A new early roman \"Lippe-Lager\" at Olfen (D) ?!

[Simplex]

This:
http://www.bbv-net.de/aktuelles/nrw/1744...Olfen.html
says that there will a press conference at the local Westfalian authority (LWL)on
Tuesday 25th of October 10.00 am at Münster to give information on a recently found early roman camp at Olfen/Kries Coesfeld. (Surveillance seems to have been going on for a while at that spot -- this way of procedure probably chosen to keep unlicenced diggers at bay.)
The top officers and archeologists will be present and the top finds made up to now will be presented afterwards.
The press note mentioned above also states that this is no marching/temporary camp.
Thats for now -- a pleasant sunday afternoon :mrgreen:

Greez

Simplex

Here's a map:
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=olfen+kreis...CB0Q8gEwAA
As we see: Right in the middle between Haltern and Lünen-Beckinghausen !
The original press-release here:
http://www.lwl.org/pressemitteilungen/mi...rlID=25616
In German.
Update: Da Pics !!
http://www.ruhrnachrichten.de/lokales/ol...51,1444261
BTW: It's the part of Olfen which is called Sülsen.

[D B Campbell]

Very interesting, Siggi -- thanks for posting this. It will be interesting to see the Olfen camp's relationship with nearby Haltern (10/12 miles away). (Of course, we are still anticipating a fortress somewhere along the long stretch to Anreppen.)

[Simplex]

Hi Duncan,
...as far as "the intrenet has given away" in a short overview, this area seems to be "fertile grounds" for archeologists with a couple of settlements from the stone ages on. (http://www.heimatverein-olfen.de/archaeologie.html and I think there must be a press-release from the "LWL"-authorities)
The main cause why Olfen is already on the course of the "Römerroute" seems to be that besides of the civilian traces in that area there is another profound argument for that:
They have found a "Coolus-type"(?) roman helmet there.( http://www.zeit.de/1996/20/Spur_der_Scherben and "Feugere, The Arms of the Romans" ,2002, p.86 >> http://mehjgnved.info/2011/feugere-2002-377-text-vmbt/ >> refers to it as "Buggenum-type".)
To sum it up as far as I've understood the press pubs and the reasoning included:
1)Olfen/Sülsen is right "smack dab in the middle" of Haltern and Bergkamen/Oberaden resp.
Lünen-Beckinghausen.
2)There is a Lippe ford.
Let's see what the press-release of tuesday's conference will be like.

Greez

Simplex

Olfen 2007:
http://www.lwl.org/LWL/Kultur/WMfA_AfB/P...ndex2_html

[Gunthamund Hasding]

Yes definitelly very interesting and is RIGHT in the middle,
too bad no pic of the "coolus type" helmet.

[john roberts]

I'm going to name my next batch of homebrew "Lippe-Lager."

[Simplex]

Hold it, folks !
I think I owe you some clarification.
I found a reference to it that according to Feugere, Les Armes des Romaines/Weapons Of The Romans (2002)page 86,Nr.18 >> online translation here :
http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/...7_text.pdf ( is that correct, Jasper O. ?)
-- yes and according to you own RAT helmet-database, a "Buggenum" is a "sub-species" of a Montefortino, not of a Coolus.
Sorry for arising unnecessary perturbance.

Greez

Siggi

[Simplex]

So the official press kit is out .
Press-release here:
http://www.lwl.org/pressemitteilungen/mi...rlID=25644
"Da fun'n Games Dept." here:
http://www.lwl.org/LWL/Der_LWL/PR/tv_aud...ager-olfen
Available as *.mp4 , *.wmv, the first one also with text.
All in German.
Size of the camp ~5 ha, roughly dated at between 11BC and 7BC. Probably a supply camp.
More when I got time to translate that stuff.
Meanwhile: Look at the pics.

Greez

Simplex

[Simplex]

A "quick'n dirty" update.
More pics here:
http://www.derwesten.de/nachrichten/im-w...99890.html
Pic1: Yes THIS is the Buggenum-Montefortino found nearby about 120 years ago.
No this is NO reenactor.It's a politician.He probably neede the helmet. :mrgreen:
The finds made hitherto (the more spectacular ones, that will be)are on display at the
Haltern museum from 29th of October.
A TV-feature here:
http://www.wdr.de/mediathek/html/regiona...lashPlayer

Greez

Simplex

[Simplex]

Translation of the Pree Release of October 25th, 2010.
Part 1
(As to Part 2: Folks, frankly -- I don't know when I got time to do this :roll: )
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1:

Roman Military Camp Discovered Alongsides River Lippe.
LWL-Movie-Documentary on first excavations.

