Roman river landing stage of Bonna
About
Excavations in 2010-2011 at the southern edge of the canabae uncovered a Roman landing site on the Rhine bank: a shallow, gravel-surfaced slope onto which vessels could be beached and unloaded directly, with evidence the bank was artificially reinforced to let up to five ships land at once. A modest installation rather than a monumental stone harbor, reflecting Bonna's role as a supply point on the Rhine transport corridor overseen by the Classis Germanica, headquartered downriver at Cologne. A separate tradition (Florus) credits Drusus with building an actual bridge at Bonna around 11 BCE, but modern historians dispute whether this crossing ever existed beyond a temporary Augustan-era pontoon, and no archaeological remains of a bridge have been confirmed — so it is not represented here as a standing 117 CE structure.
What happened here
Sailing season runs roughly from spring to autumn and the port lives by it. Ships anchor in the outer basin and warp in, or are unloaded by lighters if they draw too much. Cargo comes ashore under the eye of a customs officer taking a percentage, is weighed, and goes into warehouses along the quay. Grain for Rome is the priority and everything else waits behind it. Amphorae are stacked, checked, and the broken ones dumped. Gangs of porters work by the load; shipping agents and guild offices cluster round the harbour square, advertising routes in mosaic on the floor. Divers work the bottom for dropped cargo. In winter the ships are hauled out and the whole place goes quiet.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →