Castra of Oberscheidental

Kastell Oberscheidental stands on a plateau in the Odenwald hills, just east of the village of Scheidental in Mudau. The site once housed a Roman cohort fort built to guard the Neckar-Odenwald Limes. Water from the plateau feeds streams that flow north to the Main and south to the Neckar, marking the divide between the two rivers. The fort is worth visiting because it shows how Rome organised its frontier defences. Excavations in the 19th century by Karl Christ and the Mannheimer Altertumsverein proved its military purpose. Two auxiliary cohorts, the Cohors III Delmatarum and later the Cohors I Sequanorum et Rauracorum, were stationed here in the 1st and 2nd centuries. Visitors can still see the outline of the stone walls and the restored south gate. Inside the fort the headquarters building and a small bath-house have been identified. The nearby cemetery and civilian settlement have been lost to modern roads, but the remaining ruins give a clear picture of a Roman military base on the German frontier.