WHEN ROME COMES TO A VILLAGE
A LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT IN EASTERN SERBIA
an initiative of the TIMOK REGIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT (TRAP)
Sarah Craft, Florida State University and Stefan Pop-Lazić, Archaeological Institute Belgrade
Nota Bene: This is proposed research; we are currently applying for funding for the 2017 field season. Sarah is working with students at FSU on digital and spatial analyses in a GIS environment as preliminary research, and on building the project database, during the 2016-17 academic year.
The Timok Regional Archaeological Project seeks to situate the Roman imperial palace of Felix Romuliana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, within a broader geographical and diachronic understanding of the surrounding landscape outside its walls. While much study has been dedicated to the art, history and archaeology of the palace at Romuliana and its immediate surroundings, rather less is understood about how the palace relates to its hinterland. To understand why Rome came to this village, as well as how it impacted the local inhabitants we must situate the research within a diachronic framework that takes into consideration the periods before, during, and after the arrival of Rome. Our investigation strategies combine remote sensing, archaeological surface survey, and targeted excavations, in order to analyze the patterns of spatial organization at different scales: the global (the Roman empire), the regional (the Timok River watershed), and the site (Felix Romuliana, as well as other archaeologically identified individual settlements). Specifically, we have three goals: identification of 1) the network of roads built at the behest of the late Roman imperial authorities that connected the palace to the rest of the empire, including provincial capitals, as well as to local settlements; (2) the locations of mineral resources, specifically quarries and mines, exploited in the region surrounding Felix Romuliana before, during, and after the occupation of the palace; and (3) developments in settlement patterns from the earliest evidence of human occupation in the region up to the present day, which will allow for a high-resolution understanding of the context in which the palace arose and declined.
The foundation for addressing larger questions about the landscape hinges, first and foremost, on the identification of the road network that connected the palace with contemporary settlements along the Roman frontier. Roman travel infrastructure in the immediate region, which at this time is understood only generally, is based almost entirely upon historical sources and subsequent approximations of connections between sites – for example, between Constantinople (modern Istanbul), the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, and Singidunum (modern Belgrade) on the Danube River, which marked the northernmost boundary of the late Roman empire (compare, e.g., Panaite 2015). Intensive work focused on the region around Romuliana holds great potential for connecting to detailed work done immediately to the south within the Timok region, in the vicinity of Timacum Minus and Timacum Maius, which has gone to great lengths to archaeologically identify the Roman road and its accompanying road stations (Petrović and Filipović 2007, 2008, 2015), leading to important late Roman urban centers in northeastern Serbia, such as Naissus, Šarkamen, and Aquae.
Previous research in the vicinity of Romuliana has identified a monumental road marker and funerary mounds one kilometer east of the main gate of the palace (Srejovič and Vasić 1994). Both the road and funerary monuments are, according to Roman custom, strong indicators for the location of the ancient road. Identifying the precise location of the road will allow for critical reflection upon the people and things that moved along this road to, from, and around the palace. This is a key area of investigation for determining the site’s place within the travel and communications system of the region, as the question of why the road monument is located where it is remains a mystery to investigators in terms of the precise route taken by the road it ostensibly marked.
Better understood than the precise course of the road(s) is what would have been moving along these routes, particularly the Roman military legion that was resident at Romuliana and tasked with building the palace, as well as the roads that led to and from it. There are several sites in the immediate vicinity of Romuliana that hold promise as strategic points for the location of military installations that would mark the course of major route(s) through eastern Serbia, such as the Kostol fort northeast of nearby Zaječar, whose location is now known only approximately, and is likely overbuilt by a modern factory (Misković 1887). More precise locations for such installations would allow us to situate the immediate Timok region within the wider network of Roman military fortresses and the roads they guarded (incorporating studies such as Băjenaru 2010; Bishop 2012; Gudea 2001; Petrović and Filipović 2007, 2008, and 2015). While the identification of such sites does afford us with a better picture of military architecture, economy and social life in the late Roman period, their identification can also provide a wealth of information regarding those spheres outside the military in this period: the landscape into which those fortifications were installed, the economies they participated in, and the people with whom they interacted. These various characteristics of late Roman life – defined on imperial, provincial, and local scales – were, throughout the Roman empire, inextricable from the distinct landscape within which they operated.
