Nijmegen: Finds

A Dressel-20 amphora from Baetica, found in Nijmegen. Museum Valkhof, Nijmegen (Holland). Photo Jona Lendering.

Nijmegen: city in the Netherlands, where several Roman settlements have been discovered.

A Dressel-20 amphora from Baetica, found in Nijmegen and put on display (like almost all objects on this webpage) in Nijmegen's Valkhof Museum. This type of amphora was produced on the banks of the river Guadalquivir in Roman Andalusia, and used to transport olive oil. That an amphora like this was found in Nijmegen, indicates how much the city of the Batavians belonged to the Mediterranean world.

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Terra sigilata pottery from Nijmegen. Museum Valkhof, Nijmegen (Holland). Photo Jona Lendering.

This picture shows Roman luxury pottery, terra sigilata, found at Nijmegen. This type of ceramics, invented in Italy, was usually imported from production centers in southern Gaul.

A milestone showing the distance to Xanten. Museum Valkhof, Nijmegen (Holland). Photo Jona Lendering.

A milestone, found along the way to the next Roman city, Xanten, the capital of the Cugerni. The text mentions the titles of the emperor Trajan, who awarded both towns with the right to call themselves after his family, i.e. Ulpia: Colonia Ulpia Traiana and Ulpia Noviomagus.

The prerogative to call a city after the ruler was rather empty: it was simply a recognition that the town had been loyal to the emperor. Modern theories that Nijmegen at this time also received "market rights" are simply mistaken. As capital of the Batavians, it already had the right of nundinas habere.

A British mirror from a tomb in Nijmegen. Museum Valkhof, Nijmegen (Netherlands). Photo Marco Prins.

Made in England between 50 BCE and 50 CE, this mirror was taken to Germania Inferior by a Batavian soldier serving in Britain, and buried in a second-century tomb in Nijmegen.

Fibula from Nijmegen. Allard Piersonmuseum, Amsterdam (Netherlands). Photo Jona Lendering.

A nice fibula from the second century, now in the Allard Piersonmuseum in Amsterdam.

Another fibula from the second century, also in the Allard Piersonmuseum in Amsterdam.

And finally, below, four little oil lamps.


Oil lamp, Jupiter and his eagle.	Oil lamp with an erotic scene.	Oil lamp: gladiators saluting the organizer of the games.	Victoria on a fourth-century lamp, from a cemetery west of the Valkhof.