It was one of the most intriguing discoveries at Kalkriese. Those big blond Germans had learned a few things from the Romans, and one was that walls are a good place to hide behind. So, along the smallest part of the path between woods and swamp, they built a series of wall and wicker or palisade defenses to make it even more difficult for the Romans to escape into the woods, and to hide behind until the moment of the ambush. That required planning ahead and a few weeks of work.
The walls were probably camouflaged by bushes and near to invisible. The pic above shows a piece of reconstructed wall - made of earth and grass cuts - from the 'Roman" side, the one to the left shows me standing on the 'German' side. The wicker screens were higher back then but have been adapted to school kid size (Kalkriese is a good place to visit for kids). So far, beside the reconstructed wall, iron palisades demonstrate the line along which the wall ran but I hope they will rebuild more of it until 2009.
Interesting. And I like the way you use photos to enhance your blog stories.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteCalculated to narrow the track and bunch up the Romans as well as a defensive.
ReplyDeleteYep. Sneaky Germans. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know how accurate the Roman sources are when it comes to the alleged friendship between Arminius and Varus, after all, Varus was 56 and Arminus 25, both of very different background, which makes for an unlikely friendship. But I'm sure the part about Arminius having been a Roman auxiliary officer is correct. It was Roman politcs to integrate tribes they considered conquered.
Part of my later fascination with Roman history came from picking up small things as a very young child in Bonn-Rheinland, Germany.
ReplyDeleteA shart of pottery here, a piece of an ancient sculptue there.
Details of an ancient frieze.
No question about it: Roman.
Small wonder that all Europans seem to be writers and all North Americans who take up the pen--become Europeans.
History.
Fascinating.
Ivan,
ReplyDeletethe historical atmosphere of Europe definitely shapes the people living here, at lease those that are aware of the history. There's a number walking around blind for the past - any sort of past.
I was 5 when my parents started to take me to see historical sites and museums, and I've loved it ever since.