Zingsheim Temple Shrine
The temple shrine of Zingsheim is a matron shrine in the district of Zingsheim of the municipality of Nettersheim in the northern Eifel foreland in the district of Euskirchen . The sanctuary was presumably the central place of worship for the worship of the Matronae Fachinehae and was frequented from the 2nd century to the second half of the 4th century. The temple sanctuary is located between the two other sanctuaries in the community area in Nettersheim / Görresburg and in Nöthen / Pesch .
Discovery
Already at the turn of the 20th century were the sanctuary near the Zingsheimer, west of the parcel "Track Inger tail" in a Merovingian one kilometer Frankish burial ground as Grabwandungen built spoils some votive found the Fachinehae.
At the beginning of the 20th century, remnants of construction and foundations and ornate limestone and sandstone fragments were found in the corridor "Vor Hirschberg", one kilometer southwest of the Zingsheim town center in what is now an industrial area. From 1963 onwards, the Rhenish Land Monuments Office carried out an excavation campaign.
Finding
The district is located on a flat area, in the immediate vicinity of which there are springs to the north and east, with the eastern (spring trough) lying dry. On an exposed area of 1700 m², 23 excavation cuts in the southern part of the planum addressed a square Gallo-Roman temple with a north-east-south-west orientation.
The construction is carried out with a cella and a courtyard wall with post holes for the wooden beams of the roof structure. Remnants of the roof tiles were found around the building in one layer. Only the wall embroidery (foundations), or the lowest layer and excavation pits, of the circumferential wall were preserved, regular masonry has been found in the cella. Greywacke and limestone and mortar were used as building materials for the walls. In the research (Biller) it is assumed that the temple belongs to a larger area and building complex, which has not yet been determined, an investigation is still pending.
The dimensions of the cella are, with a wall thickness of 0.45 m, 4.50 m × 3.70 m. The trapezoidal walkway measures 9.50 mx 8.45 m and a wall thickness between 0.50 m and 0.60 m. The masonry remained with the embroidery at a height of 0.60 m. In a later construction phase, an 8.50 m long and 0.42 m wide wall was placed in the south-east of the walkway, the floor of which was higher than that of the wall around the walkway and is comparable to a construction in the “Görresburg” temple district. Possibly she held the function for the listing of the votive offerings. No further building remains were found in the immediate vicinity of the temple, only in the northwest, at a distance of 30 m, Roman wall remains that had not been investigated further were cut. Overall, the structure of the building is unclear, numerous finds of nails in the area of the cella and handling are interpreted as an indication of a wooden structure. In the course of a subsequent excavation in 1976, the foundation walls were finally reconstructed and are now freely accessible as a ground monument.
Finds
Two fragments of inscriptions made of reddish-yellow sandstone, which define the place as a temple of the Fachinehae, were found near the north-western incised Roman wall traces. The fragment of a votive stone (Follmann-Schulz panel X, 1; Biller panel 17, 3) shows the disturbed inscription "Matroni [s] / Fa (c) hin [e] hab [us] / Ma [". A stone slab decorated with rosettes shows the inscription fragment "] Fah [...". The inscription poles from the “Gleisiger Heck” site are considered to have been carried away from the sanctuary due to the structures. Furthermore, a torso of a genius was found on unlabeled stone finds as well as a life-size human hand made of yellow sandstone in the southeastern part of the temple, the fingering of which is completely knocked off except for the thumb base (Follmann-Schulz panel X 3, 4). Figurative finds have also been preserved in fragments and are referred to as a woman's head (Biller panel 20, 1), as well as a fragment of a female robe figure, who was probably carrying a fruit basket in her left hand and is interpreted as a representation of a matron.
In the spectrum of small finds, coin series in particular have been found that allow a relative period in which the sanctuary was used to be assessed. 22 coins were found in the area, 21 of which were found in the area of the cella and the gallery. An ace from the 1st or 2nd century was found to the northwest at a distance of about 20 to 25 m from the temple, followed by an Antoninianus , which was minted under Gallienus in Rome between 260 and 268. The series of coins break with the minting of a quarter major by Theodosius I from the period from 388 to 392, which was struck in Lugdunum .
literature
- Frank Biller: Cultic centers and matron worship in the southern Germania inferior. Publishing house Marie Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 2010, ISBN 978-3-89646-734-8 , pp. 181-187.
- Anna-Barbara Follmann-Schulz: The Roman temples in the province of Germania inferior. In: Wolfgang Haase (Ed.): Rise and decline of the Roman world, Vol. II 18, 1 Religion (Paganism: The religious conditions in the provinces). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1986. ISBN 3-11-010050-9 , pp. 754-793, panel X 1-4.
- Heinz Günter Horn : Nettersheim-Zingsheim: Gallo-Roman temple. In: Heinz Günter Horn (Ed.): The Romans in North Rhine-Westphalia. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0312-1 , pp. 579-580.
- Heinz Günter Horn: The matron shrine near Zingsheim. In: Northeastern Eifel foreland - Euskirchen, Zülpich, Bad Münstereifel, Blankenheim. Part II: Excursions (= Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz et al. (Hrsg.): Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments. Volume 26). Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein 1974, pp. 86-88.
- Antonius Jürgens: Practical ground monument maintenance: excavations and restorations of archaeological monuments in the community of Nettersheim. In: District Euskirchen (Ed.): Yearbook of the District Euskirchen 1978. P. 125–130.
- Elke Nieveler : Nettersheim. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 21, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2002, ISBN 3-11-017272-0 , pp. 103-106. ( Fee Germanic Altertumskunde Online at de Gruyter )
Web links
- Epigraphic database Heidelberg : Zingsheimer inscriptions
Remarks
Coordinates: 50 ° 30 ′ 9.5 ″ N , 6 ° 39 ′ 6.8 ″ E