Nyt Romersk slag i Nordtyskland fundet!

Breaking News:
Arkæologer finder romersk slagmark i Tyskland
Af MAGNUS HARALD HASLEBO
Offentliggjort 16.12.08 kl. 22:53

Tagget fra JP.DK

Arkæologer i det nordlige Tyskland har fundet en ældgammel slagmark, der flyder med romerske våben, men slagmarken burde slet ikke være der.

Hidtil har historikere ment, at romerne opgav regionen, da flere tusind romerske legionærer i år 9 blev nedkæmpet i Teutoburg-skoven, der lå ikke langt fra stedet, hvor Bremen nu ligger. Det skriver den tyske avis Der Spiegel.
Imidlertid har forskerne fundet ud af, at våbnene fundet på slagmarken, der ligger ca. 100 kilometer syd for Hannover, stammer fra omkring år 300.
Det nye fund tvinger muligvis historikere til at tage et nyt kig på romernes tilstedeværelse i Tyskland.

Angreb fra nord
På den ældgamle slagmark har arkæologerne indtil nu fundet ca. 600 genstande, heriblandt øksehoveder, vogndele, mønter og pilespidser. Slagmarken ligger på bakketoppen Harzhorn.
De mange fund gør forskerne i stand til at genskabe hændelsesforløbet. De mener, at romerske bueskytter og artilleri affyrede deres våben, hvorefter fodfolk angreb forsvarerne på bakketoppen fra begge sider.
"Hele slaget tog maksimum én time, men kampen er som frosset i tiden," forklarer arkæologen Michael Geschwinde ifølge Der Spiegel.
Langt størstedelen af pilespidserne blev fundet pegende mod syd, og det viser, at romerne angreb fra nord. Det antyder, at de romerske soldater var på vej tilbage fra en mission endnu længere mod nord. Michael Geschwinde forklarer, at omkring 1.000 romerske soldater deltog i slaget, men muligvis deltog også reserver fra Romerrigets kolonier i Afrika.

Mangelfulde beretninger
Historien fortæller kun magert om et romersk felttog i Tyskland omkring år 300. Historikeren Herodian fortalte, at kejser Maximinus Thrax erklærede tyskerne krig, men fundet af slagmarken er første indikation af, at Thrax rent faktisk fulgte op på krigserklæringen.


Kommentar:
Opdagelsen af Harzhorn-slaget bekræfter COHORS II argumenter for at stammerne i det danske område havde et nært samarbejde med romerne. At angrebet sker fra nord er særligt interessant. Mange fund i Danmark tyder på, at et venskab mellem romerne og de herboende Kimbrere var stærkt. Var den romerske hær fra Harzhorn-slaget på vej tilbage til Romerrigets grænser ved Rhinen, efter et besøg i Danmark?

MAJOR ROMAN FIND IN GERMANY

Discovery of Roman Battlefield Poses Historical Riddle
By Andrew Curry in Kalefeld, Germany (From the German magazine "Der Spiegel")

Archaeologists in Germany say they have found an ancient battlefield strewn with Roman weapons. The find is significant because it indicates that Romans were fighting battles in north Germany at a far later stage than previously assumed.
The wilds of Germany may not have been off-limits to Roman legions, archaeologists announced on Monday. At a press conference in the woods near the town of Kalefeld, about 100 kilometers south of Hanover, researchers announced the discovery of a battlefield strewn with hundreds of Roman artifacts dating from the 3rd century A.D.
Finding evidence of Roman fighting forces so far north is surprising, the archaeologists say. Germany was once considered prime territory for Roman conquest. But in A.D. 9, thousands of Roman legionaries were slaughtered in a forest near modern-day Bremen.

"We thought that with the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, the Romans gave up on this region and pulled back behind the limes," or frontier fortifications further south, says Henning Hassmann, the Lower Saxony Conservation Department's lead archaeologist.
But evidence found in woods outside the small town of Kalefeld may force historians to take a new look at the Roman presence in Germany. More than 600 artifacts, ranging from axe heads and wagon parts to coins and arrowheads, have been found on a forested hill called the Harzhorn. So far, the artifacts indicate that Roman soldiers fought a battle on top of the hill.
The site first came to light in the summer of 2000, when local metal detector hobbyists found some pieces of metal while looking for a medieval fort. The fragments languished for years, until the men finally decided to turn them in to Petra Loenne, the Northeim area archaeologist.

Clustered Arrowheads Amid Towering Pines
Loenne immediately recognized an unusual tangle of metal. Called a "hippo-sandal," it was a sort of early horseshoe that was wrapped around the hoof of a horse or draft animal. "It definitely wasn't medieval," she says. In fact, it was Roman – but as far as Loenne knew it had no place in Lower Saxony, hundreds of miles north of the Roman frontier.
Loenne quickly assembled a team of archaeologists and historians – and local metal detector hobbyists with good connections to the archaeological authorities. Her priority was to locate any more artifacts close to the surface as quickly as possible. "We had to hurry and excavate before word got out and looters arrived," Loenne says.
Over the course of three months, they found a Roman-era battlefield spread over more than a mile of dense German forest. Standing under towering pines on Monday, Loenne said the battlefield may be one of the largest ever discovered intact from that era.
Metal detector hobbyists working under the watchful eye of Loenne and her team located over 600 metal objects, from Roman sandal nails to arrowheads and six-inch long iron spear points that once capped javelins fired from ballistae, a sort of giant crossbow.

