In the first century BC, sometime between 51 BC and 12 BC, the Batavi migrated from the east bank of the Rhine in what is today Germany to the Betuwe region, in the south central portion of the Netherlands. They were acting as auxiliary troops in the Roman army, that built a castra (military defensive structure) in the higher elevations of the municipality of Nijmegen, in the Batavian territoria. It was the first of such structures in the Lower Rhine area.
According to Tacitus, the Batavi were a branch of ethnic Chatti groups from an area east of the Middle Rhine who split from their groups to settle in the "uninhabited" Rhine River delta. Archaeological evidence shows that the Rhine river delta region was by no means uninhabited at this time: the local residents were La Tène Iron Age farmers, and eventually the groups blended and became the "Batavians". This photo essay examines the archaeological evidence for the Roman presence in the Rhine delta of modern day Netherlands.
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A bibliography has been constructed for this project. Thanks to Peter van den Broeke and Harry van Enckevort for providing the photos and information concerning their investigations at Nijmegen.
