside of the trench. With its only gate, the facility faced northeast, towards the Limes. At this point the double trench was interrupted by an earth dam over a width of 4.50 m (inner trench) and 5.10 m (outer trench). Faint post marks in this area indicated the construction of a wooden gate.
Almost in the center of the complex was a wooden, almost square but slightly angled structure. The length of its front was 14.80 m, that of its rear 14.50 m. The left side was 13.60 m long, the right 14.25 m long. The front of the building opened to the northeast towards the camp gate. A total of seven rooms are grouped around a central courtyard. Three rooms each about 4 m by 4 m were located on the sides, and a larger one with internal dimensions of 4.80 m by 5.50 m was located in the middle in front of the rear. The latter is likely to have been the room of the commander of the small unit, a vexillatio that was about the size of half a centurion . The name of the troop has not been passed down.
The camp showed no signs of destruction, rather the evenness of the trench backfilling spoke in favor of a planned evacuation. The finds assign the facility to the last quarter of the first century AD. It was replaced in the middle of the first half of the first century by the younger ski jump immediately to the south, whose trenches cut it in the area of the south corner.
Younger hill
| Small fort "Auf dem Pohl near Kemel" (Younger Schanze) | |
|---|---|
| limes | ORL NN ( RLK ) |
| Route (RLK) |
ORL , route 2 (western Taunus route) |
| Dating (occupancy) | Hadrianic to Antonine |
| Type | Small fort |
| unit | Unknown vexillatio |
| size | 56 m × 46 m |
| Construction | Wood earth |
| State of preservation | Ground monument |
| place | Kemel / Heidenrod |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 10 ′ 2.8 " N , 8 ° 0 ′ 58.3" E |
| height | 537 m above sea level NHN |
| Previous | Small fort "Auf dem Dörsterberg" |
| Subsequently | Small fort Adolfseck (east) |
| Backwards | ORL 7: Kemel fort (south; chronologically following) |
The younger ski jump was a little further behind the summit of the “Pohl”, on its southern slope, about 46.50 m from the bottom of the Limes ditch. Their investigation could not be carried out to the same extent as that of the older ski jump, since at the time of the excavations a large part of the western fort area was used for agriculture. The fortifications, also made of wood-earth construction, took up a rectangular area with the aspect ratios 56 m long by 46 m wide. This military camp was also surrounded by a double pointed ditch, which, due to surface erosion over the centuries, could only be identified very weakly in places. The greatest remaining width was measured at 3.20 m, the greatest remaining depth at 1.88 m. A palisade was identified on the inside of the trench using a palisade trench 50 m wide and 50 cm to 60 cm deep. With its only gate, the facility faced northeast, towards the Limes. At this point the double ditch was interrupted by an earth dam, the width of which could no longer be precisely determined due to the overlap with the older fort and the erosion of the soil. With reservation, the width of the dam can be calculated at around 5 m for the inner ditch and around 8.50 m for the outer one.
As with the older ski jump, the interior of the younger ski jump was dominated by a wooden building, which was, however, much larger than the first. Here, too, the building opened to the northeast, towards the camp gate. A presumably partially roofed inner courtyard was flanked on the side by two suites of six rooms each, which must be addressed as contubernia (communal rooms ). With the exception of one, the rooms were approximately the same size, measuring 5.20 m by 4 m to 4.50 m. One room deviated from this scheme with only 5.20 m by 3.00 m. Its floor was completely covered with rubble. In front of the middle of the back of the building was a much larger room, which was addressed as the commandant's apartment. In analogy to comparable accommodations in other Roman military camps, a troop of centurion strength can be assumed. The name of the garrison is not known. The fort was built around the middle of the first half of the second century AD and was replaced after the middle of this century by the numerus fort located further back.
There was a square rainwater cistern in each of the north-west and north-east corners of the camp. Of these cisterns, however, only the second named can be assigned to the younger hill, as the other one was covered by the wall of the camp defense and must therefore be older.
Monument protection
The small fort "Auf dem Pohl bei Kemel" and the adjacent Limes facilities have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage as a section of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian 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.
