Archäologische Prospektion und Ausgrabungen in der Flur Gstettenbreite: Gräber und Straßenverläufe im westlichen Vorfeld der Carnuntiner Zivilstadt

Abstract

This contribution presents a number of graves, pits and ditches from the western suburbium of the civil- ian town of Carnuntum (municipium Aelium / colonia Septimia), which were discovered in the Gstetten- breite field in the course of excavations in 1985 and 2017. Most of these features date from the second half of the 2nd century. With the help of large-scale geophysical surveys, it was possible to reconstruct the topographical setting of these features very accurate- ly. Most of the graves – among them two remarkable sarcophagus burials – were not located along the so-called Limes road, but south of it on a second, apparently older main road leading west from the pre-municipal settlement. The end of the occupation of the necropolis falls into the period between c. 180 and 210/220, probably caused by the construction of the city wall, which blocked the road. This would be the first time that archaeological finds were made in Carnuntum which would prove that the city wall was built in the early Severian period.