In addition to the movement of Roman legions along the hypothesized routes to and from fortifications along the border formed by the Danube, assorted goods – and in particular agricultural and mineral wealth – were transported along these various routes. The region’s distinctive geomorphology has resulted in the densest concentration of ore in Europe outside the Alps, alongside intensive gold mining dating back millennia, and thus holds strong ramifications for the patterns of resource exploitation and trade in this region over time (Kapuran 2014). For this reason, a second aim of our research is to identify and map possible mines and quarries that might have been linked to this road. A better understanding of the exploitation of mineral resources in the area will aid understanding of the strategies of movement, settlement, exploitation, and abandonment in the region.
Finally, it is critical that the mobilization of peoples and goods during the imperial Roman period be contextualized within larger, diachronic settlement patterns. The spatial and chronological identification of how peak occupation of different settlements maps onto broader regional connections in the Timok region will provide the necessary information for assessing the dynamics of the landscape over the course of its history, before and after the impact of Roman imperial presence in the Danubian provinces more generally, and in the Timok region specifically.
The overarching goal of synthesizing these methods is the diachronic reconstruction of the ancient regional landscape of the Timok River basin in the vicinity of the palace, based on detailed mapping of features, sites, and routes, combined with the analysis of ceramic distribution patterns. Comprehensive surveys of known sites of a discrete period (e.g., Kapuran 2014, which covers the whole of northeastern Serbia) help fill in the picture of the Timok regional landscape over time, but gaps remain. We will build upon small-scale, diachronic surface survey that has taken place in the immediate vicinity of Romuliana (Kapuran and Škundrić 2009, Škundrić 2012a, 2012b).
The predicted results of this archaeological project will speak to broader issues of how sudden integration into a larger imperial network may have impacted life in what was previously, and subsequently, a (seemingly) relatively isolated landscape. A better understanding of the dynamic landscape of the Timok region, an agriculturally fertile frontier zone, rich in natural resources, has much to contribute to late Roman scholarship in particular and to broader research discussions interrogating the complementary roles played by sites, events, and landscapes over time. This project focuses on one particular geographic landscape at a particular point in time – when Rome came to a village in eastern Serbia, the place of Emperor Galerius’ reputed birth – but it is not a unique phenomenon; the Roman Empire came to many villages. It is the hope of this project that our results can contribute to broader initiatives to elucidate the inspiration, impact, and legacy of Rome’s presence in the empire’s provinces in southeastern Europe, and beyond.
The foundation for addressing larger questions about the landscape hinges, first and foremost, on the identification of the road network that connected the palace with contemporary settlements along the Roman frontier. Roman travel infrastructure in the immediate region, which at this time is understood only generally, is based almost entirely upon historical sources and subsequent approximations of connections between sites – for example, between Constantinople (modern Istanbul), the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, and Singidunum (modern Belgrade) on the Danube River, which marked the northernmost boundary of the late Roman empire (compare, e.g., Panaite 2015). Intensive work focused on the region around Romuliana holds great potential for connecting to detailed work done immediately to the south within the Timok region, in the vicinity of Timacum Minus and Timacum Maius, which has gone to great lengths to archaeologically identify the Roman road and its accompanying road stations (Petrović and Filipović 2007, 2008, 2015), leading to important late Roman urban centers in northeastern Serbia, such as Naissus, Šarkamen, and Aquae.
