Gjergj Frasheri, Archaeological studies at the Waidmarkt in Cologne. Report on the archaeological work during the construction of the North-South urban rail line, 2004-2006 (Rahden/Westf. 2009).
ISBN 978-3-89646-044-8
Publisher: Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH
Language: German with English summary
Short Summary:
From 2004 until 2006 intensive archaeological studies were conducted at Waidmarkt in Köln during the construction of the Nord-Süd-Stadtbahn Köln by the company Stadt- und Landschaftsarchäologie (SuLA) under the project management of G. Frasheri. The site is located in the south of the Waidmarkt, between the parish Church St. Georg, the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium and the Historisches Archiv. In the course of the building project a 915 m² large and 29 m deep construction pit was excavated, added by an approx. 1.500 m² large area for the pit lining along as well as for the pipeline rerouting outside of the main building pit.
In Roman time the examined area was located about 200 m outside of the walled urban area of the CCAA, in the area of the southern suburbia. There the street towards Bonn passes, starting at the former city gate at Hohe Straße/Hohe Pforte beneath the modern Severin- und Bonner Straße. Throughout the entire length of the excavation area six East-west aligned, superposed occupation layers of the Roman highway from the the 1st to the 4th century A.D. and a seventh gravel surface with a late-Roman to early mediaeval dating could have been determined. Another west-east passing Roman road had been detected, which ran perpendicular to the street, in the north-western part of the excavation area.
Along the Roman streets a two-phase Roman building with portico and remains from small, occasionally high-quality private houses with tegula-channels, numerous settlement pits and the basement of a public water basin were excavated. The Roman buildings as well as the specific layers of the roads proved a multiple, intense rising of the terrain along with modifications and reconstructions from the 1st to the 4th century A.D.
The western part of the excavation extended to the territory of the mediaeval Karmeliterkloster. Sections of its eastern enclosing wall, foundations and basements of adjoining buildings as well as pier foundations and sections of the foundation of the Karmeliterkirche have been excavated. North to the enclosing wall of the monastery adjoined the area of the Waidmarkt, which existed according to historical sources at least since the 13th century. Several pavement layers documented during the excavation turned up clear evidence concerning origin and development of the market as well as the adjacent street in the south. Besides a north-south arranged, up to 2,6 m wide sewer 124 of the 19th century in the eastern area of the main excavation pit, the pier foundations of the so called ‘Preußische Wache’ - one of three guardhouses, which were established by the Prussian military administrations at Cologne in the years 1840/41 - were documented .