Roman Forum Lahnau-Waldgirmes
The Roman Forum Lahnau-Waldgirmes is a former fortified trading post of the Roman Empire , which is located on the outskirts of today's village of Waldgirmes in the municipality of Lahnau an der Lahn in Central Hesse . The remains of the complex are the earliest evidence of stone walls in Germania magna .
These are the remains of one of the towns and market centers east of the Rhine and north of the Danube, which the Romans apparently founded in antiquity according to plan and with a view to increasing growth. But it has never been fully completed. Since there are no written records for this and no inscriptions have been found on the site, the original name of the place is not known.
Findings situation and number of finds
The area northwest of Waldgirmes, directly on the eastern city limits of Wetzlar , has been archaeologically examined since 1993. Among the remains of this settlement that were found there was a magnificent Roman forum , on which a main building ( basilica ) with two apses stood. Other Roman half-timbered buildings , plastered and painted, covered with wooden shingles and built on stone foundations, were found.
The complex was surrounded by a wooden palisade filled with excavated earth , in front of which it was provided with a double ditch and accessed through three gates; in the place of the north gate stood a tower. From the outside it resembled a Roman military camp , but inside it was a civil, urban trading center with a market, two intersecting streets with ditches running in the middle for sewage or service water, coach houses , storehouses, taverns and houses with arcades .
A total of 24 house floor plans and two wells (six and eleven meters deep) had been uncovered by 2009. A temple was not found, which can perhaps be explained from the short settlement period, because otherwise everything resembled an upscale Roman settlement, nothing reminds of Germanic buildings. Two buildings to the west of the site have a military character and were probably used by a military protection force during the founding phase. It can be assumed that this military occupation was not on site during the entire period of settlement. The traces of a temporary camp in the east of the complex cannot be dated precisely. It may have been created before the founding phase and be related to it, or it dates back to the time after the settlement was abandoned.
Horse head from Waldgirmes
The largest and probably also internationally outstanding find among the 200 collectibles scattered far over the neighboring areas and Germanic settlements is the archaeologically unique find of the horse's head of a life-size equestrian statue made of gilded bronze, which was made in the eleven meter deep well in 2009; it probably represents the Roman emperor Augustus on horseback.
This statue, of which other small parts had already been found, was copied by the Braunfels artist Heinrich Janke , although he did not depict Augustus in the pose of an emperor or general, but as a young, civilly dressed man, which is undoubtedly not the case with the lost original was the case. The replica was modeled on the equestrian statue of Mark Aurel in Rome. On the occasion of the Roman Days 2009 to commemorate the Varus Battle that took place in AD 9 , this modern work of art found its place in the Roman Forum.
The rubble also contained numerous valuable small finds, such as a glass gem with a depiction of the Niobe myth , a mosaic glass bead depicting Apis , other pieces of jewelry and raw amber. In addition to Roman ceramics, there is also about 20 percent simple, untwisted Germanic pottery. Apparently different parts of the population lived next to each other in the city. Coin finds date the settlement between 5 BC and 9 AD, the year of the Varus Battle ; it is believed that the settlement was then abandoned.
history
Since Theodor Mommsen , it was assumed that the Romans' operations in Germania were limited to exploratory trains and smaller, temporary trading stations. However, Cassius Dio 56,18,2 states that the first cities were already founded at the time of Varus . Waldgirmes was evidently such a city, intended for trade with Germania and for supplying the Roman troops. About 8 km away was around 20 BC. The Celtic oppidum Dünsberg abandoned.
Waldgirmes seems to have been a planned foundation on a green meadow. Dendrochronological investigations on the remains of a wooden well showed that the tree was felled in 4 BC. The settlement should have been under construction at this time. It was very conveniently located in the protection of the hills on a spur between Längenbach and Metzebach , which protrudes into the Lahn river , and the Roman area on the Rhine could be reached quickly by ship. It is also possible - this is supported by the oversized forum in the center of the settlement - that the settlement was planned as the capital of a civitas and that its arrangement was closely related to the provincialization of Germania that was planned or was beginning at the time .
However, the city remained unfinished, as extensive undeveloped areas show. The find situation - among other things, a large number of small fragments of the aforementioned gilded equestrian statue were found, which was probably smashed - allows the assumption that the city was burned down and looted. However, there is currently no evidence of fighting.
The youngest editors of the Atlas of the Oikumene handed down by Claudius Ptolemäus suggested to recognize the Mattiacum of Ptolemy in the place of discovery . This assignment met with opposition from the excavators.
Monument protection
The site is a ground monument within the meaning of the Hessian Monument Protection Act . Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.
literature
- Armin Becker , Hans-Jürgen Köhler, Gabriele Rasbach : The Roman base of Waldgirmes. The excavations until 1998 in the late Augustus plant in Lahnau-Waldgirmes, Lahn-Dill district. Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-89822-148-2 ( Archaeological Monuments in Hessen , issue 148).
- Armin Becker: Lahnau-Waldgirmes. An Augustan city foundation in Hesse . In: Historia 52, 2003, pp. 337-350.
- Armin Becker: The excavation of a Roman city. Waldgirmes in the Lahn-Dill district . In: Helmuth Schneider , Dorothea Rohde (Hrsg.): Hesse in antiquity. The chats from the age of the Romans to everyday culture of the present . Kassel 2006, ISBN 978-3-933617-26-2 , pp. 88-104.
- Armin Becker, Gabriele Rasbach: "Cities in Germania". The Waldgirmes site . In: Rainer Wiegels (Ed.): The Varus Battle. Turning point in history? Stuttgart 2007, pp. 102-116.
- Gabriele Rasbach, Armin Becker: The late Augustusian city foundation in Lahnau-Waldgirmes. Archaeological, architectural and scientific research. In: Germania 81, 2003, ISSN 0016-8874 , pp. 147-199.
- Siegmar von Schnurbein : Augustus in Germania and his new 'town' at Waldgirmes east of the Rhine . In: Journal of Roman Archeology 16, 2003, pp. 93-107.
Web links
- Römisches Forum Waldgirmes - Website of the association Förderverein Römisches Forum Waldgirmes e. V.
- Photos from Waldgirmes - on Livius.org (English)
- Archaeologists find 2000 year old equestrian statue , golden horse head from Roman times discovered - reports on Spiegel Online in 2009
Remarks
- ↑ Römisches Forum Waldgirmes on the website of the association Förderverein Römisches Forum Waldgirmes e. V. , Lahnau; Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ↑ Description of the topography: Lecture by Detlef E. Peukert The search for the Roman port ; Retrieved July 29, 2014.
- ↑ See description of the find situation: Finds in Waldgirmes. German Archaeological Institute , archived from the original on May 22, 2009 ; Retrieved November 26, 2015 .
- ^ Keyword Mattiacum. In: Andreas Kleineberg, Christian Marx, Eberhard Knobloch , Dieter Lelgemann (eds.): Germania and the island of Thule. The decoding of Ptolemy's "Atlas of the Oikumene". Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft , Darmstadt 2010, ISBN 978-3-534-23757-9 , pp. 51-52.
- ↑ CARSTEN STEINBORN: Salzlandkreis doubts about Bernburg as a Germanic Valhalla. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , October 18, 2010, accessed on November 26, 2015 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 35 ′ 18 ″ N , 8 ° 32 ′ 28 ″ E