Roman battlefield found deep inside Germany

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Christian,

Summary in English:

Roman swords and Roman sword sheath accoutrements are to be found particularly often in these complexes In this context, they represent weapons of high technical value which were absolutely necessary as the basic equipment of a unit effective in combat. The Teutonic principes must have been to a high degree dependent on the import of these weapons.

Again, no contest about imported weapons, but beside my point. My point was and is: if the battlefield site now under discussion indeed shows much more Roman items that Germanic ones, that it’s not logical to explain this number of Roman artefacts as imported or otherwise acquired Roman goods. Like I said earlier: if the Roman items outweigh the Germanic items (as seems to be the case here) it would go against scientific principles to assume, contrary to evidence, that the items were from a Germanic army regardless.

Yes, Germanic warriors fought with Roman weapons and wore Roman armour, belts and brooches. But I’m not for discarding all known principles and assume (mostly due to the unexpected geographical location) that a Germanic army would carry so many Roman items that they outweigh Germanic items on that battlefield. That (as far as I know) is not the common thing on Germanic sites and therefore sounds too much like special pleading to me.

So the question to be asked should (I think) this: why are there so few Germanic finds on the battlefield? I’ve argued that the current scale of Roman finds could (not must) be explained by a Roman army unable to remain longer in the area, and a vanquished Germanic army unable to do anything but disperse. But if both armies had been Germanic, why would the victors have left the battlefield in this state?