Archaeologists in Germany have uncovered the remains of a Roman temple that appears to have been dedicated to Mars, the god of war, just inches beneath the forest floor near Frankfurt.
The structure lies in the foothills of the eastern Taunus Mountains, on Frankfurt’s northern outskirts, beside the Kapersburg fort, according to a Sept. 25 announcement from the Hesse State Office for Monument Preservation.
A temple for the god of war
The rectangular temple measures about 16 feet long, Smithsonian reported, citing Hessenschau. Inside, it appears to have held a smaller square chamber with three walls, each roughly 20 inches thick. Archaeologists believe it could be an ambulatory temple, with a three-walled prayer room entered through a wooden gate or door and ringed by covered walkways.
An inscription suggests the dedication to Mars. The team also found a fragment of a statue that may depict the war god, two more votive stones and a broken statuette of Victoria, the goddess of victory, who often appeared alongside Mars. The statuette still bears her wings, a palm branch and a laurel wreath.
A Latin inscription on a votive stone from the temple chamber is being deciphered and may reveal the name of the nearby village.
A village under the trees
The temple turned up during excavations of the Kapersburg fort, a Roman fortification thought to date to the second century, and its neighboring village, or vicus. Researchers believe about 160 soldiers were stationed at the fort, while up to 700 people lived in the village.
The state office and Frankfurt University have investigated the vicus since 2024. Earlier digs focused on the fort, but drought, pests and a storm cleared part of the surrounding forest, prompting archaeologists to turn to the settlement.
District archaeologist Kai Mückenberger said the woods explain the site’s condition. “We have preservation layers here that are otherwise unmatched in Hesse, because no agriculture has gone over them,” he said. “The forest has preserved everything over the last centuries.”
Life before and after the frontier
The team also found remains of craft activity, including a blacksmith’s area and baking ovens that may have dried grain. Leveling layers suggest the Romans razed the workshops during a restructuring and later built housing over them. Traces of roads and terracing are helping show the settlement’s layout.
Near the temple, archaeologists recovered a late antique brooch and fragments of handmade pottery. If confirmed, they would be the first archaeological evidence of use of the area after the Romans left, attributable to the Alamanni living in the Wetterau, the state office said.
A Roman auxiliary unit, the Numerus Nidensium, was stationed at the fort for about 150 years before it was abandoned in the middle of the third century. The fort sits on the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, a 342-mile UNESCO World Heritage stretch of the Roman frontier between the Rhine and the Danube.
Mückenberger hopes to continue digging with Frankfurt University students next year. Even 125 years after the fort was first investigated, the dig shows the story of the Roman presence in Hesse is far from complete, the state office said.