Viae vitae: streets in the civil city of Carnuntum
By Nisa Iduna Kirchengast - Editors: Daniel Kunc, Thomas Mauerhofer
Today, modern shopping streets are not only places of commerce, but also social centers of urban life - a concept that was already realized over 2000 years ago in the streets of the Roman Empire. There, the main traffic arteries were not only used for trade, but also shaped the social and cultural life of the cities. Juvenal (3.232-238), for example, reports on how crowded the streets and alleyways of a Roman city could be:
ferit hie cubito, ferit assere duro alter, at hie tignum capiti incutit, ille metretam. pinguia crura luto, planta mox undique magna calcor et in digito clavus mihi militis haeret. [...]
“One pushes me with his elbow, another pushes me with a hard bar, this one hits me on the head with a beam, that one with a barrel. My legs are thickly covered with dirt, I am stepped on with big soles from everywhere, and a soldier's hobnailed boot sticks to my toe. [...]”
Bird's eye view of the Roman quarter with the North Street in the foreground and the South Street in the background - © Römerstadt Carnuntum (Photo: T. Mauerhofer)
The civil city of Carnuntum, whose street structure was characterized by both main roads and side streets, provides a vivid example. The Limes road ran from the west between the forum baths (“palace ruins”) and the forum to the east, in the direction of the legionary camp. South of today's Petronell Castle, it also crossed the area that we now know as the reconstructed district of the Roman town. The Decumanus Maximus (east-west running main road or axis) was supplemented by the Cardo Maximus (east-west running main road), which led east of the Forumstherme to the south and merged into the “Bernsteinstraße” near today's Bruck an der Leitha. In addition to these main roads, there were other traffic routes, today referred to as “Nordstraße”, “Südstraße” or “Weststraße” for the sake of simplicity.
Today's “South Street” in the Roman Quarter (easy to remember: The Danube lies to the north of Carnuntum, so Südstraße is the street furthest away from the Danube) stretches over 120 meters. The house of Lucius and the house of the oil merchant, for example, are situated on a raised terrace. The limestone paving was damaged by stone theft. The former building stones have therefore been used since the Middle Ages in the Hainburg city wall, for example, or in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.
Kerbstones marked the edges of the sidewalk and a 3 meter high terrace wall supported the street. Five construction phases are documented, with stone paving being used for the first time in the 3rd century. At 7.5 meters, Nordstraße is the widest street in the Roman quarter. Traces of cart traffic are visible along its exposed length. It was lined with porticoes (“porticoes”), which can be admired again today. A brick-built main canal ran under the Nordstraße to regulate the city's drainage.
A recent photo of the Südstraße, where the stone robbery is clearly visible - © Römerstadt Carnuntum (Photo: T. Mauerhofer)
Beneath the pavement of Carnuntum: the “Weststraße” project
Over the last few decades, numerous investigations have been carried out into the streets and sewers in the civil town of Carnuntum. As part of the “Weststraße” project, archaeological excavations were also carried out on the Weststraße, which runs alongside the thermal baths, following investigations on the Nordstraße (1989-2002) and Südstraße (1999-2004) in the civil city of Carnuntum.
The most recent excavations began with an interdisciplinary evaluation involving several archaeological and scientific disciplines. The excavations from 2002 to 2003 on the Weststraße uncovered a multi-phase road structure with a sophisticated hydraulic engineering infrastructure. The first gravel road was built towards the end of the 1st or beginning of the 2nd century. A few decades later, a new gravel road with a fresh water and sewage system was built, before the road was considerably extended and rebuilt at the end of the 2nd century, when a new sewage system was also built. The sewage system was then decommissioned in the last decades of the 3rd century.
The excavations along the Weststraße 2003. - © G.K. Kunst
The analyses of the canal system provide valuable insights into the consumption and disposal behavior of the inhabitants. Finds such as roundworm eggs, urine stone deposits, animal bones and plant remains may not be what we generally think of as archaeological treasures. However, modern methods can be used to draw enormous conclusions about the diet, health situation, hygiene standards and much more of that time, and archaeology today is often more than just a shiny vessel.
Ancient authors also described waste disposal in large cities in such a way that canals were often used for waste disposal. And the layers in the Weststrasse canal prove that it served as a waste sink. The investigations illustrate how essential the sewer system was for the infrastructure of large Roman cities and how it contributed to the high standard of living of the city's inhabitants. The finds in Carnuntum show that the streets and their underground canals were not only transportation routes, but also a reflection of urban life.
The Weststrasse, along the thermal baths, as it can be seen today. - Römerstadt Carnuntum (Photo: T. Mauerhofer)
Further reading:
G. K. Kunst – S. Radbauer, Interdisziplinäre Forschungen in der Zivilstadt von Carnuntum. Grabungs- und Aufarbeitungsprojekt Weststraße, in: M. Meyer – V. Gassner (Hrsg.), Standortbestimmung. Akten des 12. Österreichischen Archäologentages, Wiener Forschungen zur Archäologie 13 (Wien 2010) 281–295.