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 ROMAN' AND PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS IN 
 CENTRAL GERMANY. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN SWIFT BALCH. 
 
 Reprinted from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, 
 January, 1903. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
THl£ L.BR/*i-!Y OK 
 CONGRESS, 
 
 Two Copies Received j 
 
 JAN 15 1903 
 
 Copyiiglit Entry [ 
 cuss ^X^ XXo, No. 
 COPY^ B. ' J 
 
V- 
 
 ,. Reprinted from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Janu.ary, 1903. 
 
 Mechanical and Engineering Section. 
 
 Stated Meeting, held Thursday, December 4, igo2. 
 
 Roman and Pre-Historic Remains in Central Germany/ 
 
 By Edwin Swift Balch. 
 
 In Central Germany, in the province of Hesse Nassau, 
 there are numerous remains of the Romans and some even 
 more interesting ones of the primitive Germans. German 
 archaeologists have given a good deal of attention to these 
 remains during the last quarter of a century; and they 
 have brought to light many facts in connection with the 
 early history of man in Germany.^ Passing over the times 
 of feudalism, when the barons planted their strongholds on 
 many a steep hill, and going back to the beginning of the 
 Christian era, one finds that about the middle of the first 
 century a.d., the Romans invaded the plains of Hesse 
 Nassau, then inhabited by Germanic tribes, and established 
 themselves south of the Taunus. The Romans soon found 
 the need of protecting themselves in their new " sphere of 
 influence " and they erected a line of fortifications from the 
 Rhine to the Danube. The peasants formerly called this 
 
 ' Copyright, 1902, by Edwin Swift Balch. 
 
 ^This paper is based partly on considerable personal observation and partly 
 on the books, papers and verbal statements of the Koniglich Baurat L, Jacobi, 
 who has devoted his life to the exploration of these remains, and whose writ- 
 ings are a mine of information. I wish to express my indebtedness to this 
 distinguished German archaeologist. 
 
 Among the publications about Roman remains in German}^, are : 
 
 Jacobi, L. Baumeister : " Das Romerkastell Saalburg bei Homburg vor der 
 Hohe," Homburg vor der Hohe, 1897. One volume, with maps and plates 
 separate. This book includes an exhaustive bibliography. 
 
 Cohausen, A. von: "Der Romische Grenzwall in Deutschland," Wies- 
 baden, 1884. 
 
 Cohausen, A. von, and Jacobi, L.: "Das Romerkastell Saalburg," Hom- 
 burg vor der Hohe, Staudt & Supp, 1902. Guide Book. 
 
 Bliimlein, Karl : "Die Saalburg," 1901. 
 
 Schulze, Dr. P>nst : " Romisches Soldatenlebeu in den Taunus Kastellen," 
 J-.ankfurt A.M., H. Berchtold, 1898. 
 
 .t 
 
The Saalburg. 
 From the maps of Baurat L. Jacobi. 
 

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the Teufelsmauer, but it is now known as the Pfahlgraben, 
 a name explained by some students as meaning a bound- 
 ary, while others consider that it comes from the Latin 
 vallum. The Pfahlgraben consisted of an earthen wall, 
 and in some places of a wall and a ditch, and it can 
 still be followed with ease throughout most of its length, 
 especially in hilly and wooded places, where peasant farm- 
 ers have had no opportunity of leveling it. The Pfahl- 
 graben, which is about 542 kilometers long, begins near 
 Honningen on the Rhine, follows roughly the watershed of 
 the Taunus Range, and after making a big curve north- 
 ward, strikes the Main a little east of Frankfurt. It starts 
 again at the southerly bend of the Main, goes some distance 
 nearly south, and then almost due east a good distance to 
 the Danube, which it reaches near Hienheim in the neigh- 
 borhood of Regensburg. Although it is not known exactly 
 when the Pfahlgraben was built, nor when it was aban- 
 doned, yet it is certain that it was constructed by the Ro- 
 mans, and that during portions of the first three centuries 
 of the Christian era Roman soldiers stood on guard upon 
 it. The Pfahlgraben, which from a political standpoint was 
 not unlike the great Chinese Wall, was untioubtedly mainly 
 intended to ward off the attacks of the unsubdued tribes of 
 ]S[orthern and Eastern Germany, of whom the Chatten and 
 the Allemannen were the most hostile ; but it must also 
 have been used as a tariff frontier, to levy tribute on any 
 persons who crossed to the south. The reasons for locating 
 a part of it north of the natural frontier of the Main are not 
 self-evident; still it is noticeable that the mineral springs 
 of Wiesbaden, Homburg and Nauheim are south of it, and 
 the desire to profit by their beneficent waters may have 
 been one of the causes which made the Romans enclose 
 this country. For a time the barrier appears to have served 
 its purpose, until, with the increasing degeneracy of the 
 Homan empire, the sturdy northern barbaric element over- 
 whelmed the enervated southern race. 
 
