Military camp

The military camp can no longer be discerned from ground level, but it can be seen from the air.  The results of earlier excavations have given us some idea of how the military camp probably looked.

Very little is known about the military camp of the 15th legion which was erected in Carnuntum in the middle of the 1st century AD.  The oldest wooden-earth structures have only been excavated in a few places under the comprehensively excavated camp of the late 2^nd and 3^rd centuries.  From the latest excavations between 1968 and 1977 in the eastern praetentura, it could be seen that renovations to the barracks and camp defence system (which took place in Nero’s and Vespasian’s time) coincide with a number of building inscriptions from the 70s in the centre of the camp.

The expansion of the military camp in stone can no longer be comprehended in detail.  It was probably undertaken over several stages, when important construction projects were carried out at the beginning of the 2^nd century before the withdrawal of the 15^th legion from Carnuntum.  A number of so-called centurial stones of the 15^th legion would seem to indicate the rebuilding of the camp wall in stone.  The camp erected by the legio XV Apollinaris was renovated several times, but its basics remained up to Severin’s time.  Changes to the layout of the camp can only be established for the period around 200 AD, which presumably were limited to the praetentura.