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Ho llin er o g C rp.

pH R d h l th e Fra n k lin I t t te 1 e t e t e 0 . ' ' prin from ' ourna of ns i u , ' anuary , 9 3

Mechan ical an d ' n gineerin g Section .

' in l T u r da D cem 1 2 Sla ted M eet ize a b s e b er 0 . g , y , 4 , 9

1 - in i R oman an d Pre Historic R ema s n C en tral German y .

B ' ' D' I N S' I FT BALC H .

In Central Germany , in the province of Hesse Nassau , there are numerous remains of the Romans and some even

more interesting ones of the primitive Germans . German arch aeologists have given a good deal of attentio n to these rem ains during the last quarter of a century ; and they h ave brought to light many facts in connecti o n with the 2 th e m early history of man in Germany . Passing over ti es

of feudalism , when the barons planted their strongholds on

many a steep hill , and going back to the beginning of the t d Chris ian era , one fin s that about the middle of the first

e A . D . c ntury , the Romans invaded the plains of Hesse

n h Nassau , the in abited by Germanic tribes , and established

themselves south of the Taunus . The Romans soon found the need of protecting themselves in their new ' sphere of in' uence and they erected a line of fortifications fro m the

Rhine to the Danube . The peasants formerly called this

1 C t 1 02 d t B . opyrigh , 9 ,by ' win Swif alch 2 T his paper is based partly on consid erabl e personal observation and partly o n th e k e d e t te e t th e Kdn i lich B t boo s , pap rs an v rbal s a m n s of g aura L ' acobi , d e te d l e to th e ex t t e e e d e who has vo his i f plora ion of h s r mains, an whos writ r e t I to ex e d e ed o ings a e a min of informa ion . wish pr ss my in bt n ess t this d t ed e e t is inguish G rman arch ologis .

A th e t t R e Ge are mong publica ions abou oman r mains in rmany ,

Baum eister Das R merk ast l i H L . o e l b e der ' acobi , , Saalburg omburg vor ' H H e H der o e 1 8 . ' n e e t d t oh , omburg vor h , 97 volum , wi h maps an pla es T k d ex e te e t e . s para . his boo inclu s an haus iv bibliography ' h u n r omis b e z l D C o a se A. De R c G e e t d , von r n wal in u schlan , ' ies

de 1 88 . ba n , 4

h au s n A Da s R o m rk astell C o e . d . : e H o m , von , an ' acobi , L Saalburg ,

de r H t dt 1 2 de B k o e 0 . G . burg vor h , S au Supp, 9 ui oo ' Bliimlein K l D ie l 1 0 1 , ar Saa burg , 9 .

z e D r . ' t R om isc h es ld te e e den T K te e Schul , rns So a nl b n in aunus as ll n , r k t A M H B t d 1 8 F . . . e 8 an fur , rch ol , 9 . T H AA B ' R ' S L G . F th e B t rom maps of aura L. ' acobi .

4

w l the Teufelsmauer, but it is now kno n as the Pfah graben , a name explained by some students as meaning a bound L ary, while others consider that it comes from the atin

ve llum . The Pfahlgraben consisted of an earthen wall , o f t and in some places a wall and a di ch , and it can

still be followed with ease throughout most of its length , a n d especially in hilly wooded places , where peasant farm i ers have had no opportunity of level ng it . The Pfahl 2 graben , which is about 5 4 kilometers long , begins near e H nningen on the Rhine , follows roughly the watershed of n a the Taunus Ra ge , and after m king a big curve north M It ward , strikes the ain a little east of Frankfurt . starts M again at the southerly bend of the ain , goes some distance

nearly south , and then almost due east a good distance to a it the D nube , which reaches near Hienheim in the neigh b orh o o d of Regensburg . Although it is not known exactly

when the Pfahlgraben was built , nor when i t was aban do n ed e R 0 , yet it is certain that it was construct d by the o f mans, and that during portions the first three centuries of the Ch ristian era Roman soldiers stood on guard upon

it . The Pfahlgraben , which from a political standpoint was ' a n not unlike the great Chinese ll , was u doubtedly mainly intended to ward o ff the attacks of the unsubdued tribes of N orthern and Eastern Germany , of whom the Chatten and t h e Allem an n en were the most hostile ; but it must also

‘ f v have been used as a tari f frontier , to le y tribute on any n persons who cro ssed to the south . The reasons for locati g

