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Founded: c. 200 ADCategory: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Germany
Historical period: Germanic Tribes (Germany)
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In the neighborhood of the fort of Rainau-Buch, the remains of several other Roman buildings are visible. For instance, there is the ruin of a monumental gate in the limes wall near the modern village of Rainau-Dalkingen, about a kilometer north of the fort. Originally, it was a wooden construction, but it was rebuilt several times.
In the final phase, at the beginning of the third century, it must have had a façade like the stage of a theater, with rather plumb columns. In the upper part of the gate, there must have been a bronze statue of an emperor, perhaps Caracalla, who defeated the Germanic tribe of the Alamans in 213, and may have started his campaign from Dalkingen. Twenty years later, the Alamans stroke back, and the gate was burned down.
References:Easter Aquhorthies stone circle, located near Inverurie, is one of the best-preserved examples of a recumbent stone circle, and one of the few that still have their full complement of stones. It consists of a ring of nine stones, eight of which are grey granite and one red jasper. Two more grey granite stones flank a recumbent of red granite flecked with crystals and lines of quartz. The circle is particularly notable for its builders' use of polychromy in the stones, with the reddish ones situated on the SSW side and the grey ones opposite.
The placename Aquhorthies derives from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning 'field of prayer', and may indicate a 'long continuity of sanctity' between the Stone or Bronze Age circle builders and their much later Gaelic successors millennia later. The circle's surroundings were landscaped in the late 19th century, and it sits within a small fenced and walled enclosure. A stone dyke, known as a roundel, was built around the circle some time between 1847 and 1866–7.