Temple district of Empel

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The temple area of Empel is a small Gallo-Roman place of worship in Empel, a district of 's-Hertogenbosch in the province of North Brabant ( The Netherlands ), in particular since the mid-first century as the central religious cult of the Batavians and their main deity Hercules Magusanus applies .

At the end of 1986 an amateur archaeologist found a large number of Roman shards and bricks, some Celtic and Roman coins and fibulae in a field south of the Meuse near Empel . The subsequent scheduled collection by the first finder and the determination of an increased concentration of finds in the following years led in September 1989 to the first search excavations by archaeologists from the Albert Egges van Giffen-Instituut voor Prae- en Protohistorie of the Free University of Amsterdam . The excavation area is located 500 m from the Meuse on an eastern branch of a narrow sand ridge, which runs in an east-west direction and outlines an area of ​​300 × 100 m. The corridor is known locally as “De Werf”. The topography is characterized by the layered river sediments, sands that have formed the usual Donke . The elevated location of De Werf ("artificially elevated terrain on a water surface") shows continuous settlement and use throughout the Middle Ages, and last but not least, the meaning of the name shows the usefulness of the natural landscape for the settlers over the ages. In the 1950s, land clearing was carried out as part of the land consolidation at Donk De Werf, so that at the beginning of the excavation a significant change in the original location was found and the site of the Roman and pre-Roman layers was impaired or disturbed. At the end of the eastern foothills, with an average width of the site of around 50 m, solid masonry Roman-era foundations were discovered, which indicated a monumental building and, through found boundary walls, a building complex.

Found material

The rich finds include u. a. a bronze plate with a dedication to Hercules Magusenus and a bronze statuette of Hercules.

literature

  • Nico Roymans, Ton Derks: A Celtic-Roman cult district near Empel (Netherlands) . In: Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 20, 1990, pp. 443–451 ( full text ).
  • Nico Roymans, Ton Derks: The Temple of Empel. A Hercules sanctuary in the Batavian area . In: Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 23, 1993, pp. 479–492 ( full text ).
  • Nico Roymans, Ton Derks: De tempel van Empel. Een Hercules-Heiligdom in het woongebied van de Bataven . Stichting Brabantse Regionale Geschiedbeoefening, 's-Hertogenbosch 1994, ISBN 90-72526-25-2 .
  • Nico Roymans: Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power. The Batavians in the Early Roman Empire (= Amsterdam Archeological Studies , 10). Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2004, ISBN 90-5356-705-4 , pp. 235-250.
  • Wolfgang Spickermann: Cult organization and cult functionaries in the area of ​​the Ulpia Traiana . In: Thomas Grünewald (Ed.): Germania inferior (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , 28). de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 978-3-11-082355-4 , pp. 212-240.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Nico Roymans, Ton Derks: A Celtic-Roman cult district near Empel (Netherlands) . In: Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 20, 1990, pp. 443–451.
  2. ↑ AE 1990, 740 : Herculi / Magusen (o) / Iulius Gen / ialis veter (anus) / leg (ionis) XG (eminae) P (iae) F (idelis) / v (otum) s (olvit) l (aetus ) l (ibens) m (erito) .
  3. ↑ Today 's-Hertogenbosch, Noordbrabants Museum 15124 ( illustration )

Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 4.2 "  N , 5 ° 18 ′ 39.8"  E