. a part of it north of the natural frontier of the Main are not

s elf - evident ; still it is noticeable that the mineral springs o f ' n iesbade , Homburg and Nauheim are south of it , and th e desire to profit by their b e n e fic en t waters may have b een one of the causes which m ade the Romans enclose t Fo r his country . a time the barrier appears to have served i ts purpose , until , with the increasing degeneracy of the R m oman empire , the sturdy northern barbaric ele ent over n w helmed the e ervated southern race . n m h Behind the Pfahlgrabe , at co paratively s ort intervals , w ere about eighty large and sm all fortified camps and

t s . ower , where bodies of troops were held in garrison The most important of these posts in the Taunus are known as ' K a ersb u r . the p g , the ugmantel and the Saalburg The u latter, situated in one of the gaps of the Ta nus , overlooks Bad H r ombu g , from which it can be reached in half an hour is by trolley . I t now being restored entirely , but as late as 1 8 2 th e 7 it was little but a ruin in the forest , where only foundations of fortifications and h ouse walls and a few holes in the ground were visible . There do not appear to be any written records from Roman times of the Pfahlgrab en o r the Saalburg ; neither an le en ds are there y g connected with them , and the valu o ff able help to history , therefore , occasi nally a orded by myths , is in this case wanting . Our present knowledge is based practically on the remains of the foundations and on B u t the relics found among them . little as we know of the fi history of these old forti cations , yet there can be no doubt that the Latins and the Teutons once struggled for supremacy o along them , and that the former were c nquered and retired . And as one follows the lines of the Pfahlgraben and the ruined Kastells one cannot avoid the reflecti o n that a great its empire , advanced and civilized though it was , but with members weakened physically and morally by centraliza d tion and the estruction of individualism , could not with its stand the assaults of a ruder but stronger race , with units undeteriorated by overcrowding and overgovernment .

c se a l The name Saalburg may ome from the word , mean

re ' th e ing hall , or , meaning boundary , but the origin of w name is still uncertain . The first writer kno n to use the th e name was the Homburger, Elias Neuhof, who mentions 1 t Saalburg in a letter in 74 7 , and who wrote a short accoun 1 of it in 7 77 . He saw it still in a state of tolerable repair, although it had served as a quarry of ready - cut blocks o f stone to the neighboring peasants , and although many of its stones had been ca rried o ff for building the castle and the Lutheran Church at Homburg in the seventeenth and l 1 8 1 8 eighteenth centuries . It was on y in that the taking o f th e wa s 1 8 away stone stopped , and not until 5 3 that the

first diggings were undertaken by the antiquarian , F . G .

I n 1 8 0 C o h a u s en Habel . 7 , Colonel A . von was entrusted with

8

at 1 8 1 the excavations and repairs the Saalburg , and in 7 , B L Ko u . niglich a rat ' acobi j oined him , and under his d h e gui ance the work is still carried on . T Homburg Saal

- V r burg erein furnished some of the money , the Empero s

' I r I II . s i illiam and F ederick likewise a sisted w th funds , an d th e present sovere i g n 111 1 897 ordered the reconstrue tion of the central building . The rej uvenating of the Saal is n S burg progressi g slowly but teadily , and each year sees as a certain amount of reconstruction carried out , well as a a i certain number of arch eolog cal finds . Every care is taken to insure th e utmost possible accuracy in reconstruction . Roman camps similar in character have been examined in r e othe parts of the world , for instance , near Fr j us and La mb aesis n an d Cannes in France and near i Algeria , these

w . have been follo ed in many details Roman authors , like ae C sar and Tacitus , have been studied diligently for every passage which might bear on the subj ect , and it is safe to assume that the new Saalburg will closely resemble the original . Certain persons take exception to the rebuilding

- of the Saalburg, but it may be well to suggest in rebuttal that no ruin would give the same impression of reality as are the restored building , and , moreover , that there some '

- seventy- nine other camps of the same kind ih a state of ruin .

