Zeche Erin in Castrop-Rauxel: Ein Schlaglicht auf das spätantike Ruhrgebiet

Good day to all listeners. I am very pleased to be able to speak here today. What I can present to you in the next 15 minutes are the results of the processing of the Zechirin excavation site. The excavation site may have already been known to many here, but until recently it had not been fully evaluated. This is mainly due to the extremely high amount of finds, but this allows for very diverse and detailed insights into the conditions in Westphalia in the late Roman Empire. Yes, the excavation site is located on the site of the former Zechirin here in Castrop-Rauxel, in the middle of the Ruhr area. There, in 1955, archaeological finds were first discovered during construction work. This then led to smaller excavations in the same year and the following year, which were carried out by Karl Brandt, the then director of the Emschattal Museum, and Rolf Gensen from the Westphalian Museum of Archaeology. After the settlement of the Zechirin in the 1980s, the excavation site was then completely excavated by the LWL Archaeology between 1991 and 1994. The excavation director at the time was Elisabeth Dickmann. Yes, a total area of ​​about 2 hectares was archaeologically examined there. Characteristic of the excavation site is a 10 m wide, about 1 m deep, trench-like find, marked here, which extends about 70 m in the north-south direction over the terrain. Yes, this is the find F35, which is mentioned a little more often in the following. Around it, further smaller, narrower graves were found, as well as smaller collections of pits and frost pits. Yes, even during the first investigations, the extremely high density of finds was noticed. Here you can take a look at the individual find points and find densities per find. In particular in F35, but also in the finds and cultural layers of the direct surroundings, a lot of archaeological artefacts were discovered. Among them were conspicuously many objects of Roman provenance, such as rough-walled ceramics, shards of Roman glass cups and remains of coloured metal vessels, and a lot of local material, which you can now see in some examples here on the slide. So, this very high density of Roman objects of this period is very typical for Westphalia. If you compare the find numbers of different landscapes with each other, here, for example, based on the body of the Roman find in Barbaricum, it becomes clear that the find, the amount of Roman imports in Westphalia, massively exceeds all other areas. And this is all the more remarkable than the fact that something like richly equipped graves or pit finds, as you might find them in Scandinavia or Central Germany, are not at all found in Westphalia. The largest part of these finds from Westphalia, which are included in the statistics here, comes from the area between Ruhr and Lippe, i.e. the Westphalian Hellweg zone. This accumulation of Roman finds in the Hellweg zone was already taken into account in the first half of the 20th century. Since then, it has been considered that the Westphalian Hellweg already served as a trade link between the Roman Empire and Barbaricum in the Roman Empire. Here you can see a few examples and quotes on this topic from the history of research on the slide. This model has actually been discussed controversially until recently, as you can see in other examples. In all these considerations, the find place Erin was always important somewhere. You can see it marked red here in the maps. In this respect, it plays a key role in understanding the Hellweg region in the late Roman Empire and its connection to the Roman Empire. So I took a closer look at this find place. It is located here on an area descending north, at the northern foot of the Kastropper Höhen, about 70 to 75 meters above sea level. Here again clearly marked in the topographic map. The subsoil consists of clay, with a layer of clay-sandy sediments. The terrain is considered to be highly erosional due to these soil conditions. So here is a map of erosion. The redder, the more erosional. So you can see that the risk of erosion here is very high. And that was already the case in antiquity. With the central find, F35, which was still indicated as an abandoned brook bed in the first excavations, it turned out to be an erosional ridge, which probably dug its way through the terrain sometime in the early 5th century, which at this time was probably largely vegetation-free. Numerous finds were overloaded or destroyed, such as these F37 to F39 pits, which remained in the soil in the eastern edge of F35, but were overshadowed by this erosional ridge. How such erosional ridges are formed, this could also be observed well during the excavations in the 1990s. Here you can see a view to the north on a rainy day, and immediately the water digs a small ridge into the ground, which naturally deepens quickly the longer the whole thing is open and the stronger the rainfall. Yes, also on the other area, because of these soil conditions, a lot of finds were destroyed by erosion processes. If you now combine the few forest pits that have survived, you can still see rectangular or linear structures here and there, especially in two areas. And there you will find a larger number of settlement pits, pit complexes with a lot of found material. Although no complete houses or settlement foundations can