By Jean-Baptiste Piggin Sep 15, 2010, 3:06 GMT
Berlin - New finds at a well-preserved ancient battlefield in the north of Germany are not only rewriting geo-political history, but also revealing some of the secrets of Rome's military success.
Until only two years ago, northern Germany was believed to have been a no-go area for Roman troops after three legions were wiped out by German tribesmen in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9.
The revelation that two centuries later a Roman force mounted a punitive raid deep inside the tribal areas in AD 235 has changed all that, suggesting that a soldier-emperor, Maximinus Thrax, seriously attempted to subjugate the north of Germany.
The debris from the battle is scattered over a wooded hill, the Harzhorn.
An archeological dig there this summer turned up 1,800 artefacts. A single spot on the hill had been pounded by torsion catapults, one of the most advanced weapons in the Roman arsenal, and 70 bolts from these armour-piercing weapons were still lying in the ground.
The catapults, mounted on wagons, had a range of up to 200 metres, said Michael Moosbauer, an archaeology professor at the Harzhorn site. The iron points weighed 200 grams apiece.
The Romans' supremacy was also partly based on the varied skills in their multi-ethnic army. Among the auxiliaries they employed on the Harzhorn were Moroccan javelin men and Middle Eastern archers.
The Roman historian Herodian says that Maximinus laid waste to the whole country, destroying crops, burning down villages after allowing the army to plunder them, and stealing cattle from the Germanic 'barbarians.'
Among the techniques used by the archaeologists to sketch a map of the battle is tracking the studs that fell off Roman sandals as the troops climbed the Harzhorn on foot. They are believed to have overcome their opponents before continuing on their way.
That belief is partly based on the absence from the soil of buckles, which were typically left behind on battlefields when victors ripped armour off slaughtered Roman legionaries.
If any imperial troops did fall on the Harzhorn, they were buried elsewhere, since there has been no sign of dead Romans.
But the Romans may have sustained some losses. Among the finds is part of an ornate Roman scabbard, which can be dated from its style to the battle period, and the bones of a horse, which have been carbon-dated to about AD 235 too.
'The horse probably fell into a pit,' said Michael Meyer, a Berlin archaeology professor working on the dig. Whether the horse was drawing a wagon or was a cavalryman's mount is not yet clear.
Nine coins that have been found - one minted in AD 228 - also fit the date.
The hill, about 80 metres higher than the valley, is near the town of Kalefeld, right alongside the A7 autobahn, which follows an ancient north-south main road through Germany.
This route would have been the natural way home to Maximinus's home base in Mainz, Germany, about 12 days' march away.
The wooded site is closed to private treasure hunters, but is easily identified on maps and is nearly visible from the nearby Seesen highway rest area. It was filmed for a 45-minute television documentary aired by the public broadcaster NDR in late August.
'There were probably thousands of men on both sides,' said Meyer, who hypothesizes that the Roman force laid waste to the lower valley of the Elbe, avenging an attack on the Roman Empire by Elbe tribes.
Petra Loenne, a regional archaeologist, said it looks as if the Germans had somehow obstructed the low-lying road, leading the Romans to circumvent the obstacle by marching along the Harzhorn ridge.
The battle site, measuring 500 by 2,000 metres, was first marked out by government archaeology officials using metal detectors.
Almost all of the metal debris found is Roman, including tent pegs and trim from wagons. The soil is alkaline, which prevented the metal from rapidly corroding. Specialists have used tiny sand-blasters to restore the items.
The only Germanic debris found so far comprises one spearhead and a few arrowheads, but as Meyer points out, the archaeologists have only dug up a few sample patches of ground. He would like to continue exploring the area if he can get funding.
Maximinius Thrax may have won the battle, but met this end only three years later. He was assassinated by some of his own men as he marched to Rome to consolidate his power.
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