The Saalburg was a fortress , but one practically con a structed on the lines of a Roman milit ry encampment , and

' it may perhaps better be designated a s a perm an en t fortified ‘ d military cam p than as a fort . There is little oubt that , in the order of time , there were three permanent camps at the was Saalburg . The first probably an earthwork, and was much the smallest . The second , it is believed , was of wood

an a s d . d w probably estroyed by fire , possibly after a fight V arious remains h ave been discovered leadi n g to these con e w as s lusions . The third camp built almo t on the lines of the second and was surrounded by a stone wall whose out side dimensio ns were meters in length by 1 4 7 1 8 2 meters in breadth ; that is, the sides had a relation of to 3 . The wall was about m eters in height and was crene

’ t o z lums lated , to allow the legionaries hurl their p or throw 9

S th e o ing pears through openings . On the utside it was surrounded by a double , probably dry ditch , while on the a inside it was banked up with earth , forming platform for w a f a t the soldiers to stand on . On each side as g e : to the

' ‘ a south the Porta Decumana , to the north Pr e

' toria , to the east the Porta Dextra and to the west the ‘ Porta Sinistra . The Porta Decumana had a double entrance and and the other three only one each , each of these gates ' was anked by two small towers . The northern and o s uthern gates were in the middle of their respective sides , while the eastern and western ones , through which it is ‘' sen zes - believed the troops made , were at one third the distance from the southern end and faced exactly the doors d of the main buil ing .

The southern wall and half of the eastern wall , and the Porta Decumana and the Porta Dextra are already rebuilt ae v as well as the Pr torium within . O er the outside of the Porta Decu mana is an i nscription Guilelm u s I I Frederici I I I Filius Gu ilelm i Magni Nepos Anno Regni ' V in m em o rian e t honorem paren tum castellum lim itis Sa alb u r res ti it geuse tu . In front of the gate is a statue of green bronze with some gilt decorations : it is by a German

m an r u m . R o o sculptor , I Gotz , and is inscribed Imperatori Tito Aelio H adrian o Antonino Augusto Pio Gu ilelm u s I I Germ an o rum I mperator . The interior of the Saalburg is an almost level rec tan gu lar space which Slopes gently towards the north and in the center of which is the Praetorium . The southern end is

R eten tu a Praeten spoken of as the r , the northern end as the L tura , and the eastern and western parts as the atera Pr t rii ae o .

R e te n tura The , which was farthest from the enemy , was the place for the commissariat and quartermasters ’ depart ments . In the eastern half are the remains of the Horreum or provision house , as is demonstrated by the cross walls n still remaining and the hooks for ha ging meat found there . In the western half of the R e ten tu ra are the remains of is l d th e u aes to riu m what ca le Q , which may have been the

’ e r o ffi c s quarters .

I I

Praete n tu ra The , at the northern end nearest the enemy ,

was the quarter of the soldiers , who lived there either in h t tents or in wooden hu ts . Here , somew a sunk in the o a gr und , is a sm ll circular ring , which was at first supposed to be an amphithe atre ; but as many horseshoes were found

there , it seems most probable that it was a riding ring . At th e northeastern end of the P raete n tura are the remains of a bath which dates back probably to the earliest earthwork camp and which does not appear to have been used at the h latest period . T is bath consisted of two main parts . One

- w as with a seat in it was a cold water bath . The other h eated from underneath and was subdivided into two por

wa s - tions , of which one a warm water bath and the other

- probably a hot air bath .

a 60 - 0 The Pr etorium , which is meters long and 4 meters

wide , is in the position where the tent of the commander

' n o w was placed in a ying Roman camp . It is almost r b e resto ed and is to used as a museum for the various finds .

The southern end is a b ig w o o den - roofed hall with stone walls in which are two stories of windows of which th e upper ones a re the biggest . It is supposed that during bad weather the soldiers were drilled and practised in throwing the pilum and vaulting on a wooden horse in this hall . Adj oining this

th e to the north is the Atrium , a courtyard open to sky and

- m surrounded by a wooden roofed piazza . In the Atriu are

two wells , one with a wooden , the other with a thatched roof , a n d the remains of a little building of uncertain date and

use , but which was perhaps a Sacellum for the first or second c amp . On the east and west sides of the Atrium , beyond

the piazza , are long narrow chambers and to the north is v another smaller court , beyond which are se eral more rooms .

The middle one of these was probably the latest Sacellum , where the military insignia and the statues of the gods and e mperors were kept .

ar e I mmediately around the Saalburg there many ruins . To the east and west the foundations of many small houses s b how that there must have een something of a settlement . a To the south are the remains of many Canab e , houses o f s uttlers and camp followers and also drinking shops , 1 2

probably not unlike our saloons . Immediately before the western front of the south wall are the foundations of the

f ‘ ' s o - o f called villa , which was possibly the house the com ’ in o fficers mander peace times , or which may have been an

club , and where at the proper season wild strawberries now b grow in abundance . There appears to have been a ath de here , or at least there is a heating apparatus un r one room . From the Porta Decumana a road led so uth to Heddern heim in the valley of the Nidda , and on both sides of this , some 00 3 meters from the gate , was a burying ground , where some 0 35 graves have been discovered . The dead were cremated th e in and ashes placed an urn , together with small jugs , o f — o — pieces ften false money and other small articles .