 Behind the Pfahlgraben, at comparatively short intervals, 
 -were about eighty large and small fortified camps and 
 towers, where bodies of troops were held in garrison. The 
 
5 
 
 most important of these posts in the Tattnus are known as 
 the Kapersburg, the Zugmantel and the Saalburg. The 
 latter, situated in one of the gaps of the Taunus, overlooks 
 Bad Homburg, from which it can be reached in half an hour 
 by trolley. It is now being restored entirely, but as late as 
 1872 it was little but a ruin in the forest, where only the 
 foundations of fortifications and house walls and a few holes 
 in the ground were visible. 
 
 There do not appear to be any written records from 
 Roman times of the Pfahlgraben or the Saalburg ; neither 
 are there any legends connected with them, and the valu- 
 able help to history, therefore, occasionally afforded by 
 myths, is in this case wanting. Our present knowledge is 
 based practically on the remains of the foundations and on 
 the relics found among them. But little as we know of the 
 history of these old fortifications, yet there can be no doubt 
 that the Latins and the Teutons once struggled for supremacy 
 along them, and that the former were conquered and retired. 
 And as one follows the lines of the Pfahlgraben and the 
 ruined Kastells one cannot avoid the reflection that a great 
 empire, advanced and civilized though it was, but with its 
 members weakened physically and morally by centraliza- 
 tion and the destruction of individualism, could not with- 
 stand the assaults of a ruder but stronger race, with its 
 units undeteriorated by overcrowding and overgovernment. 
 
 The name Saalburg may come from the word saal, mean- 
 ing hall, or sal, meaning boundary, but the origin of the 
 name is still uncertain. The first writer known to use the 
 name was the Homburger, Elias Neuhof, who mentions the 
 Saalburg in a letter in 1747, and who wrote a short account 
 of it in 1777. He saw it still in a state of tolerable repair, 
 although it had served as a quarry of ready- cut blocks of 
 stone to the neighboring peasants, and although many of 
 its stones had been carried off for building the castle and 
 the Lutheran Church at Homburg in the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries. It was only in 18 18 that the taking 
 away of the stone was stopped, and not until 1853 that the 
 first diggings were undertaken by the antiquarian, F. G. 
 Habel. In 1870, Colonel A. von Cohausen was entrusted with 
 
the excavations and repairs at the Saalburg, and in 1871, 
 Koniglich Baurat L. Jacobi joined him, and under his 
 guidance the work is still carried on. The Homburg " Saal- 
 burg- Verein " furnished some of the money, the Emperors 
 William I and Frederick III likewise assisted with funds, 
 and the present sovereign in 1897 ordered the reconstruc- 
 tion of the central building. The rejuvenating of the Saal- 
 burg is progressing slowly but steadily, and each year sees 
 a certain amount of reconstruction carried out, as well as a 
 certain number of archaeological finds. Every care is taken 
 to insure the utmost possible accuracy in reconstruction. 
 Roman camps similar in character have been examined in 
 other parts of the world, for instance, near Pre jus and 
 Cannes in France and near Lambaesis in Algeria, and these 
 have been followed in many details. Roman authors, like 
 Csesar and Tacitus, have been studied diligently for every 
 passage which might bear on the subject, and it is safe to 
 assume that the new Saalburg will closely resemble the 
 original. Certain persons take exception to the rebuilding 
 of the Saalburg, but it may be well to suggest in rebuttal 
 that no ruin would give the same impression of reality as 
 the restored building, and, moreover, that there are some 
 seventy-nine other camps of the same kind in a state of 
 ruin. 
 
