Christmas Present: Nijmegen

[Jona Lendering]

Here is a little Christmas present for all of you: the city of Nijmegen, once the capital of the Batavians and the base of the Tenth legion Gemina. If you want a brief outline of the six settlements, go here. For about ninety photos, go here.

The sixteen pages are more or less finished: all things military have been uploaded (Hunerberg, Kops Plateau, Valkhof), all photos are there, but I still want to add three maps.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Merry Christmas and thanks Jona! That is an excellent site.
Laudes well deserved!

[Robert Vermaat]

Brilliant stuff Jona, as usual.

Just a few notes, nothing big: although Google claims to use satellite images in Google maps for The Netherlands, they're not. I know, because the same company that makes these aerial photos, flies for most Dutch councils including Houten. :wink: I've seen the real satellite pictures, the difference is huge.

Typo on the general Nijmegen page:
"In 777, Charlemagne celebrated Easter in Nijmegen, and ordere a palace to be built over there, which was expanded by later emperors".

This statement on the Valkhof page puzzles me: "Somehow, order was restored in 418, but Britain was lost, and no longer produced the food that had always been sent to the forts along the Rhine. Everything north of Cologne was now abandoned. "

Are you sure about that? Including Cuijck and Xanten? Or did you mean temporarely? I was wondering, because the 5th-c. Rhenen finds indicate (I think) that there was still Roman interest in the Lower Rhine. The silver might be signs of Roman attempts to buy off or reward Frankish lords who controlled the area.

Personally I'm not so sure that 'everything was abandoned', I'd like to think more of federate rule or indirect control. Cologne is recorded as 'lost' in 459 and Aegidius fails to retrieve it as late as 461, the occupation by the Rhine Franks (and surrounding lands) being legalized by Gundioc in 463. That would be odd if it had been lost by 418.

[Jona Lendering]

This statement on the Valkhof page puzzles me: "Somehow, order was restored in 418, but Britain was lost, and no longer produced the food that had always been sent to the forts along the Rhine. Everything north of Cologne was now abandoned. "

Are you sure about that? Including Cuijck and Xanten? Or did you mean temporarely? I was wondering, because the 5th-c. Rhenen finds indicate (I think) that there was still Roman interest in the Lower Rhine. The silver might be signs of Roman attempts to buy off or reward Frankish lords who controlled the area.

Personally I'm not so sure that 'everything was abandoned'

Good point, very good. I was thinking about the bridge of Cuijk, which the Romans tried to restore every twenty years and was indeed repaired in 393, but was left abandoned in c.415. But the fact that the Roman gov't no longer repaired that bridge does not prove that it had officially handed over power to the federate Franks. It changed it accordingly.

And meanwhile, it's now seventeen pages.

[Robert Vermaat]

And meanwhile, it's now seventeen pages.

Immediately picked up by our Newsbot!

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

What is the origin of the radial pattern of trees in this image?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&g ... 8&t=k&z=18

[Robert Vermaat]

What is the origin of the radial pattern of trees in this image?

My guess would be the road and a cyclepath. But have you noticed the star-shaped pattern to the immediate NE?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

What is the origin of the radial pattern of trees in this image?

My guess would be the road and a cyclepath. But have you noticed the star-shaped pattern to the immediate NE?

That is the radial pattern I am refering to. :wink: Guess I should have said to szoom out, as I see it is back to original image! :roll:

[jvrjenivs]

Don't know what it exactly is, but I'm sure they aren't cyclers roads, as that area isn't open.

My best guess it that is has to do with the aqueduct the Romans digged there. At least there were some archeological finds from that area. It's hard to see, but a little to the left you see a little piece of water. (for Robert and others who know it, that's the water of Tell Arab in Museumpark Orientalis). Just behind that one you see a kind of line. This is one of the Roman aqueducts to Nijmegen. Which goes right to your radial pattern! Also, this is the lowest part of the Kerstendal, where the Romans got their water supplies from.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

It looks very interesting whatever it is. It is definately linked, or appears to be linked into some sort of network.
My guess was something to do with the Aquaduct system.

[Jona Lendering]

I think it just a seventeenth or eighteenth century garden; people liked to plant trees in patterns back then. Later, the site may have been abandoned, and new trees grew in the fields between the original 'rays'. The old pattern remains visible, as those trees were older, and therefore bigger. It is indeed the area where the aqueduct of the Hunerberg fort received its water, but no, I do not think it has something to do with that.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

That crossed my mind too, Jona! Probably the answer!

[markusaurelius]

Great site!

[Robert Vermaat]

I think it just a seventeenth or eighteenth century garden; people liked to plant trees in patterns back then. Later, the site may have been abandoned, and new trees grew in the fields between the original 'rays'. The old pattern remains visible, as those trees were older, and therefore bigger.

I agree. It could also be the remains of a crossroads of paths from an old park. I've seen that before from UK aerial photos.

[jpvdgiessen]

I think it just a seventeenth or eighteenth century garden; people liked to plant trees in patterns back then. Later, the site may have been abandoned, and new trees grew in the fields between the original 'rays'. The old pattern remains visible, as those trees were older, and therefore bigger. It is indeed the area where the aqueduct of the Hunerberg fort received its water, but no, I do not think it has something to do with that.

You are correct, these trees are planted by human and very likely an other species as the other trees. See the color difference.