Steincheshof fort

Steincheshof fort
Alternative name	Fort Till-Steincheshof
limes	Lower Germanic Limes
Dating (occupancy)	Neronian - Flavian up to 3rd century
Type	Auxiliary fort
unit	a) cohors quingeniaria equitata; b) ala quingeniaria or cohors milliaria equitata
size	a) approx. 1.94–2.25 ha ; b) approx. 3.6 ha
Construction	Wood-earth warehouse
State of preservation	Ground monument not visible above ground
place	Bedburg-Hau - Till-Moyland
Geographical location	51 ° 46 '30 " N , 6 ° 14' 59.4" E Coordinates: 51 ° 46 '30 " N , 6 ° 14' 59.4" E
height	20 m above sea level NHN
Previous	Quadriburgium (west)
Subsequently	Burginatium (south-southeast)

The Steincheshof fort is a former Roman camp on the Lower Germanic Limes , between the neighboring forts Quadriburgium and Burginatium and between the modern towns of Kleve and Kalkar . Known for a century and a half for its large number of finds, the site has always been interpreted as civil and not military. It was not until 2009 and 2010 that modern geophysical investigation methods at Steincheshof, not far from the Sommerlandstrasse, provided evidence that another Roman military camp of the left Lower Rhine was hidden under this site.

location

River terracing

Lower Germanic Limes

In terms of topography, today's ground monument is - as is typical for the Roman garrisons on the Lower Rhine - on the so-called low terrace flanking the Rhine . Since the terraces were always flood-free, they were ideal for settlement purposes; all Roman military camps between Novaesium and Burginatium were on the edge of the terrace. Immediately to the east of the site, the site still drops suddenly by two to three meters towards the floodplain . Whether there was an active or a dead arm of the Rhine during Roman times is currently being investigated as part of a project by the LVR Office for Ground Monument Preservation.

In Roman times, the garrison at the Steincheshof was eight to nine kilometers north-northwest of Burginatium and five kilometers east of Quadriburgium and nine to ten kilometers south-southeast of Harenatium . In the modern settlement image, the site is on the site of an agricultural property, the Steincheshof , not far from the Till-Moyland district of the Bedburg-Hau community . The dirt road that passes immediately southwest of the courtyard roughly follows the course of the ancient Via principalis .

Research history

The Roman site at Steincheshof, known as the “rubble site”, has been mentioned for around 150 years. Also archaeological excavations were then made in the 19th century and again in the 1930s there, but these activities were undocumented in all cases. In the scientific discussions about the site, it was always referred to as a civil settlement or villa rustica , but not as a site used by the military.

In order to be able to narrow down the find zone more precisely, the Xanten branch of the LVR Office for Land Monument Preservation in the Rhineland carried out a field inspection at the Steincheshof in autumn 2008 and in spring 2009. This inspection was based on a basic grid of five by five meters and thus the density of the brick distribution was determined. In addition, other finds could be picked up. Earlier observations of a darker layer were confirmed, which spreads over the presumed core area of the find area. The range of Roman finds recorded during this inspection roughly covered the period between the Neronian - Flavian epoch up to the 2nd / 3rd centuries. Century from. Late antique material was completely missing. It was not until around the 7th century that other finds document the Franconian period. This was followed by geomagnetic prospecting , which was carried out as part of three campaigns in spring and autumn 2009 and in November 2010 by employees and students of the Archaeological Institute of the University of Cologne . In particular, the data recorded by the magnetometer provided very good results, which clearly confirmed the findings of a Roman fort, even if the praetentura , which forms the northern storage area here, could not be determined due to the recent development of the stone courtyard. From August 2010 to June 2011, employees of the Xanten branch made three exploratory cuts in order to clarify the most important questions that had arisen after the geomagnetic investigations.

Further smaller excavations are planned for the coming years in order to gain new knowledge about the Steincheshof fort.

