Stefan Groh

In der vorliegenden Publikation „Im Spannungsfeld von Macht und Strategie“ werden alle drei Lager der zweiten italischen Legion von Ločica, Lauriacum/Enns und Albing vorgestellt. Die Auswertung basiert auf geophysikalischen Prospektionsbefunden, der Integration und Revidierung verfügbarer Pläne und einer bautypologischen Analyse der drei castra.
Eine Neuinterpretation der Ereignisgeschichte der legio II Italica sowie militärischer Strategien während der Markomannenkriege (166-180 n. Chr.) sind als Ergebnis hervorzuheben. Zu zeigen ist, dass die ersten, niemals fertig gestellten castra von Ločica eine Spezialeinheit des Kaisers Marcus Aurelius (161-180) beherbergten und als praetentura Italiae et Alpium zu Zeiten der grassierenden „ Antoninischen Pest“ primär die Funktion einer Quarantänestation und eines administrativen Postens an der Bernsteinstraße innehatten.
Bereits kurz nach 171 n. Chr. wurde die legio II Italica nach Lauriacum verlegt und die Errichtung des Legionslagers initiiert. Die Truppe spielte eine wichtige strategische Rolle in den Feldzügen gegen die Germanen. Nach der Proklamation des Septimius Severus (193-211) zum Kaiser ist, als Belohnung für die erwiesene Treue der legio II Italica, im Lager Lauriacum eine Monumentalisierung durch repräsentative Säulenstraßen und principia mit groma-Bau erkennbar.
Bautypologische Charakteristika der Fortifikation und des Stabsgebäudes sowie historische Überlegungen lassen auf den nur in Ansätzen erfolgten Ausbau des dritten Lagers von Albing während der Regierungszeit des Caracalla (211-217) schließen. Im Zuge der Munizipalisierung der Zivilsiedlung von Lauriacum dürfte der Kaiser eine Verlegung des Legionsstandortes jenseits des Flusses Enns nach Albing geplant haben, wo, nach den Vorbildern der Castra Albana bei Rom, ein neues monumentales Lager errichtet werden sollte. Die nach der Ermordung des Kaisers angeordnete Baueinstellung bezeugt die rasche Vergänglichkeit von Macht.

La villa maritima di San Simone/Simonov zaliv (Slovenia) racchiude nell'arco di sole tre generazioni una straordinaria quantità di dati non solo sull'edilizia, ma anche sulle attività economiche e commerciali della X Regio (Venetia et Histria). I risultati degli scavi e delle indagini qui presentati illustrano l'evoluzione della villa dalla fondazione nella prima età augustea fino all'abbandono in epoca flavia, evidenziando gli aspetti architettonici e decorativi, i reperti archeologici e bioarcheologici, nel quadro della topografia della zona. Massima importanza ebbe infatti l'attrezzato porto della villa, che costituiva un punto di approdo sicuro lungo le insidiose coste nord-occidentali dell'Istria.

The new research in Mauer near Amstetten allows, without even making any excavations, to show a completely new picture of the site. From a civil road station of the 2nd century AD, reinforced in the 3rd century with a wall and gates, one of the most powerful military fortifications of the Eastern Alps developed in the 4th century. This castrum testifies to the will of Rome to sustainably protect the exposed eastern part of the province Noricum from enemy attacks.

In this article the results of geophysical prospections in Mauer bei Amstetten, a Roman findspot in the hinterland of the Norican frontier (Austria), are presented. The contextual analysis of excavation
and geophysical results and geo-data allow to draw a new image of this settlement, situated on a main road connecting the legionary fort of Lauriacum-Enns and Ovilavis-Wels with the eastern part of the province.
The results suggest the shift from mainly civilian character to a fortified settlement and in the final phase to a late antique Castrum. The last was provided with exceptional wide defensive walls, horseshoe-shaped,
rectangular, semicircular and circular towers as typical for Castra and internal fortresses in Rhine and Danube provinces. The name, function and garrison of the Castrum Mauer bei Amstetten are discussed.

Im Jahr 2015 begann das Österreichische Archäologische Institut (ÖAI), erstmals in seiner Institutsgeschichte, Feldforschungen in Frankreich. Im Rahmen eines mehrjährigen Forschungsprojektes sollen mit überwiegend „non-invasiven“ Methoden der Feldarchäologie (geophysikalischen Prospektionen mit Magnetik und Radar, Surveys) aber auch invasiven Eingriffen wie Rammkernsondierungen, Metalldetektorprospektionen und kleinflächigen Grabungen grundlegende Fragen zur Stadtgeschichte geklärt werden. Von besonderem Interesse ist die Existenz eines am östlichen Stadtrand errichteten etwa 159 × 171 m bzw. 2,7 ha großen Militärlagers, von dem die Befestigungsanlagen, die Lagermauer und mehrere von der Mauer vorspringende Rechtecktürme, partiell noch obertägig erhalten und sichtbar sind. Teile des westlichen Vorfeldes, des Campus, die westliche Toranlage, die Porta Decumana, und Reste einer Verbauung im Lagerinneren wurden bislang durch Grabungen untersucht, die jedoch keine detaillierten Aussagen zur gesamten Innenbebauung, zum Truppenbesatz und zur Funktion des Auxiliarkastells erlaubten. Seit 2015 wurden weite Teile des Stadtgebietes und das Militärlager geophysikalisch prospektiert. Die ersten Ergebnisse werden in diesem Beitrag vorgestellt.