 The Saalburg was a fortress, but one practically con- 
 structed on the lines of a Roman military encampment, and 
 it may perhaps better be designated as a permanent fortified 
 military camp than as a fort. There is little doubt that, in 
 the order of time, there were three permanent camps at the 
 Saalburg. The first was probably an earthwork, and was 
 much the smallest. The second, it is believed, was of wood 
 and was probably destroyed by fire, possibly after a fight. 
 Various remains have been discovered leading to these con- 
 clusions. The third camp was built almost on the lines of 
 the second and was surrounded by a stone wall whose out- 
 side dimensions were 221*45 meters in length by I47"i8 
 meters in breadth ; that is, the sides had a relation of 2 to 3. 
 The wall was about 2*50 meters in height and was crene- 
 lated, to allow the legionaries to hurl their pihmis or throw- 
 
ing spears through the openings. On the outside it was 
 surrounded by a double, probably dry ditch, while on the 
 inside it was banked up with earth, forming a platform for 
 the soldiers to stand on. On each side was a gate : to the 
 south the Porta Decumana, to the north the Porta Prae- 
 toria, to the east the Porta Dextra and to the west the 
 Porta Sinistra. The Porta Decumana had a double entrance 
 and the other three only one each, and each of these gates 
 was flanked by two small towers. The northern and 
 southern gates were in the middle of their respective sides, 
 while the eastern and western ones, through which it is 
 believed the troops made sorties, were at one-third the 
 distance from the southern end and faced exactly the doors 
 of the main building. 
 
 The southern wall and half of the eastern wall, and the 
 Porta Decumana and the Porta Dextra are already rebuilt 
 as well as the Prsetorium within. Over the outside of the 
 Porta Decumana is an inscription : " Guilelmus II Frederici 
 III Filius Guilelmi Magni Nepos Anno Regni XV in 
 memorian et honorem parentum castellum limitis Saalbur- 
 gense restituit." In front of the gate is a statue of green 
 bronze with some gilt decorations : it is by a German 
 sculptor, I. Gotz, and is inscribed : " Imperatori Romanorum 
 Tito Aelio Hadriano Antonino Augusto Pio Guilelmus II 
 Imperator Germanorum." 
 
 The interior of the Saalburg is an almost level rectangu- 
 lar space which slopes gently towards the north and in the 
 center of which is the Prsetorium. The southern end is 
 spoken of as the Retentura, the northern end as the Praeten- 
 tura, and the eastern and western parts as the Latera 
 Prsetorii. 
 
 The Retentura, which was farthest from the enemy, was 
 the place for the commissariat and quartermasters' depart- 
 ments. In the eastern half are the remains of the Horreum 
 or provision house, as is demonstrated by the cross walls 
 still remaining and the hooks for hanging meat found there. 
 In the western half of the Retentura are the remains of 
 what is called the Qusestorium, which may have been the 
 officers' quarters. 
 

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II 
 
 The Praetentura, at the northern end nearest the enemy, 
 was the quarter of the soldiers, who lived there either in 
 tents or in wooden huts. Here, somewhat sunk in the 
 ground, is a small circular ring, which was at first supposed 
 to be an amphitheatre ; but as many horseshoes were found 
 there, it seems most probable that it was a riding ring. At 
 the northeastern end of the Praetentura are the remains of 
 a bath which dates back probably to the earliest earthwork 
 camp and which does not appear to have been used at the 
 latest period. This bath consisted of two main parts. One 
 with a seat in it was a cold-water bath. The other was 
 heated from underneath and was subdivided into two por- 
 tions, of which one was a warm-water bath and the other 
 probably a hot-air bath. 
 
