For two millennia, he lay untouched in the ground, in the deepening of what had been his grave, untouched since his burial. Only an earth-moving machine and an attentive worker, whose gaze was drawn by the presence of a shiny object in the upside-down earth, discovered the grave of a high-ranking German dignitary, dating from the second half of the 1st century AD. NS. In Uherský Brod (South-East Moravia), near the Slovak border.
This is a particularly rare find, according to the archaeologists in charge of the excavation, and should tell them more about this region at the foot of the White Carpathians.
"This discovery should be placed in its historical context. Dating dates back to Roman times, but it should be remembered that at that time the Czech and Moravian territories, that is, the territory of the modern Czech Republic, were located in an area called Barbaricum, that is, outside the Roman Empire."
Tomáš Hrastek is Director of the Department of Archeology and History of the Museum of Moravian Slovakia in Uherske Hradiste, in the eastern part of the Czech Republic, near the Slovak border. He is one of the archaeologists who excavated the burial found in Uherský Brod:
-This is the burial place of a local lord of German origin. He is not a Roman, as it has been said here and there in some of the articles. When we talk about Roman times, this does not automatically mean that there was a Roman presence on our territory. There were indeed parts of the Roman army on our territory, but that was much later: precisely during the Marcomanian wars, which took place in the second half of the 2nd century. This is evidenced by archaeological finds. But as for our discovery in Uherský Brod, we are a century earlier and the situation in this part of Moravia was different then."
Around 20 AD, a kingdom was formed between the Morava River and the Vach, a tributary of the Danube, an area that lies in the territory of modern Moravia, Slovakia and Lower Austria. Tacitus in his chronicles mentions the birth of what is considered the first political entity in the region. It was headed until 50 by a certain Vannius, a leader from the Germanic tribe of Quad, who was directly enthroned by Rome.
After his deposition and exile, the kingdom disintegrated, but the various centers of power in the region remained in their places. As Thomas Chestek notes, recent archaeological research suggests that one of these centers may have been located just east of the Morava River. In the area where the remains of a high-ranking German dignitary were recently discovered.
If you look at this period in more detail, and in light of this recent discovery, a number of things deserve attention. On the one hand, if the famous lime really existed, then these natural or artificial borders of the Roman Empire were open, and contact existed on both sides. This is evidenced primarily by the "Roman" creation of the Vanni kingdom, as well as by the presence of many Roman objects found in the burial of the Uhersky ford.
- Obviously, we have no direct evidence of the presence of Roman citizens in this region. But at that time, many imported items circulated and thus found their way to us. Vanius's kingdom collapsed in 50, but the existing centers of power continued to function. And from written sources we know that the German armed forces fought side by side with the Emperor Vespasian near Cremona at the Battle of Bedriacum in 69. Therefore, it can be assumed that these soldiers were paid with goods from the Roman provinces.