Bronze Horse Head of Waldgirmes Emphasizes that Germanic Tribes and Romans Sometimes Played Nic

Last week a rare Roman bronze horse’s head made international headlines because it gained a German farmer a pretty penny. Now the sculpture fragment is back in the limelight because archaeologists say it provides evidence that relations between Germanic tribes and Romans were not always as tense as some historians suggest. Actually, it seems life was mostly comfortable almost 2,000 years ago when the two cultures lived alongside one another at Waldgirmes.

The horse’s head was found amongst other artifacts and ruins at Waldgirmes, the site of a Roman settlement covering nearly 20 acres in Hesse, Germany. To date, the site has the oldest known stone buildings in what used to be Magna Germania. Between 1994-2009, archaeologists with the German Archaeological Institute’s Roman-Germanic Commission excavated the land and National Geographic reports that the findings suggest Romans did not only try to obtain control over Germanic tribes by fighting. In fact, it seems the so-called German “barbarians” peacefully lived beside and traded with their Roman neighbors for years.

Roman Forum of Waldgirmes in Hesse, Germany. (Public Domain)