Wesseling Roman Camp

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Wesseling Roman Camp
limes Lower Germanic Limes
Dating (occupancy) unknown
Type Auxiliary fort (?)
unit a) Ala Sulpicia (?)
b) Cohors I Latobicorum et Varcianorum (?)
size unknown
State of preservation Trenches / wood-earth wall
place Wesseling
Geographical location 50 ° 49 '12.7 "  N , 6 ° 59' 57.3"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 49 '12.7 "  N , 6 ° 59' 57.3"  E hf
Previous Naval fort Alteburg
Subsequently Castra Bonnensia

The Roman camp in Wesseling is a Roman military camp in Wesseling that has so far only been occupied by ditches and a wood-earth wall . The ground monument, discovered in 1953, is located on the premises of Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH (formerly Union Rheinische Braunkohlen fuel AG ) and the adjacent Max-Planck-Strasse.

Location and occupancy

The Wesseling Roman camp was located at a junction of the Roman imperial road from Trier to Cologne , which led from Belgica vicus near Euskirchen - cheap coming near Wesseling to the Limes road, which connected Cologne and Bonn . It was located 10.5 kilometers north of the " Castra Bonnensia " (Bonn), which corresponds to the average camp distance of 5 to 9 Leugen on the Lower Germanic Limes .

There are only a few indications on the question of the occupancy time. On the basis of a military diploma from the year 78 found in Wiesbaden, Géza Alföldy assumed that the camp was occupied by the Ala Sulpicia , which could later have been replaced by the Cohors I Latobicorum et Varcianorum .

Research history

In August 1953, archaeological investigations were carried out on the factory premises of what was then Union Rheinische Braunkohlen Nahrungsmittel AG during excavation work for a pipeline trench. The excavation was led by Wilhelm Piepers and W. Hüttig from the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn . Here, body and cremation graves from the later Hunsrück-Eifel culture from the Latène period were discovered, overlaid by a Roman pointed ditch and a wood-earth wall behind it . Piepers was able to follow the mud-filled fortifications running in north-south direction over a distance of 70 meters within the factory premises. The finds made (fragments of pottery, broken bricks) could only be dated generally to the Roman era.

A year later, Peter Wieland, excavation manager of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, continued the excavations in the area of ​​the Wesseling camp. He was now able to follow the previously discovered north-south running Spitz ditch over a length of 200 meters without encountering a camp corner or a gate system. About 200 meters north of the first finding, he uncovered another Roman double trench, which apparently does not correspond to the first trench. Wieland did not find any more precisely datable finds either.

Due to the structural features of the fortification, the location at a street crossing and the distance to the Bonn camp, the existence of a Roman military camp in Wesseling is likely. However, there are no reliable finds and findings from a clearly military context so far, so that there is also the possibility that this is a villa rustica fortified in the military manner .

The Wesseling camp is not mentioned in the Antonini itinerary .

Monument protection and remains

The area of ​​the camp is a ground monument according to the law for the protection and care of monuments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Monument Protection Act - DSchG) . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.

The finds so far obtained from excavations are in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CIL 16, 23 .
  2. ↑ Alföldy 1968, p. 164 f.
  3. ↑ Horn 1987, p. 618.
  4. ↑ Law on the protection and maintenance of monuments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Monument Protection Act - DSchG)

literature

  • Géza Alföldy : Epigraphic Studies. Volume 5, Rheinland-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1968, p. 1 ff.
  • Géza Alföldy: The auxiliary troops of the Roman province Germania inferior . Rheinland-Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1968 (Epigraphic Studies, Volume 6), p. 164 f.
  • Julianus Egidius Bogaers , Christoph B. Rüger : The Lower Germanic Limes: Materials for its history . Rheinland-Verlag / Habelt; Cologne / Bonn 1974, ISBN 3-7927-0194-4 (Art and Antiquity on the Rhine, number 50), p. 183 ff.
  • Joseph Hagen: The Roman Roads of the Rhine Province. Bonn 1931, p. 50 ff.
  • Adolf Herrnbrodt: Wesseling. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 155–156, p. 454.
  • Heinz Günter Horn (Ed.): The Romans in North Rhine-Westphalia . Theiss, Stuttgart 1987, p. 618.
  • Harald von Petrikovits , in: Saalburg-Jahrbuch 14. 1955, p. 9.
  • Harald von Petrikovits: The Roman Rhineland. Rheinland-Verlag, Bonn 1960 (Supplement Bonner Jahrbücher 8), p. 47 ff.