Settlement and population structures in Northwest-Pannonia

Abstract

In the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. completely new settlement structures developed in the area of the Vienna Basin. The decisive trigger for this was the Roman occupation of the areas south of the Danube. In the paper a classification of the different forms of settlement based on selected examples will be carried out. The starting point of this overview is Carnuntum, which strongly influenced this border region as a military, civil and administrative centre alongside Vindobona Vienna. In the immediate vicinity of the legionary camp and the Roman city, planning principles and building forms can be found which can be encountered in this or a similar form in many other Roman sites in the north-western provinces. In contrast to this, the rural area shows an appearance with regard to settlement structures that is sometimes characterised by a very high degree of heterogeneity. Roman villas - in the narrower sense of the word - have so far only appeared in very few places, for example in Arbesthal or in Pöttsching-Edelbachäcker. The latter lies in the area of the so-called Wiener Neustädter Pforte, a region that has been particularly intensively researched in recent decades through archaeological prospection and excavations. The spectrum of settlement forms here includes Roman villas, country estates, village structures and other small settlements in a very compact area, which show a very strong regional influence. The Leithatal is undoubtedly also a special region, where the evidence for Celtic and Germanic population groups is particularly concentrated in the surroundings of the Leithagebirge. Special village structures with post buildings and pit houses, which find parallels in the entire Pannonian area and were called vici due to inscriptions, were also established here. These apparently regionally specific forms of settlement are not only characteristic of remote areas far inland, but are also found in the immediate vicinity of ancient central towns and forts, as the examples from the surroundings of Vindobona, Carnuntum and Gerulata-Rusovce show.