Starinar
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Bracelets from Viminacium and Sirmium as evidence of Palmyra goldsmithery influences on local jewelry production
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The jewelry worn in the Roman times by the women of Palmyra is best known to us from the tombstones. The archaeological confirmation for the use of these adornments represented on Palmyrene reliefs is a pair of golden bracelets discovered in Viminacium. Very close analogy for this jewelry is a pair of silver bracelets from a treasure discovered at the site Rhetel in Gaul. One less luxurious specimen made of bronze and discovered in the course of systematic investigations of Sirmium in 1976 also belongs to this distinct group of Roman bracelets. Jewelry from Sirmium, Viminacium and Gaul, shows that decorative system, originating from Palmyrene bracelets, quickly entered, in the middle and during the second half of the 3rd century, the repertoire of some goldsmiths' workshops in the West, where experienced various transformations.
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Bronze age settlement in churchyard of Gradac monastery
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During 2005 and 2008, a team from Republic Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute carried out preservative, sondage, archaeological and revision exploration of the Church of Holy Virgin in Gradac monastery. The 2005 exploration aim was to uncover geomorphology and characteristics of soil and its moisture penetration, to make insight in condition of ground zones, uncovering of attached structures and archaeological material, obtaining stratigraphic data, all in purpose of obtaining data for making the Main Project for preserving the Church of Holy Virgin from moisture. The first phase of work started in 2008, and it included work on western, north-western and south-western part of the church. During these explorations, 9 sondages were opened and a drainage pit, in total area of 130 m² and total depth of 3 m. Beside medieval cultural layer and medieval necropolis, a prehistoric layer of 0.5-0.6 m depth was found which was documented with four residential horizons as well with other belonging archaeological material originated in period of the end of Early Bronze Age and Middle Bronze Age. Pottery from older prehistoric layer in Gradac, which was documented with two residential horizons, mainly consists of fragments of pottery made of weaker, refined clay, with smooth surfaces and with range of colour from brownish to dark grey. These are fragments of dishes and larger spherical pots with two vertical handles on wider part of body. Some fragments are decorated with wartlike bulges or recesses made with fingers. From fine pottery, there are pear-shaped amphorae with thin sides, bowls and cups. Beside pottery, in this layer there were also few fragments of different shapes made of Rozhnac stone, flints and quartzite, part of stone axe with perforation whose upper part is shaped into secant and two fragmented millstones made of quartzlathyte, a mineral found in mountain Golija (Pl. I-III). Analogies to this pottery are found in sites in Milića Brdo in Ljuljaci, several sites in region of Kruševac and in Kosovo and Metohia. Pottery of the earlier layer is made of better refined earth with additives of fine grained sand. It has smoother surface with light brown colours. Distinctive items are fragments of biconical and S profile bowls with lingulate handles and wartlike bulges and fragments of cups with emphasized curved handles that exceed the height of mouth edges. Beside this, there is also, in less numbers, pottery of rougher shapes, which mainly includes smaller pots of conical or biconical shapes with flat or slightly curved edges. Some fragments are decorated with fingerprints or notches and some of them have plastic ribs and engraved lines (Pl. IV-V). This pottery from earlier layers from Gradac is similar to pottery from sites in Morava Basin, regions of Kruševac, Kraljevo and Kosovo. Explorations of these settlements, though small by exploration area, gave precious data about residential architecture. Residential structures have been situated in middle and topmost part of the plateau and we assume that this settlement area has not been expanded, but that new buildings have been built in place of old ones. Remaining of these structures shows that they were solid and relatively commodious. Entrance, together with economy part, was on the south side. At the end of Early Bronze Age, settlement was abandoned, but it was reestablished in lesser scale during Middle Bronze Age. Reason for this could be a stable period during Middle Bronze Age, change of economy and beginning of migrating cattle breeding. Gradac settlement was completely abandoned during Middle Bronze Age and was not reestablished again in Prehistoric period.
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Bronze flagon from Pontes with an inscription from the 29th Psalm of David
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During the campaign which took place in 1983 at the site of Pontes - Trajan’s Bridge near Kostol, in the layer between a house from the second half of the 9th century and a house from the 11th century, a treasury consisting of medieval iron tools placed around, or inserted into, a bronze flagon was discovered in a shallow pit. The whole find was named Treasury B. At first, the flagon itself was dated into the period between the 6th and the 8th centuries, however, we have recently dated it into the 6th-7th century. The inscription on the neck of the vessel is a paraphrase of the 3rd verse from the 29th Psalm of David. This is proof that the flagon was a liturgical vessel. In this text we are trying to show that this flagon was analogous to the specimen from the treasury from Vrap in Albania, whose deposition during the third part of the 7th century is connected with the activity of Bulgarian Khan Kuber. The Byzantine vessel was a part of treasure plundered from the Avars, and the production of this flagon, just as of that one from Pontes, can be dated into the period between the 6th century and the first half or the middle of the 7th century. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177007: Romanisation, urbanisation and transformation of urban centres of civil, military and residential character in Roman provinces in the territory of Serbia]
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Bronze railing from Mediana
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The hoard containing components of bronze railing was discovered in trench 7 during excavations at Mediana in 2000. Railing consists of cancelli and herms with busts of deities between them. Railing was constructed in such a way that it was possible to disassemble and reassemble it. Three cancelli one fragmented semicancellus cast together with herm and herms, one with bust of Aesculapius and other with bust of Luna. It could be concluded that railing consisted of two segments with passage between them. Male deities were represented on the left segment of the railing and female deities on the right segment. Detailed analysis revealed that Aesculapius as well as Luna bear strong mark of classical Greek and Hellenistic art, which experienced some kind of renaissance in the time of Constantine I. It is very probable that we can recognize the portrait of Faustina, Constantine’s wife in the portrait of Luna. According to the historical events the railing could have been produced before 325 AD when Constantine definitively accepted Christianity at Council of Nicaea. It is difficult to say where the railing had been produced. It had been most probably brought to Mediana during the stay of emperor Julian in Niš in 361. The sculptures found in one room of the villa with peristyle had probably been brought at the same time. The apse of triclinium of this villa had most likely been arranged as small shrine with bronze railing at its entrance. The railing was buried in 378 after battle of Adrianople and invasion of Goths in diocese Dacia.
