Nigrum pullum (Zwammerdam)
(number 7) (©**)
The small fort at Nigrum pullum ('black chicken' or 'black soil') controlled the confluence of the little river Meije and the Rhine, the frontier river of the Roman empire. The military settlement was founded after 47, when the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo reorganized the frontier zone, and was destroyed during the Batavian revolt (69). The second building phase can be dated after 80.
southern gate
The fort at Zwammerdam was rebuilt from natural stones and bricks after 175, a building phase that may probably be connected to the presence of Didius Julianus, a governor who is known to have built other fortifications (Maldegem). Because we know that soldiers of the legion XXX Ulpia Victrix from Castra Vetera (modern Xanten) made the roof tiles, we can assume that they were also responsible for the reconstruction of the fort as a whole. Hundred years later, Nigrum pullum was burned down and -as far as we know- never used again.
Roman ship, found at
Zwammerdam (Archeon)
To the north of the castle was a quay along the Rhine, where archaeologists have discovered several ships. It could be established that the wood from which they were made was cut in the region of the Middle Rhine, which suggests that the merchants had made a long voyage before their ships were reused. It is possible that they carried the stones from which the fort was rebuilt. One of these ships, the Zwammerdam 6, appears to have been the sister ship of a galley-freighter found 15 kilometers upstream, the Woerden 7, which was discovered in the river port of ancient Laurium.
The remains of this ancient military settlement and the Roman barges were discovered and excavated in 1971. The ships, which caused a sensation, are no longer there (they used to be in a museum at Ketelhaven), but the foundations of the southern gate and headquarters can still be seen at the premises of The Hooge Burgh, which is to the south of the main road.