Archaeologists excavating the Roman fort of Kapersburg in Germany have uncovered a remarkably well-preserved settlement just centimetres beneath the forest floor, including a temple dedicated to Mars, votive stones and evidence that the site may have remained in use after the Roman frontier collapsed.
The discoveries are providing new insights into everyday life, religion and industry on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire nearly 1,800 years ago.
Since 2024, archaeologists from Hessen Archaeology and Frankfurt University have been investigating the vicus — the civilian settlement that developed alongside the Roman fort of Kapersburg in the eastern Taunus Mountains.
While the fort itself has been studied for more than a century, much less has been known about the community that lived and worked outside its walls.
Protected by woodland and largely untouched by centuries of agriculture, buildings, roads and occupation layers have survived extraordinarily close to the modern surface.
“Here we have layers of preservation that are unparalleled in Hesse, precisely because no agriculture has taken place here,” said Dr Kai Mückenberger, district archaeologist and Limes coordinator.
“The forest has preserved everything over the last centuries, maintaining it for us to such an extent that we find layers that are otherwise always gone.”
Temple dedicated to Mars discovered
Among the most significant discoveries from the latest excavation campaign is a Roman temple in the settlement, believed to have been dedicated to Mars, the Roman god of war.
Archaeologists uncovered structural remains of the sanctuary together with two votive stones, a statuette of Victoria — the Roman goddess of victory — and fragments of another statue thought to represent Mars himself.
The inscriptions on the newly discovered stones are being studied in collaboration with Professor Markus Scholz of Frankfurt University.
The discovery follows the recovery of another Roman votive stone during the previous excavation campaign, adding to evidence that religious activity formed an important part of life in the settlement.
For soldiers and civilians living at the edge of the Roman Empire, such sanctuaries would have provided places to make offerings and seek divine protection.
Evidence of life after Rome
Perhaps even more significant for the history of Kapersburg are objects recovered from the temple area that appear to date from after the traditional end of Roman occupation.
A late antique fibula, or brooch, and fragments of handmade pottery could represent the first archaeological evidence that people continued using the site after the abandonment of the Roman Limes in the third century.
The finds may be associated with Alamannic groups who later settled in the Wetterau region.
If confirmed by further investigation, the evidence could complicate the established chronology of Kapersburg, which traditionally places the end of the Roman military presence around the middle of the third century during the so-called “Fall of the Limes”.
Further excavation will be needed to establish who was using the former Roman settlement and for how long.
A working settlement on Rome’s frontier
The excavations are also revealing how the community developed during the Roman period.
Archaeologists have uncovered extensive evidence of craft production, including the remains of a forge. Layers of deliberately deposited material indicate that parts of the settlement were subsequently levelled and reorganised, with residential buildings constructed over earlier working areas.
Traces of Roman roads and artificial terraces are helping researchers reconstruct the size and layout of the settlement.
Together, the discoveries suggest a community considerably more complex than a simple collection of buildings serving the neighbouring military garrison.
Kapersburg was one of the forts protecting the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the fortified frontier that once separated Roman-controlled territory from lands beyond the empire.
For roughly 150 years, the fort housed a Roman auxiliary unit known as the Numerus Nidensium. Its name indicates an association with Nida, the Roman settlement at present-day Frankfurt-Heddernheim.
Roman forces abandoned the frontier during the upheavals of the third century, and Kapersburg was among the military installations that ceased functioning as part of the established Limes system.
A site preserved by the forest
Kapersburg is regarded as one of the best-preserved Roman forts along the Limes in Hesse.
Its unusual state of preservation is partly the result of its location in the wooded foothills of the Taunus. Unlike many Roman settlements elsewhere in Europe, the area was not repeatedly disturbed by intensive ploughing.
That has left archaeological deposits in some places only centimetres beneath the forest floor.
Early excavations of the fort were carried out more than 125 years ago by Louis Jacobi and the Imperial Limes Commission. Those investigations concentrated primarily on the military installation itself, however, leaving much of the surrounding settlement unexplored.
The latest project is shifting attention to the people who lived beyond the fort walls and to the economic and religious life that developed around the garrison.
Mückenberger and his team hope to return with students from Frankfurt University for another excavation campaign next year.
More than two decades after the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the discoveries at Kapersburg demonstrate that substantial parts of its history remain beneath the surface — in this case, sometimes only a few centimetres beneath it.
Sources : Hessen Denkmal