PIC1
The finds are reflecting everyday-life of roman legionaries: from pay, pottery, fibula,
ointment-phials to animals bones. The finds are dated to augustean times,

PIC2
General plan.( Rem.: of early roman camps related to the “Lippe camps”)

PIC3
Well over 100 years ago (Rem.: actually ca. 120 years ago!) this roman military helmet
From the first half of 1st century AD was recovered from river Lippe – “on level” with the
Newly discovered military camp.

PIC4
Aerial photograph of Olfen

PIC5
Final proof to the archeologists that they would be dealing with a find of a roman military camp : A trench nearly 5 metres deep and 2 metres wide, protecting the camp from attacks.
A constructional feature absolutely characteristical for roman military camp.
(Rem.: Ahhhhhh ….yes ?!)

PIC6
One of the first indications for the roman camp at Olfen: This fibula for roman legionaries
Dating to the first century AD, surfaced at the first prospectionary cut in 2010.

PIC7
A copper-coins charactersistical small coinage of the roman legionaries. Indicating the first
Roman military campaign in Westphalia between 11 BC and 9AD.
Fronstside: Imperator Augustus with his son-in-law Agrippa.

PIC8
(Flipside ?!) Depicted is a crocodile chained to a palmtree – an allegory of the subjection
of Egypt by Augustus. Struck in Nimes in southern France. (Rem.: That would be called
a “Nemausus as”, then, --right ?!)

PIC9
A bronce decoration of a roman legionaries’ helmet from the first century AD, which the
Researchers found in a waste-deposit dugout.

PIC 10
The hitherto “oldest-dating” find at Olfen. A late-republican silvercoin from about 90BC.
Frontside: god Apollo.

PIC11
Flipside: A Quadriga. (= Horses team-of-four)

PIC12
A fragment of typical roman table-pottery, so-called Terra Sigillata from Italy bearing the manufacturing-stamp of a potter from (todays) Tuscany. Right aside: Fragments of an
ointment-phiole for perfume oil.

PIC13:
Model of the Anreppen camp. Comparable to Olfen by its location by the river Lippe
and its wood-and-earth rampart. A similar covering with internal buildings is to be presumed.

PIC14:
A repetition of that to pic12

The pictures shown are available for download at the press-forum of the districtionary community. ( Rem.: >> LWL)

PRESS INFOS/Culture

Release from October 25th, 2011

ROMAN MILITARY CAMP DISCOVERED ON RIVER LIPPE
LWL-Movie documenting the first excavations.

OLFEN/MÜNSTER(LWL)
Archeologists of the districtionary community Westphalen-Lippe (LWL) discovered a
roman military camp over-2000-year-old and about 5 hectares large near Olfen/ Coesfeld county in the Münsterland. (Rem.: that is the area around Münster/Westfalen)
From 11 to 7 AD this camp enabled the romans to control a Lippe ford, --- one of the
most essential logistic “landmarks” for the roman conquerors.
The archeologist found pottery, coins and fibulae, identifying traces of a trench with a wooden rampart around the camp, which would grant protection for about 1000 legionaries on an area about 7 football-grounds large . (Rem.: for Americans : this is soccer-playground size).
Last time a steady “wintertight” roman encampment like this was found was at Anreppen
On the river Lippe in 1968.
“It’s a sensational find for the research on Romans in Westphalia” says Dr. Wolfgang Kirsch,
director of the LWL. “Archeologists have been searching for this roman camp for 100 years, -- it’s the ( a ) missing link in the chain of the roman military camps along the Lippe.”
Prof. Dr. Michael Rind, LWLs chief archeologist: “Olfen was of prime strategical significance
for Drusus’ campaigns in Germania.”

A paper-chase for decades
The chase for a camp at Olfen resembles a paper-chase going on for decades, initially starting
By the end of the 19th century (AD) a roman military helmet of bronce had been found in river Lippe near Olfen, which today is on exhibition at the LWL Roman Museum at Haltern.
This got the attention of the scholars of antiquity , because they were already looking for roman camps along river Lippe then.

