11-22-2009, 03:05 PM
To start again:
I now found time to look through the excavation reports. A few weird things about Kalkriese, again:
1. Kalkriese 3 clearly states that more than 80 % of all objects found at Kalkriese were made along a section of the wall 400 by 100 m. So this is where the fighting happened. The literature usually quotes a large area, however this is the prospected area, not the area where the finds come from. Quite a difference.
2. The human remains in the pits leave altogether 17 (sic!) individuls identifyable
3. 0f the 4 or 5 inscriptions found at Kalkriese one mentions the Legio I Augusta, all others mention a "Cohors Prima" (Statistics? :roll: )
4. Several of the objects hint to a high-prestige unit, such as the gilded silver shield decorations
5. The belt buckles found are mostly pelta-shaped, which (for now ignoring the fact that different units may have had different attire) tend to rather fit to the late Haltern horizon (14-16) from which we have two or three of these, resp. generally tend to fit into the context of Tiberius´ campaigns.
Comparing this to the number of dead and the size of the actual battlefield, it generates a quite different picture, which is IMO impossibly connected to the bello variana.
6. Coins: As R. Wolters has shown, the 40+ military sites from east of the Rhine generally have none of the late coins that are the main argument for dating Kalkriese to 9. This would then in consequence mean that the Roman army wouldn´t have lost a single coin to the right of the river rhine between 14 and 16, and that so far all the sites found east of the rhine belong to the period pre-14. This cannot be correct, though, since we have at Waldgirmes two horizons, one destruction horizon in which the horse-head was found recently, the a thin layer of no presence, and then again a Roman layer from 14-16. Also here none of the coins.
in Vindonissa there is proof that the Lugdunum II series arrived way before Lugdunum I at the site, for which there is unquestionable stratigraphical proof. This means that the coins were, as also distribution maps show, the II-series were distributed in the southern / Raetian area, whereas the I-series was distributed in the north. The maps also show that the money was all but travelling fast. In consequence this means, as is important here, that the coin-dating is not exact enough to proove that Kalkriese is from 9 (and not possibly later).
I now found time to look through the excavation reports. A few weird things about Kalkriese, again:
1. Kalkriese 3 clearly states that more than 80 % of all objects found at Kalkriese were made along a section of the wall 400 by 100 m. So this is where the fighting happened. The literature usually quotes a large area, however this is the prospected area, not the area where the finds come from. Quite a difference.
2. The human remains in the pits leave altogether 17 (sic!) individuls identifyable
3. 0f the 4 or 5 inscriptions found at Kalkriese one mentions the Legio I Augusta, all others mention a "Cohors Prima" (Statistics? :roll: )
4. Several of the objects hint to a high-prestige unit, such as the gilded silver shield decorations
5. The belt buckles found are mostly pelta-shaped, which (for now ignoring the fact that different units may have had different attire) tend to rather fit to the late Haltern horizon (14-16) from which we have two or three of these, resp. generally tend to fit into the context of Tiberius´ campaigns.
Comparing this to the number of dead and the size of the actual battlefield, it generates a quite different picture, which is IMO impossibly connected to the bello variana.
6. Coins: As R. Wolters has shown, the 40+ military sites from east of the Rhine generally have none of the late coins that are the main argument for dating Kalkriese to 9. This would then in consequence mean that the Roman army wouldn´t have lost a single coin to the right of the river rhine between 14 and 16, and that so far all the sites found east of the rhine belong to the period pre-14. This cannot be correct, though, since we have at Waldgirmes two horizons, one destruction horizon in which the horse-head was found recently, the a thin layer of no presence, and then again a Roman layer from 14-16. Also here none of the coins.
in Vindonissa there is proof that the Lugdunum II series arrived way before Lugdunum I at the site, for which there is unquestionable stratigraphical proof. This means that the coins were, as also distribution maps show, the II-series were distributed in the southern / Raetian area, whereas the I-series was distributed in the north. The maps also show that the money was all but travelling fast. In consequence this means, as is important here, that the coin-dating is not exact enough to proove that Kalkriese is from 9 (and not possibly later).
Christian K.
No reconstruendum => No reconstruction.
Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.
No reconstruendum => No reconstruction.
Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.
