Since the foundation of the OEAI, research at Carnuntum has constituted a main focus of the Institute's activity within Austria. The work has been carried out over decades via a fruitful collaboration with the "Verein Carnuntum" (Carnuntum Society) founded in 1885, and with the "Limes-Kommission" (Border Commission) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a commission founded in 1897. Until the end of the First World War, the Institute fulfilled primarily only an organizational function, as a result of the controlling function, as laid down in the statutes. These functions were performed by the Directors at the time. M. von Groller and E. Nowotny carried out the most important excavations of this period (1898-1914) in the legionary camp, whereby almost three-quarters of the area was uncovered. At the same time, Groller also carried out excavations in the camp settlement (canabae legionis), during the course of which numerous civil buildings, including a forum, a large bathing complex, and parts of the governor's palace were revealed.
After the war the Institute itself, with its staff, took over the research at the site. At these difficult times, it was nevertheless possible to undertake a large research project, encompassing the exposure and conservation of the second amphitheatre (1923-1930) at Petronell by R. Egger and F. Miltner. In connection with this, however, the number of field workers had to be continually reduced for financial reasons. Particularly worthy of note are the excavations carried out by A. Betz along the street of tombs in 1933 and 1934, research which brought especially rich epigraphic material to light.
Under the new political authority post-1938, an intensification of archaeological activity, in collaboration with the administrative district of the Lower Danube, was planned. E. Swoboda was commissioned to undertake the excavation of a large complex of ruins lying to the west of Castle Petronell. Only one excavation campaign, however, took place in 1939, as the outbreak of the Second World War prevented the continuation of this project.
Shortly after the end of the war, it was possible for H. Vetters to resume the old tradition with investigations in the military amphitheatre. Consequently, E. Swoboda was again named Excavation Director; he organized his new excavations, in the pleasure garden of Schloss Petronell (1948-1956) and in the adjacent "Palace Ruins" (1956-1964), not with the Institute but with the province of Lower Austria. After Swoboda's death, H. Stiglitz was entrusted in 1967 with the continuation of excavations in the "Palace Ruins". With this event, the organization of field research at Carnuntum returned to the OEAI. In 1968, the so-called Limes Commission, at first alone and later in cooperation with the OEAI, undertook new excavations in the legion's camp (under the direction of M. Kandler). Two years later, the period of the great rescue excavations was initiated, with campaigns on the Pfaffenberg near Bad Deutsch-Altenburg (directed by H. Vetters and W. Jobst), which continue to dominate the research activities of the OEAI at Carnuntum to the present: Since 1978, extensive excavations had to be organized due to numerous planned modern construction, as well as at Bad Deutsch-Altenburg (cult region in the canabae legionis, directed by M. Kandler) and at Petronell (cavalry camp, directed by H. Stiglitz until 1988, and by M. Kandler 1989-2004).

Bibliography:
M. Kandler, 100 Jahre Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut 1898 - 1998. Forschungen in Carnuntum (1998) 104-148.

Research in the Cavalry Camp of Carnuntum

Until 2004, investigations were carried out by the OEAI in the cavalry camp at Petronell, discovered in 1997 (M. Kandler); between 1989 and 1997, a part of the southern territory, which borders on the main road leading to Aquileia, was also studied.
The fort was established in the 2nd half of the 1st century A.D. as a wooden structure, out of a complex which at this time cannot yet with certainty be identified (Fort I). In the 1st quarter of the 2nd century a rebuilding took place, a rebuilding which can be brought into association with the ala I Thracium, whose name is found on certain stamped bricks (Fort II). At this time a crenellated wall and a ditch protected the camp. The gates were flanked by towers. There is evidence for rectangular towers along the wall curtain and trapezoidal corner towers. The interior structures, on the other hand, with the exception of the bath building, were built of wood or mudbrick. In the 2nd half of the 2nd century, the fort served as a camp for supplies (Fort III). During the Severan dynasty, at or shortly after 200 A.D., the barracks in the northern region of the camp were completely rebuilt (Fort IV). A century later, the camp had to be abandoned. In the baths, a thin layer of earth could be detected over the brick floor of the changing room, allowing the conclusion that the building already lacked a roof at that time. At around the middle of the 4th century, the walls collapsed as the result of an earthquake.

