Stephan Berke

Lange Zeit wurde als Entdecker der römischen Anlagen von Haltern am See der 1846 verstorbene Oberstleutnant Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt angesehen. Am Ende der 1980er Jahre wurde jedoch eine anonyme Quelle bekannt, die bereits im Jahr 1816 römische Funde aus Haltern erwähnte und in den richtigen Zusammenhang stellte.
Nach neueren Forschungen, die in diesem Aufsatz vorgestellt werden, lässt sich jetzt rekonstruieren, dass es vor 1816 eine Gruppe von drei Personen gab, die sich mit Forschungen zu den Römern in Haltern befassten. Alle diese Personen lassen sich namentlich benennen und waren familiär miteinander verbunden. Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt nutzte deren Erkenntnisse für seine eigenen Forschungen, die 1838 zu seiner „Entdeckung“ der „römischen“ Anlagen auf dem Annaberg bei Haltern führten.

For a long time, Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt, who died in 1846, was regarded as the discoverer of the Roman sites at Haltern am See. At the end of the 1980s, however, an anonymous source became known which mentioned Roman finds from Haltern as early as 1816 and placed them in the correct context.
According to more recent research, which is presented in this paper, it can now be reconstructed that before 1816 there was a group of three people who engaged in research into the Romans in Haltern. All these people can be identified by name and were related to each other by family. Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt used their findings for his own research, which led to his "discovery" of the "Roman" sites on the Annaberg near Haltern in 1838.

Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird
eine kritische Untersuchung der relativen Chronologie
innerhalb der römischen Nekropole von Haltern
und ihre Verknüpfung mit der absoluten Chronologie
der augusteischen Germanenkriege vorgestellt.
Macht man nicht ausschließlich die Ereignisse des
immensum bellum der Jahre 1–5 n. Chr. für den
Zerstörungshorizont innerhalb des Gräberfeldes
verantwortlich, wird man zu dem Schluss kommen
müssen, dass die Belegung der Nekropole in Haltern
etwa um die Jahre 7 / 6 v. Chr. einsetzte und mit
hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit auch nach dem Jahre
9 n. Chr. hier weiter bestattet worden ist.
Aufgrund dieser Überlegungen ist somit davon
auszugehen, dass auch die sonstigen römischen
Anlagen von Haltern bis zur Abberufung des
Germanicus bestanden haben. Die von Siegmar
von Schnurbein zusammengetragenen Befunde
und Funde, die für eine geordnete Räumung des
Hauptlagers sprechen, lassen sich auch mit einer
planvollen Aufgabe der Anlagen in den Jahren
16 / 17 n. Chr. in Verbindung bringen.
Abstract: The article presents a critical examination
of the relative chronology within Haltern’s Roman
necropolis and its connection to the absolute
chronology of the Augustan wars with the Germanic
tribes. Unless, we don’t call to account exclusively
the immensum bellum in the years 1–5 AD
for the destruction horizon in the necropolis, at the
end, we probably have to conclude that the occupancy
of the necropolis of Haltern started around
the years 7 / 6 BC and that it is very likely that burials
went on here even after the year 9 AD.
On the basis of these considerations, we can
assume that Haltern’s other Roman installations
remained until the dismissal of Germanicus. The
findings and results, assembled by Siegmar von
Schnurbein, which speak in favour of an orderly
evacuation of the »Hauptlager«, can also be
brought in connection with a systematic abandonment
of the site in the years 16 / 17 AD.

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In Haltern am See, an Augustan necropolis, which is without precedent regarding its dating and architectural unity, had been discovered during the years 1982 to 2008. For historical reasons, the construction of the tombs could only have taken place in the short period from approximately 7 to 5 BC until no later than 16 AD. Up to the present day, no other such chronologically defined Augustan cemeteries have become known from the territory of the Empire. The systematic recording of the finds and data, carried out by the department of Classical Archaeology at the University of Trier in cooperation with the LWL-Archaology for Westphalia and supported by the DFG (German Research Foundation), provided results which were not expected when submitting the project proposal. The most important discoveries shall be presented here. The burials and tombs of Haltern follow the tradition of the graves and tombs known from Italic roads of tombs. The Roman tombs in Haltern are part of a characteristic Italic burial culture in the midst of a completely foreign cultural region. A maximum of only 23 years had been dedicated to the construction of the necropolis and the space for the individual tombs was not limited. Nevertheless, it must be stated that we can distinguish between at least three, if not four, different time periods for the construction of the individual graves. The intentional destruction of tombs and superstructures of individual tomb installations is an indication for this. It will probably only be possible to attribute these findings to historical reasons which are related to the Augustan German Wars. Numerous finds of used weapons and weapon parts which had been found in the excavation area and which did not originate from the tombs seem to prove it. The examination of all the cremation remains shows that this necropolis was indeed not exclusively a military cemetery, but women and children, i.e. civilian individuals, had also been buried here. The burial objects of the individual funerals are not as significant as to be able to suggest the gender of the entombed corpse. However, it seems to be the case that remains of Roman dining sofas (klinai) are only found in masculine tombs. In total, approximately 30 different types of couches can be identified from the find material, out of which about 15 sofas can be assigned to individual burials. These dining sofas are pieces of the everyday used furniture on which the dead were burned. This custom could be observed above all in central Italy and in the southern Gaul during the Augustan time. The space that was needed for such a piece of furniture was so large that this exceeded the possibilities of a " simple " legionary by far. Thus, it is likely that the owners might have belonged to the better-off category of Romans in Haltern. These results require further considerations about the real role and meaning of the Roman sites in Haltern in conjunction with Augustus' German Wars. The relicts of the aforementioned couches are bone carvings with burn marks of a greater or lesser degree. Mostly, only a few pieces of these could be rescued from the burials. Yet, from one of the graves much more than 60 % of the bone carvings were retrieved. In order to obtain a clear impression of the furniture item of Haltern, the LWL-Archeology for Westphalia in cooperation with the University of Trier, department of Classical Archaeology, decided to