The Lost Fort

My Travel and History Blog, Focussing mostly on Roman and Mediaeval Times


9 Aug 2006
  The Museum Park at Kalkriese

An extended essay about the Varus battle will appear soon, taking into account new discoveries.

Below is an overview photo taken from the museum tower. Of course, the landscape has changed a lot since 9 AD; what was a nasty bog where the Romans got stuck are now fields; the hill on the other side is less high because the land has risen thanks to a fertilizing system that used cut out grass sods turned upside down (the layer is about three metres today) trees have been felled.

Picture taken from the watchtower (not a Roman one, a modern building that also houses the museum

The winding grey way in the middle that cuts right through the iron enclave in the centre of the picture is the Roman marching line; to the left is the woodcovered hill, to the right the former swamp. Within the area enclosed by ruddy iron plates, the original landscape, forest, German wall and wicker defenses, small sandy stripe and bog have been reconstructed.

The German forests were proverbial in Latin literature, dark, impenetrable, hostile. It became a topos, a metaphor for a country that would never become a Roman province. Sure, Germany was more densely forested than today, but even in 9 AD there were populated areas, clearings, fields, pasture, and settlements, long distance paths and trails. The Romans had built fortified camps as far east as Hedemünden at the Werra (Weser and Werra, the Roman Visurgis, are the same river*), the kernel of a Roman system of settlements and roads, left unfinished after Tiberius called the army back in AD 16. The disaster in AD 9 reinforced the Scary German Forests-topos, and the German woods were present in Latin literature about Germania ever since.


If you walk some 50 metres into the forest, it becomes a lot more like what the Romans saw. Boggy ground, dense foliage, trees hindering the way. And German altars, places where they sacrificed to their gods, gods that contrary to the Celtic ones never made it into the Roman henotheistic pantheon.

I would have liked to also see the skeleton of a Roman on an altar, and his skull on a pole, but since the park is visited by children, I assume it was considered too scary. I bet for some horse-loving teenage girls that hide is scary enough.


Roman sources agree on the fact that it had rained the days before and during the battle. I think they could be right there, German autums can be on the wet side. Now, imagine a Roman legionary carried some 30 kilo equipment; I have no idea what the stuff weighs when wet, but according to Bernard Hill's statement in the LOTR DVD extras, it's a lot (his armour as Théoden is a mix of metal and leather as well). In AD 9 the mail shirt was still the more common armour albeit some pieces of lorica segmentata, the rectangular plates connected with leather straps we know from the movies, have been found at Kalkriese. This new form of armour became more popular in the time to follow because it was less heavy than mail.

The poor legionaries also carried a large shield made of leather fortified plywood. That's a lot of leather to get soaked. Not to mention wet equipment doesn't work well: the Romans had a whole auxiliary company of Balearic slingers with wet slings, archers with wet bows, legionaries with wet feet, soaked shields and rusty mail, and mules with sore hooves.

And this sorry troop, already diminished and disenheartened by two days of continous guerilla attacks from the Germans, now gets driven into bogs by a horde of Germans more used to getting wet, with smaller shields and less armour.

The weather surely was on Arminius' side but would the outcome have been different with weather as sunny as I experienced at Kalkriese? The Romans still would not have been able to display their army in proper fighting order, and a marching column is always an easier target. The bogs would still have been there (like in this little, reconstructed patch),


and we don't know how many Germans there were, not even the Roman sources, usually not beyond exaggerating the numbers, do mention any numbers at all. Maybe a few more Romans would have managed to break through but I think even with good weather, the battle in the Teutoburg Forest would have been a disaster. The problems the Romans encountered were too varied, and the psychological aspect plays a role as well - and if you talk about the boogieman long enough, people will believe in it.

Notes
* The old Germanic forms of both names are something like Visera / Wesera. In some German dialects a so called rhotazism took place, that is, a -s- between two vowels became a -r-. Since Germanic languages stress the first syllable of a word, the following syllables are prone to get contracted or weakened. Werera soon became Werra, while Wesera weakened the final -a- into -e- and finally lost it altogether and became Weser. The border between the two names is given by the fact that a rather large river, the Fulda, confluences into the Weser, and that looks as if Fulda and Werra join and become a new river. The name goes back to an Indoeuropean root *uis- that means 'water' and is also in the word Whisky.

 
Comments:
Wow! It's lovely there. I want to travel and see such places. I'd take pics galore to use for my novels and short stories.
 
Thought that name looked familiar!

Have "The Battle That Stopped Rome" by Peter S. Wells.
While his style sucks, and his logic sometimes faulty, it's an interesting read.
Thank you, Gabriele for giving me a picture I can align with the picture he creates.
 
Hi Zinnia,
thanks for stopping by. I get some of my inspiration from places I visit.