Outside the camp, parts of the extensive necropolis, which lay on either side of the main road and which was laid out after the arrival of the 15th Legion and the construction of the camp, could be investigated, constituting the earliest levels. Some tomb stones were found whose epitaphs name soldiers who came originally from central Italy and residents of the canabae legionis.
The financing of the excavations, which have been undertaken in agreement with the National Monument Commission, is accomplished through the budget of the OEAI, and above all through subventions from the Department for the Protection of Monuments of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research. In 2008 research work will be continued in cooperation with the Archaeological Park Carnuntum with the excavation and restoration of the camp's eastern gate.

In addition to excavations in the military camp, an analysis of the settlement structures of Carnuntum has been attempted by means of extensive aerial photography and ground prospection; this work, begun a few years ago, has been carried out as a collaborative project with the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Archaeology (today, VIAS), the Aerial Photograph Archive of the Institute for Pre- and Early History of the University of Vienna, and the Central Institute for Meterorology and Geodynamics. The most important discovery to date occurred in 1996, when the Forum of the civilian city was identified south of the Great Baths. The large, open piazza was equipped with porticoes and tabernae (shops) along its long sides. On the south side, the temple to the Capitoline Triad was raised up in the centre, surrounded by official administrative buildings (curia, tabularium). To the north, the Forum was closed off from the decumanus maximus by means of a basilica.

Picture Captions
Fig. 1: Altar dedicated to Mithras, by the Emperors, on the occasion of their meeting in Carnuntum for the Imperial Conference (307 or 308 A.D.) (Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, Archaeological Museum Carnuntinum) (OEAI Archive)
Fig. 2: Excavations of 1939 in the "Palace Ruins" (Large Baths) (OEAI Archive)
Fig. 3: Auxiliary Camp Carnuntum. Ground plan of the period of camps 1 (blue) and 4 (green) (OEAI Archive)
Fig. 4: The eastern corner of the camp (Periods 2-4) with the negatives of the camp wall and the trapezoidal corner tower (OEAI Archive)
Fig. 5: View from the east over the camp baths (Periods 2-4) (OEAI Archive)
Fig. 6: Helmet skull cap with decoration of curls, found in the camp (ca. 200 A.D.) (OEAI Archive)
Fig. 7: Building block to the east of the Principia: Foundation ditches of Period 2 (OEAI Archive)
Fig. 8: Southern section of the Forum of the civilian town, ground prospection 1996 (© W. Neubauer)

Bibliography - Auxiliary Camp
M. Kandler (ed.), Das Auxiliarkastell Carnuntum 2. Forschungen seit 1989, SoSchrÖAI 30 (1997).
M. Kandler, Neues zum Carnuntiner Auxiliarkastell, in: N. Gudea (ed.), Proceedings of the XVIIth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies 1997 (1999) 379 ff.
H. Stiglitz (ed.), Das Auxiliarkastell Carnuntum 1, SoSchrÖAI 29 (1997).
M. Kandler, Römische Reitereinheiten und ihr Lager in Carnuntum, in: F. Humer (ed.), Legionslager und Druidenstab - Vom Legionslager zur Donaumetropole. Sonderausstellung Archäologisches Museum Carnuntinum, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg (2006) 261-269.
Bibliography - Prospection
W. Neubauer - A. Eder-Hinterleitner, Resistivity and Magnetics of the Roman Town Carnuntum / Austria: An Example of Combined Interpretation of Prospection Data. Archaeological Prospection 4, 1997, 179 ff.
M. Kandler, Das Forum der Colonia Carnuntum, in: Steine und Wege. Festschrift Dieter Knibbe, SoSchrÖAI 32 (1999) 359 ff.
P. Melichar et al., Kombination archäologisch-geophysikalischer Prospektionsethoden am Beispiel der römischen Zivilstadt Carnuntum, ArchA 82/83, 1998/99, 1-26.
A. Eder-Hinterleitner et al., Das Forum des Municipium Aelium Carnuntum, in: F. Humer (ed.), Legionslager und Druidenstab - Vom Legionslager zur Donaumetropole. Sonderausstellung Archäologisches Museum Carnuntinum, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg (2006) 280-295.

