Прилог проучавању римског насеља на локалитету Timacum Minus код Књажевца

Abstract

Локалитет Timacum Minus се налази у источној Србији, приближно 8 km северно од Књажевца, у селу Равни. У тексту су представљени резултати археолошких истраживања изван фортификације Timacum Minus током 1976. године. Сондажно ископавање ван утврђења реализовано је на имању Бошка Станојевића, југозападно од јужног бедема. Том приликом су откривени објекат и покретни археолошки материјал који представљају остатке цивилног насеља насталог око кастела. Истраживања у ближој околини Timacum Minus-а пружају увид у ширу слику римског налазишта у Равни.

Timacum Minus is located in the Eastern Serbia, about 8 km to the North from Knjaževac, in the village of Ravna. In this article the results of the archaeological research in 1976, out of the fortiication of Timacum Minus, are presented. The probe excavations out of the fortiication were executed in 1976 on the land of Boško Stanojević, to the Southwest from the Southern rampart. This research had revealed an object and small inds representing the remains of the civil settlement formed arround the castellum. The reserch of the surroundings of Timacum Minus could give us the compehension of the wider picture of Roman archaeological site in Ravna

On basis of the stratigraphy of cultural layers and the analysis of archaeological inds from trenches VI – VIII it could be concluded that the building discovered in trench VI was contemporary with the structures, the brick wall and the well, in trench VIII. Probably, they were parts of the same large building, maybe a villa suburbana. This complex is dated in the end of the 3rd and the irst half of 4th centuries A.D, by the glass items (Cat. nos. 1, 5, 9, Pl. I/4, Pl. III/1–2), the ceramic lamp (Cat. no. 2, Pl. I/1), the iron belt buckle (Cat. no. 21, Pl. IV/4) and bronze coins of Constantine the Great and Diocletian (Cat. nos. 8, 12, 14–15, Pl. VI/1–4). In trenches VI and VIII the layers A and B and the level of the foor I belonged to this horizon of life. The layer B had been formed above the loor as a dwelling layer and the layer A, a layer of rubble, was formed in the top of it by decay of the building, the destruction of the roof and walls after it had been abandoned. In the layers A–B fragments of ceramic and glass vessels, as well as iron tools and nails were discovered pointing to the economic function of the building. Mortar loor of a building, excavated in trench VII, and the house with drywall foundations and walls of packed earth, found in trench VIII, are earlier, probably from the second half of 3rd century A.D. The ceramic plates manufactured in the workshop discovered in trench VIII (Cat. nos. 22–8, Pl. VI/5). All of seven ceramic plates belong to the same type, with shallow conical recipient, lat bottom and horizontal rim, characteristic in 2nd–3rd centuries A. D. The specimens from the“ deposit“ of ceramic plates varied minimally in dimensions and they were manufactured of reined clay, white, yellowish-white and yellowish-orange in colour. On the insid and the outside surface there are paralel grooves from thr potter’s wheel. In the building where the “ deposit“ of ceramic plates have been found, a circular marble plate with a hole in the middle was also discovered, probably a potter’s wheel (Cat. no. 16, Pl. V/1). Layer C, formed above the loor II, belonged to this horizon of life. In this layer, apart the fragments of ceramic and glass vessels, a bronze strigillis (Cat. np. 17, Pl. V/3), a whetstone (Cat. no. 18, Pl. V/2) and a fragment of deformed bronze handle (Cat. no. 19, Pl. IV/3) were found. The earliest horizon of life in this part of roman civil settlement is represented by the layer D, which had been formed above the sterile soil. In this layer a bronze bell–pendant was excavated (Cat. no. 20, Pl. IV/2), which indicates a Sarmatian component in the population of Timacum Minus in the period from 1st to the middle of 3rd centuries. It was also noticed in the earliest horizon of burial in necropolis Slog (Petković et al. 2005, 56–57, 145). Layer D is a closed archaeological unit, because below it there is sterile soil and on the top of it there’s the mortar loor II of later construction. According to the data above it could be assumed that the part of the civil settlement to the South of fortiication Timacum Minus begun in the 2nd, even maybe in the 1st century, and lived until the middle of 4th century. There’s a question where the Late Roman settlement from the second half of 4th–the irst half of 5th centurieswas located. Regard to the frequent invasions of barbarians in the Timok Valley, it’s possible that the population of this settlement withdrew inside the fortiication of Timacum Minus. This was conirmed by the archaeological investigation of the latest horizon of life in the section of the South gate of fortiication, which revealed a settlement of rural type inside the ramparts (Петковић и Јовановић 2000). To have the exact picture of the presented results of archaeological excavations of civil settlement of Timacum Minus in 1976 in trenches VI – VIII it is necessary to mention that the technical documentation for trenches VI and VII is missing and that the typological and statistical analysis of the discovered ceramics is yet to come. Also, we assume that revision excavations at the same site are necessary in aim to discover completely the excavated building, as well as to deine their function.