Findings and interpretation

The older, smaller fort was probably constructed as a wood and earth warehouse. With its pretorial front (front), which was concealed by the recent development , it faced north-northwest, towards the edge of the river terrace. Its width was around 125 meters, the length should have been around 155 meters to 180 meters, which resulted in a converted and built-up area of 1.94 to 2.25 hectares. The fence consisted of an earth wall and a simple (pointed) ditch, the total width of the wall and ditch was about 15 meters. No tower structures whatsoever were detectable at the rounded corners.

The enclosure of the younger, larger fort encompassed and covered a storage area of around 3.6 hectares with a length of about 195 meters and a width of about 185 meters. This tower-free weir system also consisted of an earth wall and a simple (pointed) ditch around 15 meters wide. On the east side, the magnetogram showed a gate construction that is referred to as Porta principalis dextra (right side gate).

While no building traces could be seen between the larger, outer and the smaller, inner weir system, the inner surface of the smaller fort was marked by clear building contours. At least some of these internal structures were made of a brick-covered half-timbered construction. On both sides of the wide via praetoria (main camp road in the central axis of the fort) , which can be clearly recognized in the magnetogram, were rectangular building structures, each about 45 × 18 meters in size, which are referred to as team barracks. The area of the principia (staff building) to be assumed in the center of the fort is covered by the modern courtyard buildings and was thus not detectable by the magnetogram. In the south-eastern part of the fort, the contours of a building possibly made of bricks with an unexplained function could be seen, which overlaps the defenses of the more recent construction phase and is therefore to be regarded as post-fort. From the Porta principalis dextra , an arterial road led in a south-easterly direction to the neighboring fort Burginatium . The contours of presumably stone buildings extending on both sides of this street can be assigned to a large-scale civil settlement of the camp, the vicus , which correlates with the more recent construction phase of the fort.

Findings and dating

The coin series, which came together over the course of a century and a half of research, consists of a few denarii , which were minted between the republican period and the reign of Domitian , as well as an aureus from Nero . The ceramic finds recovered during the 2008/2009 inspection could be dated from the Neronian - Flavian period to the 3rd century. Under the find was also a brick stamp with the imprint V (?) IC, which could possibly be an indication of the presence of a construction team of the Legio VI victrix (pia fidelis Domitiana) (German: "6th Legion with the surname 'The Victorious', the "devoted to Domitian") indicates. In contrast to the neighboring forts Quadriburgium and Burginatium, there are no late antique finds from the Steincheshof fort .

Manica , a salvaged fragment of a rail arm protection from the Till-Steincheshof fort

An important and rare militaria find is a manica recovered during the 2010/2011 excavations . The rail arm guard made of brass was discovered in the area of a crew barrack in the Retentura , the rear part of the camp, and recovered as a block. The rails of this once tubular armor armor were largely still intact, but long since they were stored in the ground. A few smaller rivets on one of the rails were obviously used for fastening with a leather strip. There was also a row of holes punched across all rails. The rails were probably once connected to it by means of leather strips. The armor was recovered in a leveling layer, which is cut based on findings from the third of four construction phases. Due to the ceramic finds, the Manica can be dated from the last third of the first to the first third of the second century.

Occupancy

The ancient name of the Steincheshof fort has not been handed down by any written or cartographic source, nor is the name and genre of the unit (s) occupying the garrison. Due to its size, it may have served as a location for an Ala quingeniaria (a cavalry unit of around 500 men) or a Cohors milliaria (1,000 infantry unit).

Monument protection

The Steincheshof fort is a ground monument under the law for the protection and maintenance of monuments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Monument Protection Act - DSchG) . Research and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval. Incidental finds are to be reported to the monument authorities.

literature

Marion Brüggler et al .: Steincheshof. A new Roman camp on the Lower Rhine . In: Archäologie im Rheinland 2009, pp. 79–82.

Marion Brüggler, Manuel Buess, Michael Heinzelmann and Matthias Nieberle: A previously unknown storage facility on the Lower Rhine (PDF; 3.1 MB) . In: The Limes. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission . 4th year 2010, issue 1, pp. 6-9.

