Roman spike system meant to impale the barbarian Germans unearthed and conserved in Germany

 

 Deadly sharped wooden spikes from two Roman forts unearthed near Bad Ems, Germany, have been unveiled in all their threatening glory after conservation at the Leibniz Center for Archaeology (LEIZA) in Mainz. The 23 wooden skewers have been undergoing conservation for almost three years 

The spikes were discovered in a 2019 excavation at the site of two previously unknown early imperial military camps on the river Lahn. Found in a v-shaped trench still in their original upright or angled positions, ready to impale an unwary attacker, the carved wooden spikes were preserved in exceptional condition by the waterlogged clay soil. Known from ancient sources like Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars, these are the first (and so far only) examples of this type of defensive barrier ever found.

Dubbed pila fossata (ditch spears) by the archaeologists (there are no specific names for them in the ancient sources), they were made of oak and were an average of 65 cm (26 inches) long and 4.5-6cm (1.7-2.3 inches) in diameter. They were sharped on both ends and had two notches, one cut out of the bottom and the other at the top on the opposite side of the stake, giving it mean barb to look extra threatening and making it harder for anyone who had the misfortune to fall onto it to extricate themselves than a plain sharpened spike would be. 

They were installed angled outwards, upwards and inwards, bristling in all directions at once much like the barbs on barbed wire.

We know from Tacitus’ Annals that in 47 A.D., Emperor Claudius dispatched an arriviste praetor by the name of Curtius Rufus (who may or may not have been the son of a gladiator) to the area in order to mine silver.

[Curtius Rufus] had opened mines in the territory of the Mattiaci for working certain veins of silver. The produce was small and soon exhausted. The toil meanwhile of the legions was only to a loss, while they dug channels for water and constructed below the surface works which are difficult enough in the open air.

The excavation did indeed discover a shaft and tunnel system that appears to be of Roman origin, but it never reached the silver vein. They gave up too early because the silver was just a few feet beneath the tunnels.

The search for silver would explain the presence of two camps. The legions provided necessary (hard) labor to dig for silver, and the necessary security to protect the precious metal from Germanic raids. 

Recent excavations were triggered by a rather brilliant hunter’s report of differences in grain color that could indicated underground structures. Drone photography and geomagnetic scans confirmed that under the grain were large double ditches that formed defensive perimeter of a Roman camp. It would have been a huge Roman camp: eight hectares with 40 wooden towers — much larger than the known to have been built one at Bad Ems. It was meant to be permanent but it was never completed. Only a warehouse was built in the end and a few years later the camp was burned down.

A second, much smaller camp, was unearthed a mile away. The stake structure was part of the defenses of this second camp.

Via the always good History Blog.