Bernita,
I've read some bad crits of the book and thus didn't buy it (yet).
 
Did they take out the metal plates that showed the Roman path?

I have to say that the reconstruction of the bog is quite impressive once you get there. (It's inside that fenced off area, which is actually dug out.)
 
Firle,
the plates are still there. The bog is very nice, with reed growing on the shores and all. And when you see how small the sandy stipe between the bog and the wall actually was, you start to feel pity for the poor Romans; having your legs stick in the mud and a big blond German wave a sword at your neck is not a situation I want to be in. :)
 
Your photos are works of art. This one's so evokative along with what you wrote to accompany it.
 
What time of year was the Varus battle? I ought to know but can't remember. The upland bogs I'm familiar with dry out partially in summer, so if this one does the same the narrow strip might have been even narrower if the battle was fought in the wet season.
 
According to some plants they found wrapped around the clapper of a mule bell, it must have been autumn.
 
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The Lost Fort is a travel and history blog based on my journeys in Germany, the UK, Scandinavia, the Baltic Countries, and central Europe. It includes virtual town and castle tours with a focus on history, museum visits, hiking tours, and essays on Roman and Mediaeval history, illustrated with my own photos.


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Location: Goettingen, Germany

I'm a blogger from Germany with a MA in Literature and History, interested in everything Roman and Mediaeval, avid reader and sometimes writer, opera enthusiast, traveller with a liking for foreign languages and odd rocks, photographer, and tea aficionado. And an old-fashioned blogger who still hasn't got an Instagram account.
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Medieval History

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King Heinrich IV

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Alv Erlingsson of Tønsberg


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The Conquest of Danzig


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House Luxembourg
King Sigismund


Roman History

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Limes Fort Osterburken
Limes Fort Saalburg

The Hadrian's Wall
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The Fort at Segedunum / Wallsend

Border Life
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Soldiers' Living Quarters
Cavalry Barracks

Campaigns and Battles

Maps
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The Pre-Varus Invasion in Germania
Roman Camp Hedemünden
New Finds in 2008

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
Museum Park at Kalkriese

The Battle at the Harzhorn
Introduction

The Batavian Rebellion
A Short Introduction

Roman Militaria

Armour
Early Imperial Helmets
Late Roman Helmets
The Negau B Helmet

Weapons
Weapon Finds at Hedemünden
The pilum
Daggers
Swords

Other Equipment
Roman Saddles


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Religion
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Isis Worship
Memorial Stones
The Mithras Cult

Public Life
Roman Transport: Barges
Roman Transport: Amphorae and Barrels
Roman Water Supply

Architecture
Roman Public Baths

Domestic Life

Roman villae
Villa Urbana Longuich
Villa Rustica Wachenheim

Everyday Life
Bathing Habits
Children's Toys
Face Pots


Other Times

Neolithicum to Iron Age

Germany

Development of Civilisation
European Bread Museum, Ebergötzen
The Hutewald Project in the Solling
Open Air Museum Oerlinghausen

Neolithic Remains
Stone Burials of the Funnelbeaker Culture
The Necropolis of Oldendorf

Bronze Age / Iron Age
The Nydam Ship

Scotland

Neolithic Orkney
The Neolithic Landscape of Orkney
Ring of Brodgar
Skara Brae
Life in Skara Brae

Bronze Age / Iron Age
Clava Cairns
The Brochs of Gurness and Midhowe - Their Function in Iron Age Society

Scandinavia

Bronze / Iron Age
The Ship Setting of Gnisvärd / Gotland


Post-Medieval History

Explorers and Discoveries

Explorers
Fram Expedition to the North Pole
Fram Expedition to the South Pole

Discoveries
Otto von Guericke and the Magdeburg Hemispheres
Raising a Wreck, Now and Then (Vasa Museum in Stockholm)

History and Literature

The Weimar Classicism
Introduction


Geology

Geological Landscapes

Germany

Baltic Sea Coast
Chalk Cliffs on Rugia
Flint Fields on Rugia

Harz Mountains
Bode Valley and Rosstrappe Cliffs
Daneil's Cave
Devil's Wall
Hübichenstein Rock
Klus Rock
Lonau Falls
Rhume Springs
Southern Harz Karst

Meissner / Kaufunger Wald
'Blue Dome' near Eschwege
Diabase and Basalt Formations
Hoher Meissner Karst
Salt Springs at the Werra

Solling-Vogler
Raised Bog Mecklenbruch
Hannover Cliffs

Great Britain

The Shores of Scotland
Staffa

Baltic Sea

Lithuania
Geology of the Curonian Spit


Fossils and Rocks

Fossilized Ammonites
Loket Meteorite (Czechia)



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