Fieldwork at Novae (Bulgaria) in 2009 and 2010

Abstract

Novae was a roman legionary fortress and town, located in modern day Bulgaria, to the east of Svishtov on the banks of the danube. The site has been continually excavated since 1960 by a joint Polish- -Bulgarian team and the results have been published thoroughly. 1 Today, there are three Polish teams excavating at Novae, one of which is from the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe research Centre. 2 The Centre3 carries out fieldwork within Sector Iv, mostly renowned for its military hospital (valetudinarium). Novae was the home and the headquarters for the 1st Italic legion (Legio I Italica) in the province of Moesia Inferior for nearly its entire period of occupation as an important roman military base (as a military castra), but still underwent a number of significant changes through the years. With the valetudinarium having been completely excavated by 2006, 4 the Centre has since then worked on establishing the layout of the earlier structure below – the baths of the castra legionis. They functioned here approximately in 70–101 Ad, until Trajan’s dacian wars required alarge military hospital to be built and the thermae were moved towards the centre of the fortress, west of the principia. The location of the first thermae in the praetentura in the scamnum closest to the northern wall of the fortress (and hence the danube) is somewhat peculiar but can be explained by logistical reasons. heavy building material for the baths (in atime when most parts of thecastra,excluding the principia, were made of wood) was predominantly transported on the danube. Thus, the stones could be directly heaved onto the construction site. Additionally, huge amounts of sewage could easily be disposed of on the river bank. The thermae were explored by trial trenches; 2009 and 2010 were scheduled to be the final seasons.