Rural Landscapes in Noricum: Studying the ancient hinterland of a Roman province

Abstract

Noricum was part of the Roman Empire from 15 BC to 488 AD. On the one hand, specific areas of this province, such as the so-called Danube Limes border zone of present-day Austria with its numerous military sites like watchtowers or camps, have been continuously in the focus of various archaeological investigations. On the other hand, hardly anything is known about the rural settlement (e.g., farmsteads or villages). Thus, the archaeological knowledge of the utmost parts of Noricum's hinterland requires an in-depth, scientific evaluation this applies particularly to the northern area located in the present-day federal state of Lower Austria. Consequently, the Danubian border's archaeological rural hinterland settlement activities of the Roman period's different phases are newly studied to improve the relatively low research state through the PhD-project Roman Rural Landscapes in Noricum by Dominik Hagmann. The project is a critical landscape archaeological study and focuses on the rural component in the study area, which has received little attention for various reasons so far. The project has an inclusive approach. All available archaeological sources (ranging from single coin finds to whole military camps) are taken into account in a well-defined Area of Interest to provide new insights into the rural landscape through basic research. Besides, two known farmsteads ( villaeof Oberndorf a. d. Melk and Petzenkirchen) serve as exemplary case studies for rural sites. Learn more: rrl.univie.ac.at/en/ research / rrln /