 The Prastorium, which is 60 meters long and 40 meters 
 wide, is in the position where the tent of the commander 
 was placed in a flying Roman camp. It is now almost 
 restored and is to be used as a museum for the various finds. 
 The southern end is a big wooden-roofed hall with stonewalls 
 in which are two stories of windows of which the upper ones 
 are the biggest. It is supposed that during bad weather the 
 soldiers were drilled and practised in throwing the pilum 
 and vaulting on a wooden horse in this hall. Adjoining this 
 to the north is the Atrium, a courtyard open to the sky and 
 surrounded by a wooden-roofed piazza. In the Atrium are 
 two wells, one with a wooden, the other with a thatched roof, 
 and the remains of a little building of uncertain date and 
 use, but which was perhaps a Sacellum for the first or second 
 camp. On the east and west sides of the Atrium, beyond 
 the piazza, are long narrow chambers and to the north is 
 another smaller court, beyond which are several more rooms. 
 The middle one of these was probably the latest Sacellum, 
 where the military insignia and the statues of the gods and 
 emperors were kept. 
 
 Immediately around the Saalburg there are many ruins. 
 To the east and west the foundations of many small houses 
 show that there must have been something of a settlement. 
 To the south are the remains of many Canabae, i. c, houses 
 of suttlers and camp followers and also drinking shops, 
 
12 
 
 probably not unlike our saloons. Immediately before the 
 western front of the south wall are the foundations of the 
 so-called " villa," which was possibly the house of the com- 
 mander in peace times, or which may have been an officers' 
 club, and where at the proper season wild strawberries now 
 grow in abundance. There appears to have been a bath 
 here, or at least there is a heating apparatus under one room. 
 From the Porta Decumana a road led south to Heddernheim 
 in the valley of the Nidda, and on both sides of this, some 
 300 meters from the gate, was a burying ground, where some 
 350 graves have been discovered. The dead were cremated 
 and the ashes placed in an urn, together with small jugs, 
 pieces of — often false — money and other small articles. 
 
 The water supply depended on wells, of which fifty-eight 
 have been found up to date. Eight of these are in the 
 camp. Almost every small house had its own well. The 
 oldest have wooden sides, while the later ones have walls of 
 stone without mortar. The dirty water was carried away 
 by drains or canals, some of which still act. 
 
 The heating system was ingenious. A shallow cellar was 
 dug and a number of low brick pillars erected. These sup- 
 ported a floor of terra cotta tiles and concrete. Outside of 
 the house was a sort of oven, which had an opening into the 
 cellar, and the cellar was also connected with the outer air 
 by terra cotta pipes placed against the inside of the walls 
 and opening at the roof or within the room. A wood-fire 
 was built in the oven and the hot air went into the cellar 
 and enough of it rose through the terra cotta pipes to keep 
 up a slow draught. The floor and the walls were gradually 
 heated up and the room was doubtless kept warm for a 
 rather long time. 
 
 Many articles have been dug up at the Saalburg, prin- 
 cipally under the ruins or in the wells. Some of these are 
 primarily of historic importance. Such for instance are 
 numerous terra cotta slabs bearing inscriptions like the fol- 
 lowing : " C O H. II. R A E T " (Cohort II. of the Rhetii) ; 
 "COH. III. VIND" (Cohort III of the Vindelicii). 
 These prove that some of the troops stationed along the 
 Pfahlgraben were German auxiliaries, and it may well be 
 
,13 
 
 that, tired with the overbearing Romans, when the last 
 strug-gle occurred, they fraternized with their oncoming 
 relatives and took their share in ending the Roman domina- 
 tion in a turmoil of blood and fire. 
 
 Many coins have been dug up, and these give a tolerably 
 accurate means of estimating the duration of the Roman 
 sojourn. Twenty-two coins date from 268 to 30 B.C., a few 
 belong to the reigns of the earlier emperors, but it is in the 
 reign of Vespasian (69-79 a.d.) that they first become 
 numerous, and it was doubtless about that time that the 
 Saalburg was started. There are many coins with the effi- 
 gies of Domitian (81-96); Trajan (98-117); Hadrian (117- 
 138); Antoninus Pius (138-161); Marcus Aurelius(i6i-i8o); 
 Septimus Severus (194-211); Heliagabalus (218-222); Sev- 
 erus Alexander (222 235) ; and Gordianus III (238-244). 
 The latest ones are of the reigns of Valerian (253-259) and 
 Claudius Gothicus (268-270). It is probably not far out of 
 the way to assume that Roman control of the Taunus came 
 to an end about that time after lasting some two centuries. 
 
