Roman cellar (Oberkochen)
The Roman cellar is the remainder of a Roman building from the 2nd or 3rd century AD. It was discovered, excavated and conserved in 1971 in the "Weilfeld" district east of Oberkochen and is an archaeological monument in Baden-Württemberg . It is believed that there was a road station on the Roman road through the Brenz-Kocher valley.
Historical background
In Roman times, today's Oberkochen was in the immediate hinterland of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes , which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005 . The part of the Limes there was established around 160 AD , as dendrochronological studies on the remains of palisade wood near Schwabsberg have shown.
The Limestor Dalkingen , possibly converted into a triumphal gate under Emperor Caracalla in connection with his Germanic campaign in the summer of 213, is located just twenty kilometers north of Oberkochen. The Limes fell no later than AD 259/260 due to ongoing internal political unrest, heavy fighting in the east of the empire and under pressure from the Teutons .
Aalen fort was located seven kilometers north of Oberkochen, downstream above the valley of the Kocher . This was the largest Roman military site on the Upper German-Rhaetian Limes. The Ala II Flavia , an elite mounted unit, was stationed here to protect the Limes and the province of Raetia over a wide area. Today the Limesmuseum Aalen is located there , a branch museum of the Archaeological State Museum Baden-Württemberg and at the same time the largest museum on the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes.
Before the Ala II Flavia was relocated to Aalen around 160 AD, it was stationed from 110 AD in what is now Heidenheim in the Aquileia Fort. Heidenheim is about fourteen kilometers south of Oberkochen in the Brenz valley .
The Brenz flows into the Danube around forty kilometers southeast of Oberkochen near Lauingen , where the Apollo Grannus Temple is located. It is likely that Emperor Caracalla asked the god Apollo Grannus to cure his diseases there in 212.
Brenz and Kocher form the only valley that goes in a north-south direction across the Swabian Alb and enables effortless traversal of this low mountain range. Therefore, in Roman times, a road led through what is now Oberkochen. It is obvious that Emperor Caracalla marched through the Brenz-Kocher Valley on the occasion of his campaign against the Teutons in 213 on the way to the Limes crossing near Dalkingen.
Discovery, excavation and conservation
A farmer from Oberkochen had tried unsuccessfully since 1966 to draw public attention to the remains of the wall, which were in a field on the eastern outskirts of the Weilfeld district. In 1971 he turned to a teacher at the Ernst-Abbe-Gymnasium in Oberkochen, who, in coordination with the Baden-Württemberg State Office for Monument Preservation, immediately carried out an excavation with students.
Within a few weeks, the cellar of a Roman building was uncovered. In the next two years it was preserved and surrounded by a Tuscan -looking green area that is freely accessible.
The basement has an almost square floor plan of around 5 × 5 meters. It is accessible via a kinking access ramp and has two light shafts and three wall niches with a semicircular end. During the excavation work, among other things, richly decorated terra sigillata shards, simple ceramic shards, an almost completely preserved small plate, a Roman security key, Roman concrete, parts of the screed, the imprint of a dog's paw in a brick fragment and grain that was made from more than twenty different types of grain had been mixed together. These finds are exhibited today in the Oberkochen local history museum.
Plate, grain mix
Painted plasterwork
Imprint of a Roman dog's paw
Security key
From painted plaster fragments, one can conclude that the walls above the cellar consisted of half-timbered and were plastered with a layer of finely ground limestone fragments, sand and mortar. Above it was a smooth lime line, which was painted with red and black-brown decorative stripes.
An exact dating attempt on the basis of all these finds has not yet been undertaken. The building must have been in connection with the Limes and will therefore have been built by the Romans sometime from the middle of the second century AD. It could have been used by them until the second half of the third century.
In 1971 it was assumed that it was the cellar of an outbuilding of a Roman estate ( villa rustica ), from which future soil investigations would reveal further foundations.
