Roman battlefield found deep inside Germany

[Robert Vermaat]

Roman objects in Illerup and other bogs were the minority among Germanic objects.
Is that so? Why does the chief archaeologist for Illerup make a different statement, then? Have you read the article? :wink:

Yes I've read the article, but I've not come across any such statement. The author discusses 'only' Illerup Area A and Vimose 3, and mentions that from both sites (not just a and 3), c. 18500 objects were discovered. He does not even mention the objects found in the other bog sites. Nowhere do I come across any statement that most of the objects found in the Northern bogs were for the most part of Roman origin. To the contrary, on page 4 he states that “Roman objects occur in Barbaricum since the start of the 1st century occasionally, are not out of the ordinary” (Römische Waffen im Barbaricum gehören seit der Zeit um Christi Geburt zu seltenen, keineswegs aber ungewöhnlichen Funden).

Additionally:
From 180 onwards larger amounts of Germanic warriors were fighting for the Roman empire. When they returned they certainly would have had Roman weapons with them as well.

Of course, many ‘Roman’ objects will have been in the possession of non-Romans through service, trade, whatever. But this is not a deposit site but a battlefield. And to assume that two Germanic armies leave more Roman than Germanic objects behind (which is, as I assume, the current view so far) would be a bit odd.

I mean, before we start reasoning away any Roman presence because it does not fit our current models of expectation.....

I didn´t do that. But as far as the archaeological evidence goes: To say in this case Romans were present is as valid as saying Romans were not present.

Nope, you did not, never said so, but I was warning against the possibility that it could occur. In my opinion, if you have a site with more Roman objects than Germanic, the most logical assumption would imho not be that all the Roman objects had been imported.