Alte Geschichte/Ancient History

Recent Developments/Current Information

Kalkriese – The Site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (A Student Project)
Since 1987-88 archaeological analyses have been underway in the Kalkrieser-Niewedder Senke, a valley in the District of Osnabrueck, Lower Saxony (FRG) which is circa 1-2 km wide and 15 km long. Preliminary systematic investigations and regular excavations of the area have thus far yielded over 3,000 finds, which include Roman gold, silver, and copper coins as well as pieces of Roman military equipment. The coins found make it possible to date the precipitation of finds in and surrounding Kalkriese at AD 9. This suggests that the finds in the Kalkrieser-Niewedder Senke are connected with the clades Variana in the saltus Teutoburgiensis, the so-called Varusschlacht (Battle of the Teutoburg Forest) in AD 9 in which a Roman army under the command of P. Quinctilius Varus and consisting of three legions (legiones XVII, XVIII, and XIX), three cavalry squadrons, and six further cohorts of auxiliary troops, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Germanic tribal federations from the Rhine and Weser River regions under the leadership of the Cheruscan Arminius. If we place the extremely large number of Roman finds in the context of other finds made thus far in northwestern Germany, then, based on the current state of our knowledge, we have succeeded in establishing the main location of these events.

Roman Inscriptions in Germania
For over ten years now, classical scholars from the College of Cultural and Geosciences at the University of Osnabrueck have been at work on a research project in which Latin inscriptions from Roman Germania are collected and published. Thus far over 5,000 ancient inscriptions from the Roman provinces Germania superior and Germania inferior have been documented, analyzed, and photographed. An exhibition that focused on this epigraphic research project was sponsored by Osnabrueck classical scholars and held in the University Library from July 25 through August 31, 1996. As an introduction to the methods and research of Latin epigraphy, key parts of this exhibition have been digitalized and thereby made available on-line to a larger lay and scholarly public.