'

fif t - The water supply depended on wells , of which y eight n h have bee found up to date . Eight of t ese are in the h d . camp . Almost every small house a its own well The

oldest have wooden sides , while the later ones have walls of

stone without mortar . The dirty water was carried away by drains or canals , some of which still act .

The heating system was ingenious . A shallow cellar was du g and a number of low brick pillars erected . These sup ' o o o uts d ported a o r f terra c tta tiles and concrete . O i e of the house was a sort of oven , which had an opening into the a a o air cellar , and the cell r was lso connected with the uter by terra cotta pipes placed again st th e inside of the walls

- fire and opening at the roof or within the room . A wood was built in the oven and the hot air went into the cellar and en ough of it rose through the terra cotta pipes to keep ' up a slow draught . The oor and the walls were gradually heated up and the room was doubtless kept warm for a n m rather lo g ti e . M n a y articles have been dug up at the Saalburg, prin ci all ' e p y under the ruins or in the w lls . Some of these are primarily of historic importance . Such for instance are numerou s terra cotta slabs bearing inscriptions like the fol

: R h e tii lowing C O H . I I . R A E T (Cohort I I . of the ) ; V I th e Vin delicii C O H . I II . N D (Cohort I I I of ). These prove that some of the troops stationed along the an d Pfahlgraben were German auxiliaries , it may well be 1 3

m that , tired with the overbearing Ro ans , when the last

t n struggle occurred , they fra ernized with their oncomi g relatives and took their share in endi n g the Roman domina tion in a turmoil of blood and fire . M any coins have been dug up , and these give a tolerably accurate means of estimating the duration of the Roman

w - 268 0 B C . soj ourn . T enty two coins date from to 3 . , a few e b long to the reigns of the earlier emperors , but it is in the V 6 — A D reign of espasian ( 9 79 . . ) that they first become numerous , and it was doubtless about that time that the e ffi Saalburg was started . There are many coins with the gies of Domitian ( 8 1 Traj an (98 Hadrian ( 1 1 7 Antoninus Pius ( 1 38 Marcus Aurelius ( 1 6 1 Septimus Severus ( 1 94 H eliag ab alu s ( 2 1 8 Sev 222 235 ) and Go rdian u s I I I ( 238 erns . Alexander ( The latest ones are of the reign s of V alerian ( 25 3— 25 9) and Claudius Go th ic u s ( 268 I t is probably not far out of the way to assume that Roman control of the Taunus came to an end ab o ut that time after lasting some t wo centuries . Some of the finds are chie' y of arch aeological and eth n o logical interest . Such for instance is the pottery in the shape of amphoras , j ars , etc . , of which much has been dug up ; but especially note worthy are the broken panes of ' ' glass of which many pieces were found in the villa , for

' th ey sh o w that in northern climes the Romans used glass windows . The panes range from a light green to a dark 0 0 blue color , and they were about 4 centimeters by 4 centi meters . Among the iron relics the horseshoes are most note u worthy . A number have been fo nd in the riding ring , t and they show that the Romans , in Germany at leas , used n o t m them . Shoes for mules and oxen are also unco mon .

n o t The spurs were cleverly made , as the shank did point straight from the middle of the heel bu t curved s ome what outward : there was thus no danger of the ride r accidentally striking his horse , for he had to turn his toes out and bring his

t h e m a heels well in to spur him . In this implement Ro ns

Fe w t rn e were ahead of any other people . weapons have u d

a t e a s re up , prob bly because hey would be most ' lou l y ca d I 4 for from their great value to friend and foe in such a wild region . Tools , on the contrary , are rather numerou s , and — — the hammers , saws , axes, nails but no screws are much like those still in use in Germany . A number of the tools

- are for left handed workmen . One small garden pick is so

w - axe m exactly like a S iss ice , that one might al ost assert

- that it was an ice axe . The works of art are unimportant , consisting principally of a few little bronze statuettes .