A New Germanic Settlement and Roman-Germanic Rural Estate of Stupava-Mást (Western Slovakia). Roman finds from Mást were known since the 17th century. 2012 – 2013 surface survey, metal detector survey, geophysical prospection and an excavation were realised here. During the surface survey e. g. 49 Roman coins, 60 Germanic and Roman fibulas and about 200 fragments of Roman roof tiles were found. Through the geophysical prospection anomalies were investigated. At the base of the survey and geophysics a small-scale excavation was realised here, during which a house and oven from the 3rd century A. D. were investigated. The house was built in a Roman-Germanic building technique, maybe by a Roman architect. The roof of the building consisted from Roman roof tiles, one of them bear the stamp of the XIV. Roman legion. It was destroyed by fire, at the clay-floor lies four nearly complete Germanic pottery vessels from the 3rd century A. D. The Germanic pottery from the house ist represented by 91,5 %, the Roman pottery by 8,5 %. To the Roman pottery belong e. g. grey-black storage vessels, “Ringschüsseln“, jugs and terra sigillata. Terra Sigillata from the site belong to the Middle Gaulish, Rheinzabern and Westerndorf workshops and could be dated between 180 – 260 A. D. In the article the presence of this pottery was compared with the sites in the neighbourhood and the Roman Carnuntum. The Germanic and Roman fibulas are represented by specimens from the early 1st to the late 4th century, the earliest is a noric-pannonian fibula. The most specimens belong to the 2nd – 3rd century. The Roman coins cover the time from the 1st century B. C. to the 4th century A. D. The earliest appertain the republican coins of Caesar and Marcus Antonius, the latest coin belong to Valentinianus I. The coin circulation in Mást is similar to sites along the river Morava in West Slovakia and North-east Austria, in the Article is a table with all coins from the Záhorie-territory. The numerous Roman coins, Roman roof-tiles and other Roman product show that the site was involved in the trade along the Amber-route. The Roman-Germanic building activity in the “Limesvorland” at the Middle Danube area is documented by Roman and eventually also by mixed Roman-Germanic architectures in Bratislava-Dúbravka, Bratislava-Devín, Stupava.

In November 2013, the department of Central European Archaeology of the Austrian Archaeological Insti¬tute carried out a survey and geophysical magnetic prospection at the site of a villa rustica in the region of San Canzian d’Isonzo, in the territory of La Bregadina dei Cagnussi. The scale and form of the villa site of San Canzian d’Isonzo, the organisation of the rooms and the quality of the room furnishings allow a plausible interpretation as a mid-sized agricultural establishment. With reference to studies concerning rural settlements in Italy and in the provinces of Gallia Lugdunensis and Tarraconensis, a model for the settlement of the surrounding area of Aquileia with country estates of differing sizes and functions is discussed.

During the 2006 excavations in the northern necropolis of Savaria-Szombathely (Pannonia, Amber Route), an
exceptional grave inventory was discovered in Tomb 103. With its deposits of drinking vessels, lamps and balsamaria,
the Flavian-period tomb is closely related to the standard equipment of early Imperial graves in middle- and
upper Italy. The pars pro toto burial of a bone relief of an Eros with a basket of fruit can be assessed as typically
Roman; it originally belonged to a funeral couch, yet it was produced two generations earlier than the other grave
goods. Funeral couches with bone carvings are frequent in Italy from the beginning of the 2nd cent. B.C., especially
in Late Republican/Augustan times until the Tiberian and Flavian era.

The results of an extensive surface survey, in the course of which large regions of the urban area of Ephesos were recorded, formed the basis for the survey of finds carried out in 2003 in the western section of the Upper City. The goal of the survey of finds, during which eight urban areas, or 2.28 ha, were investigated, lay in a comparison of the surface material as well as in the geophysical prospection of recognisable groundplans, in order to enable conclusions regarding chronology and function of the developed areas. A total of 155,356 finds were collected and roughly classified, while 4,752 diagnostic pieces – clearly assignable either by means of accurate chronology or function – were subjected to a detailed analysis. Chronologically, the material ranges from the Late Hellenistic to the Middle Byzantine period, with the emphasis, unsurprisingly, in Late Antiquity; the mapping of the architectural ceramics could be correlated extremely well with the structural groundplans known from the geophysical survey. The results of the survey of finds, however, reveal very clearly the limits of the method in densely built-up inner urban settlement areas which were also used over a long period of time. Thus, for example, it was not possible to identify  onclusively either zones of activity or functional assignations on the basis of the find material. The results in the Upper City of Ephesos represent an important contribution to the further development of intra-urban surveying methods.

Keywords
Ephesos – Upper City – Urban Areas – Survey of Finds – Ceramics