Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "UTRECHT Town NETHERLANDS" .
ALPHEN AAN DE RIJN (Town) NETHERLANDS
Traiectum (Utrecht) Netherlands.
One of the forts in the Limes Germanicus Inferior was in the center of the Utrecht
(It. Ant. 368). In A.D. 47 Claudius made the Rhine below Bonna the frontier of
the empire; the legions beyond the river were retired and the line fortified.
In the Netherlands, where there were three or more branches of the river, the
military authorities chose the one that Pliny (HN 4.101) called a modicus alveus,
which kept the name of Old or Crooked Rhine. The fort was rebuilt in 818 after
devastation by the Vikings. A mediaeval town grew up around it which became an
episcopal see.
Remains of the fort of A.D. 47 have been found 3.8 m below the cathedral
square. It was rebuilt four times, and each time fill was brought in to reach
a higher level, from ca. 1.5 to 3 m + NAP Dutch Datum Level = sea level. In periods
I-IV it was built of wood with ramparts of earth and wood (110 x 130 m), but in
period v it was rebuilt in stone (125 x 150 m); in all periods the fort was surrounded
by a ditch (fossa fastigata). Periods I-II: 47-69; III-IV: 70 to end of 2d c.;
v: end of 2d c. to middle of 3d. Two of the four gates have been found, the porta
principalis dextra and the porta decumana; the stone gates of period v were flanked
by towers with semicircular bastions on the outside. Some remains of the barracks
of successive periods have come to light, but the principia has been completely
excavated; in all periods it was a building ca. 27 x 27 m, with an atrium, a cross
hall, and a series of five rooms. The middle room was the sacellum, or shrine
of the standards, and in period v it had a stone altar. The foundations of an
altar were found also in the center of the atrium.
The destruction caused by the revolt of Iulius Civilis in A.D. 69-70
is indicated by a heavy burnt layer, dated by a treasure of 50 aurei (the two
latest coins were struck in 68). The fort seems to have been destroyed some decades
before the invasion of the Franci in A.D. 270; some sherds of 4th c. pottery perhaps
show some patrol activity by the Roman army, but the limes forts were not reconstructed.
The finds are in the Central Museum.
H. Brunsting, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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