Flaccus is 1st named resident of Roman town

Pottery found in the grave of a Roman soldier in Heerlen, Netherlands, last week has identified him by name as Flaccus. The abbreviation FLAC was carved into an earthenware bowl that was among his funerary furnishings. The grave is 2,000 years old, which makes Flaccus the oldest named resident of the city, pre-dating the runners-up, potter Lucius and his wife Amaka, by 150 years. It is also the oldest evidence of Roman habitation in Coriovallum, today known as Heerlen.

In addition to the personalized bowl, archaeologists unearthed a bronze strigil and a matched set of four different plates made of the same terra sigilata earthenware. The makers’ stamps identify the pottery as having been manufactured in Italy in around the year 0. The pottery and dating strongly suggests that Flaccus was a Roman soldier dispatched to the military settlement on the Germanic limes (border).

The grave was discovered during an archaeological excavation at the Raadhuisplein (Town Hall Square) which is scheduled for redevelopment. What is now the Raadhuisplein was in the center of Coriovallum on the Via Belgica, the Roman road connecting Cologne (Germany) with Boulogne-sur-Mer (France), so archaeologists expected to find Roman remains. A named grave from the earliest Roman period of the settlement, however, was an unexpected surprise. No graves from the period had ever been found before. In fact, while fragments of terra sigilita from the first half of the 1st century have been discovered before in Heerlen, they could have been discarded or lost on the road so could not be interpreted as clear evidence of settlement.

When the grave first emerged, archaeologists weren’t sure if it was the remains of a grave or of a cellar pit. The discoloration of the soil indicated it was rectangular in shape and iron nails were found from the formwork, but the pottery alone and evidence of wooden structure was insufficient to confirm that it was a burial since the same sort of design could have been used for a cellar pit. The discovery of cremation remains conclusively identified it as a grave.

Coriovallum prospered as a civilian settlement thanks to its location on the Via Belgica where it intersected with the Via Traiana connecting Aachen (Aquae Granni) in the south to Xanten (Colonia Ulpia Traiana) in the north. The public baths built around 50-70 A.D. are today the largest visible Roman remains in the Netherlands. Where public baths were, so were public utilities, and the Romans built an aqueduct and a sewer to service the bathhouse.

The redesigned Raadhuisplein will include a raised waterway that references the Roman aqueduct. Now that Flaccus’ eternal resting place has been found, the new square design will also include information about him. The artifacts from Flaccus’ grave will be cleaned and conserved now for eventual display at the new Roman Museum of Heerlen

* This article was originally published here