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The Latin name of the settlement is not known but, around 150/60 AD, after the withdrawal of the military, the town became the capital of a civitas, whose name is only incompletely known as: civitas Alisin... (=Alisinensium ?). Little is known about the city's structure and development beyond the construction of its defences.
The Roman fort was built around 90 AD at the earliest. Its site has been identified but, thanks to the modern buildings, nothing is known about its internal structures. Timber buildings are known from the military vicus, and brick stamps and gravestones testify to the presence of several different military units.
The few Roman streets known argue against an orthogonal grid, but the main axis appears to have been the road leading towards the bridge over the Neckar and Jagst. The 1.9 km long city wall with turrets and crenellations enclosed an area of c.19 ha. It was 2m wide, with a fronting ditch and its construction dates to the late 2nd and early 3rd century AD.
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Plan of Roman Bad Wimpfen |
Reconstruction of the Roman city wall |
Bad Wimpfen's public buildings have not yet been sufficiently studied. Several bits of walling with hypocausts, to the south of the former fort area, can be linked to a rectangular building, at least 20m long. In the eastern part of the town, a long rectangular building contained fragments of statues of thirty deities and may have been a sanctuary maintained by an association.
In the eastern part of the settlement (KrautgÃĪrtle) strip buildings have been excavated on sixteen, 8 - 12m wide building plots. These plots were originally up to 65m long, but were later shortened to 50m, when the city wall was built. During a timber phase, which lasted until 160/70 AD, each plot contained a single building but, in the later stone period some of the plots were joined together. The houses were 20-30m long and the back yards housed craft activities, for example (during the timber period) pottery workshops. One building contained the religious statuary mentioned above.
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General plan of the residential buildings in the eastern
part of the settlement. Partially reconstructed timber phase (before 160/70
AD) |
Plan of the residential buildings in the eastern part
of the settlement. Stone phase (after 160/170 AD) |
More residential and commercial buildings have been found in the south-western
corner of the city wall. To the north of the road, strip buildings were encountered
whilst, to the south, lay commercial properties, oriented with their long sides
on to the road. All of these buildings stone built with the exception of a single
timber-framed structure.
Plan of stone
buildings in south-western part of the settlement
Harbour
The harbour is assumed to have been located near the Jagst/Neckar confluence.
Museum
Roman finds from Bad Wimpfen can be seen in the Museum im Steinhaus.
Text: Thomas Schmidts
Das römische Wimpfen. Ergebnisse der arch. Ausgrabungen von 1983-1987. Regia Wimpina 5 (Bad Wimpfen 1988).
M. N. Filgis, Holzfachwerkbauten im Kastelvicus von Wimpfen, Neckar-Odenwaldlimes: Topographie, Siedlungsstruktur, Nutzungszonen, Grundrisstypen sowie belegbare Nutzungen. In: Limes XVIII. Proceedings of the XVIIIth Congress of Roman Frontier Studies. British Archaeological Reports International Series 1084 (Oxford, Archaeopress 2002) 395-402.
M. N. Filgis, Umnutzung eines luxuriös ausgestatteten Streifenhauses für die Verarbeitung landwirtschaftlicher Produkte im Vicus von Wimpfen. In: Roman frontier studies 1995. Proceedings of the XVIth Congress of Roman Frontier Studies. Oxbow Monograph 91 (Oxford 1997) 205-213.
M. N. Filgis, Ausgewählte Baubefunde des Handwerks und Gewerbes im römischen Vicus von Wimpfen. In: The impact of Rome on Settlement in the Northwestern and Danube Provinces. British Archaeological Reports International Series 921 (Oxford 2001) 19-36.
M. N. Filgis, Baubefunde von Metallhandwerkern und Kalkbrennern im römischen Wimpfen, Kr. Heilbronn. - in: Bautechnik der Antike (Mainz 1991) 47-52.
M. N. Filgis in: Bad Wimpfen I. Forschungen und Berichte zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte in Baden- Württemberg 39 (Stuttgart 1991) 9-25.
M. N. Filgis, Stadt oder Dorf? Zwei römische Siedlungen im Neckarraum. In: Stadt und Umland. Neue Ergebnisse der archäologischen Bau- und Siedlungsforschung (Mainz 1999) 50-62.
M. Pietsch in: Die Römer in Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart3 1988).
Reports on the excavations in Bad Wimpfen:
Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg 1983, 141-148; 1984,
116- 126; 1985, 139- 146; 1986, 125-132; 1987, 117-120.