Date(s): 2008. Photos by Aymar. 1 - 26 of 26 Total. 3552 Visits.
1 Welzheim Ostkastell Pond of the drowned legionaries.
2 Welzheim Ostkastell
3 Welzheim Ostkastell, porta praetoria The team with the more professional equipment has already set up shop. Waiting for the main event. Troop défilé or something of that order. - Rubble found on site was used for the reconstruction.
The funds in Welzheim did run out before a freestanding watchtower could be erected. (The pile of stones of the 'Göckelesturm' (=chanticleer tower), named so after a local improve your luck legend, do hardly count.) A complete Roman watchtower has however been reconstructed in Lorch. Selfsame Limes. (Could also be a cost sharing agreement. One major exhibit per camp. Should probably visit Osterburken to see with what building they have come up there.)
4 Welzheim Ostkastell, porta praetoria The wooden beams of the planking rests on stone corbels. The technique changed little in the following centuries.
5 Welzheim Ostkastell, sacra
I swear (right handed). The center figure is Mars rather than the ruling Emperor (my initial assumption). Victoria to the left, Salus-Hygenia (with the coiled up snake) to the right. Should sum up all the things most dear to any soldier's heart (pension benefits, Mercury, maybe excepted). Incidentally: Wisdom (Minerava) is place at some distance (far right). Tirpitz correct. No need to spoil brink salesmanship (lobbyism) with critical reason. (Particular mantra: Trade follows the flag. Implicit: hardware first, content later.)
The initial impetus for Roman conquest will have been budget related. Election financing and clientele donations to be more exact. The life style interpretation came later (Jesuit piggyback theodicy, for the love of gold the faith was spread, the revised version will include plumbing and vaccination shots). There were obviously no purpose built Persian treasury houses to despoil in that septentrional part of the world. Very few conquerors had it as e...
6 Welzheim Ostkastell, sacra Loricate body armor (iron spliced leather). Chain mail did come somewhat later.
7 Welzheim Ostkastell Caught in the act. Well organized souvenir hunters making off with left behind surfboards. Always the same story.
8 Welzheim Ostkastell, sacra Tauroctony, Mithras cult statue. This altar is from a legionary camp in Osterburken (a day's march due North). Ears of corn sprout out of the tip of tail. Just watch out or you will be standing in a solstice field of swaying wheat. A large enough, fanned out Zorro cape can be used as portable projection screen for Needful Things.
9 Welzheim Ostkastell, sacra
10 Welzheim Ostkastell, sacra Helios has just started his daily milk run. Eos acts as pointman (cross checking suggests that the airborne figure actually represents the torch bearing Cautes). Bottom arch: the zodiac. (The vegetation cycles come and go, the starred firmament remains, regardless of some long term precession correction. Life and death on a gyrating, momentum shifting spinning top. It may be doubted if the enhanced cyclic concept of a Great Year contributed much to the Orphic rebirth script. Somewhat too far fetched.) - The raven can be seen either as part of the all pervading constellation lore or as divine messenger. (It proved unreliable in the ark episode.) Odin's familiar for different reasons.
11 Welzheim Ostkastell, sacra Review board, 12 member quorum even. Must be important. The minister of war is present. A strongman with cudgel has has brought some venison for the dinner table. Hunting skills did still count for something at the time. A newcomer may hold a thyros. One of the ladies is rather skimpily dressed. Off hand: The political correctness frame. The Homer sanctioned mystery cult. How you present your case is sometimes more important than any actual content.
12 Welzheim Ostkastell, sacra Pledging ceremony in a vaulted, underground star chamber (the mithraeum). Count enough swords to start a knightly vigil. Ventilation could be a problem with all that open light sources. An acolyte kneels before the altar. The headgear of the master of ceremonies mirrors that of his bull stabbing alter ego. The Mithras cult never came up with a corresponding 'oath taking' ceremony for women. (A development cut short before it could develop the necessary ritual modifications to tap into that worshiper base.) Various grades of illumination are reported. Boy scout parallel: from woodchuck (actually 'raven') to grand elk?. It probably makes sense as long as the credo is there.
[The words El (El-kana, El Al, monotheism) and 'elk' are unrelated. Strength (thunderstorm, upward power, extension: strong natural force) and the strong, chipmunk colored animal respectively. Sometimes you overshoot. It cannot all be roan dabbled.]
