Traiectum

Traiectum
limes	Lower Germanic Limes
Dating (occupancy)	A) 47 to around 50 B) around 50 to 68/69 C) 70 to mid / end of 2nd century D) mid / end of 2nd century to around 200/210 E) around 200/210 to 260 / (270 ?)
Type	Cohort fort
unit	A) -B) unknown C) -E) Cohors II Hispanorum peditata pia fidelis (from 88/89 to around 260)
size	A) -D) 118 m × 145 m = 1.7 ha E) 124 m × 151 m = 1.87 ha
Construction	A) -D) Wood-earth warehouse D) Stone fort
State of preservation	ground monument not visible above ground; Outlines marked in the pavement
place	Utrecht
Geographical location	52 ° 5 '27 "  N , 5 ° 7' 20"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 5 '27 "  N , 5 ° 7' 20"  E
Previous	Fectio (southeast)
Subsequently	Fletio (west)
Backwards	Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum (south)

Map of the boundaries of the camp

Traiectum was a Roman auxiliary fort on the Lower Germanic Limes . The former military camp and today's ground monument is located under the cathedral square in the center of the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands . The cohort fort existed from AD 47 to around 260 AD and has a total of five construction phases.

swell

In the Itinerarium Antonini , a Roman street directory from the early third century, Traiectum is listed with a distance of 17 leagues from Albaniana ( Alphen aan den Rijn ) and 15 leagues from Mannaricium ( Buren -Maurik).

location

Traiectum was located on the southern bank of the former Kromme Rijn , on a slightly higher area of ​​the bank area, probably near a ford, as the name Traiectum suggests. Today's soil monument is located in the center of the city of Utrecht, in the area of ​​the Domplatz (Domplein) and its immediate surroundings, about 3.80 m below the current walking level.

Research history

The first remains of Traiectum were discovered in 1927 during renovation work on the cathedral. Further excavations took place in the 1930s and 1940s under the direction of the archaeologist Albert van Giffen . They have been continued up to the present day whenever the opportunity arose through construction work to penetrate the ground below Utrecht. Due to the dense development since the Middle Ages, only a few areas above the former fort are freely accessible, so that so far only a little more than five percent of the fort area has been archaeologically examined.

History and archaeological evidence

The Roman military camp had a total of five construction phases. Its beginning is probably connected with the strengthening of the Lower Germanic Limes under the governorship of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo in AD 47. The first construction phase consisted of a wood and earth fort with a wide pretorial front in the form of an irregular rectangle with sides of 118 m times 145 m. The camp thus covered an area of ​​around 1.71 hectares, making it one of the smaller forts of its kind. It was surrounded by a wood-earth wall and two pointed trenches, each two meters wide. In the interior of the military camp, traces of the Principia (commandant's office) and of the crew barracks have been found. Around the year 50 there was a phase of reconstruction, but this did not change the size and structure of the warehouse. In 69 the fort was destroyed by fire, probably in connection with the events of the Batavian Uprising. This is supported by a thick layer of fire in which a hoard with a total of 50 aurei was found, the most recent of which could be dated to the year 68.

The reconstruction took place in the year 70 or immediately afterwards. Nothing changed in the way of construction, size and structure of the fort. The warehouse of this third construction phase existed until the middle of the second century when it was replaced by a fourth construction phase, in which no significant changes could be detected either. The fourth construction phase lasted until around the year 200.

Wall of the stone fort under the Cathedral Square

Remains of the wall of a team barracks during the 1933 excavations

Around the year 200 the previous wood-earth construction was replaced by a stone warehouse. The stone fort had a rectangular floor plan with a side length of 124 m by 151 m, which means it took up an area of ​​around 1.87 hectares. The gates were provided with semicircular towers protruding from the wall, and the wall was surrounded by an approximately nine-meter-wide pointed moat. Inside the fort, the Principia has been proven and completely excavated. It consisted of a 27 m by 27 m stone structure. The only entrance was on the north side and led into an atrium surrounded by a portico . At the rear there were a total of five rooms. The premises were equipped with a hypocaust system. The middle room was addressed as a flag sanctuary ( aedes or sacellum ), it was provided with an altar. Another altar was in the middle of the atrium. The stone fort was in use until around the year 260 or shortly thereafter.

