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( limitatio). [German version] I. Etruscan prerequisites To the Etruscans, the definition of real and symbolic space by drawing boundaries ( limites; Varro in Frontin. De agri mensura p. 27 L.) was a prerequisite for the correct interpretation ( Divination) and placement (foundation of cities) of signs: the interpretation of heavenly signs was based on their arrangement in sections of the co-ordinate axes which divide the heavens; the axes are spatially fixed by alignment to the co-ordinates (orientation). Ritual fo…

[German version] [1] Late Antique type of fort Late Antique type of fort. The high defensive wall, generally on a square ground plan with sides measuring between 15 and 40 m, was protected on the outside by square or rectangular corner and intermediate towers. Troop casements abutted inside. The inner courtyard contained a subterranean cistern. Fortifications [III B]; Limes Kuhnen, Hans-Peter (Trier) Bibliography S. Johnson, Late Roman Fortifications, 1983, 27, 253 ff. [German version] [2] Settlement, probable find site on the hill of Qualburg (lower Rhine) Settlement, probably t…

Clemens, Lukas [German version] I. Post Antiquity (CT) Clemens, Lukas [German version] A. History (CT) After the loss of its function as a (Roman) Imperial residence and the removal of the praetorian prefecture to Arles, Trier (T.) was under permanent military threat. It has been established that the city was taken four times by Frankish (and Burgundian) forces, and retaken each time, all in the first half of the 5th cent. alone. The city also seems to have been affected by the Hunnish expedition into Gaul in …

[German version] By SC the historical study of settlement understands uninterrupted continuation of a society of settlers for any longer period of time in one place, preferably across epoch boundaries. SC arises a) when one society of settlers adheres to its residential and economic space, or b) when a particular place of settlement is visited by societies of settlers continuously over quite a long period. Corresponding to the modern understanding of the term 'settlement' as a unit of residential and economic area, today the ter…

[German version] Form of settlement is a term used by archaeobotanists, geographers, historians and archaeologists studying the connexions between residential and economic areas [1. 14 f.] that result from the choice of location of settlement, use of land, and forms of cultivation and production, in short, from the totality of human activities in terms of space, at a particular topographical position. Since the Neolithic Revolution, forms of settlement had been subject to a process of differentiat…

[German version] I. General In the religious and administrative theory of the land surveyors, the Latin word limes denoted the path marking the boundary between two pieces of land, while in military and political usage (Tac. Ann. 1,50; Frontin. Str. 1,3,10) it meant the border between Roman and non-Roman territory (SHA Hadr. 12). Over recent years, research has led the military connotation of the term limes, which has been used almost exclusively from the 19th cent., to be expanded to comprehend also the historico-geographical and socio-economic fields. Where the limites were origin…

[German version] ( Saraceni, Amm.  Marc. 14,4,1; Arraceni, Plin. HN 6,32; Σαρακηνοί/ Sarakēnoí, Zos. 4,22; 'Saracens'). Grand federation of Arab Beduin tribes, e.g. the Safaites and the Thamudeni. Because of their deployment of highly mobile camel units, from the 4th cent. AD onwards they were Rome's main opponent on the Limes Arabiae (Limes VII.). The first significant ruling personality was Imru al-Qais (died c. 330), and then the legendary queen Mavia (died c. 380). Arabs; Saraca [2] Kuhnen, Hans-Peter (Trier) Bibliography D. F. Graf, The Saracens and the Defence of th…