Portus Lemanis
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Fort Lemanis or Portus Lemanis is a former Roman fort and was part of the limit of the Saxon Shore at today Lympne in Kent, England.
The fort space has been explored very little: the only major Ausgrabungskampangne was conducted by Charles Roach Smith in the years 1850-1852. Otherwise, so far only smaller studies of the fort area were held, such as the exposure of the east gate in 1976 at the foot of the southern cliffs also remains of an Anglo-Saxon fortress were found Stutfall ( = mighty wall ). ; this was built directly over the foundations of the Roman fort.
Location and Name
Today's village Lympne stands on the cliffs above the so-called Romney Marsh in Kent. It is about eleven kilometers west of the port city of Folkestone and 17 km east of Ashford. The ruins of the fort and the harbor lie south of the present Lympne on a small hill, just below the medieval castle of Stutfall Castle, from which one can overlook good the coast and the surrounding flat marshland.
The topography of the coastline has changed considerably here since Roman times. The nearby Isle of Oxney was formerly hilly country, which lay at the confluence of three rivers, they formed a extending to the northeast tidal basin, which extended to Hythe. The geology of the castle hill and its slopes is very unstable, since ancient Roman times, the upper layers of the earth have shifted through continuous Abrutschung down considerably. This led to large parts of northern and eastern walls are no longer located in its original location and also the harbor silted up more and more. These circumstances were probably the reason that fort and harbor had to be abandoned eventually.
The Roman name for the fort Lympne is first mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary in the early 3rd century. The entry about Portus Lemanis argues that it is sixteen miles from the capital of Cantium region, Durovernum ( Canterbury, Kent) away. For the last time Lemanis is cited in the ancient sources of the " geographer of Ravenna " in the 7th century. It positions Lemanis between Dubris and still not identified Mutuantonis. At this time the fort was but given up long ago. The place of discovery is also known as Stutfall Castle.
Development and function
Portus Lemanis belonged AD 43 almost certainly not one of the landing places of the Roman invasion army, perhaps, but it served then as a pier of the Roman Channel Fleet ( Classis Britannica ) on the blasted and dangerous coast opposite the island of Vectis (now Isle of Wight ) as for example, the port of Noviomagus regnorum ( Chichester, Sussex ). In his chronicle of the second half of the 4th century Eutropius reports that the Fleet Admiral Carausius got around 285 AD the order, the English Channel from Portus Itius ( Boulogne ) to pacify from which had been taken by pirates uncertain, the Eutropius called "Franken " and "Saxons". The case mentioned raids on the Britannic and Gallic coast handicapped in the increasingly to civilian maritime and especially the transfer of Britannic commodities and precious metals to Gaul and Rome. As a countermeasure directed the Roman administration on both sides of the channel a separate military district, the litus saxonicum ( Saxon Shore ), one of which was commanded troops in Britain by a Comes Litoris Saxonici by Britanniam. When the Roman army under Stilicho Flavius 398 in Britain was militarily active again, this was likely to find first included in the official Roman calendar, the Notitia Dignitatum. The widely branched river system Britain allowed the Germanic invaders, quickly move ahead with their small flat-bottomed rowing boats into the interior of the island. Therefore, the Romans put on this exposed coastal areas - and particularly at river mouths - fortifications, which were also associated with the Roman military camps in the Gallic part of the litus saxonicum. But the Saxon Shore fort Lemanis probably written as early as 270 AD. Whether the Britannic fleet had its main base in Portus Dubris ( Dover ) or later in Lemanis is controversial.
The fort guarded a small harbor, and was mainly used as a loading and trading center for the goods of regional ore mining and Verhüttungsgewerbes, which was close by, on the banks of the rivers Rother and Brede, a resident. Lemanis was also the starting point of a trade route to the tin mines in Cornwall at Ictis (St. Michael 's Mount ). West of Lemanis were the iron mines of the South Downs, but these were probably nearer managed by Portus Dubris from. In addition to the export of iron and the shipment of wood and recovered in salt marshes salt over Portus Lemanis is known.
Fort
The attachment was structurally at the transition from the playing card-shaped early - and mid-imperial forts to the irregular, much more fortified and smaller copies of late antiquity. After finding the remaining masonry fort that may have formed the shape of an irregular pentagon with an angled at half Nordwall. The defensive wall enclosed an area of about 3.4 ha south front of the - today very badly preserved more - the fort is completely gone; so far only two buildings in the development could be detected. Besides the Lagerbad ( Balineum ) in the eastern part was found Remains of the walls of the sanctuary flags (Aedes ) and two side rooms of the headquarters building ( principia ) to the north of the area. The only goal was a 3.3 m wide passage, flanked by two U- towers and was located on the east wall. The remnants of the Northern, Western and Ostwalles that her cast masonry very massively constructed and was reinforced by the contemporary state of Structural Engineering at regular intervals with half-round, protruding from the wall towers. Due to the unstable ground they stood on pilots of oak. Thought there was of it up to 14, they were partially provided with internal chambers. The up to 3.9 m wide wall consisted of two bowls of ashlar stone, which had been drawn down using a mortar mixture of sand, lime and animal blood as a binder to a hard-packed grout core of rubble. Their remains are still in situ in some portions of six to eight feet tall and about the Roman ground level. For its construction was mainly rubble, probably used by previous buildings. In typical for this time brick bands to stabilize the outer wall veneer (brick leading) was found, inter alia, a considerable amount of tiles ( tegulae ), the foundations of the east gate consist mostly of second material used. Against the west wall traces of a fortified trench could be observed.
Garrison
The following occupation units are known for Lemanis:
Vicus, Lagerbad and port
The Vicus, the camp village, was situated on the Roman road to Durovernum Cantiacorum ( Canterbury ). Around the port a vicus was also detectable, Roman settlements are also suspected in the near- Ruckinge and Dymnchurch.
The bath house was around the middle of the 19th century in the southeast of the fort area, about 15 m in front of the east wall, excavated. There are four rooms in total were exposed: Room 1 ( Dimensions: about 3.60 × 6.40 m ) and space 2 (3.35 × 6.40 m ). They are both equipped with a hypocaust which was heated by a landscaped Praefurnium in the east. Room 1 is (lying before the Praefurnium, about 2.70 × 1.50 m ) with a rectangular niche and in an apse on the south side (approx. 4.60 m ) applied Alvei, probably to be interpreted as caldarium. The function of the spaces 3 (ca. 3.60 × 6.40 m ) and 4 (ca. 3.35 × 6.40 m ) has remained unclear. Room 4 could have been possibly with a hose heater, which was perhaps retrofitted heated. However, Barry Cunliffe interprets this finding as Praefurnium, but his thesis does not explain four parallel current lines of stones are more likely to be interpreted as cheeks of hot air ducts. The bathroom must have been built simultaneously with the castle. Corresponding findings that could more accurately provide information about missing.
The now completely silted ancient port lies to the east of the castle ruin, a few hundred meters from the coast today. He was in Roman times still at the entrance of a lagoon. Behind the pebble beach, a large wetland spread, stretching from Fairlight (Hastings ) almost to the former Roman port.
Remains of the east wall
The exposure of the east gate in 1976
The excavation of the fort bath in 1850