 Some of the finds are chiefly of archaeological and ethno- 
 logical interest. Such for instance is the pottery in the 
 shape of amphoras, jars, etc., of which much has been dug 
 up; but especially noteworthy are the broken panes of 
 glass of which many pieces were found in the " villa," for 
 they show that in northern climes the Romans used glass 
 windows. The panes range from a light green to a dark- 
 blue color, and they were about 40 centimeters bv 40 centi- 
 meters. 
 
 Among the iron relics the horseshoes are most note 
 worthy. A number have been fojnd in the riding ring, 
 and they show that the Romans, in Germany at least, used 
 them. Shoes for mules and oxen are also not uncommon. 
 The spurs were cleverly made, as the shank did not point 
 straight from the middle of the heel but curved somewhat 
 outward : there was thus no danger of the rider accidentally 
 striking his horse, for he had to turn his toes out and bring his 
 heels well in to spur him. In this implement the Romans 
 were ahead of any other people. Few weapons have turned 
 up, probably because thev would be most jealously cared 
 
14 
 
 for from their great value to friend and foe in such a wild 
 region. Tools, on the contrary, are rather numerous, and 
 the hammers, saws, axes, nails — but no screws — are much 
 like those still in use in Germany. A number of the tools 
 are for left-handed workmen. One small garden pick is so 
 exactly like a Swiss ice-axe, that one might almost assert 
 that it was an ice-axe. The works of art are unimportant, 
 consisting principally of a few little bronze statuettes. 
 
 Over a hundred and fifty articles of leather have been 
 taken out of the wells, where the mud seems to have acted 
 as an air-tight preserver. The most important are one 
 leather jacket and a number of sandals and shoes. No 
 entire pair of these has turned up, but only worn out single 
 specimens, some shaped like an undeformed foot, but many 
 ending in a point in the middle of the toes. 
 
 Of the animal bones discovered, all belong to now exist- 
 ing species, except a few of the aurochs {bos iirus) and the 
 swamp-boar (Sumpschwein, siis scrofa palustris). It is not 
 wonderful that stag and roedeer remains are plentiful, for 
 these animals may be seen constantly in the vicinity of the 
 Saalburg, and the gates have to be barred at night to pre- 
 vent their coming in to feed. Indeed, Herr Georg Baer of 
 Homburg tells me that some years ago he saw stags fight- 
 ing in the Saalburg, while the hinds were looking on. 
 
 Leaving the Saalburg and following for about 3 kilo- 
 meters eastward the Pfahlgraben, which there consists of an 
 earthen rampart with a beveled edge and a ditch, one 
 reaches the foundations of the small square fort, now known 
 as the Lochmiihle, which was doubtless the post of the garri- 
 son which kept guard in the thalweg of the Koppern Thai. 
 Continuing along the Pfahlgraben and passing the founda- 
 tion-wall of a small Roman tower, after about 6 kilometers 
 more through beautiful woods, one arrives at the Kapers- 
 burg. 
 
 The Kapersburg resembles the Saalburg, but it is not 
 more thaa half the size, and it is still even more untouched 
 than was the Saalburg thirty years ago. It is surrounded 
 by a ruined wall in which there are four gates. There are 
 the foundations of a prsetorium and several other buildings 
 
15 
 
 within, and so far three wells have been discovered. A 
 bath or villa situated between the Kapersburg and the 
 Pfahlgraben is now being ransacked. This has the remains 
 of heating apparatus, and coins, bronze ornaments, pots, 
 etc., are often turned up, Herr Jacobi told me that, as at 
 the Saalburg, remains of three sets of forts in the order of 
 time exist at the Kapersburg. The walls can be followed 
 only with difficulty, and the whole place is hard to examine, 
 as it is full of pitfalls and it is covered with a dense growth 
 of thorny brushwood, in which my companion. Professor 
 George F. Barker, and I once started a roedeer. 
 