The troops from the early days of Traiectum are not known. The Cohors II Hispanorum peditata pia fidelis (2nd infantry cohort of the Spaniards nicknamed the Pious , Faithful ) had been stationed here since the Flavian period, at the latest from the year 88/89 . It is possible that she stayed in this fort until the site was abandoned.

Vicus and burial ground

In the east and west of the fort, areas of the vicus were found, the civilian settlement that can be found at every Roman military camp, in which taverns, traders, prostitutes and other service providers as well as relatives of the soldiers settled. The vicus of traiectum probably extended along the extension axes of the via principalis and the via decumana. The eastern part of the vicus, which was probably built at the same time as the fort, had an area of ​​around 2.2 hectares. The western part covered an area of ​​around 1.6 hectares. Its initial date is still uncertain. In the second half of the second century, the area of ​​the vicus was raised by half a meter, presumably in order to counter the increasing floods of the Rhine.

In 2007 a burial ground from the earliest phase of the garrison was discovered around 600 meters southwest of the fort.

Findings and findings from the past period

In the vicus and fort area, two buildings of unsecured function from the fourth century have been found, as well as individual finds from the same century. Among the finds are isolated ceramic shards and coins from the Roman Emperor Galerius , Crispus (eldest son of Emperor Constantine ) and Helena , the mother of Constantine. These finds and findings are in no continuity with the castles of the first to third centuries. There was no longer a permanently occupied fortification from the last quarter of the third century. Perhaps it is the legacy of fourth-century Roman patrols .

See also

• List of troop camps on the Lower Germanic Limes
• List of the Roman vici in Lower Germany

literature

• Julianus Egidius Bogaers : Utrecht - Traiectum . In: Julianus Egidius Bogaers and Christoph B. Rüger : The Lower Germanic Limes. Materials on its story . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7927-0194-4 , pp. 58-61.
• Julia P. Chorus: Binnenbebouwing van het Romeinse castellum in Utrecht. Uitwerking van de opgravingen in de Pandhof van de Dom (1956 en 1964). Odyssey project 'Thuis in een Utrecht castellum: binnenbebouwing van de forten van het Domplein en de Hoge Woerd', deel 1. Basic report on Archeology 93 . Cultuurhistorie gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2013, ISBN 978-90-73448-71-1 .
• Saskia G. van Dockum : The Dutch river basin . In: Tilmann Bechert and Willem J. H. Willems (eds.): The Roman border between the Moselle and the North Sea coast . Theiss, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1189-2 , p. 85.
• Willem Albertus van Es , Wilfried AM Hessing and Joris Gerardus Aarts : Romeinen, Friezen en Franken in het hart van Nederland. Van Traiectum dead Dorestad 50 BC C.-900 n. C. Matrijs, Utrecht 1994, ISBN 90-5345-049-1 .
• Huib L. de Groot: Terugblik op Traiectum. An archeological schets . Stichting Publicaties Oud-Utrecht, Utrecht 1993, ISBN 90-5479-009-1 .
• Huib L. de Groot: Traces at Traiectum. An archeological survey . Stichting Publicaties Oud-Utrecht, Utrecht 1992, ISBN 90-5479-003-2 .
• Jeroen S. van der Kamp et al .: Vroege watches. Archeological onderzoek van twee eerste-eeuwse wachttorens in Leidche Rijn. Basic report archeology 16 . Sectie Cultuurhistorie gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2007, ISBN 978-90-73448-21-6 .
• Jeroen S. van der Kamp: Werk aan de weg. LR 31 Zandweg: Archeological onderzoek aan een verspoelde sectie van de limesweg. Basic report archeology 21 . Cultuurhistorie gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2009, ISBN 978-90-73448-28-5 .
• Jeroen S. van der Kamp: Steenweg 17 Archeologische begeleiding Steenweg 17, Utrecht. Basic report archeology 99 . Cultuurhistorie gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2015, ISBN 978-90-73448-81-0 .
• René PJ Kloosterman: Lichte Gaard 9. Archeologically onderzoek naar het castellum en het bisschoppelijk paleis. Basisrapportage archeologie 41 . StadsOntwikkeling gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2010, ISBN 978-90-73448-3-91 .
• Annemarie Luksen-IJtsma: De limesweg in West-Nederland. Inventory, analysis and synthesis of archeological onderzoek naar de Romeinse weg tussen Vechten en Katwijk. Basic report archeology 40 . Cultuurhistorie, gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2010, ISBN 978-90-73448-41-4 .
• René van der Mark: Eligenstraat. Archeologically onderzoek. Basic report archeology 2 . Cultuurhistorie gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2001, without ISBN
• LR Ozinga: Het Romeinse Castellum te Utrecht. De opgravingen in 1936, 1938, 1943/44 en 1949 uitgevoerd onder leiding van AE van Giffen met medewerking van H. Brunsting, aangevuld met latere waarnemingen . Broese Kemink, Utrecht 1989, ISBN 90-71366-16-2 .

