To the north of Cham, at the north end of the Zugersee, buildings belonging to a villa were found on two locations: near the Heiligkreuz Convent and to the west of Hagendorn. In antiquity the shore of the lake must have coincided more or less with the main road to the south-east of the convent.
The two locations on Google Maps, Hagendorn and Heiligkreuz.The remains near the convent were identified in 1933 through Roman tiles, and a first excavation began. The results could not be published due to a serious illness of the leader. Sixty years later the archives were studied and it could be established that economy buildings had been found. Fragments of a hypocaust and window panes suggest that the main house was not far away. The precise location remains unknown, even after geophysical prospection in the years 2016-2018.
Aerial view of the location Heiligkreuz. Photo: Reinhard-Rinne-Huber 2018, Abb. 5.
1, 2: traces that became visible through snow; red dots: metal detector findspots; bottom right: plan of the 1933-1935 excavations.The remains at Hagendorn are not very far away, and are therefore regarded as part of the same villa. Excavations took place in 1944-1945 and 2003-2004. Remains of a watermill for grain, a smithy and a shrine were encountered in what was once a swampy area, surrounded by a forest. For the dating dendrochronology could be used. The smithy was built around 170 AD. The shrine was built somehat later, around 200 AD, on an island between a stream and an arm of the River Lorze. It was destroyed by a flood in 210-215 AD. The shrine was then rebuilt, to be destroyed once more by a second flood around AD 225-230 AD. The watermill was built around 230 AD and destroyed by a flood around 260 AD. A bit later a new smithy was built. The buildings were abandoned around 270 AD after a fourth flood.
View of the excavations in 1944-1945. Photo: Schucany-Winet 2014, Abb. 3.The smithy was identified by slag, the watermill by millstones and remains of three wooden waterwheels that were in use one after the other.
A reconstructed waterwheel in front of the Museum für Urgeschichte(n), Zug.
Reconstruction drawing of the watermill in the Museum für Urgeschichte(n), Zug.The shrine was a wooden structure. Animal bones, especially of pigs, and crockery, of metal and terra sigillata, testified to ritual meals. Amongst the votive gifts were twenty-three terracotta statuettes, once painted. Eleven statuettes represented Venus, ten were of a seated mother deity with a child, two were of a child. One had the inscription MARC(illo), the name of the man who had made it.
The terracotta votive statuettes. Photo: Museum für Urgeschichte(n), Zug.Other remarkable finds were a silver ring with the inscription MERC(urio), a bone handle of a folding knife with the depiction of the Good Shepherd (Pastor Bonus), and a "Schlangenfadenglas", a glass vessel decorated with threads that are reminiscent of snakes.
Bone handle of a folding knife with the Good Shepherd.
Photo: Schucany-Winet 2014, Abb. 375.
The "Schlangenfadenglas". Photo: Museum für Urgeschichte(n), Zug.
Literature
Keller 1990; Drack-Fellmann 1991, 96-97; Hofmann 1993; Senn 2001; Volken-Volken 2005; Huber-Schucany-Winet 2012; Schucany-Winet 2014; Reinhard-Rinne-Huber 2018.
[28-Mar-2024]