 Even more interesting and much less known than the 
 Roman remains, however, are those of the early native 
 races. A certain number of their architectural efforts have 
 come down to us, and these are a mute comment in show- 
 ing the danger these peoples were constantly in from their 
 brother savages. These earliest constructions are the walls 
 — generally of a fairly circular form and hence now called 
 ringvdlle — which undoubtedly were refuge forts, to which 
 the native inhabitants fled for shelter with their cattle at 
 the approach of an enemy. These ringwalls are generally 
 on hill tops, and, as a rule, are partly surrounded by a ditch. 
 There is no trace of mortar — which was doubtless unknown 
 to the native builders — among the stones of these ringwalls, 
 and it is believed that they were held together by layers of 
 wooden beams, and that it is owing to the rotting away of 
 the latter that the stones have sunk together into long 
 heaps. According to Caesar, the Gauls built forts with the 
 stones of the walls bound together by layers of wood, and a 
 bass-relief on the Trojan column shows similar forts as in 
 existence among the Dacians. This gives a clue to the date 
 of these German ringwalls. Although they may have been 
 used in post-Roman times, yet they were probably in use 
 at the arrival of the Romans. It would seem likely, there- 
 fore, that they were erected by a Celtic or Germanic people 
 in a bronze age, but it is not impossible that they originated 
 long before with a people in a Neolithic stage of develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Half an hour's walk from the Saalburg is one of these 
 
i6 
 
 ringwalls, the Gickelsburg, which is so hidden in the forest 
 that it is hard to find. It is 220 meters by 165 meters in 
 dimension, and the rather small stones have sunk together 
 into a long, oval heap. The finest of these ringwalls in 
 Central Germany, however, is the one on the Altkonig, above 
 Falkenstein, which is in full sight of Homburg and easily 
 accessible. I examined it in company of Professor George 
 F. Barker. This fort has a double line of walls, both in good 
 preservation, which entirely surround the summit plateau 
 of the mountain, enclosing a space several hectares in 
 extent. Each wall, at present, must be some 8 or 10 meters 
 in breadth by about 3 meters in height, so that the original 
 dimensions may be estimated at some 5 or 6 meters in 
 breadth, by the same in height. The stones average in 
 size from perhaps the bulk of an orange to that of a large 
 watermelon, although there are some few bigger ones. 
 They are evidently the mountain stone brought together 
 and piled up, and Professor Barker thought they were all a 
 quartzose sandstone. We saw no traces of wood or vitrifi- 
 cation, which latter occurrence, probably caused by fire, is 
 found occasionally in the somewhat similar "vitrified forts " 
 of Scotland. At the eastern base of the Altkonig is the Alten- 
 hofe, another single-walled ringwall, smaller and less perfect 
 than the one on top. 
 
 A certain number of the implements of the early Ger- 
 mans have also been obtained in the Taunus and in the 
 plains of Hesse Nassau. In 1880, near the Ferdinands 
 platz in Bad Homburg, a great find of bronze implements 
 and weapons was made. Among these are axes or celts, 
 lance-heads, some plaques or bosses for shields, bracelets, 
 sickles, etc. They may date to 600 or 800 B.C. It is possi- 
 ble that some of them were cast in the neighborhood of 
 Homburg itself, but it is probable that most of them were 
 made in Bologna, Italy, and that they reached Germany 
 through regular trading. They would seem to show that 
 the Germanic peoples, for some centuries before the Roman 
 invasion, were in a bronze age. 
 
 Neolithic implements also are found in Hesse Nassau. 
 While the smooth-stone axes and tools are not numerous, 
 
yet enough have been dug up to make certain the fact that 
 some thousands of years before the Christian era, savage 
 Neolithic tribes shared the still virgin forests with the 
 aurochs, the bear and the Ivnx, and that they slowly carried 
 forward the evolution of man in Central Germany. When 
 the use of these instruments began and when it stopped is 
 not known, but in July, 1902, while digging up the earth at 
 the Porta Sinistra of the Saalburg, two small smooth-stone 
 implements were found in the same layer with Roman 
 remains, and this is a noteworthy piece of evidence that the 
 use of smooth- stone implements may have continued until 
 the beginning of the Christian era. 
 
 A few chipped rough-stone arrow-heads have also been 
 found in Hesse Nassau. The specimens look exactly like 
 North American Indian arrow-heads. They are probably 
 Paleoliths, but the evidence is still meager about the earliest 
 peoples of Central Germany. 
 
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