Love hung in the air in Coriovallum
2025 Year of Heerlen Heritage
In 2025, Heerlen is diving into its history. The Romans gave way to knights and robbers in the Middle Ages and beyond. At the end of the nineteenth century, all of Heerlen went up for coal, the black gold. After the mines closed, the city fell into a dark hole only to rise again as a creative, colorful phoenix! During the Year of Heerlen Heritage, stories from all periods come to you: with a packed program throughout the municipality that everyone can participate in. Love for Heerlen and our city's fascinating history is in the air this year!
Love hung in the air in Coriovallum
A city full of stories celebrates Heritage Year
Is the message on the jug of Lucius, Heerlen's oldest love story, a frank declaration of love or, on the contrary, a secret adoration? The soil of our city harbors numerous stories. Of one story, we have recovered nearly two thousand-year-old shards. Curator Karen Jeneson explains how special Lucius' "love jar" is.
Sometime in the 1970s, new garages were built in the Putgrave. During the archaeological investigation beforehand, the jug of Lucius, made in the second century AD, saw the light again. In a collapsed furnace full of misfiring - the reason the jug was relatively well preserved - there lay the jug of Lucius.
"Only two very small pieces were missing in the end!" explains Karen Jeneson, curator of The Roman Museum, enthusiastically. "Of a message like Lucius left on his jar, very few of those have been recovered two thousand years later."
Love, superstition or just a juggernaut for Amaka?
'Lucius made this jug for Amaka' is part of the Latin text inscribed in the wet clay of the jug before it went into the furnace. A barely incomplete Roman alphabet, some kind of sacrificial text and an unknown abbreviation make up the complete inscription. Amaka, one can infer from her name, is of Germanic descent. Lucius of simple Roman. An impossible love?
Lucius' message is taken as an outright declaration of love to Amaka. It could also have been much more subtle, according to Karen. "The Romans were very superstitious. They believed they could influence things by making sacrifices to certain gods, for example. This jug was dedicated to 'the god of Feresne,' perhaps hoping to have a chance at Amaka." Whether or not that was the intention: Amaka never got the jug. But the history of Heerlen has a wonderful story to go with it.
Coriovallum and the Romans
The story behind the jug of Lucius is one of many stories in the city's rich history. It begins with the Romans with the foundation of Coriovallum, conveniently located at the intersection of two major Roman roads. Coriovallum was known for its pottery industry as well as the bathhouse that has been on display at the Thermen Museum for the past few decades. Now a new museum is under construction around our country's oldest, stone building. The Roman Museum expects to open in 2027.