Limes course between the fort near Kemel and the small fort Adolfseck
From Kemel, where it swings in a large radius from its previous south-eastern direction to the east, the Limes initially moves in an irregular course to the valley of the Aar , which was secured with the small fort Adolfseck . It runs exclusively through wooded or agricultural areas north of Heimbach and Lindschied .
| ORL | Name / place | Description / condition |
|---|---|---|
| KK | "On the Pohl near Kemel" | see separate article Small fort "Auf dem Pohl bei Kemel" |
| Wp 2/49 | Presumed location of a watchtower, which may have taken its position after the small fort in Kemel was abandoned. The site has not yet been proven archaeologically. | |
| Wp 2/50 | "At Kemel" | Tower point |
| Wp 2 / 50a | Due to the average distances between Limes watchtowers, a suspected but so far not archaeologically proven tower location. | |
| Wp 2/51 | "At the gallows head" | In the 19th century the rubble mound of the tower was still visible on the northern slope of the Galgenberg. Lehner uncovered the stone tower foundation for the Reichs-Limes Commission in 1898, but hardly any documents have come to light from this investigation, as he only carried out the work very briefly. In 1952 a coin minted in Rome 119/138 was obviously discovered on the gallows head. The watchtower, built around 13 meters from the large Limes ditch, was on a natural knoll formed by Taunus quartzite . From 1965 to 2002, the site was badly damaged by the military use of anti-aircraft units and was completely removed in the course of the construction of an industrial site for solar power and wind energy generation, which was pushed ahead from May 2012. Only a 1:10 scale model of the tower, which was built according to the specifications of the watchtower reconstructed near Idstein-Dasbach, is reminiscent of the old structure. |
| Wp 2/52 | "Galgenhof" | The tower part of a stone tower is clearly recognizable as a rubble mound. |
| Wp 2/53 | "On the Silberberg" | Recognizable rubble mound of the tower site of a stone tower. |
| Wp 2/54 | "North of Lindschied" | The tower point of a stone tower that can be located through the surrounding stone debris. |
| Wp 2/55 | "At the Seifenberg" | Tower site of a stone tower. |
| " Justinus rock " | Boulder with the ancient inscription IANVA
RIVS IVSTINVS Presumably, a Roman auxiliary soldier (or legionnaire) who was on guard duty at the Limes or worked in a nearby quarry immortalized himself with a graffito. The stone is located around 200 m north of the Limes. |
|
| KK | Small fort Adolfseck | see main article Small fort Adolfseck |
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
- Dietwulf Baatz: Kemel. Numerus fort and two small fort . In: Dietwulf Baatz and Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: The Romans in Hessen. Licensed edition of the 1982 edition, pp. 372–373. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9
- E. Fabricius, F. Hettner, O. von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreich. Section A, Volume 1: Lines 1 and 2 (1936).
- 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, especially p. 79. (Saalburg-Schriften 6)
- Margot Klee : The Roman Limes in Hessen. History and sites of the UNESCO World Heritage. Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2232-0 , pp. 74 f.
- Margot Klee: The Limes between Rhine and Main. Theiss, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8062-0276-1
- Hans Lehner in the series Der Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreiches (Eds. Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey ): Department B, Volume 1, Fort No. 7: The Kemel Fort (1901)
Web links
- The Kemel forts 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
- ↑ KK = unnumbered K linseed K astell
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ At 50 ° 9 '50.97 " N , 8 ° 1' 25.72" O .
- ↑ At 50 ° 9 '50.84 " N , 8 ° 1' 53.38" O .
- ↑ Joachim Gorecki, Hans-Werner Ritter, Maria Radnoti-Alföldi (ed.): The coins found in the Roman period in Germany . Department 5, Hessen, Vol. 1.1 Wiesbaden, Mann, Berlin 1994; ISBN 3-7861-1747-0 , p. 36.
- ↑ Third pillar in the Heidenrod Natural Energy Park , online offer of the Rheingau-Echoes from March 20, 2014
- ↑ At 50 ° 9 '49.16 " N , 8 ° 2' 17.23" O . Source: Entry on Limes watchtower Wp 2/51 near Heidenrod-Kemel in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Association , accessed on July 20, 2017.
- ↑ At 50 ° 9 '44.57 " N , 8 ° 2' 48.58" O .
- ↑ At 50 ° 9 '46.68 " N , 8 ° 3' 17.66" O .
- ↑ At 50 ° 9 '57.38 " N , 8 ° 3' 47.17" O .
- ↑ At 50 ° 9 '56.6 " N , 8 ° 4' 15.46" O .
