ROERMOND
Limburg, Netherlands.
Site at
the confluence of the Meuse and the Roer, which in
Roman times was perhaps 1 km NW of the present one.
Dredging for gravel in the old riverbed has brought to
light many sandstone and tufa fragments of columns, and
other architectural remains of at least two buildings. All
were dredged up from a depth of ca. 13 m; nothing was
found in situ, as the shifting of the river had destroyed
the buildings. One of them must have been a temple,
probably of Romano-Celtic type and dedicated to the
goddess Rura, the personification of the Roer; an altar
was dredged up near the other remains which bears the
dedication RVRAE. The altar is made of sandstone from
Nievelstein in Germany, and dates from ca. A.D. 200; the
temple may be 2d c. The altar and other finds are in the
municipal museum of Roermond.
Few Roman objects have been found in Roermond itself, only some graves and stray finds of pottery and
coins. But on the W bank of the Meuse, at Haelen-Melenborg, are the remains of what may have been a
Roman statio perhaps a statio beneficiarii consularis. Excavations have revealed the foundations of two buildings,
the largest perhaps a bath or a villa. Pottery found here
dates from the last quarter of the 1st c. to well into the
3d. A tile with the stamp of Legio X, LXGPF, suggests
military occupation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. W. Byvanck,
Excerpta Romana III
(1947) 53-54 (Roermond, Maasniel), 62 (Haehen); J. E.
Bogaers, “Ruraemundensia,”
Ber. Rijksdienst Oud. Bod.
12-13 (1962-63) 57-68
MI (French summary); id.,
Niewsbull. Kon. Ned. Oud. Bond (1964) 33, 69, 134-35;
(1965) 74-76.
B. H. STOLTE
