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Roman cavalry helmets in ritual hoards from the Kops Plateau at Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Roman cavalry helmets in ritual hoards from the Kops Plateau at Nijmegen, The NetherlandsRoman cavalry helmets in ritual hoards from the Kops Plateau at Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Harry van Enckevort and Willem J. H. Willems

Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies: Vol. 5 (1994)

Abstract

The town of Nijmegen is situated at the transition from the holocene river delta to the pleistocene valleys of the Rhine and Meuse. Especially the town’s strategic location on the high ice-pushed ridge overlooking the river area and the easy connections to the south have contributed to the importance of this location, which can be traced back to the Neolithic.



From a Roman point of view, Nijmegen will originally have been of supra-regional military and political significance. However, from the second quarter of the 1st century onwards, until well into the 5th century, its role was more limited to controlling the river delta. At the same time, Nijmegen was the administrative and economic centre of the Batavian civitas in the province of Germania Inferior/Germania Secundo.

Shortly before 12 BC, the Roman army built a legionary camp on the Hunerberg, a plateau which is part of the ice-pushed ridge between Nijmegen and Kleve. The camp measures 42 ha which is sufficient to accomodate a force the size of two legions. Some of these troops, which were housed in wooden barracks, may have been quartermasters, charged with preparations for the campaigns into Germany under Drusus, between 12 and 9 BC.

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