Within the civilian town of Carnuntum, which extended over a total surface area of ca. 80 ha., the 1.4 ha. building complex containing a macellum and baths (the so-called Palace Ruins), located to the north of the Forum, occupied a central position. The central infrastructure of the civilian town of Carnuntum was thereby opened up with the Forum, macellum, and baths. Analogous civic complexes with the sequence of Forum - macellum - baths are also known from Viroconium-Wroxeter and, in similar form, at Aquincum-Budapest.
Archaeological investigations of the baths and of the macellum were primarily carried out during 1939, and in the years 1956-1977, using techniques typical for the period. Extensive excavations took place in 1939, under the direction of E. Swoboda, an employee of the OEAI (at that time, the Vienna Branch of the Archaeological Institute of the German Reich); Swoboda continued the research between 1956-1964 as Professor in Ordinary at the University of Graz (Styria). Between the years 1967-1977, the excavations were continued by H. Stiglitz (OEAI) under contract from the province of Lower Austria. Research interests were transferred elsewhere and resulted not only in the premature conclusion of field work in the region of the so-called Palace Ruins, but also in the absence of detailed interpretation. Since autumn 2004, the analysis of the old excavation finds has taken place in the framework of a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (P17060-G02) at the OEAI, in cooperation with the government of Lower Austria (F. Humer).
The macellum is an asymmetrically conceived building with central court, three prominent structures in this court (including a circular and an octagonal building), an inner portico, and structures resembling tabernae. The building opened to the south via a portico, whereby communication with the forum region was enabled. To the west and east, the building was flanked by two corridors; the western corridor was used as a latrine. Additional extensive rooms were joined on to the corridors; one of these can be identified as a communal meeting room on the basis of a dedicatory inscription naming the collegium fabrum.
The sectors of the baths, lying to the north of the macellum, which have been archaeologically investigated can be divided into three areas: common rooms equipped with heating at the west, an eastern section with hydraulic furnishings, as well as a courtyard surrounded by porticoes at the south. This court is separated from the macellum adjacent to the south by a prominent ridge.
Three main periods of use can be determined for the macellum and for the baths. A destruction at the end of Period 2 is identified in a wide area by a collapse or leveling stratum. The find materials from this level, which are extraordinary in number, indicate a date in the middle decades of the 3rd century A.D.

Of significance for the reconstruction of concepts of urban planning is the probable identification of a step-by-step expansion of the centrally built-up region: from this, it cannot be concluded that the macellum was laid out at the same time as the forum, even less so since both of these adjacent, public building complexes were not made to conform to any axially symmetrical scheme of land parceling which was applied flatly over the civic area. Of further importance for an understanding of urban development is the fact that the need for a bathing establishment of considerable dimensions can be recognized as a relatively late phenomenon.

Picture Captions
Fig. 9: Carnuntum, baths and macellum (Photo OEAI, H. Stiglitz)
Fig. 10: Carnuntum, baths, leveling stratum after the end of Period 2 (Photo OEAI, H. Stiglitz)
Fig. 11: Carnuntum, macellum, Rheinzabern Sigillata of the 3rd c. A.D. (Photo OEAI, E. Pichler)

Contact:
Helga Sedlmayer
Co-worker:
Elisabeth Pichler