Wetterau-Limes

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As Wetterau-Limes (also Wetterau arc ) is in the research part of the Upper German-Rhaetian Limes called, the subsequent Wetterau in Hesse enclosed. Today it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Upper German-Raetian Limes .

Limes course in the Wetterau
The bathing building of Fort Echzell is marked in the pavement in front of the church
Information boards in front of the bathing building of Fort Rückingen
Well-preserved section of the Limes in the Bulau near Erlensee
The coin treasure from Ober-Florstadt in the Wetterau Museum

History and course

During the two campaigns of Emperor Domitian against the Chatti (83 and 85 AD), the Romans began to cut aisles in the dense forests of today's Hesse in order to avoid attacks on their columns (such as the battle in the Teutoburg Forest ) .

On the Taunus ridge, such a lane served as a supply and control route. After the end of the Chatten Wars, the Romans began to secure these conquests on the right bank of the Rhine by means of a limes : the lanes were reinforced with wooden towers to ensure seamless surveillance. This made the southern slope of the Taunus and the fertile and strategically important Wetterau part of the Roman Empire . In addition to the establishment of this border line, Domitian converted the two previous Germanic military districts of Upper and Lower Germany into provinces. Despite the rather small conquest, he was then celebrated in Rome with great pomp as a triumphant and coins with the ambitious inscription Germania capta ("Germania is conquered") minted . The propagandistic side of this policy is also evident in the fact that there were hardly any Germanic tribes in the already narrow province of Upper Germany ( Germania superior ), but almost only Celts.

The long held conviction that the Neckar-Odenwald-Limes was built at the same time as the Wetterau-Limes immediately after the Chat Wars, is now considered to be refuted. Although there have been Roman outposts on the right bank of the Rhine since the 1970s , the demarcation of the border along the Odenwald-Neckar line to Donnstetten (see Lautertal-Limes ) is mostly only dated to the year 98 AD today.

The conservation conditions are poor due to the heavy agricultural use of the Wetterau. Only a few sections at the foothills of the Taunus, near Echzell , Limeshain and east of Hanau are visible above ground. In the early days of Limes research, this circumstance meant that the eastern meteorological range was unknown; one suspected a course through the Vogelsberg . This was only refuted in the 1880s by excavations by the Hanau History Association under Albert Duncker and Georg Wolff .

Like the other sections of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the Wetterau Limes was gradually strengthened and expanded. In the eastern Wetterau in particular, the initial dates of the individual fort complexes are not uniform. It is obvious that there was initially a line from Oberflorstadt - Heldenbergen - Hanau-Mittelbuchen - Hanau-Salisberg . Fortresses on the Marköbel - Rückingen - Großkrotzenburg line further east were probably not built until the Trajan period. The neighboring Taunus line was strengthened in the second half of the 2nd century by the number fort in Holzhausen , Kleiner Feldberg and Kapersburg .

The wide bulge of the Limes in the north of the Wetterau is explained by the fertile soil on the one hand and the high demand for supplying the troops on the Limes and the legion camp in Mainz ( Mogontiacum ). Archaeobotanical studies have calculated an annual requirement of 3,034 t of grain (excluding seed production) and 10,371 t of hay for the Limes arch in the Wetterau alone .

The end of the Wetterau Limes came in 259/260 AD, when Rome gave up all areas on the right bank of the Rhine ( Limesfall ). So z. B. the once flourishing pottery industry in the Wetterau to have largely come to a standstill. Ceramic imports from the Rhineland dominate the spectrum of archaeological finds in the second third of the 3rd century. Bricks no longer seem to have been fired to the same extent as before. More and more often (partly damaged) old material was used instead. Hypocaust heaters gave way to much simpler hose heaters. There are also other interesting findings from the border area that shed more light on the late period of the Limes. This includes the coin treasure from Ober-Florstadt, which was probably hidden in the course of the Germanic invasions in 233. In 1603 the inscription of a collegium iuventutis was discovered in the vicinity of the Altenstadt fort . It may be a unit that was put together as a local militia. The Kapersburg fort was considerably reduced in size in its last phase. There is also a local unit inscribed there, a Numerus Nidensium , which was probably excavated in the Civitas capital Nida-Heddernheim .

Fortresses on the Wetteraulimes

Museums

The following museums present the weather lime or individual sites in their permanent exhibition:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Egon Schallmayer : The Limes - History of a Border (= CH Beck Knowledge. Volume 2318). 3rd edition, Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-48018-8 , pp. 35, 54.
  2. ↑ Ernst Fabricius , Felix Hettner , Oscar von Sarwey (ed.): The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes of the Roemerreiches / Abt. A, Vol. 2.1. P. 7; Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann : The archaeological research of the Roman period in Hessen. In: D. Baatz / F.-R. Hermann (ed.): The Romans in Hessen. Theiss, Stuttgart 1989 pp. 13-37; Rainer Braun: Early research on the Upper German Limes in Baden-Württemberg. Small script knowledge Rom. Occupation History of Southwest Germany (Writings of the Limes Museum Aalen) 45, Stuttgart 1991 pp. 42–44.
  3. ↑ Marcus Reuter : The small Roman fort of Hanau-Mittelbuchen and the course of the eastern Wetterau Limes under Domitian. In: Egon Schallmayer (Ed.): Limes Imperii Romani. Contributions to the specialist colloquium “Limes World Heritage Site” in November 2001 in Lich-Arnsburg. Bad Homburg vdH 2004) pp. 97-106 (Saalburg-Schriften 6).
  4. ↑ Angela Kreuz : Agriculture and its ecological basis in the centuries around the birth of Christ. On the status of scientific research in Hesse. Reports on state archaeological research in Hessen 3, 1994/95, pp. 79–81.
  5. ↑ Ralf-Peter Märtin : Die Rache der Römer , cover story in National Geographic magazine 06/10, pp. 66–91.
  6. ↑ CIL 13, 7424
  7. ↑ Markus Scholz : Reduction in the late Limes versus medieval installation in Limes forts. In: E. Schallmayer (Ed.): Limes Imperii Romani. Contributions to the specialist colloquium “Limes World Heritage Site” in November 2001 in Lich-Arnsburg. Bad Homburg vdH 2004, pp. 135–145. (Saalburg writings 6).
  8. ↑ CIL 13, 07441 (4, p 125) .
  9. ↑ http://www.liz-hofgrass.de/

literature

  • Dietwulf Baatz and Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (eds.): The Romans in Hessen. Licensed edition of the 3rd edition from 1989. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 .
  • Marion Mattern: Roman stone monuments from the Taunus and Wetterau Limes with hinterland between Heftrich and Großkrotzenburg . Habelt, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-88467-056-5 , ( Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani , Germany, 2.12)
  • Barbara Oldenstein-Pferdehirt: The Roman auxiliary troops north of the Main. Research on the Upper Germanic Army I. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum 30, 1983, pp. 303-348.
  • Vera Rupp , Heide Birley: Hikes on the Wetteraulimes. Archaeological hikes on the Limes from the Köpperner Tal in Taunus to the Drususeiche near Limeshain. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1551-0 , (Guide to Hessian Pre- and Early History, 6)

Web links

See also

Coordinates: 50 ° 29 ′ 59 ″  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 57 ″  E