Mithräum von Wiesloch
TNMM 66
About 183 m N. of the Leimbach at Wiesloch, in an area of unused land known as Die Dornmühle, a mithraeum was discovered in Autumn 1988 and excavated in the course of 1989 by Dr. R-H. Behrends and the staff of the Archäologische Denkmalpflege, Karlsruhe.
The vicus of Wiesloch grew up early in IIp at the crossing of the main Mainz-Augsburg road with the important road linking Speyer and Bad Wimpfen. The first Mithraists here may have been veterans from Ladenburg and Heidelberg, which are nearby. The mithraeum is situated about 13m from a road running N-S, and approached by a paved path leading off the road.
Nothing suggests that the temple was destroyed violently. A silver-plated brooch (Armbrustscharnierfibel) found by the entrance suggests that it was abandoned later than c. 225 AD. The building soon filled up with clay fallen from the walls, and alluvial deposits, and was clearly used as a rubbish-dump later in the III.
References
- A. Hensen / Archäologische Nachrichten aus Baden (1994) Das Mithräum im Vicus von Wiesloch.
- Gordon. The mithraeum in the vicus of Wiesloch, Lkr. Rhein-Neckar, Baden-Württemberg.
