The sheer scale of Rome’s German frontier is overwhelming. Running for almost 550km, and boasting at least 60 forts, 80 fortlets and over 900 towers, it is the longest archaeological monument in Central Europe. The frontier’s circuitous and occasionally bewildering path carries it from mountain ridges to river pastures, sometimes heeding the limits of fertile farmland, others simply ploughing an arbitrary line across the landscape. This complex barrier is more than just an extended display of Imperial might, it is a physical testament to the way terrain forced the military’s hand.
Germany
Neolithic treasure chest
Thanks to preservation under waterlogged conditions, a well in the federal state of Saxony, Germany, has revealed unprecedented information about woodworking skills, diet, and ritual in early Neolithic Europe. Found in early 2008 at Altscherbitz, during construction work on the Leipzig/Halle airport, the well was carefully isolated and extracted from the ground in one block […]
Tracing the travelling Empress
Human remains found wrapped in costly dyed silk in Germany’s Magdeburg Cathedral in 2008 have been confirmed as those of Eadgyth (pronounced ‘Edith’), the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I and granddaughter of England’s Alfred the Great. Archaeologists at the UK’s Bristol University announced the results of tests to measure the isotopes in […]
Neolithic, Grim Feast Found
Feasting of a different kind was the subject of a paper in the latest issue of Antiquity (www.antiquity.ac.uk) reporting the evidence of mass cannibalism at a Neolithic site near Herxheim in Germany. In the measured language of academic journal publication, the authors – Bruno Boulestin, Andrea Zeeb-Lanz, Christian Jeunesse, Fabian Haack, Rose-Marie Arbogast and Anthony […]
World’s Oldest Venus?
35,000 year old venus statue found at Swabian Jura, the earliest example of its kind by some 5,000 years
Prehistoric Figurines from Swabian Jura
Exquisite prehistoric figurines found
Berlin: The politics of Memory
David Miles considers how Berlin is dealing with its recent heritage including a look at Libeskind’s Jewish Museum and Eiserman’s Holocaust Memorial
Hessian Crucibles Reveals Alchemists’ Secrets
Researchers at UCL have revealed the chemical make up of Hessian crucibles using X–ray diffraction
Dresden, Germany
David Miles writes from Dresden and shares his thoughts on the renovation and restoration of an historic city
South-Western Germany, Masculine Palaeolithic
Stone phallus discovered during excavations at Hohle Fels Cave, Swabian Jura, Germany
Germany, Iron Age Bog Body
Remains of a young woman found in a bog in 2000 have been identified as dating from the Iron Age
Varus Battle Museum Wins Europa Nostra Award
In early June a glittering European Awards Ceremony was held in Bergen, Norway to celebrate the 2005 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards. The overall winner in the ‘Archaeological Sites’ category is the Varusschlacht im Osnabrücker Land – Museum und Park Kalkriese. The judges chose the German team because of their […]
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