Roman estate near Lösnich
The Roman estate near Lösnich existed from the first to fourth centuries AD. It was located at the height of the sweeping Moselle arch between Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel-Kues in the "Lösnicher Hinterwald" district of the community of Lösnich towards Wolf near the Kluckertsbach, which is looking for its way down into the Moselle valley .
The wall and pottery finds in the Lösnich cemetery and the finds made 200 m from the cemetery already indicate a former Roman presence in Lösnich and the surrounding area. This also applies to the Roman villa at Kinheim-Kindel about 1.5 km away , which could also be dated to the 1st to 5th centuries and was discovered and uncovered in 1976 during road construction work.
estate
The Trier Museum received the first information about debris lying around in the forest in the Lösnicher Hinterwald in August 1927. Five years later, the museum decided to follow up on the information after further reports of private excavations had already arrived at the museum. In the densely wooded Lösnich back forest, a rectangular room with internal dimensions of 20.40 × 10.97 m was uncovered. As it turned out decades later, this was the central residential building of a former Roman estate ( villa rustica ). A coin find could be dated to the year 351 AD.
Due to the adverse circumstances of the time, further excavations and research were stopped. It was not until November 1973 that the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier started new archaeological excavations and uncovered a Roman complex with several building units and a larger burial ground in the densely wooded and partly sloping terrain near the Lösnich waterworks in the direction of Wolf.
building
- Mansion
- Wine press
- Farm building / workshop
- Brewery (presumably beer brewery)
- Building (unclear purpose)
- Building (unclear purpose)
- Darranlage (preservation of perishable food)
- Building (unclear purpose)
- Building (presumably forge)
- Temple precinct
The excavations uncovered ten buildings, eight of which were built and furnished according to life in the country. The development of this settlement can be partially dated to the 1st century AD. Further building units were built around the middle of the second century and remained in constant use until the middle of the fourth century. It can be assumed that cattle breeding and agriculture formed the livelihood of the inhabitants until viticulture was added as a further economic branch in the 3rd century. To ensure the function of the Lösnich wine press (building 2), a subsequent excavation was carried out in 1990. Soil samples from original Roman layers were subjected to a detailed examination in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier. The expected grape seeds and grape seed fragments were found in different sieves.
It is assumed that the introduction of the press in the estate increased the prosperity of the business. The question of the origin of the grapes can only be guessed at. It is obvious that the grapes needed for wine production came from the immediate vicinity, probably from the "Wolfer Sonnenlay" at the Wolfer monastery, which is still used today for cultivation.
Mansion
The mansion as the central residential building corresponded in its architectural style to a porticus villa. The built-up area was approx. 32 m × 4 m. The almost square corner projections (5 m × 5.40 m and 4.80 m × 4.70 m) bordered the entrance area (porticus) on the left and right. A large central room (19.70 m × 10.70 m) was attached to the porticus area. To the right of it were three other rooms that could be identified as a typical Roman sauna and bathing area. Starting directly behind the right corner risalit: the tepidarium (warming room), then the caldarium (warm or hot room with high humidity) and finally the frigidarium (cooling room with cold water basin). The rooms closed in their extension of 10.70 m with the width of the central room. The rear part of the house was formed by a long rectangular room roughly the size of the central living room (19.30 m) and a width of 3.70 m. At the back left, outside the manor house, there was another cellar with internal dimensions of approx. 6 m × 5 m.
Wine press
The building, about 30 m to the southeast from the manor house, had an area of approx. 18 m × 13 m and had two pools of different sizes. The function of a wine press could be demonstrated here. In a room measuring 6.20 m × 5.30 m, the remaining foundation was obviously used to add a small basin after the southern room boundary had been abandoned. This was followed by a second large basin measuring approximately 4 m × 6 m inside. A total of three fireplaces were identified. Two stone cuboids, one with grinding marks, two pits and two post holes in the remaining large room with the internal dimensions of approx. 8 m × 10 m were associated with the pressing process. Ceramic finds within the building lead to the conclusion that the main period of use of the building was in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Fragments from the 2nd century were also seized. The actual wine press was made of wood and required weight stones for the pressing process. Even though the spread of the vine on the Upper Rhine, in the Palatinate and on the Middle Moselle goes back to the 1st century, no statement can yet be made about the grape variety.
More recent excavations of wine presses on the Moselle show that viticulture already played a significant role in the Moselle region in Roman times. In 1992 and 1998 two more Roman wine press houses from the second half of the 3rd century were uncovered in the neighboring town of Erden, upstream of the Moselle, on the opposite side of the Moselle, directly in the "Erdener Treppechen" vineyard. The first with a size of 38 m × 16 m, the second about 40 m away with the dimensions 14 m × 10 m.
brewery
An approximately 16.5 m × 7.75 m large building unit with two rooms was exposed southeast of the wine press. The combination of the existing equipment remains an open system ( kiln ), followed by pool and several mines led to the assumption that it had to be here to plant as in the process of brewing beer in the late antiquity was used. To determine the economic use of this facility in Lösnich, a comparison with a similar facility in Regensburg- Großprüfening not far from the Roman fort Castra Regina was used. The comparison solidified the assumption that the functions necessary for the beer production process could also be assigned in Lösnich, analogous to the facility in Großprüfening. In the Lösnich facility, however, it has not yet been possible to provide archaeological or botanical evidence that beer was actually brewed in this building. If these functions of the systems are confirmed by recent research, Lösnich would then be the first archaeologically proven beer brewery in this region from late antiquity. So far there is only one inscription from Trier , which proves the consumption of beer.
End of the estate
The final destruction of the estate obviously took place in the middle of the 4th century, as can also be deduced from the buried coin find from the year 351. The invasion of the Teutons in the region as early as 275/276 AD and the renewed incursions of the Alamanni around 355 should have sealed the end of the settlement.
Grave complex
In 1978 the excavation work on a burial ground was started approx. 250 m from the manor in a north-easterly direction in order to prevent predatory burial activities observed here. A total of 35 sites could be registered here. Three grave districts were identified in which, in addition to an amphora burial, urn burials with and without panel borders were found. Amphorae burial is a rarity in the region. The grave enclosures indicate a higher social status of the buried. The grave could be dated to the end of the 1st century AD. Similar amphorae burials came to light during excavation work on the Roman city wall in Trier .
literature
- Anastasia Moraitis: The Roman estate and the burial ground near Lösnich, Bernkastel-Wittlich district (= Trier magazine . Supplement 26). Self-published by the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier 2003, ISBN 3-923319-54-1 .
- Karl-Josef Gilles: The Roman villa of Kinheim. In: Yearbook 1991 Bernkastel Wittlich district. Publisher of the Bernkastel-Wittlich district administration, Weiss-Druck publishing house, Monschau
Individual evidence
- ^ Trierische Jahrbuch 4, 1911, page 23
- ^ Karl Josef Gilles, The Roman Villa in Kinheim, p. 144
- ^ Hans Vogts: The art monuments of the Bernkastel district. Reprint of the 1935 edition, published by the publishing house of the Academic Bookstore Interbook Trier, page 425, Lösnich; see also Trier magazine 3, 1928, page 185
- ↑ a b Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 9
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 45
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 28/29
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 30
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 15
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 23
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 22
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 14
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 26
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 28
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 30
- ↑ http: //www.roemerkelter-erden.de,/ September 25, 2014
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 31f
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 34
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 80
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 107
- ↑ Anastasia Moraitis, The Roman Manor and the Grave Field near Lösnich, page 120
Coordinates: 49 ° 57 ′ 36.9 ″ N , 7 ° 4 ′ 0 ″ E