Series, periodicals

• Basic reports Archeologie der Gemeente Utecht, Afdeling Erfgoed, 2004ff., All editions are available as pdf
• Archeologische Kronieken van Provincie Utrecht , 1970–2005, all editions are available as pdf

Web links

Commons : Traiectum (Utrecht)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Traiectum on livius.org, accessed January 16, 2015
• Castellum Traiectum: een Romeinse legerbasis in het hart van de Domstad on the website "Collectie Utrecht", (Dutch), accessed on January 16, 2015
• Website of the Initiatief Domplein , (Dutch), accessed on January 16, 2015
• Thuis in een Utrecht castellum. Binnenbebouwing van de forten van het Domplein en de Hoge Woerd. on the website of the Utrecht University Library, accessed on January 16, 2015
• Domplein on portico.nu, joint project of European countries, accessed on January 16, 2015

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Julianus Egidius Bogaers : Utrecht - Traiectum . In: Julianus Egidius Bogaers and Christoph B. Rüger : The Lower Germanic Limes. Materials on its story . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7927-0194-4 , pp. 58-61.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Saskia G. van Dockum: The Dutch river basin . In: Tilmann Bechert and Willem J. H. Willems (eds.): The Roman border between the Moselle and the North Sea coast . Theiss, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1189-2 , p. 85.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Traiectum (Utrecht) Netherlands . In Richard Stillwell et al. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites . From perseus.tufts.ed, accessed June 26, 2017.
4. ↑ Castellum Traiectum. Een Romeinse legerbasis in het hart van de Domstad , on the website utrechtaltijd.nl (Dutch), accessed on June 26, 2017.
5. ^ Julia P. Chorus: Binnenbebouwing van het Romeinse castellum in Utrecht. Uitwerking van de opgravingen in de Pandhof van de Dom (1956 en 1964). Odysseeproject 'Thuis in een Utrecht castellum: binnenbebouwing van de forten van het Domplein en de Hoge Woerd', deel 1. Basic report Archeology 93  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   . Cultuurhistorie gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2013, ISBN 978-90-73448-71-1 .
6. ↑ AE 1936, 00089
7. ^ René PJ Kloosterman: Lichte Gaard 9. Archeologically onderzoek naar het castellum en het bisschoppelijk paleis. Basic report archeologie 41.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   . StadsOntwikkeling gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2010, ISBN 978-90-73448-3-91 .
8. ↑ René van der Mark: Eligenstraat. Archeologically onderzoek. Basic report archeology 2  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   . Cultuurhistorie gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2001, without ISBN.
9. ↑ Jeroen S. van der Kamp: Steenweg 17 Archeologische begeleiding Steenweg 17, Utrecht. Basic report Archeology 99  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   . Cultuurhistorie gemeente Utrecht, Utrecht 2015, ISBN 978-90-73448-81-0 .