Being away for a week has its disadvantages when a story like this breaks, but does allow you to get a sense of perspective. The Roman archaeological find of the year has been the discovery of a Roman battlefield, 100km south of Hanover near a town called Kalefeld.
Aside from the fact that it is rare to find any Roman battlefield not associated with a structure, like a fort, the finds, more than 600 to date, have been dated to the third century (between AD200 and AD250 from the coins) and are on the wrong side of the Rhine.
Before the press conference last week many, myself included, were curious whether this might be a German versus German fight using Roman weaponry. The evidence suggests that it was a full battle between Romans and Germans. The full press release is here (only in German).
Given that it is impossible to find any historical artefact without attributing it to a person, there has been a fair amount written about Maximinus Thrax, the first of the soldier emperors in the third century. The battle has been linked to his campaigns in Germany, but the evidence is by no means conclusive.
The best stories so far have been in SpiegelOnline in English, the Frankfurter Allgemeine in German, Archaeologie Online in German and a couple of pieces in Welt Online (here and here) also in German.
What stands out in all of the coverage is that political undercurrents of Roman/German relationships have not gone away. The final couple of chapters of Rome's Greatest Defeat are devoted to the way that the battle of Teutoburg Forest in AD9, when the German rebel Arminius soundly defeated the Roman general Varus, became a focus for German nationalism and then through the Protestant/Catholic split between Germany and Italy became a focus for anti-Catholicism.
You do not need to scratch too deeply to find that the resentment remains. Every article mentions the battle, in one form or another. The Welt for example starts one of its pieces:
Als im Jahr 1909 am Fuße des Hermannsdenkmals bei Detmold die 1900-Jahr-Feiern der Varusschlacht begangen wurden, ging es vor allem um nationale Sinnstiftung. Schließlich verkünden die Inschriften vom Cherusker-Fürsten Hermann: "Der lang getrennte Stämme vereint mit starker Hand, /Der welsche Macht und Tücke siegreich überwandt."
Contrast this with the provactive headline in La Stampa which pours cold water on Arminius. Its lead is "Arminio, il mito non c'è piu" ("Arminius, the myth is no more").
The best round up of the news is at Rogueclassicism which has collected most of the headlines here. Blogger Gabriele Campbell is fortunate enough to live nearby and has been posting here and here.
The image is a knife case binder from the Landkreis Northeim site.
I find the comments to the Archaeologie Online piece interesting. It will take a long time to figure the whole thing out.
Posted by: IHahn | December 22, 2008 at 06:34 PM