"Carpe Noctem!" - Der Escape Room auf der Römerbaustelle Aliso

Yes, Carpe Diem, this sentence from an ode of the Roman poet Horatius, had to be used as the title for the escape room that we built into the new watchtower on the Roman construction site of Aliso. It was called Carpe Noctem, because the escape that it was about took place in the dark and in the night. But let's start again from the beginning. What watchtower is it about, and why should one flee from it? Dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, in the next 14 minutes, I would like to briefly touch on an excavation by Bettina Tremmel from 2013, then on how we came to a foundation and foundation from the find, how we then set up the reconstructed room, and finally, why and how we transformed this building into an escape room. And you really have to say, it is the first Roman escape room in Europe. Let's first look at the excavation from 2013. It was about an area of the west gate on the area of the Roman main camp Haltern. There, the wooden earthen wall with a gate system was to be reconstructed, and the area of the Via Sagularis was also excavated, the forest road that leads along the inside of the encirclement. What Bettina Tremmel and her team expected there? Waste pits, possibly a cistern, or road trenches for the drainage of the site. However, what came to light here was a rectangular floor plan that blocked half of the forest road. Piston graves and piston pits, which could be put together into a two-part foundation. A hall about 13 by 6 meters large, two-deck, if you look at these mighty middle supports there, and a preliminary construction of about 3 by 9 meters. Set in the large hall, you can see a space of about 12 square meters on the graves, which, as interruptions indicate, could be entered from the outside and from the hall. The whole building has a base area of about 105 square meters. Such a building type, close to a camp gate, is absolutely unusual and unique in the rest of the Roman military world. Except here with us in Westphalia. Because as further research has shown, there were such or similar buildings, also in other Roman camps on the Lippe. Here we see the building found at the east gate of the Roman camp of Anreppen. There is even an extension or a further room to the south. And also at the south gate in Anreppen, there is an analogous building. And also here in the Drusian-era camp of Upper Aden, one could discover similar structures at the south gate and possibly also on the north side. Also here again with a set-up room. Here, however, the preliminary construction does not protrude beyond the outer walls of the main building. We then discussed this finding in a scientific advisory council, after Julian Geis from the University of Trier had undertaken a reconstruction attempt. The result, as expected, was also this building not made of stone, but with the materials available, i.e. hut clay and wood. It was a post construction, i.e. a wooden construction, whose vertical supports, i.e. the posts, were firmly anchored in the ground. Basically, there are two construction possibilities for this building, namely the block-bowl technique, in which the walls between the posts were nailed with boards, or a half-timber construction, in which the compartments were lined with clay. We opted for the latter variant, especially since other buildings contained clearly sealed clay with prints from Weidenroden. In the reconstruction, we then strictly adhered to the excavation findings. Here you can see the reconstructed ground crack with a slight bend in the west wall. And you can see that in none of the corners of the building the walls collide in the right angle. And that's how we reconstructed it. Here you can see the reconstruction model, a large hall with a saddle roof and a pre-laid portico with a pulpit roof. Here is a view of the construction site, which also reveals where we deviated from the Roman way of construction. Namely, in the area where the posts would have been buried in the ground. These are, of course, the weak points of such a building, as these are the most sensitive points that come into contact with moisture. Therefore, we decided to insert the posts on steel supports in point foundations made of concrete. Then the individual compartments were formed by cross bars, between which we used weeding routes. The whole thing was then plastered with several layers of clay. And that is the difference to medieval and modern half-timbered construction. The carrying posts themselves are also completely plastered, so that we ultimately have a wall thickness of over 20 centimeters. We covered the roof itself, a fat roof construction, with wooden slats. Long wooden slats that overlap three times. Roof tiles made of clay are not found in the military camps on the lip, but rather slats made of needlewood, which were found during excavations in Upper Aden. Here you can see the south side of the building during the construction. Here you can see a second deviation from the Roman way of construction. There is still an opening on the right, which should later take up an emergency exit door. Because we are back to the subject of escape. Such a building needs a second escape route nowadays, of course. Here you can see the finished reconstructed guardhouse. The walls are weatherproofed with a lime color. A dirt base has been painted in a Pompeian red, as we know it from buildings from the Vesuvius region. Here you can also see