Tony Clunn

John Anthony Spencer "Tony" Clunn MBE, (born 10 May 1946), is a retired major in the British Army, and an amateur archaeologist who discovered the main site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest at Kalkriese Hill.

Contents

Army career

Born in Kent, Clunn served in the ranks of the Royal Tank Regiment, rising to the rank of warrant officer class 1. He was then commissioned into the administrative section of the Royal Army Medical Corps as a lieutenant on 2 January 1986. His commission was backdated, with seniority as a second lieutenant from 2 July 1981, and as lieutenant from 2 July 1983.[1] He was promoted captain on 2 January 1988.[2] He was promoted major on 30 September 1994, having previously held the rank on an acting basis.[3] He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1996 New Year Honours,[4][5] and retired from the army on 4 April 1996.[6]

Archaeology

Clunn looked for Roman coins with a metal detector as a hobby. In 1987, he was attached to the Royal Tank Regiment in Osnabrück and asked Wolfgang Schlüter, at the time the archaeologist for the District of Osnabrück,[8] where to look.[9] On his advice, he began prospecting 20 km north of the city where Roman coins had previously been found,[10] although no Roman finds had been made near the city for 18 years. Schlüter's recommendation was based on the study of maps and the 19th-century historian Theodor Mommsen's proposal of the Kalkriese area as a likely location of the battle which took place in 9 C.E.[11] On his first day of searching, Clunn found several coins struck in the reign of Augustus, mostly in excellent condition.[9] No coins found at the site post-date 9 C.E.[12] He also discovered sling shot in the vicinity of Kalkriese,[9] the first indisputable evidence of military activity there.[12][13] There had previously been many conflicting theories about the location of the battle, which scholars had searched for without success for 600 years.[10][14][15][16]

On the basis of Clunn's finds, in 1989 Schlüter began a comprehensive excavation of the site,[8][10] later directed by Susanne Wilbers-Rost.[9][12] The finds are now on display at the Varusschlacht (Varus Battle) Museum and Park Kalkriese, opened in 2002.[9][12]

In the following years, Clunn investigated the entire area around Kalkriese. The coins he discovered have made it possible to reconstruct the route taken by the Roman legionaries under Varus and to determine where they were ambushed and massacred. In Clunn's opinion, the march route corresponds exactly to the changing environment as described by Dio Cassius.[17]

Clunn now lives in Osnabrück.[18]

Publications

References

  1. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 50420. p. 1625. 3 February 1986. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
  2. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 51194. p. 306. 11 January 1988. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
  3. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 53807. p. 13871. 3 October 1994. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
  4. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 54255. p. 6. 29 December 1995. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
  5. ^ "The New Year Honours: The Prime Minister's List", The Independent 30 December 1995.
  6. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 54378. p. 5716. 22 April 1996. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
  7. ^ Wolfgang Schlüter: Zwischen Lutherdamm und Oberesch – Die Anfänge des Kalkriese-Projektes. In: Varus-Gesellschaft (Hrsg.): Varus-Kurier. Georgsmarienhütte, April 2002. S. 7ff. (German)
  8. ^ a b Archäologie, Ausgrabung und Wissenschaft, Museum und Park Kalkriese, retrieved 7 September 2010. (German)
  9. ^ a b c d e Fergus M. Bordewich, "The Ambush that Changed History", Smithsonian September 2005, pp. 3–4.
  10. ^ a b c Peter S. Wells, The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest, New York: Norton, 2003, ISBN 0393020282, p. 46.
  11. ^ Theodor Mommsen, "Die Örtlichkeit der Varusschlacht", Berlin: Weidmann, 1885. (German)
  12. ^ a b c d David Crossland, "Battle of the Teutoburg Forest: Germany Recalls Myth That Created the Nation", Der Spiegel 28 August 2009.
  13. ^ Wolfgang Schlüter with Frank Berger, Kalkriese - Römer im Osnabrücker Land: archäologische Forschungen zur Varusschlacht, Bramsche: Rasch, 1993, ISBN 3922469760, p. 20. (German)
  14. ^ "Fiasko in der Senke: Rekonstruktion der Varus-Schlacht auf der Basis der neuesten Grabungsfunde", Der Spiegel 28 October 1996. (German)
  15. ^ Kevin Sweeney, "Scholars look at factors surrounding Hermann’s victory", The Journal, New Ulm, Minnesota, 20 September 2009, retrieved 7 September 2010.
  16. ^ Pat Southern, The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006, ISBN 1851097309, p. 307.
  17. ^ Tony Clunn, ed. Anna Cheeseman-Clunn and Ursula Cheeseman, In Quest of the Lost Legions: The Varusschlacht, London: Minerva, 1999, ISBN 0754110680, p. 154.
  18. ^ "Society for German-American Studies Symposium Held in Grand Rapids, MI", Steuben News, July/August 2005, retrieved 7 September 2010. Clunn was the keynote speaker.

Sources

This article incorporates information from this version of the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.