Roman marching camp near Hachelbich

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The Roman marching camp near Hachelbich dates from the 1st and 3rd centuries AD and is located in what is now Thuringia . It is the first Roman military camp found in central Germany . The find was announced to the public in May 2014 by the Thuringian State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology .

description

The march camp was located in the area of ​​today's district Hachelbich of the community Kyffhäuserland in the Kyffhäuserkreis . In the narrower area, this is the Wipper valley north of the Hainleite ridge and south of the Windleite ridge . The river valley forms a corridor running in an east-west direction that connects the Thuringian Basin and the Saale area with the Obereichsfeld and the Werra and Weser valleys.

The discovery of the Marschlag occurred around 2009 or 2010 during routine maintenance of the landmarks before the construction of a new route for the state road 2290 from Hachelbich to Göllingen . A pointed ditch up to a meter deep was typical of Roman marching camps . Excavations have been carried out so far in 2010, 2014 and 2016. Since the discovery, a number of prospecting measures have been carried out in the extensive and agriculturally used area through aerial surveys , ( detector ) inspections and geophysical methods. The mere surface prospection, especially of the course of the Spitz trench, turned out to be inadequate, as the area was partially covered by colluvium .

As an external safeguard, the complex had a long pointed ditch with an entrance structure ( titulum ). The trench has so far been traced in two directions running at right angles over a length of around 400 meters. From the find situation it could be seen that the trench had been partially backfilled with the excavation. Based on the procedure used in other investigated marshals, this leads to the conclusion that the Roman troops carried out the backfilling after the camp was abandoned. Remnants of wood from the backfill, dated using the radiocarbon method, were found to be 50 BC. Dated to AD 125.

Subject to the previously recognized moat, the total area may be 18  hectares . However, it could also be over 40 hectares if the entire land in a spur was included by the builders. In 2016, the archaeologists announced that they estimated the size to be at least 23 hectares and probably 40 hectares. Eight ovens with working pits were uncovered inside the camp . The finds include items made of non-ferrous metal such as the fitting of equestrian equipment and box fittings for transport and five iron sandal nails from Caligae as well as the lower part of a dagger sheath. The finds u. a. Shoe nails , all of which belong to the form without knobs and bars, a dagger tape , a strap fitting ( Oldenstein 718 ) and a number of other small finds leave little doubt as to the membership of the Roman military. Finds of Germanic fibulae date to the middle of the 1st and the late 3rd or beginning of the 4th century.

interpretation

Lecture by the Thuringian State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology on the march camp

The archaeologists explain the relative scarcity of finds with the fact that such marching camps often only existed for a few days, the soil conditions are sometimes unfavorable for metal conservation and that the local population must have searched abandoned marching camps intensively for metal parts. Archaeologists estimate its size at a Roman legion with around 5,000 legionaries and auxiliary troops at around 8,000 to 9,000 men. Further marching camps are suspected in the wider area of ​​Hachelbich, as Roman troops with their entourage only marched up to 20 kilometers a day.

The camp is dated to the time of the Chatten Wars of Domitian in the second half of the 1st century AD or to the time of later Roman enterprises in the first half of the 3rd century AD (see Harzhorn event ). The exact time of the establishment of the camp is not known and it cannot be assigned to any of the campaigns known from ancient traditions. The archaeologist Michael Meyer suspects the reason for the stay of Roman troops within the Germania magna that it may have been a punitive action against Teutons .

See also

literature

  • Mario Küßner, Tim Schüler: Troops in Thuringia. Most northeastern Roman military installation discovered . In: Archeology in Germany 3/2014 , p. 6 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Roman marching camp near Hachelbich  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Die Welt , May 10, 2014 ( online )
  2. ↑ MDR , May 9, 2014 ( online ( memento of the original from May 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mdr.de
  3. ^ A b André Kirchner, Mario Küßner: Geoarchaeological studies of the Roman marching camp Hachelbich (Kyffhäuserkreis / Thuringia) , University of Hildesheim, Thuringian LA for Monument Preservation, May 11, 2018, poster ; accessed on May 11, 2020
  4. ↑ How big was the Roman marching camp near Hachelbich? in: Thüringer Allgemeine from February 2, 2016.
  5. ↑ Thüringer Allgemeine , August 18, 2014 ( online )
  6. ↑ Spiegel online , May 9, 2014 ( online )
  7. ↑ Archaeologists discover a Roman camp in Thuringia for the first time in: Thüringer Allgemeine from May 10, 2014
  8. ↑ Mario Küßner, Tim Schüler: Troops in Thuringia. Most northeastern Roman military installation discovered . In: Archeology in Germany 3/2014, p. 6.
  9. ^ Roman marching camp in the Kyffhäuserkreis excavated in: Thüringer Allgemeine from May 9, 2014

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 20.5 ″  N , 10 ° 58 ′ 36 ″  E