Greece & Rome · Early 3rd century AD · Aken, Trabitz and Deersheim, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Roman army marching camps found near the Elbe in eastern Germany
Ditches at Aken, Trabitz and Deersheim in Saxony-Anhalt date to the early 3rd century AD, and a coin of Caracalla suggests a campaign around AD 213.
Official announcement
Aken, Trabitz and Deersheim, Germany Archaeologists have identified the first Roman marching camps known in Saxony-Anhalt, eastern Germany. The camps lie at Aken, Trabitz and Deersheim, between the northern Harz Mountains and the River Elbe. The State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt (LDA) dates them to the early 3rd century AD.
They are the northeasternmost Roman camps identified so far in Germania libera. That name covers the lands beyond the empire's frontier.
Until now the case for Roman troops in the region rested on scattered finds. These were coins and iron hobnails lost from legionary sandals. They suggested that armies had passed through, but gave no sign of organised military installations. State archaeologist Harald Meller described the discovery as an archaeological sensation.
Spotted on satellite and aerial images
Marching camps were temporary enclosures. The Roman army built them while on campaign in enemy territory. They followed a strict plan: a rectangle with rounded corners, straight ditches and ramparts. Two main streets crossed at the centre, where the headquarters stood.
Each gate was protected by a titulum, a short stretch of ditch dug in front of the entrance. Together these features are distinctive enough to be picked out in aerial images. They also allow the camps to be told apart from prehistoric structures in the same fields.
The first site came to light in 2020. Volunteer archaeologist Michael Barkowski spotted a possible structure near Aken on satellite imagery. Survey flights directed by the LDA's aerial archaeologist Ralf Schwarz then confirmed the southwestern corner of the presumed camp, now called Aken 1. The flights also confirmed a break in its southern ditch, guarded by a titulum.
In 2023 archaeologist Martin Freudenreich identified a possible camp near Trabitz on digital orthophotos. Volunteer René Hoffmann later recognised and reported it as well.
Between June and December 2024 Freudenreich found two more camps in digital imagery. One was a second camp near Aken, the other was at Deersheim. Both showed straight ditches and rounded corners.
Geophysical surveys and systematic metal-detector walks followed, carried out with volunteers. They recorded more than 1,500 finds, mostly iron objects. Among them were a large number of nails and rivets and several brooch fragments. There were also coins minted under the emperors Antoninus Pius (AD 138–161), Marcus Aurelius (AD 161–180) and Caracalla (AD 211–217).
The geophysics captured the complete plan of the Deersheim camp. At Trabitz it confirmed the titulum and a rounded ditch corner.
Targeted excavations in the summers of 2024 and 2025 exposed V-shaped ditches typical of Roman fortifications. At Aken 1 the ditch was up to 1.75 metres wide and 1.55 metres deep. At Aken 2 it measured 1.8 metres wide and 1.5 to 1.6 metres deep. Its end coincided with the suspected position of a western entrance.
The ditch at Trabitz was 1.7 metres wide and 1.2 metres deep. At Deersheim the ditch was originally 1.5 to 1.7 metres wide. It was excavated to a depth of about one metre into the weathered upper layer of the underlying limestone.
Coins and radiocarbon dates point to Caracalla's reign
According to the LDA, the finds and a series of radiocarbon dates place the camps in the early 3rd century AD. The latest coin from Trabitz is a silver denarius of Caracalla. The team says this makes it plausible that the camp was built during a campaign under this emperor around AD 213.
Aken 2 has nearly the same dimensions as Trabitz. The researchers take this as a sign that the two are close in date.
Roman advances towards the Elbe and Saale began in 13 or 12 BC. Augustus then started trying to turn the lands east of the Rhine into a province. Drusus, Ahenobarbus and the future emperor Tiberius led the campaigns. After the defeat in the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, the legions withdrew west of the Rhine.
From the 3rd century AD, large new tribal confederations threatened the empire. Written sources record some Roman campaigns reaching deep into Germanic territory. One account says Caracalla reached the "Albans", a people who may have lived along the Elbe. Historians, however, have usually placed his expeditions close to the limes, the fortified frontier.
A later campaign, under Maximinus Thrax in AD 235/36, is connected with the battlefield at Harzhorn. That site, on the western edge of the Harz, was found in 2008.
The LDA says that if the Caracalla date is confirmed, accounts placing his Germanic wars only near the limes will have to be revised. The camps already move the known limit of Roman military activity in Germania several dozen kilometres to the northeast.
The office plans further excavations and study of the surrounding terrain. The aim is to trace Roman troop movements and supply in the region of the middle Elbe and Saale.
Sources
- Roman marching camps discovered in Saxony-Anhalt reveal early military advances deep into Germania (Archaeology News)
- Roman marching camps discovered farthest to the northwest in Germany, confirming the empire’s military advances in the 3rd century AD (La Brújula Verde)
- Roman Marching Camps Discovered in Saxony-Anhalt for the First Time (Arkeonews)
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