Studies on population density and migration in Upper Germania and Raetia. An overview based upon selected cemeteries

Abstract

In Roman period Germany population concentrated in coloniae, military camps and auxiliary forts near the roman frontier. The multiple shifts of the imperial boundary resulted in extensive movements of large parts of the population over time. The extent of these displacements can be made visible through an overview of known cemeteries of vici, civitates and canabae, and can be understood as a kind of mass migration. Due to the relocation of the forts the number of well-dated graves at cemeteries of former military camps near the Roman frontier declines to 0–8 % of the previous inhabitation, whereas the number rises at new military vici and camps near the Limes from zero to many hundred burials. This trend is then reverted in Late Antiquity. Previous estimations of the population rest upon the assumption of steadily inhabited settlements. Due to the significance of the migration to the border a lower number of people are suggested for the vici, civitates and canabae during the heyday of the 2nd century AD.