Destructions of the Year of the Four Emperors 69 AD and the Batavian Revolt 70 AD in the Germanic provinces and Raetia – historiographical projection or archaeological evidence?
The death of Emperor Nero in 68 AD was followed by a violent struggle for supremacy between four pretenders to the throne. As we know by the historian Tacitus, the related conflicts directly affected the provinces along the Rhine and Raetia. Indeed, burnt layers of this period could be excavated in numerous Roman forts and civil settlements in the provinces Lower Germania, Upper Germania and Raetia. According to the historiographic tradition, the majority of them were attributed to the hostilities of 69/70 AD. But due to the prevailing timber constructions, hostile fires were daily fare at that time and their archaeological remnants basically do not differ from those of violent destructions. Nevertheless, some scientists tried to define criteria for the distinction between them. By analyzing the features of undoubtedly violently destroyed sites as some forts in Lower Germania, this project aims to reassess and enlarge the catalogue of characteristic features of destruction layers. In combination with existing new archaeological knowledge on some of the concerned findspots, this shall enable the compilation of a catalogue of all Roman sites in the Germanic provinces and in Raetia with persuasive remnants of violent destructions of the years 69/70 AD.
In this context not only the causal background, but also the chronological classification of the concerned burnt layers is under close scrutiny. Since the finds from the alleged destruction layers of 69/70 AD are often taken as solid dated reference ensembles for the dating of newly excavated contexts, this aspect is kind of a crucial point of this project. Thanks to recent studies on one of the main dating find groups of this Age, the South Gaulish Terra Sigillata, not only a more precise chronology of the burnt layers in question can be expected, but also results on aspects like differences in the supply of the examined provinces with this widely traded tableware. Methodologically, the Terra Sigillata finds from burnt layers in the forts along the Lower Rhine attributed (with good reason) to the Batavian Revolt 70 AD serve as solid dated reference assemblages for the temporal classification of supposed respectively disputed destruction levels from the Year of the Four Emperors in Upper Germania and Raetia.
Final aim of the project is to gain a full picture of the actual archaeologically identifiable impacts of the civil war disturbances on the forts and settlements in the Rhine provinces and Raetia. This picture also includes an Austrian site, Brigantium/Bregenz, which serves as a starting point and “case example” for the research project.
Publication:
- J. Kopf, Per Raetiam inrupere: Zerstörungen des Jahres 70 n. Chr. in Raetien revisited. In: G. Grabherr / B. Kainrath (Hrsg.), Colloquium Veldidena 2022. Raetia und Noricum. Bevölkerung und Siedlungsstruktur. Akten der Tagung vom 20.–22. April 2022 in Innsbruck, IKARUS 11 (Innsbruck 2024) 143–165.