Controlling and dominating the fortified landscape : Early Christian sacral architecture along the Late Antiquity limes in the Serbian part of the Danubian valley

Abstract

During large-scale rescue archaeological researches in the 1960s–1980s on the Danube in the Iron Gates region in present-day Serbia (sections of Moesia Prima and Dacia Ripensis), a large number of archaeological sites from various prehistoric and historical periods was registered. The focus of this paper are military fortifications, located on important defence and control points along the limes, which had, in their final phases (generally, in the 6th century), a church built within the ramparts, as the dominant edifice of the fortification. Church buildings belonged mostly to the one-nave type and had the baptismal function. In this paper, we will attempt to deal with questions regarding the relationship between these buildings and the remains of military and civilian architecture, as well as the reconstruction of the lifestyles of its Christianised and other inhabitants.