be reconstructed, we can still assume that at least two farmsteads have existed in the marked areas here on the site. Yes, the numerous finds will, despite the inconspicuously high number of Roman objects and metal objects in total, are clearly dominated by hand-formed, purely Weser-Germanic ceramics, where you can see a few examples and the long, long, long bars in the find statistics. So overall, it is ultimately a typical find ensemble for rural settlements of this time. But because the find supply is so wide, it is very well possible to find individual objects and individual activities, uses, ratios and so on in detail, better than we can do it in many other places. This first concerns very basic activities such as agriculture, livestock farming, food preparation, which can be seen in the many household ceramics, meal stones, slaughter waste, grain pollen and things like that. In addition, there are various references to social activities, such as communal meals, the remains of which were obviously disposed of in some very outstanding, colorful pits. There are also references to other social activities, such as board games, something like Lohsorake, but also ritual actions, such as the deposition of individual jewelry objects or of animal parts in smaller pits. In the same area, there is also the stockpiling of pets, such as this dog. There are a total of at least three dog stockpilings in the area. In addition, we have numerous documents for craft, such as colourful metal processing, iron processing, processing of bones and bones, but also, of course, the production of textiles, here in the form of various typical finds. In addition, there are also individual references to something like trade and contact. Above all, the very, very numerous Roman coins play an important role. Here, as a small pile of bronze coins, but also the remains of a fine scale, which is very well associated with the fact that the weight of precious metals could have played a role here. In addition, there are numerous pieces of jewelry and clothing, which have obviously been lost to the inhabitants on site, but have preserved themselves very well in this soil. And there are also individual, outstanding, valuable and especially rare objects, here made of precious metal, various jewellery, but also this final piece of a glass trinket, which indicates that members of the elite of the region must have visited this site at least temporarily. Yes, overall, the chronological focus of the finds is in the 4th to early 5th century. And that is exactly the time when there was a very massive influx of Roman finds in the Helwegraum, as you can see here in the graphic by Ms. Mierschendt. So you can see that the 4th century clearly dominates the overall picture. Yes, Erin is located in the middle of a concentration of settlements of the same time, in a radius of about 10 to 15 kilometres. And if you compare the finds and the find ensemble from Erin with the material from the nearby find sites, for example Bochum Harpen, for example Dortmund-Oespel or Kastro-Brauxel-Ickern, then you can see that there is a very direct agreement in terms of what type of find groups and types are represented. This can now be expanded to various other find sites, to various other materials, and of course also to something like the settlement conditions, economic strategies that can be read about, and so on. So overall, we obviously have a room that is in a very close exchange with very uniform settlement sites in it. So, if you now look a little beyond the Helwegraum, two essential contact areas can actually be expanded. The first of these is actually the distribution network of Roman products, especially from the Rhineland, which can be found in Erin on the numerous rough-walled pots and the many glass cups, which are otherwise spread along the Middle and Lower Rhine, Maas, Main and Neckar, especially in the Roman provinces. A slightly differently located contact area can then be worked on in order to determine the jewelry and clothing components, but also, for example, the late ancient Terranigra. These find groups are mainly found in northwestern Germany, but also in the Netherlands and up to northern France. The focus is on the Rhine Delta area on the one hand and on the other hand, the Westphalian Helwegraum. This could now also be expanded to further find groups and relations. This certainly not only shows a distribution area of certain materials, but also a coherent cultural space with common uses and common cultural conditions. Another commonality is represented here by a series of gold hordes, which is always associated with the elite of the Germans, who were in the service of the Roman military in late Roman times. One of the most important of these hordes is the castle of Von Dortmund. It is only 12 km away from the excavation site of Zercheirin. It is very close to this background that this sudden influx of Roman finds in this small area around Zercheirin, in the central Ruhr area, is mainly due to the fact that at this time the military cooperation between the regional elite and the Roman Empire was taking place. So, I hope that with this short, very quick view from a small erosion ring in Castrop-Rauxel in the late Antiquity in northwestern Central Europe, I was able to show you that it is worth it to have a look at well-known finds. Thank you for your attention.