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RUMST Belgium.

A Gallo-Roman vicus on the Bavai-Asse-Antwerp-Utrecht road, where it crosses the junction of the Nèthe and the Dyle rivers. It was on the boundary between the civitas Nerviorum and the civitas Tungrorum, which became the boundary between Belgica Secunda and Germania Inferior during the Late Empire. Numerous isolated finds have been made there and some fairly unsystematic excavations were undertaken in 1863, 1873, and 1930. The location of the center was identified in the locality of Molenveld (where many potsherds, coins, large quantities of tegulae, pieces of painted plaster, and traces of an ironworks, etc., were found). The necropolis, situated in the vicinity of Kattenberg, was destroyed by brickmaking operations before it could be excavated. Tiles stamped CGPF (Classis Gerinania Pia Fidelis) suggest that part of the fleet of Germania Inferior was stationed at Rumst. This is understandable since the Nèthe and the Dyle, after their junction, form the Rupel, a large tributary of the Scheldt. From Rumst it would have been easy to watch the whole region of the estuaries of the Scheldt, the Meuse, and the Rhine. The most remarkable of the stray finds was a bronze votive hand, of the cult of Sabazios. This vestige of an oriental cult may perhaps be related to the presence at Rumst of sailors of the fleet.

We have almost no precise information about the history of the vicus. It seems to have replaced an Iron Age settlement, of which some remains have been found, notably huts at the localities of Holbeekstraat and Bussestraat. In contrast, the vicus apparently was no longer occupied during the Late Empire.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

M. Bauwens-Lesenne, Bibliografisch repertorium des oudheidkundige vondsten in de provincie Antwerpen (1965) 150-55.

S. J. DE LAET

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