13 Welzheim Ostkastell, sacra IOM (Iovi Optimo Maximo) et IVNONI REGINAE et MARTI EX ALBOIVICI (apparently a local manifestation of global divinity, however that works out) DIS DEABUSque OMNIBUS et GENIO LOCI PRO SE et SUIS [end of the dedication part, the name and rank of the sponsor follows] QUINTUS MELICIUS RESPECTUS MILES LEGIONIS VIII AUGUSTAE, BENEFICIARIUS CONSULARIS VSLM (VOTUM SOLVIT LIBENS MERITO). I have acquited myself of my moral obligation. - A food sacrifice could placed between the two scrolls. (This stele does not come with an actual top tray.) - Libertine stance: The whole concept was possibly somewhat rigged. Negative inscriptions, complaint cases, are comparatively rare. Due to a lack of sufficiently articulate non survivors from shipwrecks? - 'Beneficarius', a soldier trusted with an independent command, often civilian liaison work. Traffic warden cum precinct duties might come close. Exempt from most of the more irksome duties (kitchen police). The feudal meaning, 'beneficiar...
14 Welzheim Ostkastell, sacra Reconstruction of a thriving votive stones workshop in Osterburken.
15 Welzheim Ostkastell Dovetailed well parapet. The beam ends are joint by compound beveling (twice inclined plane). Somewhat tricky. - Dozen of shoes were found at the bottom of the well shaft. Just drop your surplus gear here. Apparently one of those standard procedure when a camp was overrun. A few flower pots were also thrown in for good measure.
There was a fair amount of bloodshed when this frontier was overrun by Alemannic tribes in the 3rd century. Some script correct well shafts filled with perforated skulls. (Not necessarily this one, generally speaking.) Clear cultural break even. Understood: Unlike the change of management (countless civil war rehearsals) in the 5th century, polite for non event, when everything remained very much as it was before. Most monastery-haciendas were by then self sufficient anyhow.
16 Welzheim Ostkastell Contubernium (rank and file quarters). Eight men to a room, stacked bunking. The bunk making looks somewhat sloppy.
General remark: The Roman border was shifted from the Neckar to the present Limes in the second century (most likely under Antonius Pius). Would file it as a minor front line straightening. It is thought that the Welzheim cohort was originally stationed in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt (Wallace Barracks area). In passing, very few soldiers enlisted in the Roman Army did actually see the world. Global deployment, apart from the occasional march on Rome in times of Civil War, keyword, praetorian guard type bonuses, was a rare exception. 'Stabilitas loci' was otherwise very much the rule. Even more so for locally recruited auxiliaries.
17 Welzheim Ostkastell Most of the shown exhibits are second hand. Authentic replicas from other camps or simple guide board illustrations. The only thing truly genuine are probably the clouds. - Not directly related, there are dozens of reconstructed Roman camps but nobody dares to tackle a Celtic forest sacra. Known locations are plentiful.
18 Welzheim Ostkastell one of the entry points
19 Welzheim Ostkastell Next to the dog walker, the original threshold of the camp sacellum (where the flags and pay chest were kept). Most Roman thresholds were panned (the stone served as socket for the pivoting door post.) Not very pronounced in this case.
20 Welzheim Ostkastell Drainage ditch. Flooding during a heavy heavy rainfall was apparently a problem. Cannot completely agree with the guide board text which says that marl soil [Mergel] is water is impermeable. I always thought that the latter did sponge up water readily enough. Even one of its beneficial properties. Either an error on my part or a question of secondary composition. Anthropocentric angle: Most camps built on more suitable ground have been built over long since.
21 Welzheim Ostkastell 'Dandelion leaved' Harebell. The bath house stood here (tri-partited, Ottoman 'hamam' model). A few floor stones remain. Just enough to make out the outlines.
22 Welzheim Ostkastell Traditional bean poles (non plastic, helix twisted) with runic writing, bark beetle caused. (It takes all kinds of contrails.) Blurred backdrop: Yellow Loosestrife - Lysimachia punctata. (Did not know that the Romans did grow beans in their camps.)
23 Welzheim Ostkastell The Bonnie and Clyde car has just arrived. Looks as if the bank heist was successful. In any case a happy couple.
24 Welzheim Ostkastell Waiting for the camp prefect to show up. Whatever it takes to tie the knot.
25 Welzheim Ostkastell I always thought that all Fords were corbillard colored.
