Viminatium
Viminacium or Viminacium , also known as Stari Kostolac or sometimes called " Pompeii referred Serbia" was, in ancient times between the 1st and 6th century an important border town of Roman province Moesia .
Viminatium was one of the larger Roman cities on the Balkan Peninsula and was the headquarters of the Roman Legio VII Claudia . The archaeological site is similar to Carnuntum in Austria in open terrain and is built over a modern city, which allows large-scale investigations.
In the former urban area there is a large amphitheater and the mausoleum of the Roman emperor Hostilian († 251). There is also a Mammut Park in the area . The battles of Viminacium took place in the vicinity of the city .
location
Viminatium was a pillar of the Roman defense against the barbarian peoples invading from the north . It was located near today's Kostolac near Požarevac in eastern Serbia , about 90 kilometers southeast of the capital Belgrade . Here the Via Militaris met the Danube Path , which connected Sirmium via Viminatium along the Danube with Dorostorum and Troesmis .
history
The settlement next to the camp gained the status of a Municipium during the reign of Hadrian (117-138) , which gave them a certain degree of autonomy. During the reign of Gordian III. (239) the city was raised to the status of a colony of Roman citizens and was given the right to mint local coins. This was the highest rank a city could attain during the Roman Empire . Viminacium was also often used as a gathering point for troops and a starting point for campaigns.
In the 3rd century the city went into decline due to the plague . Following the murders after the death of Constantine the Great , the imperial sons Constantine II , Constantius II and Constans met here to divide the empire among themselves, also known as the Conference of Viminatium . Around 440 Viminatium was destroyed by the Huns , previously by the Goths . It is not known whether the city was rebuilt by Anastasios I or Justinian I and included in the fortress belt on the Danube.
In 584 the city was destroyed by the Avars , but during the Balkan campaigns of Maurikios , the Eastern Roman general Priskos managed to defeat the Avars in their own country for the first time on the northern bank of the Danube opposite Viminatium in 599. In this way he created the basis for the as yet undetectable decline of the Avar supremacy in Southeastern and Eastern Europe. The titular archbishopric Viminacium of the Roman Catholic Church goes back to a late antique bishopric of the city .
Excavations
Roman finds
The first archaeological investigations began in Viminacium as early as the 19th century. One of the most important finds is the treasure of Viminacium , which was recovered in 1899 . The excavations were then intensified in the last 25 years of the 20th century and continue to this day. To date, around 14,000 graves have been uncovered in the area of the old city and over 30,000 objects from the Roman Empire, some of them very well preserved. That is why it is sometimes also called “ Pompeii of Serbia”. Among other things, the tomb of the Roman soldier emperor Hostilian was identified. He was proclaimed Roman Emperor together with Trebonianus Gallus in 251 after the death of his father Decius , ruled for only a few months and died of the plague in 251. His body was cremated in front of the city and buried on the spot with also burnt items. In the city there was an important mint from the 3rd century AD, which mainly minted copper coins for the militarily important northern Balkan region .
In recent years, special emphasis has been placed on exploring the amphitheater , which is said to be almost as big as today's Belgrade arena . "We have an area of almost 400 hectares for exploration, although we have only excavated two percent of the Viminatium so far," says the director of Viminatium Miomir Korać. It is estimated that Viminatium could be visited by millions of tourists very quickly. Parts of the excavation site are already accessible to visitors and tourists in Serbia .
Mammoth finds
In June 2009, the almost intact skeleton of a steppe mammoth ( Mammuthus trogontherii ) was discovered in the immediate vicinity of the excavation site . The find dates to the Old to Middle Pleistocene and is between 1 million and 400,000 years old. It is a male animal over 60 years old, which was reconstructed almost 4 meters high and weighed an estimated 9.4 to 9.7 tons. In 2012, a scientifically important mammoth cemetery with seven mammoth skeletons was uncovered at the same location . However, these originate from loess layers of the Upper Pleistocene and are therefore provisionally determined to be between 126,000-10,000 years before Christ.
Finally, in June 2014, the presentation of the finds in the first Mammut Park in Europe opened. The object is 1,500 square kilometers and is located 30 meters underground. The aim was to maintain the ambience in which the ancient mammoth was buried for hundreds of thousands of years. In addition to the original mammoth, it contains four other animals. Thus it is the only mammoth skeleton or the only mammoths that are exhibited directly at the place of discovery, because all the others are in museums far away from where they were found.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ International Radio Serbia: Precious Discovery - Another Mammoth in Viminatium
- ^ Adrian M. Lister, Vesna Dimitrijević, Zoran Marković, Slobodan Knežzević and Dick Mol: A skeleton of 'steppe' mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii (Pohlig)) from Drmno, near Kostolac, Serbia. Quaternary International 276-277, 2012, pp. 129-144, doi : 10.1016 / j.quaint.2012.03.021 .
- ↑ Thomas Roser: Mighty fossil mammoth discovered in Serbia In: Die Welt Online , July 5, 2009
- ^ The Telegraph, June 28, 2012 Mammoth graveyard discovered in Serbia
- ↑ rts.rs: Откривено "читаво крдо" мамута! (Serbian) In: Radio-televizije Srbije , June 13, 2012
Coordinates: 44 ° 44 ' N , 21 ° 14' E