In 2001 voluntary members of LWL-Archeology on a searching-spree discovered roman pottery fragments on a field near Olfen and “triggered” a “bundle of actions” by thearcheologists of the LWL. Aerial prospctions by member of the Ruhr University at Bochum
(Rem.: Dr. Baoquan Song, that is) took photographs of the landscapes from some 100 metres over ground to gain evidence for subterraneous building-structures through (visible) changes on the ground.

A prospectional trench of 13 metres length and 2,5 metres width was laid-out, then.
The researchers (Anm.: also) utilized so-called “magnetic prospection” looking for disturbances of the magnetic field, which could be pointing at manipulations to the ground.
Explorators (Rem.: with electronic sensing devices) under commission of the archeologists of the LWL, and working in conjunction with them, were scanning the ground for metal finds.
What started as a vague suspicion, changed to certainty in the course of only a few weeks:
It was a roman military camp, indeed. The archeologists could prove the course of a Fossa
Fastigata encircling the camp as well as the foundations traces of a wood-and-earth rampart.
Single finds of pottery, over 100 coins and a number of fibula allow dating the camp very precisely into Augustean times. The camp extends to about 230 metres versus 250 metres.
Compared to the other ronam camps along river Lippe it’s a small camp with steady structures.

Supply camp and base camp
The size of the camp, the structure of the earth-and-wood rampart and the location near the river Lippe led the researchers to believe that it was intended as a supply camp, an installment
for holding supplies that also controlled a pass over the river Lippe.
The camp at Olfen could have served as “intermediate” between the military camps of
(Lünen-) Beckinghausen and (Bergkamen-)Oberaden, both about 20 kilometres away.
The Romans mainly supplied their troops by waterway – to achieve this, ships in fact had to be
hauled up-stream by manpower or draught-animals from the river-banks.
Shallow water at the river-ford at Olfen would have necessitated disloading the barges,
needing an intermediate storage. At max 2 Cohorts would have been garrisoned at Olfen until
the camp was disbanded about 4 years later.
This find looks promising both in an historical and an archeological context, for only in few cases the site of a roman camp has not been built over in modern times.
“This monument may have remained in the ground unhampered for most parts for over 2000
years, an absolute rarity and absolutely ideal from an archeologic point of view.
It is our primary concern, to protect this monument and to preserve for the future, not to excavate it completely as fast as we can.” Say Rind.
The research on this camp may well take decades.

Part 2

Background
Discoveries of roman camps along the Lippe.
(See top !)


Greez

Simplex

[Simplex]

Mo betta pix !
Here:
http://www.derwesten.de/staedte/unser-ve...99181.html
More than 30 actually, about a dozen of them really useful.
Some of the rest would qualify for an O.T.-thread about funny pictures, I bet.

Greez

Simplex

[D B Campbell]

Some of the rest would qualify for an O.T.-thread about funny pictures, I bet.

They do love to play with that helmet, don't they?!

[Gunthamund Hasding]

Some of the rest would qualify for an O.T.-thread about funny pictures, I bet.

They do love to play with that helmet, don't they?!

well is a nice one
I got once out of an excavation a II WW German helmet (close to a roman fort) it was funny to have it on your head

[Simplex]

Gunthamund H. wrote:

well is a nice one
I got once out of an excavation a II WW German helmet (close to a roman fort) it was funny to have it on your head

....ha, and even better an old US-Army helmet backside front -- polish off the paint >
looks admirably close to a coolus
M1:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...tshell.jpg
Coolus Mannheim:
http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/index2.php?...CM_08a.JPG
Some call this a "jockey-cap"-type --

Know what I mean ?! :mrgreen:

Greez

Simplex

[Simplex]

For those who may have found my translationary experiment a bit awkward, there is an english review of the subject:
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20111027-38455.html

Greez

Simplex

P.S. Another link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...found.html

[mcbishop]

a roman military camp over-2000-year-old and about 5 hectares large

That's alright then :-D had me worried for a while! Even a certain German archaeologist working in the UK couldn't squeeze a legion into 5ha... or could he? :roll:

Mike Bishop