Did an important Roman (main) road pass through the area we now know as the Altena region long ago? Kees van Maastrigt (82) of the Altena Archaeological Society has been trying to find an answer to this question for decades.
“My book The Silver Age of the Romans in Altena will be published soon and concerns the possible Roman main road in Altena,” says Van Maastrigt. “At that time, there was plenty of habitation in this area. This is evident from the many archaeological finds, including the discovery in 2012 of twelve urns containing the remains of cremated people in Veen.”
Speculations of a Roman main road right through the current region of Altena have been around for a long, long time. “There are many assumptions that such a main road used to run,” says Van Maastrigt. “Assumptions and speculations that have been adopted by many and have therefore acquired the character of truth.”
“Of course there were also (Roman) roads in the Altena region at that time, but they were mainly local or local roads. I have not found any concrete evidence that a main road ran through the region. No one has found the proof so far , I no longer believe in it,” says Van Maastrigt, who searched through mountains of literature and documents for his book.
“There is no evidence of a main road running right through the area.”
Van Maastrigt’s conclusion is at odds with the findings of the amateur archaeologist H. Voogd from the early 1960s. He even described the probable route of a Roman march through the area. “Confirmation of this was obtained by finding a Roman roof tile in Aalburg with stamp of the first legion, dedicated to Minerva with the addition Antonini”, according to a publication from those years. “The route of this road in a westerly direction cannot be reconstructed beyond Dussen.”
“It’s nice thinking, but there is no evidence of a main road that ran right through the area,” Van Maastrigt repeats. There is, however, plenty of evidence of settlements and Roman occupation in the area. “In 2013, a bronze statue of the god Mercury was found in Drongelen, an altar statue of which only three have been found in the Netherlands. Despite the fact that much has been found in the Altena region from Roman times, we do not count nationally,” says Van Maastrigt, who is quite displeased about this.
“Not a word about Altena, it’s not even mentioned.”
“The word Altena does not even appear in the entire archeology manual, and that is very annoying,” says Van Maastrigt, who cites another example. “In the book The Golden Age of the Romans in the Low Countries by Tom Buijtendorp, which appeared in 2021, not a word about Altena. It is not even mentioned, we are always forgotten. Given all the archaeological finds, this is very unjustified. That’s why I write my book as a ‘protest’ The Silver Age of the Romans in Altena, have mentioned. They were here too.”
Hans van Tilborg of Archeo-Altena confirms Kees van Maastrigt’s conclusion. “There were certainly Romans, there is plenty of tangible evidence of that. Near Genderen we found many Roman shards at a location where there probably used to be a fortified farm, a kind of fortress. A Roman cemetery in Veen, where An urn was found in 2012. A piece of a golden Roman hair needle was found in Heesbeen. And this is only a small list of the many tangible evidence.”