The Netherlands: Stretch of Roman road found and remains of nearby Roman village - ca. 125 AD

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Source: Archeologists find Roman road, settlement in Katwijk

Archeologists find Roman road, settlement in Katwijk
By Janene Pieters on September 26, 2018 - 15:50


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Roman construction material with plaster; found in Katwijk, Sept 2018. Photo: Provincie Zuid-Holland

Archeologists discovered around 125 meters of Roman road along Ingenieur G. Tjalmaweg in the municipality of Katwijk. The road was built 2 thousand years ago. A Roman settlement was also found, ANP reports.

The province of Zuid-Holland asked archeologists [to] study the area in preparation for the RijnlandRoute, a new road from Katwijk to the A4 at Leiden.

Vertical oak piles that stood along side the road at the time are still in tact. "The integrity of and completeness of the Roman road are a big surprise", the province of Zuid-Holland said. The road ran near the outer border of the Roman Empire that ran straight through what is now the Netherlands. According to the researchers, the road probably dates from the year 125 AD.

The settlement was also found along Ingenieur G. Tjalmaweg. The village was equipped with canals and a burial ground. Large quantities of pottery, pieces of leather footwear, coins, wooden objects, roof tiles and a fish trap were found. The highlight so far is a piece of building material with plaster and a painting on it.

According to the province, the study of these discoveries is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The excavations will take another few weeks. Work on the RijnlandRoute is scheduled to start in the second half of next year.

Those interested can view the findings during a special public day on October 13th. The municipality will announce further details later this week.


Other sources (in Dutch):
Stuk Romeinse weg van 1900 jaar oud gevonden bij Katwijk
Unieke archeologische vondst in Katwijk: Dit geeft beeld van de bewoningsgeschiedenis'
 
Source: The second cohort was here: Roman marker found near Valkenburg - DutchNews.nl

The second cohort was here: Roman marker found near Valkenburg

July 22, 2019 - By Hanneke Sanou

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Excavations carried out in preparation for work on the Rijnland Route motorway have yielded more treasure in the shape of a wooden pole bearing the Roman inscription COH II CR, Zuid Holland provincial council said [in Dutch] at the weekend.

In September last year a 125 meter stretch of Roman road was uncovered [see post above] and since then archaeologists have extracted 470 wooden poles, none of which were similarly marked.

The excavation site is part of the Roman Limes which is the ancient northern border of the Roman Empire and which has been nominated to become a UNESCO world heritage site in 2021.

The inscription, which dates from around 125 AD, is short for Cohors II Civium Romanorum, and refers to a group of 500 soldiers recruited from Roman civilian ranks who were specialized in carrying out and overseeing building work.

Curator Jasper de Bruin of the RMO archaeological museum in Leiden called the find ‘unique for the Netherlands’. ‘We did not know whether the Roman road was built by soldiers, civilians or perhaps slaves. Now we can conclude that 2,000 years ago the second cohort of Roman civilians built the Roman road near Valkenburg, from which the present-day Rijnland Route takes its course.’

Inspection of the wooden poles shows the systematic way the builders went about their work. Trees of the same width and length were used from purpose-grown woods and ordered and delivered to the building site as a kind of Roman DIY flat pack. They were then driven into the ground with a pile driver.

The construction of the Roman road was carried out with military precision and was without precedent in the Low Countries, De Bruin said.

Although the inscription sheds some light on the history of the construction, some questions remain unanswered. Exactly what the second cohort did and if other cohorts were involved in the building work as well will be looked at as the research continues, the results of which are expected in 2020.
 
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