Over a hundred and fifty articles o f leather have . been m ud m taken out of the wells , where the see s to have acted

- in o st as an air tight preserver . The important are one leather j acket and a number of sandals and shoes . No r entire pai of these has turned up , but only worn out sing le S pecimens , some shaped like an undeformed foot , but many

ending in a point in the middle of the toes . e Of the animal bones discovered , all belong to now xist

s b e: w a s ing pecies , except a few of the aurochs ( ) and the

'

- Sum sch w ein sus scro cz a lustms swamp boar ( p , f p ) . I t is not

wonderful that stag and roedeer remains are plentiful , for these animals may be seen constantly in the vicinity of the

Saalburg , and the gates have to be barred at night to pre r vent their coming in to feed . Indeed , Her Georg Baer of Homburg tells me that some years ago he saw stags figh t

ing in the Saalburg , while the hinds were looking on . Leaving the Saalburg and following for about 3 kilo

meters eastward the Pfahlgraben , which there consists of an w earthen rampart ith a beveled edge and a ditch , one o w reaches the foundations f the small square fort, now kno n Lo ch m iih le as the , which was doubtless the post of the garri

ih lka lwe ern son which kept guard the g of the d p Thal . Continuing along the Pfahlgraben and passing th e f o un da

- 6 tion wall of a small Roman tower , after about kilometers u i K a ers more through bea tiful woods , one arr ves at the p

burg . K a ersb ur The p g resembles the Saalburg , but it is not r n o mo e tha half the size , and it is still even more unt uched t It han was the Saalburg thirty years ago . is surrounded a by a ruined wall in which there are four g tes . There are the foundations of a prmto rium and several other buildings

1 6

Gickels b u r d ringwalls , the g , which is so hid en in the forest 220 1 6 that it is hard to find . It is meters by 5 meters in o an d S n dimensi n , the rather small stones have u k together l in into a ong , oval heap . The finest of these ringwalls Altkdn i Central Germany , however , is the one on the g , above

Falkenstein , which is in full sight of Homburg and easily I accessible . examined it in company of Professor George d F . Barker . This fort has a ouble line of walls , both in good e pr servation , which entirely surround the summit plateau r of the mountain , enclosing a space seve al hectares in ac 8 1 0 extent . E h wall , at present , must be some or meters t in bread h by about 3 meters in height , so that the original dimensions may be estimated at som e 5 or 6 m eters in

‘ breadth , by the same in height . The stones average in size from perhaps the bulk of an oran ge to that of a large watermelon , although there are some few bigger ones . They are evidently the mou n tain stone brought together l and pi ed up , and Professor Barker thought they were all a ' e s a w v itrifi q uartzose sandstone . no traces of wood or t ca ion , which latter occurrence , probably caused by fire , is

' found occasion ally in the somewhat similar v itrified forts Altk n i of Scotland . A t the eastern base of the o g is the Alten h df e - , another single walled ringwall , smaller and less perfect th e than one on top . A certain number of the implements of the early Ger mans have also been obtained in the Taunus and in the 1 880 d plains of Hesse Nassau . In , near the Fer inands o f n platz in Bad Homburg , a great find bronze impleme ts and weapons was made . Among these are axes or celts ,

- h lance heads , some plaques or bosses for s ields , bracelets ,

600 800 B C . sickles , etc . They may date to or . It is possi ble that some of them were cast in the neighborhood of

Homburg itself, but it is probable that most of them were made in Bologna , Italy, and that they reached Germany through regular trading . They would seem to show that the Germanic peoples , for some centuries before the Roman invasion , were in a bronze age .

Neolithic implemen ts also are fou n d in Hesse Nassa u .

' - t a re hile the smooth stone axes and ools not numerous , I 7

yet enough have been dug up to make certain the fact that d r some thousan s of years befo e the Christian era , savage Neolithic tribes shared the still virgin forests with the t h e lv n x a n d aurochs , bear and the , that they slowly carried ' forward the evolution of man in Central Germany . hen a n d wh en d the use of these instruments began _ it stoppe is u 1 02 e not known , but in ' ly , 9 , whil digging up the earth at

- n the Porta Sinistra of the Saalburg , two small smooth sto e implemen ts were found in the same l ayer with Roman i remains , and th s is a noteworthy piece of evidence that the

: use of smooth - stone implemen t s may have continued until

the beginning of the Christian era .

A few chipped rough - sto n e arrow- heads have also been

n found in Hesse Nassau . The specime s look exactly like

- North American Indian arrow heads . They are probably d Paleoliths , but the evi ence is still meager about the earlies t peoples of Central Germany .