Novae 2013 : legionary defences and headquarters building

Abstract

This year, our post-excavation project undertaken in 2005 in order to verify and record theresults of old field works carried out in the 1970s and 1980s along the defensive walls of thefortress of the Roman legions VIII Augusta (ca. AD 54–69) and I Italica (ca. AD 72 – 4th c. AD) included furtherexamination of the north and east gates, the northern wall and Tower 12 on the southern side of the fortress (Fig. 1). In the central part of the fortress, within the headquarters building (principia) some excavation and documentation work had to be done in connection with the project“Novae – the heart of the Legion. Socialization and Exhibition of Roman Military Camp and Late Antiquity Town of Novae – Stage 1,” supported financially by the operational Programme Regional Development 2007–2013 of the European Commission. on the edge of the high Danube escarpment (i.e., the northern line of the legionary defences) where during the previous campaigns ruins of the stone interval tower (Tower 27) were brought to light in a distance of about 42 m to the east from the north-western corner of the fortress, we finally localized an interval timber tower belonging to the defences of the 8th Augustan Legion from the Neronian period. The timber tower was situated 6.2 m to theeast from thelater stone Tower 27 and had theshape of a rectangle 5.8 m long (east-west) and probably 3 m wide, the same as in the case of another timber tower on the east side of thefortress. Both towers stood on six posts of round cross-section from outside and square cross-section on the inside. Two of thethreeinner post-holes weretraced, while the round outer post-holes remain invisible underlying the preserved foundation of the later masonry curtain wall.