Archaeological investigations at Neuenstadt am Kocher in Baden-Württemberg suggest that the Roman settlement was occupied for only a few decades before it was abandoned. Researchers say the community may have lasted roughly two generations, possibly ending as insecurity increased along Rome’s Germanic frontier during the third century AD.
The State Office for Monument Preservation at the Stuttgart Regional Council has studied the site since 2003. Located in the Heilbronn district, the settlement was established during the second or third century AD and appears to have been deliberately planned rather than developing gradually from an earlier community.
The ruins were rediscovered north of modern Neuenstadt am Kocher during the 1980s. Earlier work focused on establishing the settlement’s size, layout and organisation. Current excavations are turning to its residential and commercial districts in an effort to determine who lived there and what role the settlement played.
Archaeologists recently excavated one of several private houses previously identified through geophysical surveys. The rectangular timber-framed structure measured about 9.5 by 12.5 metres. The small quantity of material recovered from it suggests that the building may have been occupied for only a limited time. Similar evidence has been observed in the settlement’s public buildings.
The findings support the possibility that merchants and craftspeople were encouraged to settle near the Kocher River. Dr Andreas Thiel, head of Provincial Roman Archaeology at the State Office, said the evidence suggests traders and craftspeople deliberately established themselves along the riverbank. Their presence, however, appears to have been short-lived.
Researchers are considering whether the settlement’s abandonment was linked to deteriorating conditions along the Roman frontier in the AD 230s. Neuenstadt stood immediately behind the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, and raids and incursions from beyond the frontier were an increasing threat to nearby communities. The proposed connection remains an interpretation rather than a confirmed cause of abandonment.
Further evidence may come from a stone cellar currently under excavation. The State Office expects work on the structure to be completed in autumn 2026. Archaeologists hope it will clarify the inhabitants’ activities, the settlement’s economic role and the circumstances of its rapid decline.