how the windows are arranged. Of course, they were not to be opened from the ground, but only from analogies to existing or excavated Roman buildings. And the windows are always very high in the wall. It was not about providing a good view with panoramic windows, but the thick walls should keep heat and cold outside. The windows were only there for ventilation and ventilation. Speaking of interpretation, I have already spoken several times about a guardhouse. But how do we know what kind of building it could have been and what function it has? Of course, we also discussed this question in a scientific advisory council. Significance is above all the proximity to the wall and the gate. The gate openings and the porticos are aligned to the stairway to the wall. The large hall, which is accessible through a two-winged door, we have interpreted as a residence for the guard, who served here during the night. Possibly the large fighting machines were also housed here, the scorpions and catapults, which could be quickly brought up to the wall from there. We have interpreted the small room as the office of the guarding officer. This room was also the only one to have a wooden floor, while the large hall was used as a regular floor. Even when setting up the building, we tried to be plausible and authentic. As role models for the reproduction of the furnishings, we used pictorial representations and finds of Roman furniture from the 1st century. For example, we installed an amphora shelf from a boutique in Herculaneum in the entrance area of the hall. A shelf wall, also from Herculaneum, is filled as a replica with equipment of the guarding soldiers. We made a special effort with the desk. Here we had a massive cupboard made of oak wood. This has a cupboard from Pompeii as a model. Of this, however, only the prints of the Vesuvius of 79 have been preserved in the protective layers, because the wood was completely gone. And as you can see here, the furnishings are indeed worthy of a guarding officer. But now to the use of the room. The guardhouse can and should be visited primarily by individuals or groups. By the realistic design of the rooms, you can immerse yourself in a Roman world and imagine up close how the legionaries served here 2,000 years ago. At the same time, the guardhouse is something like a clubhouse for our own Roman troops, for the first cohort of the 19th legion, who have been successfully providing visitors with Roman camp life since 2018. To get the swing to the escape room, I have to try again with a Roman source of writing, namely Veleius Paterculus. He writes, Recognition also deserves the bravery of the camp prefect Lucius Cedicius and those who were enclosed with him in Aliso and besieged by huge Germanic troops. They overcame all the difficulties that the unbearable lack of all things and the insurmountable number of enemies provided. They took advantage of a favorable opportunity and managed to retreat with the sword to their people. This is the situation described by Veleius Paterculus, a contemporary of the events of 2,000 years ago, when he comes to speak of the time after the Battle of Varus. The theory that the Roman main camp of Haltern is identical to Aliso, which was handed over in several sources, was first put into the room in 1839. And since then, there are more and more indications that this could have really been the case. I remember the mass grave in a Roman potter's oven of Haltern, in which the bodies of Germanic warriors were disposed of after an unfortunate attack on the camp. I remember the traces of battles, which were discovered, above all, in front of the south gate of the main camp, but also in the burial ground of Haltern. However, I don't want to reveal much about the content of the escape room, but as much has been said, the concept that we developed together with the company Adventurebox Münster is very similar to the written sources about Aliso. In short, the story is that those who are locked in the guardhouse at the west gate have to rediscover the escape plan with which the Romans managed to escape to the Rhine 2,000 years ago. The idea of ​​such escape rooms was born about 10 years ago in Asia. A group of 6 to 8 people can be voluntarily locked into a room and must free themselves within 60 minutes by solving exciting puzzles and tasks. This is not only about puzzle competence, but also about teamwork. And the special thing about our escape room is that the game takes place in an original place and in an original environment, and the players can experience the last hours of Aliso up close and personal. The rest of the guardhouse's crew now has to find a solution under time pressure to free themselves from the miserable situation. And you can see how you can do that here. On the one hand, it's about Roman gods, but you can also see the closet from the desk, which you have to open first to unlock the scrolls. But I don't want to reveal any more, but rather encourage you to try it out for yourself. When you've done it, like this group here, you get a winning card afterwards. And I have to say, the concept is growing. More than 300 groups have played the escape room so far, and one group managed to solve all the puzzles in 37 minutes. I would like to conclude with a thank you, because the guardhouse and the escape room would not have been possible without the state exhibitions, which were financed by the state. Thank you very much for that, and thank you for your attention.