while my parents were on visit again we decided to learn a bit more about hessian history. what better way to go to a former roman fort in the taunus mountains? you see, once upon a time there was a frontier going through germany ( no, not the gdr one from modern times ) that marked the boundaries of the roman empire in old germania. the frontier in the region i live in was called rhaetian limes ( which was part of the limes germanicus ) and it was one of the most watched borders of the time back then, because there was a so called loop hole in their frontier, which basically meant they had to built a lot of watchtowers and forts as there was no natural border like a river around which would detain people from crossing the borders to the roman empire. well, and some of the forts and watchtowers can still be visited today, and you can also follow along the former limes lines ( there's even a hiking trail ). one of the forts you can visit is the saalburg.
the saalburg fort was first erected around 85/90 a.d. it was extended several times to house bigger troops and was in use for 150 years up to 260 a.d. the entry to the fort is rather impressing.
because of this man: antoninus pius. apparently he moved the borders to the line miltenberg-lorch, but i'm not sure he's ever been in this area.
this is a part of the praeterium, which was the residential building of the commandant.
the pictures are rather dark and gloomy, as it was raining the whole morning. on the right there's the horreum - the granary - where an exhibition awaits you about life in the roman empire. and in the back you can see the principia - the staff building. the fort area as it presents itself in modern times is not historically accurate. nowadays it's a park like structure with a few main buildings, whereas in roman times there were more barracks around and very little space inbetween.
romans outfooled people when it came to their architectural skills. the buildings were always built in a rather easy and traditional way, but they plastered the stonework with a white plasterwork and drew red lines on it, so it seemed that their buildings were built out of beautifully neatly structured bricks. but only from afar. when yout took a closer look, the fraud was immediately uncovered :)
inside the staff building.
the staff building has an inner courtyard with wells inside.
in the side wings of the building you could learn more about the fort and the the life inside one. and marvel at great weapons, that looked like they could've been made in modern days! i loved the metal work, don't ask me why, i was just smitten with it.
a beautiful parade mask and a tiny balteus vineris. ( that's some kind of breast girdle )
and this is what our roman soldiers looked like!
a restoration of a dining room.
unfortunately you couldn't photograph it properly.
aedes - the banner sanctuary. here the romans stored their war tributes.
a better picture of the sanctuary.
beautiful metal door - which was definitely not built by romans, as there's clearly 'art nouveau' written all over it :)
mossy wood rails.
the courtyard of the principia wasn't actually open in roman times, there was a roof above it and it was more like a hall. the wells were part of the construction.
a look at the aedes.
and you could also peek into a roman kitchen. oh, the delicious ingredients everywhere ( yes, they were all fake, but i so wanted to be in there for real and smell all the heavenly odors of tasty roman food - such as moretum, lucan sausages, mulsum ( honey infused wine ) and my personal favourite yet: mushrooms sauteed in a honey-herb marinade. my heart beats really fast when thinking of those delicacies.
there was a room dedicated to busts. unfortunately i don't know anymore who was depicted here.
the rain bundled off and the sun came out! reason enough to go outside and take a look at the rest of the fort. like i said, the reconstruction is not accurate, instead of trees and grass you would actually look at wooden barracks.
this portal is leads to the actual limes construction.
beautiful tree in front of the principia.
the back of the praetorium.
inside the granary you could marvel at various exhibition pieces that were found on the site.
the shoes that were found on the site were pretty intricate in their design, and i was really fascinated by all the details. some looked so good, i would've definitely considered to wear them even today.
i absolutely adored these vases with faces! i'd really like to have one like these.
it even looks a little bit like my own bitch face.
in general, i loved the pottery and glassware way too much. so beautiful!
clay bat :3
and those terra sigillata bowls... i couldn't stop swooning.
various styles of brooches! the swastika was originally NOT a sign of terror and humiliation ( the nazis misused the intention and original meaning of this symbol in a very horrible way - to the extent that when you look at it now all the horrible happenings of the third reich come to mind ). in roman culture the swastika was a symbol of fending off evil spirits - it was a symbol of decoration and magic.
as you can read here, the function of the dodecahedron is still unknown to this day, which makes it a pretty exciting artifact, don't you think?
little satyr or devil like figurine.
when we finished looking at the wonderful exhibit we decided to get more fresh air and took a walk outside of the fort.
we passed by wooden palisades next to the limes border mounds.
and followed the limes for quite a bit. the limes border was mainly a huge and long mound, it wasn't until much later that palisades were built and watchtowers were erected to have better control over who was passing it. today, you can only find the mounds of it, and of course the occasional watchtower or fort.
behind that border stone you were in the land of the roman empire.
on the site around the fort archeologists found a village and some graveyards, but they never found a mithraeum - a cult place for the god mithras. they built this place because they thought that there might've been one in existence around here, but it never was proven. still, mithraism was huge amongst the soldiers of the empire and it's quite nice to see such a structure with your own eyes - i mean, it's great for understanding the bigger picture.
mithras - lightbearer of the sun.
i would've liked it to have a closer look inside the temple, but it was closed.
several hundred metres away from the mithras temple you would stumble upon this golden man: jupiter - god of sky and thunder.
he is part of a column which is a replica of a jupiter column that was found in mainz. the original column is the most elaborate of all the columns that were found in germania. there are depictions of 28 deities on it and it most definitely served as a consecration memorial.
and this was the last picture of our excursion to the roman past of germany. i am definitely hooked on learning more about it!
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