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Building with octagon from the locality of „Gradsko polje” in Niš (Naissus). New archaeological excavations
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After three decades of exploring and excavating the so-called building with octagon at the locality of „Gradsko polje” in Niš, new archaeological research has been conducted. The main goal of the new excavations was, based on a previously led geophysical survey, to determine the dimensions of the western part of the building and to continue the exploration of the approach in front of the room with octagon. Despite modest finances and the short duration of the excavations, this year’s archaeological research has allowed us to conclude that the building with octagon had at least three building phases, starting with the beginning of the 4th century and was in use until the 6th century. Also, a clear stratum of Middle Age houses, dating to the 11th-12th century, was also confirmed in this year’s excavations, along with many fragments of ceramics belonging to the same period. This paper discusses in detail the archaeological and architectural results obtained from the new excavations led in 2018. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177007: Romanization, urbanization and transformation of urban centres of civilian and military character in the Roman provinces in the territory of Serbia]
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Burial of a woman with an amber distaff at Viminacium
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A luxurious set of spinning implements was discovered as part of the furnishings in the grave of a woman, unearthed in the surroundings of ancient Viminacium. A unique amber distaff with the upper part modelled in the form of a female bust stands out as the most important part of the grave assemblage. Similar artefacts were often misinterpreted, but this specimen was found together with a spindle, thus confirming that it actually is a distaff. Miniature copies of spinning equipment made out of precious materials are known from sepulchral contexts, and are described as objects expressing feminine virtue. It is considered that they were used in wedding rites, thus indicating the possible age of the deceased. Spinning implements can represent useful tools for studying the life course of Roman women. In this paper, an attempt was made to identify the divinity or person depicted on the distaff from Viminacium, considering the symbolic nature of these artefacts. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 7018: Viminacium, Roman city and military legion camp - research of material and non-material culture of inhabitants by using the modern technologies of remote detection, geophysics, GIS, digitalization and 3D visualization]
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Bölcske
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Mirković, Miroslava B. - Bölcske: Römische inschriften und funde, Libelli archaeologici ser. nov. No. 11, ed. Ádám Szabó i Endre Tóth, Ungarisches Nationalmuseum Budapest 2003 - Starinar
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Catalogue of small finds from excavations outside the fortified palace of Romuliana, 2005-2007
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The excavations of the trial trenches extra muros Romuliana, in the 2005-2007 period, were carried out in cooperation with the DAI RGK (Römisch-Germanische Kommission des Deutches Arhäologische Instituts), in order to verify the results of a previously conducted geophysical survey. Although the number of finds obtained from the eight test-pits (05/1, 05/2, 06/1, 06/2, 07/1, 07/2 07/3 and 07/4), that had been explored during four campaigns, was not big among them we can still find artifacts of great importance for studying the history of Romuliana, relating to the Late Classical and Early Byzantine period, from the end of the III up to the end of the VI century A.D. We point out finds of cruciform, gold fibula, coming from the tomb explored in the year 2005, and a gilded specimen with imperial portraits, from grave 6 explored in 2006. Finds of early Byzantine bronze fibulae, with a reversed back foot, are also of some importance, as well as glass vessels and a large number of iron tools. The finds in the catalogue are listed according to the explored units.
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Ceramic balsamaria-bottles
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The earliest balsamaria to appear in the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods are ceramic and seldom over 10 cm in height. On the Southern Necropolis of Viminacium (sites Više grobalja and Pećine) 21 vessels of this type have been found. The features they have in common are a long slender neck and the absence of handles. Based on the shape of their bodies nine groups have been identified. Although they are similar to glass balsamaria, the term bottle seems more appropriate chiefly on account of their size. Of several proposed suggestions about their basic function, the most plausible seems to be that their primary use was as containers for products packed in small amounts. Although most published finds come from burials, the question of their significance and use in funerary rituals remains inadequately elucidated. It is impossible to say with certainty whether the larger-sized vessels of a later date had the same function as the smaller Hellenistic and Early Roman ones. What is certain is that they are usually found in cremation burials, as shown by both Viminacium's Southern Necropolis, the necropolises of Poetovio and Emona, and individual graves on other sites. To judge from the clay fabric and colour and the manner of manufacture, the ceramic bottles from Viminacium come from different and as yet unidentified production centres. From the stratigraphic data and the grave goods they were found in association with they can be dated to the end of the first and first half of the second century, tentatively regarded as a later phase in their production.
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