Research in the military camps and the Vicus of Strebersdorf -Frankenau (Burgenland) on the Amber Route

Within the framework of the Amber Road Project, begun in 2007, it was possible to record three new military camps situated directly on the Amber Road near Strebersdorf and Frankenau, and a larger settlement (Vicus). The goal of this project is the investigation of the size, extent and structural organisation of this archaeological landscape by means of surveys and geophysical measurements. In addition, the chronological dimension of the location and the economic foundations of the inhabitants should be demonstrated by means of targeted, small-scale excavations.

The geophysical measurements during 2007 – 2009 extended over an area of 21 ha. A sensational event was the discovery of three wood-earth camps on the Amber Road. The initial excavations and analyses of the distribution of coins resulted in a date for the oldest camp in the late Augustan-Tiberian period. Finds indicate the presence of a cavalry unit, probably the Ala Pannoniorum. In the surroundings of the camp numerous rows of ovens for the industrial processing of local bog iron ore are recognisable. To the west and south of the military camp spreads out an extensive Vicus, ca. 10 ha. in size. The survey data give evidence of a strip-form parcelling alongside the Amber Road. Individual strip houses are over 50 m. long; in the central area of the settlement, there was a bridge over the Stooberbach during the Roman period.
Preliminary excavation results (2008 and 2009) confirm the measurement data of the geophysical investigations and indicate a military presence at the site from the early 1st c. A.D., and a settlement in the Vicus from the second half of the 1st c. until the 4th c. A.D.

Literatur:
St. Groh, Neue Forschungen an der Bernsteinstraße in Nordwestpannonien. Die römischen Militärlager von Strebersdorf und der Vicus von Strebersdorf-Frankenau/Frakanava (Mittelburgenland), AÖ 20/2, 2009, 59–64.:
St. Groh, Neue Forschungen an der Bernsteinstraße in Nordwestpannonien - Die römischen Militärlager und der Vicus von Strebersdorf und Frankenau/Frakanava (Mittelburgenland, Österreich), in: Sz. Biró (Hrsg.), Ex officina...Studia in honorem Dénes Gabler (Győr 2009) 175–188.