Quadra corridor
With Quadraflur a checkerboard pattern embossed Roman will corridor form referred. This can be recognized in the landscape by the fact that the delimiting paths run in a straight line and meet at right angles. Such a chessboard-like corridor structure with a right-angled network of paths ( Decumanus and Cardo ) can be found mainly in the plains of Ufernoricum , but also in mountainous areas, for example in Thaur near Innsbruck. Depending on the local conditions, the side length of the squares defining this area varied between 220 and 230 m , resulting in an area of 5.3 ha .
The cross and cross plowing with the Roman hook plow is seen as a natural cause for this type of field . The furrow length customary at the time, the turn or actus, became the measure of the side length. This creates a square ( ager quadratus or just quadra ) with the mentioned side length in the area. Such a square corresponds to 18 jugera (= yoke).
Such landforms can be found in Bavaria (e.g. in Walchensee ), in several places in Tyrol (Thannrain near Stams , Rietz , Amras , Wörgl and Silz ), in Upper Austria ( Haining , Wels , Micheldorf ) or in Salzburg ( Juvavum ).
Quadra-corridors appear in the 3rd century and are in use until the end of the 4th century. The Roman agrimensors therefore only used this surveying method for a relatively short time.
The Quadraflur is related to the Centurienflur. This is also made up of squares and requires streets or paths to be laid out at right angles. Their size is, however, fifty hectares squares. Both types of corridor are related to tax measures. The Roman surveyor defined two main lines crossing at right angles with a groma as the center - the decumanus maximus (as a 40-foot-wide road), mostly in a west-east direction, and the cardo maximus (as a 20-foot-wide road) as north-south -Line. The Roman foot was 296.853 mm, 120 feet resulted in an act of about 35 m in length. The 20 Actus distance of one side of the square was measured with a 10 foot long measuring stick. Such a square comprised 100 heredia or 200 Jugera or 400 square actus , therefore it was called centuria and this corridor division after centuria “centuriation”.
" As mathematical structures of easily measurable form, Quadra and Centurie were excellently suited to guarantee a fair assessment of the rights flowing from the close relationship with the land and the duties towards neighbors in the fields, the business community, the landlord and the state, and certainly contributed to to make the tax pressure prevailing in the Roman provinces bearable - a timeless peculiarity of good cadastre. "
Web links
- Franz Brosch: Romanesque Quadrafluren in Ufernoricum. In: Upper Austrian Museum Association - Society for Regional Studies (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Volume 94, Linz 1949, PDF on ZOBODAT
- Friedrich Eigler: Early stages of the -ingen and -heim villages in Raetia north of the Danube. In: Settlement Research Archeology - History - Geography. Volume 17, Bonn 1999, pp. 181-221. Retrieved June 18, 2019.