HACHELBICH, GERMANY—A Roman military camp that held up to 5,000 troops has been discovered in central Germany. “People have been searching for evidence of the Romans in this part of Germany for 200 years. It took a long time before we realized what we had, and we wanted to be sure,” Mario Kuessner, and archaeologist for the state of Thuringia, told Science Now. The camp, shaped as a rough rectangle with round corners, was surrounded by a trench and had a gate on its northern edge. A low wall of dirt would have been placed behind the trench and topped with tall stakes. “It’s typically Roman—no Germans did that sort of thing,” Kuessner explained. Bread ovens, four nails from Roman boots, a piece of horse tack, and part of a scabbard have also been found. The camp may have been a stopover on the way to invade territory further east. “The best would be if we could find coins or something with the legion number written on it. That would help us pin down the date,” he said.