After the press conference on Monday, the local fire department ferried visitors up a muddy dirt road to the hilltop. Snow still clung to the forest floor, which was pocked with tiny craters where archaeologists had dug holes.

The steep face of the hill was studded with tennis balls on spikes, each one marking where an artifact had been found. The center of the hill was covered with neon-green balls, each one marking where a ballista's javelin had landed; a few balls painted blue and green marked spear and arrow points. Archaeologists found eighty percent of the points were found oriented in the same direction. The rest may have bounced off of trees – or barbarians – and landed pointing in a different direction.

Battle Action Frozen in Time
Along the ridge on either side of the hilltop, dozens of tennis balls painted red support the argument. The red balls mark where Roman sandal nails came loose. After archers and artillery launched their weapons towards the defenders on top of the hill, the archaeologists think Roman legionaries may have swept in from either side to finish the job.
"It took half an hour or an hour at most, but it's preserved like it was frozen in time," said Michael Geschwinde, an archaeologist at the Lower Saxony Conservation Department who participated in the dig. "For an archaeologist, it's amazing to be able to explore this moment."
The layout of the battlefield contains yet another tantalizing clue: The Romans attacked the hill from the north, suggesting that they were on their way home from a mission even further into German territory. Geschwinde said there may have been about a thousand men on the Roman side, perhaps including auxiliary archers and spear-throwers from the empire's provinces in Africa and the Middle East.
At least one arrowhead still contained enough of the original wooden shaft to provide organic material for radiocarbon dating, which place it some time in the 3rd century A.D. Coins and other objects support the idea that the battle may have been fought some time between 200 and 250 A.D.
There is sketchy evidence in the histories for some sort of Roman push into German territory in the 3rd century. Historians like Herodian say the Emperor Maximinus Thrax declared war on the Germans, but this is the first evidence he may have actually carried out his threats. "From what sources say, he did push into Germany," says Eric de Sena, an archaeologist at John Cabot University in Rome. "In a way it seems to correspond with the histories."

The specialized artillery and hundreds of Roman sandal nails found atop Harzhorn Hill is a good indication the combatants were Romans, not barbarians using Roman weapons. Roman artifacts have been found as far north as the Baltic Sea, but have usually been dismissed as trade goods. "Roman sandals on German feet doesn't make sense, at least not in that amount," says Friedrich Lueth, head of the German Archaeological Institute's Roman German Commission. "At this late stage, it's quite surprising to see them so far north."
The site was under wraps until Monday to protect it from looters, but Loenne says full-scale excavations will commence in March to dig deeper into the mystery of Harzhorn Hill.

JOBANNONCE!

I 2009 vil COHORS II spille en hovedrolle i nogle af årets mest markante reenactments i Danmark. Både i Juni og juli vil vi skrive overskrifter herhjemme, og til oktober vil vi drage til Imperiets hjerte, Rom og deltage i verdens største romer-event siden det Vestromerske Rige lukkede i 476.

Derfor søger vi ekstra Auxillia - hjælpetropper - til dette års særlige events.
Er du interesseret i Romerriget eller historie, og har du lyst til at prøve kræfter med livet som romersk legionær eller auxilia i nogle uger i 2009, så henvend dig til os på MAIL THE ROMANS.

Vi vil have det meste af det udstyr på lager som du skal bruge,
så det du skal investere er primært kun din tid.
(Personligt tøj som tunika, bukser m.m. skal laves til dig specielt)

Vi mangler mænd i alderen 20 - 40 år. Men kvinder er også velkomne, men vil så indgå som auxilia og ikke i den regulære romerske kohorte. Det vil være godt hvis du har erfaring fra andre reenactments - middelalder eller vikinge tid, erfaring fra rollespil er også godt. Det vil også være godt hvis du har blankvåbentilladelse, men disse ting er ikke et must.
Det du får igen, kan blive en livsoplevelse for dig. Når du sammen med os andre drager tilbage til det 1 århundrede, i en verden hvor Romerriget er en supermagt, og det Europa vi kender idag bliver grundlagt.

Lad os høre fra dig... Roma Victor!

På bagsiden af HK Bladet!

COHORS II blev bagsideartiklen på december måneds udgave af HKs regionsblad for Østjylland. Artiklen er en del af en serie der beskriver HK medlemmers interesser uden for deres normale arbejde. Og COHORS II Centurionen Flavius Ravenna, er ikke normal!

In December 2008 COHORS II were the story on the backside of a local magazine i Eastern Jutland. The story is a part of a series describing normal people and their un-normal hobbies. And our C' is NOT normal!