A relic of the Gallic War - The late-republican military camp at Hermeskeil and its environment

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Sabine Hornung
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 281237961

In his comments on the Gallic War, Julius Caesar gives an impression of the effects the Roman conquest had on the indigenous population, e.g. destruction of settlements, death toll and disruption of Gallic society. From an archaeological point of view, however, we cannot yet reliably grasp this war-related crisis. This is because archaeological sources reflect an "histoire de longue durée" with limited potential for historical conclusions relating to short term events. Our attempt at bridging this gap by linking written sources and archaeological findings has not yet resulted in the development of an objective methodological apparatus. The latter can be created by contextualizing relics of war, which is to be attempted in a case study on the Hermeskeil military camp, situated in the territory of the Treveri.Thanks to systematic research on this Roman fortress, funded by the DFG since 2015, it has been possible to confirm a presumed dating to the Caesarian period. In conjunction with written sources this raises the question if the Hochwald region can be considered one of the centres of Treveran resistance against Rome. The Hermeskeil camp offers ideal conditions to answer this question by contextualizing the site. Considering the duration of the Roman military presence some kind of disruption of Late Iron Age society is almost imperative, especially when considering the lack of agricultural resources in the region. This disruption may have been of a military nature, but an economic component should not be underestimated. The stationing of several thousand Roman soldiers for some weeks or even months certainly had an impact on the supply of vital resources to the indigenous population. Therefore the project will focus on socio-economic development of the settlements surrounding the Hermeskeil camp. Occupational history and the archaeology of economics will help investigate questions of interaction between natives and Romans and of possible structural weaknesses at the very end of the Iron Age. Did the Gallic War mark a turning point in the settlement, population and economic development of the Hochwald region and to what extent can it be attributed to the Roman military presence? It will only be possible to prove that military conflicts caused several marked changes in the archaeological record, if other factors of crisis and alternative explanations can be ruled out. Only then can we reliably distinguish peaceful co-existence of natives and Romans from military opposition.Furthermore, the project touches methodological aspects of landscape archaeology, such as selectivity of archaeological sources, determinants of pre- and protohistoric settlement and the resolution of archaeological dating. Research in the Hochwald area provides insights into the process of Romanization in a rather peripheral region, which has not yet been the focus of systematic research despite a remarkable preservation of the archaeological record.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants