Zeus and Hera Souideptenoi: The Sanctuary at Belava Mountain near Turres/Pirot

Abstract

In the border zone between the Roman provinces of Upper Moesia and Thrace a sanctuary dedicated to Zeus and Hera, defined by the toponymic epithet Souideptenoi, was discovered on the Belava mountain, near Turres (today’s Pirot). The sanctuary presumably encompassed a temenos, an altar and two smaller temples, oriented east-west, with the entrance on the eastern side. Unfortunately, illegal excavations were conducted on the area of the sanctuary by thieves, who stole the small reliefs offered to the deities venerated in the sanctuary, of which the authors of this paper could obtain the data of 31 fragmented votive plates, most of them inscribed. A variety of iconographic schemas, especially the standing divine couple or Zeus and Hera in quadriga, as well as the combination of three onomastics stocks (Thracian, Greek and Latin) illustrate the diversity of traditions and the cultural interferences at work during imperial times. It can be presumed that the sanctuary dedicated to Zeus and Hera Souideptenoi existed from the 2nd to the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 4th century.