Archaeologists Found an Ancient Roman Camp Outside the Empire's Known Limits
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story:
A Roman army camp discovered in the Netherlands expands the knowledge of how far north the empire's boundary extended.
Located north of the Rhine River, the camp was found in the Veluwe region of the Netherlands.
Experts believe the site was a stopover camp for troops marching to new locations.
A new discovery of a Roman army marching camp changes what we know about the frontier boundaries of the empire beyond the Rhine River. The camp was located within the forested Veluwe in the Netherlands, near Hoog Buurlo, about 15 miles north of the Rhine, long considered the empire's northernmost border in the area.
'What makes this find so remarkable is that the camp lies beyond the northern frontier of the Roman Empire,' Saskia Stevens, Utrecht University associate professor and researcher, said in a statement.
As part of the Constructing the Limes project undertaking by Utrecht University staff and students at Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology, and Radbound University Nijmegen, researchers aim to explore the functioning of Roman borders that ran through the Netherlands and western Germany.
The newly discovered 22-acre camp features a ditch, a 10-foot-wide defensive rampart, and several entrances. The team believes it was a temporary marching camp, used to shelter troops for no more than a few days to weeks as they moved to new camps. They posit it was a stopover between Hoog Buurlo and Ermelo-Leuvenum, a day's march away.
'Only four such temporary Roman camps are known in the Netherlands,' Stevens said, though dozens have been found in Germany and hundreds in Britain. 'We are particularly interested in these kinds of camps because they provide valuable insights into Roman military presence and operations in frontier regions. They help us understand the routes taken by Roman troops and show how the Romans made extensive use of territories beyond the formal boundaries of their empire.'
Finding the camp at Veluwe required LiDAR technology. Coupled with aerial photographs, researchers were able to see subtle variations in the landscape heights. That launched field work that included metal detectors and three different trench examinations at a site owned by the Dutch Forestry Commission, which has ensured it has remained largely preserved.
Since the team didn't come away with a bounty of artifacts during the on-the-ground search, Stevens said it is difficult to precisely date the site, although the traces of remnants left suggest the camp is from the second century A.D.
'The feeling of bringing tangible evidence from the past to light was an unforgettable experience for all of us,' student Sabine Boschma wrote in a translated statement. 'With this find, we contribute to the further reconstruction of the Roman Limes and the way in which this history still plays a role in our contemporary landscape.'
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