This paper aims to present the results of archaeological works carried out within the framework of a post-excavation project, “Per lineam munitionum”, between 2005–2016 around the fortification ...system of the Roman legionary fortress and the late Roman and early Byzantine town of Novae. The research concentrated generally on completing and recording old trenches as well as recording remains of the original building substance, stratigraphy and other archaeological remains using modern technologies and precise geodetic equipment. The archaeological data and stratigraphical observations were compared with the numismatic findings in an effort to improve the final interpretation and the reconstruction of the main construction phases.
Roman forts had a major impact on the foundation of many of today's existing cities. Although a Roman Fort was accessible to many civilians, its image for most of the common people was dictated by ...the appearance of its walls and outer defenses, which are focus of this study. As a whole Roman fort is being conceived to be built, this case study embraces only the boundaries of this project: the walls, the outer defenses, and the analysis of how the uicus (civilian communities) and annexes are integrated into the structure. This study sets out to establish the basis for the preliminary design of this construction, taking the walls and outer defenses as the first construction phase. It is a classical construction to be built in the short-term under the constraints of modern building techniques, to serve historical re-creation and experimental archaeology purposes. The size of the uici and the fort's annexes and their inclusion within its walls, as well as the open areas and the various defenses outside them (e.g., ditches and counterscarps), within its envelope, were analyzed to enable historical inferences, as well as legal and economic constraints to be respected, allowing to achieve a sustainable and durable solution.
The outline of the first discovered early Roman Marching-camp north of the Limes in Germany (Dorlar, State of Hessen) was determined by electrical resistivity sounding. The camp was inhabited ...sometime between 11
BCand 15
ADand used as base to conquer Dünsberg, a keltic-germanic oppidum. Rammner's Current Line Pertubation Method (CLP) detected soil disturbances caused by ancient Roman construction. The CLP-Method was used to measure the perturbation of a current due to inhomogeneities in the ground. Data processing made it possible to determine the outline of the Roman marching-camp with an accuracy of ±0·15 m. The electrical soundings were confirmed by selected excavations.
The paper presents an attempted reconstruction of the route of the Roman road from Celeia to Neviodunum which has been interpreted in different ways in the literature on a number of occasions. The ...discovery of milestones at Brestanica on the right bank of the River Sava, the proven remains of a Roman bridge over the Sava at Zidani most, geographical facts and archaeological finds all indicate that the road passed along the right bank of the Savinja and Sava rivers. In the late Roman period this route was additionally confirmed by smaller fortifications that were distributed along the road with the task of controlling the traffic on the road and on both rivers. The remains of the characteristic late Roman military outfit found on several highland positions in the interior of the hilly landscape between Celeia and Neviodunum also indicate that there were some smaller communications, which made use of the most favourable natural passages through the hilly terrain. This kind of road and trail network confirms the strategic and transit importance of the region, which lay in the immediate vicinity of battles that were waged during the civil wars in the 2nd half of the 4th century.
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- H. Gajewska, Topographie des fortifications romaines en Dobroudja, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków-Gdańsk 1974, Ossolineum, p. 168, with 46 ...drawings and 7 maps and diagrams- H. Gajewska, Topographie des fortifications romaines en Dobroudja, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków-Gdańsk 1974, Ossolineum, ss. 168, z 46 ryc. oraz z 7 mapkami i wykresami- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
By combining the technical and empirical research methods, this article aims at establishing the role of the landforms in the location of Roman settlements and fortifications in Northern ...Transylvania, Romania, focusing on the Dacia Porolissensis (province of the Roman Empire) border and how (and if) these elements are still present in the local identity. Cartographic methods helped us to achieve the technical part. We used the ArcMap 10.6 software. The result obtained through digital modelling is the morphometric identification of the territorial discontinuities. Considering the qualitative aspects, the used methods were the traditional ones: analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction. These methods enabled us to better understand how these settlements influenced the regional identity. The results of the study are emphasizing the strategical importance of the landforms in establishing the Roman castrum, and it demonstrates how (or if) the associated settlements remained present in the locals’ mentality and influenced the regional identity.