A few decades after the excavation, damage to the masonry increased. The walls were cracked and stones broke out. In 2009, the cause turned out to be that the original Roman mortar grouting had been grouted with a material containing a lot of cement during the conservation work. This created a water-impermeable layer, which prevented the dammed water behind the wall from flowing away and which caused the damage through its pressure.
Geophysical survey of the area
Geophysical measurements by the State Office for Monument Preservation Baden-Württemberg in 2011 refuted the theory of the Roman estate. With ground penetrating radar , measuring lines of almost forty-five kilometers were scanned and the remains of buildings were searched for at a depth between twenty and one hundred and seventy centimeters.
All that was found was the foundation of a small bathhouse. This was seventy yards north of the basement. A hypocausted caldarium (warm bath) with an extension of a hot water basin, a frigidarium (cold bath) and traces of the praefurnium (boiler room) could be seen. The apodyterium (changing room) and other buildings were probably made of wood, which also applies to possible water pipes. It is obvious that the basins of the Edlenbach , which rises not far above the Römerkeller, were fed with water.
It is now assumed that the cellar belonged to the main building of a street station that was much smaller than a villa rustica , i.e. a kind of rest area that was used to supply passers-by with food and drink, for overnight stays and for personal hygiene.
Coins found at the origin of the stove
In 1998 a Roman silver coin was donated to the Heimatverein Oberkochen, which is said to have been found at the origin of the Black Cooker in the south of Oberkochen. It was a Roman denarius that was originally minted in AD 158/159, but was already heavily worn as a result of years of use. The coin fits into the time horizon in which the Roman cellar is also classified. It also fits in with a publication from 1953, in which it was already mentioned that Roman coins were found at "the Kocherquellen". All this gives rise to speculation that there was a Roman spring shrine at the origin of the Kocher.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg, Landesvermessungsamt Baden-Württemberg (Ed.): Archaeological Monuments in Baden-Württemberg , Stuttgart 2002, p. 224.
- ↑ a b c d e f Dietrich Bantel: News from the Romans in Oberkochen. Römerkeller is not "Villa Rustica" but a street station. Kocher origin = Roman spring sanctuary? on heimatverein-oberkochen.de.
- ↑ Hans Ulrich Nuber, Gabriele Seitz: The milestones of Caracalla from the year 212 AD on the road to (Aquae) Phoebianae / Faimingen. In: Jörg Biel, Jörg Heiligmann, Dirk Krausse (Hrsg.): Landesarchäologie. Festschrift for Dieter Planck on his 65th birthday. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-8062-2331-6 , pp. 303-321, here pp. 305 f. and p. 309 f.
- ↑ a b Dietrich Bantel: Oberkochen until it was first mentioned in a document in 1337. In: Stadt Oberkochen, Mayor Harald Gentsch (ed.): Oberkochen - history, landscape, everyday life. Oberkochen 1986, pp. 18-39, here: pp. 27-31.
- ↑ Dietrich Bantel: From the "Römerkeller" - Part 2 on heimatverein-oberkochen.de.
- ↑ Dietrich Bantel: Roman cellar in danger on heimatverein-oberkochen.de.
- ↑ a b Dietrich Bantel: Roman silver coin on heimatverein-oberkochen.de.
- ↑ The inscription on this coin reads: AVRELIUS CAES [ar] ANTON [ini] AVG [usti] PII F [ilius] TR [ribunicia] POT [estate] XII CO [n] S [uli] II. German: Caesar Aurelius, son of the sublime Antoninus Pius when he held tribunician power for the 12th time and was consul for the 2nd time. - The coin was minted between December 14th, 157 and December 13th, 158, because during this period the later Emperor Mark Aurel, as co-regent of his adoptive father Emperor Antoninus Pius, held tribunician power for the 12th time according to the usual numismatic dating. - Silver denarii with the head of Mark Aurel 157–158 on numismatics.org.
Coordinates: 48 ° 47 '9.5 " N , 10 ° 7' 36.3" E