Roman Watchtower 1/8

Preserved site of two stone towers and one wooden tower. The tower site was discovered in 1894 by the Imperial Limes Commission and excavated under the direction of district commissioner Georg Loeschcke. Over a century later, in 2005 and 2006, the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate carried out an archaeological re-examination and subsequent conservation of the site in a total of three campaigns. This had become necessary because the excavation trenches with the findings from the early excavators had not been refilled, so they were severely damaged by the subsequent 110 years of erosion. Compounding the problem were repeated improper exposures since the early 1970s, as well as massive destruction due to the quarrying of stone material, which was used in 1974 for the pseudo-reconstruction of tower site Wp 1/10.

Wooden Tower

Under the western stone tower, a wooden predecessor tower could be identified based on two post holes, one of which still contained the post imprint. The wooden tower had a square ground plan with a side length of 4.25 m. It was surrounded by an uninterrupted ditch 2.0 m to 2.4 m wide, which had a square ground plan with rounded corners and a preserved residual depth of 70 to 94 centimeters. The side lengths – measured from ditch center to ditch center – were approximately nine meters. The infill consisted of sandy loam with rubble of greywacke and sandstone slate. In the uppermost area of the infill, pottery shards were found, which are probably in context with the fire debris of the subsequent stone tower. The lower layers of the ditch were mixed with vitrified clay and charcoal particles.

Western, Older Stone Tower

This stone tower was erected after the middle of the second century AD exactly on the site of the wooden tower, after the latter had fallen victim to a fire. It had a rectangular ground plan with side lengths of 4.4 m and 4.3 m. Its wall thickness averaged 90 cm in the rising masonry, resulting in a relatively small interior area of approximately 2.5 m by 2.5 m. The foundation plinth projected by five to ten centimeters and was embedded 30 cm deep in the ground. At a distance of only just over four meters from the base of the rampart ditch and around seven meters from the palisade ditch, the tower was aligned with its sides parallel or at right angles to the course of the Limes. The tower construction consisted of greywacke stones bonded with clay/lime mortar, which were probably later secondarily used for the construction of the younger stone tower. On the northeastern side of the tower, post traces of a possible scaffolding were found, which may have served for construction or maintenance.

Eastern, Younger Stone Tower

The eastern stone tower had a square ground plan with a side length of 4.4 m (2.6 m inside) and a wall thickness of 90 cm in the rising masonry. The 0.60 m deep foundations projected by six to ten centimeters. Like its predecessor, the tower was made of greywacke, bonded with clay/lime mortar. Also, as with its predecessor, no remains of plaster could be observed. A strip of clayey loam, about 30 cm wide and 20 cm deep, running parallel to the masonry at a distance of 0.7 m on the southeast side of the tower, was interpreted as a possible drip channel. In this case, the small distance would allow a roof overhang between 0.7 m and a maximum of 1.0 m, so that an outer circumferential walkway would almost certainly be excluded.

Limes Passage

In the immediate vicinity of the tower site, the rampart ditch and probably also the rampart were interrupted for a length of 9.25 m. Here must have been one of the numerous Limes passages typical for the Limes sections of the Westerwald and Taunus. The actual crossing, however, must have been about 100 m further in a west-northwesterly direction, where an old road crosses the Limes. Another passage is suspected there but could not and cannot be archaeologically proven anymore. Although the rampart and rampart ditch were interrupted, the palisade was not, which indicates a different dating, as can certainly be reconciled with the expansion scheme of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes. Interesting are three small ditches in the area of the ditch interruption, one of which had already been identified by the Imperial Limes Commission and interpreted as a drainage channel for the ditch. However, due to the two other small ditches found during the investigations at the beginning of the 21st century, where the use of wedge stones could also be observed, the findings must rather be interpreted as relics of various barrier fences to secure the ditch interruption. The chronological connection between the individual small ditches as well as between these and the palisade ditch could no longer be clarified due to very strong disturbances in the area.

Finds and Inscription

The finds at the tower site mainly consisted of ordinary utility pottery from the late second century with only four TS fragments. However, the fragment of an inscribed stone from the debris of the eastern stone tower stood out positively, on which four lines of text were still rudimentarily preserved:

4: [(---)L or E]
5: [(.) Ulp(ius)]
6: [(..)sius]
7: [(Pr)aef(ectus)]

Based on analogies to an inscription find from Saalburg fort [18], archaeologist Thomas Becker interpreted the find as a possible votive stone for the goddess Fortuna and proposed the following, heavily supplemented reading:

1: [(Deae)]
2: [(Fort)]
3: [(una)e]
4: [M(arcus) Ulp(ius)]
5: [(..)sius]
6: [(Pr)aef(ectus)]
7: [(Coh VII)]
8: [Raet(orum)]
9: [V(otum) S(olvit) L(Libens) L(aetus) M(erito)]

Translated: "To the goddess Fortuna, Marcus Ulpius (..)sius, prefect of the 7th Cohort of the Raetians, gladly, joyfully, and deservedly fulfilled his vow." The Cohors VII Raetorum (equitata) was stationed at that time in the Niederberg fort, located to the southeast, about nine kilometers as the crow flies.

Conservation

To protect the ensemble of Wp 1/8 from further vandalism, the findings were completely covered with earth after the most recent investigations. The municipality of Rheinbrohl acquired the site and had a reconstruction of the walls erected directly over the original findings. The entire area was integrated into a small park.