Eric Breuer is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and historian. He studied archaeology and history at the Universities of

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Fribourg or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...

and

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. He discovered the Roman

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

Eriskirch Eriskirch is a municipality in the Bodensee district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. History Eriskirch was a possession of the Free City of (now Friedrichshafen) until it was annexed by the Electorate of Bavaria in 1803. In 1810, it was cede ...

(

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

), and conducted widespread research on early Medieval archaeology, archaeology of Roman provinces, Avar archaeology, and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

history. His main interest was the relative chronology of Roman and early medieval times.

Childhood and youth

Only scarce information can be found about his childhood and youth. It seems, that he spent his early years at Munich and the Lake Constance region. Already from early ages he was interested in archaeology. At the age of 8 he discovered an ancient building at the Roman settlement of

Argen The Argen is a river in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It flows into Lake Constance between Kressbronn am Bodensee and Langenargen as the third largest tributary to the lake. It is long; if one includes the Obere Argen and its source river Seele ...

by unearthening potsherds of samian ware. At the age of 13 he joined the local museum.

Life as an archaeologist

Already before his university studies, he was surprised about the total lack of Roman towns north of lake constance, dure to the massive density in southern region with ancient towns like Taxgaition, Constantia, Arbor felix,

Ad Rhenum Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of interest to consumers. It is typically used ...

Confluentes Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

Brigantion Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the west and Germany in th ...

and

Clunia Clunia (full name ''Colonia Clunia Sulpicia'') was an ancient Roman city. Its remains are located on Alto de Castro, at more than 1000 metres above sea level, between the villages of Peñalba de Castro and Coruña del Conde, 2 km away f ...

. By analyzing topographical situations of already known ancient towns, he worked out a list of characteristic topographical features of Roman vici. Based on this list, Breuer did widespread archaeological surveys at lake constance region. As a result he managed to discover an (in modern times totally unknown) Roman vicus at river

Schussen The Schussen () is a tributary of Lake Constance (), which drains to the High Rhine, in the southern portion of Upper Swabia in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). Course From its source, not far from the Lake Feder, around north of Bad Schussen ...

near today's village of

, where buildings with preserved ancient wood were excavated by him. In 2001 Breuer discovered a slightly separated part of the settlement with pottery kilns, already lying on the eastern side of river Schussen at Mariabrunn, more than half a mile eastern the first discovered pottery area. In 2012 he managed even to localize the Roman

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

of the first century AD of the ancient village. Studying Claudius Ptolemaios' ''Geography'', he stated further, that because Ptolemy didn’t realize the sharp bend of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

, many

Raetian Rhaetic or Raetic (), also known as Rhaetian, was a Tyrsenian language spoken in the ancient region of Rhaetia in the eastern Alps in pre-Roman and Roman times. It is documented by around 280 texts dated from the 5th through the 1st century BC ...

towns are located by Ptolemy at the wrong position. Because also some towns like Cambodunum and

Abodiacum Abodiacum or Auodiacum () or Abuzacum was a town of Vindelicia, probably coinciding with the modern Epfach on the river Lech, where remains of Roman buildings are still extant. The stations, however, in the Itineraries and the Peutingerian Tabl ...

are presented as being located much too eastern, he came to the conclusion, that there should be a big unknown ancient town called “Drusomagus” located by Ptolemy in the Lake Constance region, corresponding to the more western already known

Iuliomagus Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

. Beneath this study on ancient vici he did also surveys on ancient villae rusticae. On the field of Early Medieval archaeology, Breuer published a new chronological system, based on earlier works of F. Daim and J. Zabojnik. As it seems, it is based on his thesis about chronology of the Avar cemeteries of

Üllő Üllő is a town in Pest county, Hungary. It is around south-east of the centre of Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the E ...

and Janoshida. Contrary to early eastern European archaeologists, like I. Kovrig and others, Breuer favoured the idea that changes in ornaments and manufacturing of belts are not signs of new arriving ethnic groups in the

Carpathian Basin The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeastern Central Europe. After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, the geomorphologic ...

, but simply changes of fashion and lifetime of certain processes of production of goods - and not ethnic conclusions. As a result chronological horizons get at Breuer's work the meaning of starting, increasing, decline and end of fabrications of certain types of small findings.Eric Breuer, ''Byzanz an der Donau'', 2005, page 6-9.

References

Sources

* page 80. * Meyer, M. Ein römerzeitliches Gräberfeld bei Mochenwangen. Fundberichte aus Baden-Württemberg 27, 2003, Reference 11. * Bilamboz, A. Der Stand der Dendrochronologie für die Römerzeit in Baden-Württemberg. Festschr. Planck. Stuttgart 2009 page 669, 675. *Fiedler U., ez. zu Breuer, Eric: Byzanz an der Donau :eine Einführung in Chronologie und Fundmaterial zur Archäologie im Frühmittelalter im mittleren Donau-Raum. Eurasia antiqua 19, 2013,175-178. * Pleterski A., Eric Breuer, Byzanz an der Donau. Arheoloski Vestnik 58, 2007, 464. * Migotti B., Eric Breuer, Byzanz an der Donau, Vjesnik Arheoloskog muzeja u Zagrebu XXXIX, 2006, 3, 260-262. * Ungerman, Šimon., Breuer, E: Byzanz an der Donau. Archeologické rozhledy, 2006, 58, 368-374. * Meyer, M.G.M. Die laendliche Besiedlung von Oberschwaben zur Roemerzeit. Materialhefte zur Archaeologie in Baden-Württemberg 85. (Stuttgart 2010) page 160-172, 281-282, 299-300. * https://web.archive.org/web/20110531194925/http://eeo.uni-klu.ac.at/index.php/Aquincum * https://web.archive.org/web/20110531195003/http://eeo.uni-klu.ac.at/index.php/Keszthely_(Kultur) * https://web.archive.org/web/20110531195009/http://eeo.uni-klu.ac.at/index.php/Pannonien_(Provinz) * https://web.archive.org/web/20110531195014/http://eeo.uni-klu.ac.at/index.php/Pannonii {{DEFAULTSORT:Breuer, Eric Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Swiss archaeologists