Geophysical prospection of the frontiers of the Roman Empire in southern Germany, UNESCO World Heritage Site

Abstract

The Roman Limeswith alength of 550 kmisthelargest archaeologicalsite of Europe aswellasthelargest monument of the Roman period. In July 2005 it was decided that the Limes and its interrelated archaeological sites, together with Hadrian's Wall in England, would be a component of a 'Trans-National World Heritage Site' taking the name 'Frontiers of the Roman Empire' . From that point it was necessary to minimize and/or to avoid archaeological excavation. Further research on such sitesismainlylimitedtotheapplicationofnon-destructivetechniques.Amongothergeophysicaltools, magnetometry, based on the rock magnetic knowledge turned out to be a highly suitable method. Two examples that allowed verification and completion of old maps of the Reichs-Limes-Kommission will be shown here; these projects exemplify geophysical work on the Bavarian Limes. At the site of Oberhochstatt we discovered the exact location and determined information on the size and orientation of the fort that previous searches for a long time had failed to find.At Theilenhofenwe were ableto completethemap ofthe whole fort withallfortification ditchesandthe water supply, toverify the troopleveland to confirm the former fort onwhichis superimposed the traces ofthe Roman vicus

Ancient waste pits with wood ash irreversibly increase crop production in Central Europe

“…This indicates that the presence of subsoil archeological features in arable fields can substantially increase crop production. This is consistent with results reported by other authors using aerial photographs of cropmarks for the identification of subsoil archeological features (Featherstone et al 1999;Hašek and Kovárník 1999;Challis et al 2009;Gallo et al 2009;Gojda and John 2009;Fassbinder 2010). The high density of subsoil archeological features in the lowlands of Central Europe (see Gojda 2004;Hejcman and Smrž 2010) is thus responsible for an indispensable proportion of spatial variability in crop production, although this variability has never been investigated previously.…”

Cropmarks in main field crops enable the identification of a wide spectrum of buried features on archaeological sites in Central Europe

“…Stone buildings have been constructed since the 13th century when the structure of contemporary settlements was established in the Czech Republic, thus ruins of stone buildings cannot be recorded in the sub-soil of contemporary arable fields. This highly contrasts with areas of the former Roman Empire, and Provinces where stone buildings were frequently constructed and therefore negative cropmarks on field crops can be recorded more frequently (see Evans and Jones, 1977;Doneus, 2001;Hanson and Oltean, 2003;Fassbinder, 2010;Verhoeven and Schmitt, 2010).…”

Magnetic prospecting of the Roman military camp at Septimer Pass (Switzerland)

“…The geophysics followed the excavation, reversed from the usual order, which did not allow the excavation to benefit from the geophysics. As was shown by Fassbinder (2010) for Roman forts, this approach can still provide useful complementary pictures of a site, and additional information that could be used by any future exca- es over a total area of 150 m 2 , the largest of which had an area of 60 m 2 . The trenches revealed a wall at least 100 m long, perhaps as long as 180 m, although interior architecture was not clear.…”

“…Procedures developed at the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege by Helmut Becker (1999Becker ( , 2008 and Jörg Fassbinder (2010) were used. The area of 160x120 m (ª2 ha) was surveyed in 40x40 m grids, with some odd spaces being filled in by other grid sizes.…”

“…Based on similar geophysical anomalies and subsequent excavation elsewhere (Fassbinder, 2010), one of us (JWEF) believes this represents a watchtower. However, another one of us (WZ) is dubious: this topographically elevated location would be a good vantage point without a tower.…”