Previous research in the vicinity of Romuliana has identified a monumental road marker and funerary mounds one kilometer east of the main gate of the palace (Srejovič and Vasić 1994). Both the road and funerary monuments are, according to Roman custom, strong indicators for the location of the ancient road. Identifying the precise location of the road will allow for critical reflection upon the people and things that moved along this road to, from, and around the palace. This is a key area of investigation for determining the site’s place within the travel and communications system of the region, as the question of why the road monument is located where it is remains a mystery to investigators in terms of the precise route taken by the road it ostensibly marked.
Better understood than the precise course of the road(s) is what would have been moving along these routes, particularly the Roman military legion that was resident at Romuliana and tasked with building the palace, as well as the roads that led to and from it. There are several sites in the immediate vicinity of Romuliana that hold promise as strategic points for the location of military installations that would mark the course of major route(s) through eastern Serbia, such as the Kostol fort northeast of nearby Zaječar, whose location is now known only approximately, and is likely overbuilt by a modern factory (Misković 1887). More precise locations for such installations would allow us to situate the immediate Timok region within the wider network of Roman military fortresses and the roads they guarded (incorporating studies such as Băjenaru 2010; Bishop 2012; Gudea 2001; Petrović and Filipović 2007, 2008, and 2015). While the identification of such sites does afford us with a better picture of military architecture, economy and social life in the late Roman period, their identification can also provide a wealth of information regarding those spheres outside the military in this period: the landscape into which those fortifications were installed, the economies they participated in, and the people with whom they interacted. These various characteristics of late Roman life – defined on imperial, provincial, and local scales – were, throughout the Roman empire, inextricable from the distinct landscape within which they operated.
In addition to the movement of Roman legions along the hypothesized routes to and from fortifications along the border formed by the Danube, assorted goods – and in particular agricultural and mineral wealth – were transported along these various routes. The region’s distinctive geomorphology has resulted in the densest concentration of ore in Europe outside the Alps, alongside intensive gold mining dating back millennia, and thus holds strong ramifications for the patterns of resource exploitation and trade in this region over time (Kapuran 2014). For this reason, a second aim of our research is to identify and map possible mines and quarries that might have been linked to this road. A better understanding of the exploitation of mineral resources in the area will aid understanding of the strategies of movement, settlement, exploitation, and abandonment in the region.
Finally, it is critical that the mobilization of peoples and goods during the imperial Roman period be contextualized within larger, diachronic settlement patterns. The spatial and chronological identification of how peak occupation of different settlements maps onto broader regional connections in the Timok region will provide the necessary information for assessing the dynamics of the landscape over the course of its history, before and after the impact of Roman imperial presence in the Danubian provinces more generally, and in the Timok region specifically.
The overarching goal of synthesizing these methods is the diachronic reconstruction of the ancient regional landscape of the Timok River basin in the vicinity of the palace, based on detailed mapping of features, sites, and routes, combined with the analysis of ceramic distribution patterns. Comprehensive surveys of known sites of a discrete period (e.g., Kapuran 2014, which covers the whole of northeastern Serbia) help fill in the picture of the Timok regional landscape over time, but gaps remain. We will build upon small-scale, diachronic surface survey that has taken place in the immediate vicinity of Romuliana (Kapuran and Škundrić 2009, Škundrić 2012a, 2012b).
The predicted results of this archaeological project will speak to broader issues of how sudden integration into a larger imperial network may have impacted life in what was previously, and subsequently, a (seemingly) relatively isolated landscape. A better understanding of the dynamic landscape of the Timok region, an agriculturally fertile frontier zone, rich in natural resources, has much to contribute to late Roman scholarship in particular and to broader research discussions interrogating the complementary roles played by sites, events, and landscapes over time. This project focuses on one particular geographic landscape at a particular point in time – when Rome came to a village in eastern Serbia, the place of Emperor Galerius’ reputed birth – but it is not a unique phenomenon; the Roman Empire came to many villages. It is the hope of this project that our results can contribute to broader initiatives to elucidate the inspiration, impact, and legacy of Rome’s presence in the empire’s provinces in southeastern Europe, and beyond.
