The Roman Camp, Wilkenburg is one of the easternmost roman castrum inside Germany. Wilkenburg is a former ancient village (Ortsteil) in the actual city of Hemmingen, in the German state of Lower Saxony, in Germany. [1]
The Roman Camp, Wilkenburg is one of the easternmost roman castrum inside Germany. Wilkenburg is a former ancient village (Ortsteil) in the actual city of Hemmingen, in the German state of Lower Saxony, in Germany. [1]
The Roman Castrum of Wilkenburg -founded around the birth of Christ probably also as a vicus in the territory populated by the Cherusci- housed approximately 20,000 Roman soldiers on an area of approximately 30 hectares and was located near present-day Hemmingen in the Hanover region. The camp is located 8 km south of the Hannover outskirts. [2] Evidence of trenches in the terrain had already been spotted in the early 1990s during aerial reconnaissance, which led to the preliminary assessment of it as a Roman castellum.
Archaeological evidence of a Roman castrum was only confirmed in 2015, based on research by a volunteer archaeologist. Archaeological investigations have been conducted on the site since then. The structure represents the first castrum discovered in Lower Saxony located beyond the right bank of the Rhine and is the furthest inland military structure discovered to date, to the northeast, in Germania magna.
The Roman camp occupied a square area approximately 500–600 meters in length, covering approximately 30 hectares. It was surrounded by a trench. Excavations in 2015 revealed that the camp's ditch, buried in sand, is still 0.9–1.3 meters deep and 1.2 meters wide. Fragments of Germanic pottery from approximately 2,000 years ago, found in the trench fill, helped date the defensive structure. Of the camp's four corners, only three have survived in the ground. The fourth, northwest corner has recently been overbuilt with residential buildings. The military camp likely had a gate on each of the four sides, of which only the southwest gate has been identified. Archaeologists have found other archaeological remains within the defensive structure, such as waste pits and latrines. These findings indirectly document the area's use as a camp. These findings include various Roman coins, such as a Nemausus assay, some Celtic coins, metal objects related to mounts, and fragments of lunula [3]
The existence of camps in northern Germany has long been suspected in archaeology. Their detection is extremely difficult, as their very short-term use has left few traces. The Wilkenburg camp is one of the few sites with Roman finds in Lower Saxony, along with the battlefields of Kalkriese and Harzhorn, the Roman camp at Hedemünden, and the site at Bentumersiel. While the other Roman camps previously mentioned were found only on the outskirts of Lower Saxony, Wilkenburg is centrally located in the North German Plain. The location of the Wilkenburg camp indicated the Roman desire to expand into Germania Magna on the right bank of the Rhine and up to the Elbe river.
Archaeologists have hypothesized two historical scenarios for the chronological classification of the Wilkenburg military camp:
in both cases the camp and possible vicus survived only a few years, due to the Clades Variana. But could have been used again in the following decades/centuries Roman attacks against Germans.
