New finds suggest Romans won big North Germany battle [ Maximinus Thrax ]

Until only two years ago, northern Germany was believed to have been a no-go area for Roman troops after three legions were wiped out by German tribesmen in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9. The revelation that two centuries later a Roman force mounted a punitive raid deep inside the tribal areas in AD 235 has changed all that, suggesting that a soldier-emperor, Maximinus Thrax, seriously attempted to subjugate the north of Germany. The debris from the battle is scattered over a wooded hill, the Harzhorn.

An archeological dig there this summer turned up 1,800 artefacts. A single spot on the hill had been pounded by torsion catapults, one of the most advanced weapons in the Roman arsenal, and 70 bolts from these armour-piercing weapons were still lying in the ground. The catapults, mounted on wagons, had a range of up to 200 metres, said Michael Moosbauer, an archaeology professor at the Harzhorn site. The iron points weighed 200 grams apiece...

Among the techniques used by the archaeologists to sketch a map of the battle is tracking the studs that fell off Roman sandals as the troops climbed the Harzhorn on foot. They are believed to have overcome their opponents before continuing on their way. That belief is partly based on the absence from the soil of buckles, which were typically left behind on battlefields when victors ripped armour off slaughtered Roman legionaries... Among the finds is part of an ornate Roman scabbard, which can be dated from its style to the battle period, and the bones of a horse, which have been carbon-dated to about AD 235 too... Nine coins that have been found -- one minted in AD 228 -- also fit the date.

Bentumersiel – Romans and Germanic People

Ever since its discovery in 1928, the settlement site of Bentumersiel, located on the western bank of the Lower Ems, has occupied a special place within archaeological research because it also yielded numerous objects of Roman origin. Apparently, the settlement held particular significance for the Roman army during the military campaigns of Germanicus in AD 15/16. Renewed archaeological investigations between 2006 and 2008 were carried out with the aim of establishing a detailed understanding of the settlement’s function and development. Coordinated by E. Strahl, the project is carried out in cooperation with the Roman-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute in Frankfurt/Main. The work was funded by the EWE-Foundation, Oldenburg, and supported by the Centre for Work of Leer District.

The site has produced, amongst others, fragments of tuyères for smelting furnaces as well as numerous items of Roman origin dating to the 1st–2nd/3rd centuries AD. There are several metal fragments of Roman legionary equipment dating to the early 1st century AD, alongside sherds of amphorae or Roman dolia. These finds can be linked with Germanicus’ military campaigns in the area to the East of the Ems in AD 15/16. According to Tacitus’ account the Roman fleet remained on the lower reaches of the river for the time of the campaigns. Finds of pottery and a small assemblage of bronze objects displaying Celtic influences suggest that the settlement had been established as early as the 3rd/2nd century BC. Based on current evidence it continued into the 4th century AD. With its rich Roman import an isolated cremation grave dating to the same period is a peculiarity in the West Germanic area between the rivers Weser and Ems. Among the grave goods, which had been heavily fire-damaged on the pyre, there are three bronze vessels and, apart from glass beads, probably also several glass vessels as indicated by molten glass weighing nearly 1 kg. On the basis of a Germanic composite comb the burial can be dated to the early 4th century AD. Several other equally isolated cremation graves of similar date were uncovered by the Archaeological Service of the East-Frisian Landscape in the course of investigations of the Wurt mound of Jemgumkloster, located immediately to the North of Bentumersiel.

Location of the excavation trenches (Illustration: D. Dallserra, NIhK)

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