The laser 3D scanning process was accomplished using a Leica ScanStation 2 device with the following main technical features: pulsed laser, 1 inch compensated double shaft, scanned pixel density < 1 ...mm, max. 50.000 pts/sec. The area of interest was Tower I of the post-Gothic, Late Roman precinct at Histria. The equipment belongs to the Museum of National History and Archeology in Constanța and was professionally operated by Irina Sodoleanu and Laurenţiu Cliante. A number of Histrian monuments (Domus, the Episcopal Basilica, fragments of the Late Roman fortification) were scanned on this occasion, but only the results of the operation on the Tower I of the Late Roman, post-Gothic city wall, are presented.Tower I is part of the first monument that was excavated after the discovery of the city of Histria – the Late Roman city wall whose first phase dates back to the second half of the 3rd century AD. On the west front of the Late Roman fortification, Tower I occupies an important place because it was the corner tower during the first phase of this defensive work. In fact, it would continue to be the corner tower until the C-phase of the enclosure, which would expand south, including the new south-eastern city district – built on the land gained from the sea, due to the accelerated sedimentation process that was taking place during those centuries and created the rapidly advancing Saele sandbank.Moreover, Tower I has a very complex stratigraphic situation due to the place where it was built. It overlaps both the Hellenistic enclosure wall of the Acropolis and the first phase of the post-Gothic enclosure, as well as the constructive elements of the Thermae. At the same time, it is embedded in the later stages of existence of the Late Roman fortification. For these reasons, Tower I is difficult to investigate because parts of these structures are identifiable in its substructure, and others can only be observed and investigated in the interior space.It is worth mentioning the very special construction technique used to build this part of the fortification, which uses instead of a foundation, a layer of column bodies placed transversely to the direction of the wall.The Late Roman fortification was built as a result of the mid 3rd century AD events, which led to the decommissioning of the previous city wall, located about 400 m to the west and which had been constructed during Trajan’s reign. Because it could not be built further south, due to the presence of the sea water, it inevitably overlapped the previous defensive structures. That is why it used the Hellenistic Acropolis fortification as a foundation that provided the necessary solidity to a defensive structure, and the pragmatism of the Roman constructors could not ignore its presence. The Hellenistic Acropolis wall was overlapped in this corner by the first phase of the Late Roman fortification and by its corner tower, that is Tower I.In the monography dedicated to the Thermae, Alexandru Suceveanu made a fundamental observation: that the construction of this wall, which appeared under the southern side of the Tower I, does not use mortar and this excludes the possibility that it may be considered as the continuation of the northern wall of the Q room of the Thermae, which is the real post-Gothic fortification. Therefore, the relationship between this enclosure and the Thermae monument in its first stage is extremely important, not only for the configuration of the Thermal building, but also for the dating of this phase of the city wall.The explanation of what was considered to be an unusual situation, namely the construction of a city wall, after two centuries and a half, over another city wall, became evident in the meantime: the first phase of the post-Gothic fortification (called "Phase A" of the Late Roman city wall and dated to the reign of Emperor Probus) was built using the Hellenistic enclosure as the foundation because the latter had been built exactly on the natural boundary that separated the Acropolis from the sea during the period of operation of the Greek and Roman city enclosures. The pragmatism of the Roman builders has decided to use this structure, which had been still very well preserved, to build the new city limit – a limit that could not advance to the south due to the presence of the sea. Only phase B of the post-Gothic enclosure would expand 28 m to the south to settle on the marshland that became only recently usable for constructions. Excavations at the base of the western corner of the new corner tower (Tower K) have shown that the marsh land still required reinforcement of the soil works to build the new enclosure (Phase B of the Late Roman city wall) that now encompasses a whole new quarter.Although the research was particularly difficult due to the presence of the groundwater bedding that permanently covers the limestone tilesforming the foundation of the Hellenistic Acropolis enclosure, we had the chance to record them using the extremely precise 3D scanner.
City Walls in Late Antiquity Intagliata, Emanuele; Barker, Simon J; Courault, Christopher
2020, 2020-06-30
eBook
The construction of urban defences was one of the hallmarks of the late Roman and late-antique periods (300-600 AD) throughout the western and eastern empire. City walls were the most significant ...construction projects of their time and they redefined the urban landscape. Their appearance and monumental scale, as well as the cost of labour and material, are easily comparable to projects from the High Empire; however, urban circuits provided late-antique towns with a new means of self-representation. While their final appearance and construction techniques varied greatly, the cost involved and the dramatic impact that such projects had on the urban topography of late-antique cities mark city walls as one of the most important urban initiatives of the period.To-date, research on city walls in the two halves of the empire has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink how and why urban circuits were built and functioned in Late Antiquity. Although these developments have made a significant contribution to the understanding of late-antique city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument/small group of monuments or a particular region, and the issues raised do not usually lead to a broader perspective, creating an artificial divide between east and west. It is this broader understanding that this book seeks to provide.The volume and its contributions arise from a conference held at the British School at Rome and the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome on June 20-21, 2018. It includes articles from world-leading experts in late-antique history and archaeology and is based around important themes that emerged at the conference, such as construction, spolia-use, late-antique architecture, culture and urbanism, empire-wide changes in Late Antiquity, and the perception of this practice by local inhabitants.
The Roman army enjoys an enviable reputation as an instrument of waging war, but as the modern world reminds us, an enduring victory requires far more than simply winning battles. When it came to ...suppressing counterinsurgencies, or deterring the depredations of bandits, the army frequently deployed small groups of infantry and cavalry based in fortlets. This remarkable installation type has never previously been studied in detail, and shows a new side to the Roman army. Rather than displaying the aggressive uniformity for which the Roman military is famous, individual fortlets were usually bespoke installations tailored to local needs. Examining fortlet use in north-west Europe helps explain the differing designs of the Empire's most famous artificial frontier systems: Hadrian's Wall, the Antonine Wall, and the Upper German and Raetian limites. The archaeological evidence is fully integrated with documentary sources, which disclose the gritty reality of life in a Roman fortlet.
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