Marion Brüggler, Christiane Dirsch and Michael Drechsler: A Roman rail arm guard made of brass (PDF; 2.7 MB) . In: The Limes. News bulletin of the German Limes Commission . 6th year 2012, issue 1, pp. 8–11.

Marion Brüggler and Michael Drechsler: The new auxiliary camp Till-Steincheshof, Bedburg-Hau, Kleve district . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes from the Lower Rhine to the Danube. 6th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2466-5 , pp. 28-37.

Michael Drechsler: The finds from the Roman auxiliary fort Till-Steincheshof . In: Kölner and Bonner Archaeologica, KuBA 3/2013, pp. 83-101.

Michael Drechsler: New research on the Steincheshof fort and the Rhine border between Xanten and Nijmegen . In: Peter Henrich (ed.): The Limes in Raetia, Upper and Lower Germania from the 1st to the 4th century . Contributions to the Limes 8 World Heritage Site , Theiss, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-8062-3059-8 , pp. 172-185.

Michael Drechsler: The Roman auxiliary fort Steincheshof and the Lower Germanic Limes between Xanten and Nijmegen . In: Bonner Jahrbücher, Volume 217, WBG Zabern, Darmstadt 2017, ISBN 978-3-8053-5189-8 , pp. 131–305.

Web links

Steincheshof. New Roman military camp discovered . On the website of the Archaeological Institute of the University of Cologne on January 22, 2011, accessed on September 23, 2011.

Remarks

↑ Michael Drechsler: New research on the Steincheshof fort and the Rhine border between Xanten and Nijmegen . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes in Raetien, Upper and Lower Germany from the 1st to the 4th century . Contributions to the World Heritage Limes 8, Theiss, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-8062-3059-8 , pp. 172-185; here: p. 182.
↑ Marion Brüggler and Michael Drechsler: The new auxiliary camp Till-Steincheshof, Bedburg-Hau, Kleve district . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes from the Lower Rhine to the Danube. 6th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2466-5 , pp. 28-37; here: pp. 29–30.
↑ Marion Brüggler and Michael Drechsler: The new auxiliary camp Till-Steincheshof, Bedburg-Hau, Kleve district . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes from the Lower Rhine to the Danube. 6th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2466-5 , pp. 28-37; here: p. 32.
↑ Marion Brüggler and Michael Drechsler: The new auxiliary camp Till-Steincheshof, Bedburg-Hau, Kleve district . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes from the Lower Rhine to the Danube. 6th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2466-5 , pp. 28-37; here: p. 35.
↑ Law for the protection and care of monuments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Monument Protection Act - DSchG) ( Memento of July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

[1] Michael Drechsler: New research on the Steincheshof fort and the Rhine border between Xanten and Nijmegen . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes in Raetien, Upper and Lower Germany from the 1st to the 4th century . Contributions to the World Heritage Limes 8, Theiss, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-8062-3059-8 , pp. 172-185; here: p. 182.

[2] Marion Brüggler and Michael Drechsler: The new auxiliary camp Till-Steincheshof, Bedburg-Hau, Kleve district . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes from the Lower Rhine to the Danube. 6th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2466-5 , pp. 28-37; here: pp. 29–30.

[3] Marion Brüggler and Michael Drechsler: The new auxiliary camp Till-Steincheshof, Bedburg-Hau, Kleve district . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes from the Lower Rhine to the Danube. 6th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2466-5 , pp. 28-37; here: p. 32.

[4] Marion Brüggler and Michael Drechsler: The new auxiliary camp Till-Steincheshof, Bedburg-Hau, Kleve district . In: Peter Henrich (Ed.): The Limes from the Lower Rhine to the Danube. 6th colloquium of the German Limes Commission . Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2466-5 , pp. 28-37; here: p. 35.

[5] Law for the protection and care of monuments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Monument Protection Act - DSchG) ( Memento of July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )