LOT 0549

Roman 'Vechten Fort' Terracotta Sherd Collection

1ST-4TH CENTURY A.D.

1/4 - 3 in. (586 grams total, 7-74 mm).

Comprising a large quantity of pottery and red-ware sherds from large and small vessels, including an amphora neck and part of a handle. [78, No Reserve]

Found near Vechten, Netherlands.
Netherlands private collection.
Acquired from a private collector in 2009.
Property of a Nottinghamshire gentleman.

Accompanied by a typed information sheet.

Cf. Van Diepen, L., and Niemeijer, R., ‘Die Terra Sigillata aus Forum Hadriani – Arentsburg, Die Funde der Grabung 2005’ in Müller, M., Terra Sigillata in den germanischen Provinzen, Xantener Berichte, Band 20, Mainz, 2011, pp.163-220, pp. 202ff., for similar terra sigillata.

Fectio, modern Vechten, was a fort in the limes, the frontier zone of the Roman Empire, situated at the site of the bifurcation of the rovers Rhine and Vecht. Numismatic evidence suggests that it was founded by the Roman general Tiberius (the future emperor) during the 4/5th campaigns. It probably served as a military base during punitive raids. Around the middle of the 2nd century AD, the wood and earth fort was replaced by a stone fortification and occupied by the Ala I Thracum, who had previously been stationed in Britain. At the end of the 2nd/beginning of the 3rd century, the silting up of the Rhine’s arm on which Fectio lays had progressed to such an extent that access from the river was no longer possible. In the more than two and a half centuries of its existence, the camp was destroyed and rebuilt several times until the fort site was finally abandoned - as evidenced by archaeological traces of fire after a final destruction in 270/275 A.D.