Vicus Orsingen

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Advertisement for the Hegau Museum in Singen with Terra Sigillata from Orsingen

The Vicus Orsingen was a Roman civil settlement ( vicus ) in the area of ​​today's village Orsingen in the Baden-Württemberg district of Constance , which probably owes its origin to the crossing of two Roman roads .

Excavations in the area of ​​the vicus

Already in the 19th century by the retired naturalist Lorenz Oken , who is looking after the Roman road from Stein am Rhein ( Eschenz ) to Rottweil was in Orsingen in Won "head lands" a building as a small bath house was discovered interpreted. The complex was excavated a year later, in 1847, by the antiquity association for the Grand Duchy of Baden and Orsingen was first known as the Roman vicus. When a new district emerged around 1960, which was later called Römereck, numerous remains of walls, paving and broken pieces from Roman times were found. In addition, the construction of a furniture store in 1977 finally unearthed Roman foundations, which the district archaeologist Jörg Aufdermauer was able to secure in an emergency excavation. He interpreted the finding as a Gallo-Roman temple . In the years that followed, when a telecommunication cable and a water pipe were laid, Roman settlement layers were repeatedly cut into. Among other things, Terra Sigillata came to light, with the help of which Dietrich Wollheim first attempted to date the vicus. Aerial archaeological investigations even revealed three strip houses typical of a vicus , but no excavation took place, and a systematic investigation of the Roman Orsingen is still pending.

A monographic presentation of the Roman Age material found with processing of the previously known finds and findings is currently being carried out as part of a dissertation project by Eric Breuer.

location

Location of the Vicus Orsingen at the intersection of two Roman roads

The vicus, a purely civilian settlement, extended over a length of 800 m from north to south and a width of 300 m from east to west. It was probably supplied by the nearby Roman villae rusticae , such as the two estates at Eigeltingen and Homberg, which are only a few kilometers away, or the estate at Wahlwies. The expansion of the settlement, as well as the fact that there were thermal baths and a temple, shows that it was an important resting and trading place that lay at the intersection of two Roman roads . A road led from Neuhausen ob Eck via Orsingen to Ludwigshafen . Probably there was a connection directly from Ludwigshafen to the vicus in Konstanz , as the Roman settlements in Bodman-Ludwigshafen, Allensbach-Langenrain and Reichenau show. The other led from the Eschenz fort ( Tasgetium ) to the fort in Mengen-Ennetach . The exact course of this Roman road, which is called the “ Rhaetian border road” in the literature , was from Tasgetium via Rielasingen , Singen , Friedingen , Steißlingen to Orsingen and then on via Schweingruben and the Ablachtal to Meßkirch , Krauchenwies to Mengen - Ennetach .

building

Jupiter statuette from Orsingen, Museum of Prehistory and Early History (Freiburg)

The thermal baths described by Oken with apodyterium (changing room), tepidarium (warm bath), frigidarium (cold bath) and caldarium (hot bath) can also be found in comparable Vici. In Orsingen, the described temple with a square floor plan was excavated in 1977 , the cult room ( cella ) of which was painted in color. It was part of an entire holy district, as indicated by other foundations of smaller structures that can be interpreted as a kind of chapels.

Other finds

A very well-preserved bronze statue of Jupiter, found in the rubble by a group of students from the Stockach Nellenburg High School in 1992, also had a religious function . The statuette, which is only 8 cm tall, probably stood on a house altar and dates from the 2nd / 3rd centuries. Century AD Also as a chance find during sewer work, a medical spoon probe came to light.

