New results of the excavations of the Imperial Palace in Sirmium

Abstract

Research of the imperial palace in Sirmium started before the Second World War, while the systematic character begins with excavations of site 1a. In the last 70 Years parts of economic structures (site 31), as well as the parts of representative buildings (site 37), were researched. Of the highest importance was the exploration of the hippodrome (few sites) which further strengthened the interpretation of the buildings to the south of the hippodrome as imperial palatial complex. During the last 20 years in the NW part of Sirmium palace systematic excavations had been conducted in the course of 12 campaigns on the site 85. Architecture from different horizons has been investigated. One of the main results is the find of polygonal building which could be dated to the period of first decade of the IV century A.D. Based on the finds from the destruction layer one can assume that it was used as official building in the center of the imperial palace. Numerous fragments of imperial porphyry busts, fragments of luxurious architectural decoration, as well as large number of lead seals had been found in the destruction layer, on top of which new arrangement of structures has been built. Based on context of finds one can assume that destruction of this building had occurred in the second half of the IV century. During that period few annexes of the large building to the west had been established and the space of the previous official building has been converted into open space area. This reconstruction of the part of the palace could be dated to 8 th decade of the IV century A.D.