Matronae Austriahenae

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The Austriahenae are matrons that have been passed down through around 160 inscribed documents on consecration stones at the site in Morken-Harff .

Discovery

As part of the expansion of the Rhenish open-cast mine in 1958, a few matron stones were discovered and secured on the embankment of a dry old arm of the Erft about 150 m east of the Morken parish church, and in the following days the Rhenish monuments office discovered numerous over an area of ​​30 × 5 m Finds secured and recovered. In addition to around 160 fragmented consecration stones with incomplete and rudimentary inscriptions, nine complete stones bearing inscription were found, eight of which were donated to the Austriahenae. The location and condition of the finds show that they were used as building material for a ford in late antiquity and that they were carried there from the original location of a presumed matron shrine as spolia .

Inscriptions (selection)

The complete as well as fragmented inscriptions and consecration stones testify to the social and cultural conditions in the dating period from 100 AD to 250 AD in the region by the donors. Some stones were donated by members of the legion, i.e. the military. The stones testify to the integration into the public Roman culture through the representative adoption of the Roman naming custom of the Trinomina, whose pseudo- gentile names, however, prove the indigenous Germanic or Gallo-romantic origin. Two stones bear common Germanic short names m. Leub-o and f. Leub-a , which are well documented by later West Germanic runic inscriptions from the Merovingian period. In 29 inscriptions, consecration formulas from the revelation inscriptions were used ex imperio , i.e. at the behest of the matrons (in a dream). In two inscriptions, the generic name deviates from the form Matronae and calls the Austriahenae Matres - a form that appears mostly for ethnographic epithets ( Matres Suebae ... = the Suebian M. ) in the inscriptions of the Lower Rhine region. Furthermore, the dedication to the M. Austriatium testifies to a community of founders organized in a civitas . According to the inscription, the Matronae Austriahenae are the second most frequently documented matrons in the region of Germania inferior after the Matronae Vacallinehae

M (arcus) Iulius / Vassile / ni f (ilius) Leu / bo Matro / nis Austri / atium v ​​(otum) s (olvit) l (ibens) m (erito)
Matronis Aus / triahenis M (arcus) / M (arius) Cels / us ex imperio / ipsarum s (olvit) l (ibens) / m (erito)

nickname

Günter Neumann interprets the epithet as a derivation from a place or from a location or settlement. He therefore puts the first member of the name in Germanic austra- = east and compares it with ancient and early medieval toponyms of Germania. He adds the Austriahenae to a group of topical matrons such as the Mahalinehae , Fachinehae , Textumeihae , to which Robert Nedoma recently also counts the Matronae Grusduahenae .

Theo Vennemann derives the name from a Gallo-Roman constructed place name Austriacum (* Austri-ac-in-ae > Austriahenae ), which he traces back to a body of water / river name * Austra as an extension of Neumann's approach . Vennemann documents its inhabitants, or the civitas, as Latinized, inscribed Austriates and refers to the ancient site of the formation of the current place name from the nearby village of Oestrich .

See also

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ piston 2 = AE 1962, 00099, piston 3 = AE 1962, 00100, piston 4 = AE 1962, 00101, piston 6 = AE 1962, 00103 , piston 8 = AE 1962, 00105 , piston 9 = AE 1962, 00106
  2. ↑ Kolbe No. 17, 43, 103 by legionaries of the 30th, the 1st and an unknown legion. Kolbe suspects the 6th, 7th or 8th legion.
  3. ↑ Next to Kolbe No. 5, No. 27: [Matronis] / [Austriahe] n / [abus] Gavalli / [ani] a Leub / [3] a et Iulia / [3] nta ex / imperio online . Robert Nedoma: Personal names in South Germanic runic inscriptions. Studies on old Germanic onomastics I, 1, 1. (= Indo-European library. 3rd row: Investigations ). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 978-3-8253-1646-4 . No. 54 ff.
  4. ↑ Kolbe No. 53 online , 124 online
  5. ↑ piston no. 5 = AE 1962, 00102
  6. ↑ Piston No. 7 = AE 1962, 00104
  7. ↑ For example the North Sea island in the German bay, resp. of the Frisian Islands Austeravia (Plin. Nat. hist. 4.97) more at: Corinna Scheungraber, Friedrich E. Grünzweig: The old Germanic toponyms and un-Germanic toponyms Germania. A guide to their etymology. Fassbaender, Vienna 2014, pp. 85f.