SARAVUS
(Saarbrücken) Saarland, Germany.
A Roman settlement founded early in the 1st c. A.D.
at the Saar crossing of the Metz-Worms road. There, in
the angle of the Halberg and the river, developed a considerable settlement of craftsmen and merchants. Within
the town the Trier-Strassburg road intersected the Worms
road. A characteristic middle-class house contained three
adjacent rooms with hypocaust, cellar, and deep well.
The eaves ran parallel to the road. Parts of a larger
villa urbana were discovered near the banks of the Saar.
A wooden bridge nearby had been replaced by one
built of stone. Drinking water was brought in through
an impressive rock tunnel. A well-executed stone statue
of Mercury was found in a cult place outside the settlement; inside, the torso of a Jupiter was found. During
Late Imperial times a natural cave in the side of the
Halberg was enlarged for the Mithras cult.
Extensive fire damage followed a raid by Germanic
tribes, probably at the end of the 3d c. A.D.; the houses
were rebuilt. In a second raid ca. 350 the villa was destroyed. In that area a small castellum with a polygonal
ground plan (77 x 93 m) was built as part of the reorganization under Valentinianus. The land side had four
round towers. Within the settlement and on the outskirts
necropoleis contained graves with both inhumations
and cremations. From the late period date ceramics of
the Mayen type and a coin of Honorius (392-395). The
construction of the aqueduct is of special interest.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Klein, “Die Ausgrabungen und
Funde in der Heidenkapelle auf dem Halberg bei Saarbrücken,”
Bericht des Konservators der geschichtl. Denkmäler im Saargebiet 1 (1923) 13-20; id., “Ein spätrömisches Kastell bei Saarbrücken,”
Germania 9 (1925) 58-62; A. Kolling, “Funde und Untersuchungen im Vicus
Saarbrücken,”
Germania 39 (1961) 480-83; id., “Der
Name des römischen Saarbrücken,”
Bericht der Staatl.
Denkmalpflege im Saarland 12 (1965) 61-65; R. Schindler, “Neues vom Römerkastell und Vicus Saarbrücken,”
Bericht der staatl. Denkmalpflege im Saarland 9 (1962)
12-22; D. Kienast,
Die Fundmünzen der römischen Zeit
in Deutschland, III: Saarland (1962) no. 1087; J. Keller,
Der römische Wasserleitungsstollen am Halberg bei
Saarbrücken, ibid., 67-77.
A. KOLLING