Dating

The terra sigillata, which repeatedly emerged in the excavation, documents a settlement continuity for Orsingen from approx. 80 AD to the fall of the Limes in 260 AD, which is largely due to the area of ​​the bathing complex, the temple district and in the area of ​​"head fields" Roman coins found are documented, which go from the time of Vespasian to Marc Aurel. At that time the western part of Hegau belonged to the province of Germania superior , the eastern part to the province of Raetia . The fact that a large part of the terra sigillata found was charred could indicate a major fire disaster that was linked to the Alemanni incursions around 230 AD. The fact that the Alemanni finally settled permanently in this area is indicated by the ending -ingen in the place name, a process that did not take place until the 6th / 7th Century should have taken place.

literature

  • Jörg Aufdermauer: Gallo-Roman temple. Orsingen-Nenzingen (KN). In: Dieter Planck (Ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg, from Aalen to Zwiefalten. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, p. 242.
  • Jürgen Hald, Wolfgang Kramer (ed.): Archaeological treasures in the Constance district. Greuter, Konstanz 2011.
  • Hilde Hiller: A Jupiter statuette from Orsingen in Hegau. In: Archaeological News from Baden. Volume 54, 1995, ISSN  0178-045X .
  • Hans Stather: The Roman Hegau (= Hegau library. Vol. 89). Hartung-Gorre, Konstanz 1993, pp. 55-59.
  • Ferdinand Stemmer: Orsingen. History of a Hegau village. Association for the history of the Hegau, Singen 1977.
  • Ernst Wagner , Ferdinand Haug (ed.): Sites and finds from prehistoric, Roman and Alemannic-Franconian times in the Grand Duchy of Baden. Volume 1: The Badische Oberland: Districts of Constance, Villingen, Waldshut, Lörrach, Freiburg, Offenburg, Tübingen. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1908, pp. 64-65 ( digitized version ).
  • Dietrich Wollheim: Roman age ceramics from Orsingen / Hegau. In: Archaeological News from Baden. Volume 28, 1982, pp. 36-41, ISSN  0178-045X .
  • Dietrich Wollheim: In the footsteps of the Romans in Hegau. In: Fredy Meyer: Römer, Ritter, Regenpfeifer. Forays through the cultural landscape of western Lake Constance. Stadler, Konstanz 1995.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Wagner , Ferdinand Haug (Ed.): Sites and finds from prehistoric, Roman and Alemannic-Franconian times in the Grand Duchy of Baden. Volume 1: The Badische Oberland: Districts of Constance, Villingen, Waldshut, Lörrach, Freiburg, Offenburg, Tübingen. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1908, pp. 64-65 ( digitized version ).
  2. ^ Jörg Aufdermauer: Gallo-Roman temple. Orsingen-Nenzingen (KN). In: Dieter Planck (Ed.): The Romans in Baden-Württemberg, from Aalen to Zwiefalten. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, p. 242.
  3. ↑ Dietrich Wollheim: Roman Age Ceramics from Orsingen / Hegau. In: Archaeological News from Baden. Volume 28, 1982, pp. 36-41, ISSN  0178-045X .
  4. ↑ Hans Stather: The Roman Hegau (= Hegau library. Vol. 89). Hartung-Gorre, Konstanz 1993, p. 151.
  5. ↑ V. Jauch: Vicustöpfer - ceramic production in the Roman Oberwinterthur (= . Vitudurum Volume 10). Zurich 2014, p. 177, note 1087; P. 179, note 1125.
  6. ↑ Jürgen Hald, Wolfgang Kramer (ed.): Archaeological treasures in the Konstanz district. Greuter, Konstanz 2011.
  7. ↑ Hansjörg Schmid, Hans Eberhardt: Archeology in the area around the Heuneburg. New excavations and finds on the upper Danube between Mengen and Riedlingen. Lectures from the 2nd Ennetach working discussion on March 18, 1999 and booklet accompanying the exhibition in the Heuneburg Museum (May 21 - October 31, 1999). Society for Prehistory and Early History in Württemberg and Hohenzollern. Archaeological information from Baden-Württemberg, No. 40 . Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-927714-38-0 , pp. 101 .
  8. ^ Marianne Müller-Dürr: Medical instruments from Roman times in Baden-Württemberg . In: Find reports from Baden-Württemberg . tape 35 , 2015, p. 327 .
  9. ↑ Dietrich Wollheim: Roman Age Ceramics from Orsingen / Hegau. In: Archaeological News from Baden. Volume 28, 1982, pp. 36-41, here p. 41, ISSN  0178-045X .

Coordinates: 47 ° 50 ′ 13.2 "  N , 8 ° 55 ′ 31.1"  E