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 Souidept?noi, 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 Souidept?noi existed from the 2nd to the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 4th century.
During June and July 2014, at the site of Zadruzni Dom in Skelani, archaeological investigations of the late antique building were carried out, whose rooms were first discovered in the course of archaeological excavations in 2008. The building has a rectangular base, of a northeast-southwest orientation, with the discovered part measuring 20.90 x 30.90 m. What is distinguishable within the asymmetrical base is an entrance, along with eleven rooms, two of which have apses, and a peristyle, i.e. an inner courtyard with a roofed corridor surrounding it which connects all the rooms of the building. During the archaeological excavations, entrance thresholds and extremely well preserved mortar floors with mortar skirting were noted in most rooms, along with traces of fresco painting on the walls and mosaic floors, executed in the opus tesselatum technique, observed in several rooms, the peristyle and the encompassing corridor. The discovered mosaic fragments are decorated with geometric motifs in the form of a swastika, a Solomon?s knot, a square, a rhomboid, overlapping circles, etc. and floral motifs of ivy and petals, as well as a double braid motif. Small but, unfortunately, fragmented pieces of a mosaic with a figural representation were discovered in the central part of the peristyle, while the mosaic in room K was decorated with a motif portraying the winged head of Medusa. Two construction phases were noted, an older and a younger, with the walls, which were two Roman feet wide and built from dressed stone, and the older mortar floor belonging to the older construction phase, and the second, younger construction phase comprising mosaics, fresco painting, the younger mortar floor and two furnaces. Contemplating the planimetry of the building, one gets the impression of the rooms being divided between two parts - public and private, whereby the public part of the building would be located near the main entrance hall and would comprise rooms A, B, C, D and F, with mortar floors and traces of fresco painting on the walls. The other, possibly private, part of the building would include five rooms G, H, I, J and K and the inner courtyard. Rooms I, J and K had floor and wall heating, while rooms G and H had an arched apse and possibly functioned as a reception hall and/or a stibadium. The hallway with mosaics, which flanks the inner courtyard, was most likely roofed. Traces of burning in the north-western corridor testify to the destruction of the building in a fire. Based on the architectural elements and the traces of fresco painting and mosaics in the building at the site of Zadruzni Dom in Skelani, it can be deduced that this is a late antique building which can roughly be dated to the period between the end of the 3rd and the mid-4th century AD, and whose lavish decoration implies that it was owned by an affluent resident of Skelani from the aforementioned period.
A fragmented marble sculpture was found during the construction works on the canalisation collector in Skelani (Municipium Malvesatium). The sculpture presents a life-size bird's torso with his right webbed foot placed on a female's left thigh, part of a folded cloth and a childlike hand placed on the lower part of the bird's torso. It was identified as a mythological scene favoured in antiquity, of Leda and Zeus in the guise of the swan, at the moment of Zeus' seduction of Leda. This sculptural fragment holds even greater significance in the comprehension of Roman provincial art, since to date, it represents a unique example of this iconographic type, not only in sculpture, but in any other work of art in the territory of the Central Balkans.
A monumental altar was found in the very centre of Belgrade, ancient Singidunum, in 1932, with iconographic scenes of the sacrificial procession for a ritual animal sacrifice - immolatio. The scenes depict the procession of sacrificial animals to the altar known as pompa, by the victimarii, but also represent priests of a lower rank (flamines minores), with ritual utensils like a wine-pitcher, patera and acerra, used for the ritus of purification which precedes the sacrifice and for ritual acts during the sacrifice. The altar from Singidunum represents a unique monument with the described iconography in the territory of Moesia Superior and it has only been published in catalogue form to date, never fully analysed or interpreted. Through the analysis of its iconography, typology, function, geographically closest analogies and possible context of its finding, new conclusions regarding the praxis of public ritual sacrifice are brought to light related to the period from the second half of the 2nd century to the first decades of the 3rd century in Singidunum, one of the main centres of Moesia Superior.
The research of this study is dedicated to a unique iconographical scene in the territory of the Central Balkan Roman provinces, of Hercules rescuing Hesione from a sea-monster (ketos), depicted on a funerary monument found in 1931 at the site of Stojnik, in the vicinity of Belgrade, antique Singidunum, and now displayed in the lapidarium of the National Museum in Belgrade. The funerary monument was erected for the deceased, a veteran of cohors II Aurelia nova, Publius Aelius Victorinus, by his wife Aurelia Rufina and their son Publius Aelius Acutianus. The rich iconography of the monument makes it a very important example of funerary art in the period from the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century - the eschatological symbolism of the presented scenes and motifs is more than clear and underlines not only the hope of the deceased?s family for his eternal and blessed life after death, but also the deceased?s victory over death and presents him as a symbol of courage and virtue. The architectural scheme of the monument, along with its iconography, suggests strong artistic influences from Noricum and both the Pannonian provinces, while the the mythical tale of Hercules and Hesione was chosen, it is argued, not only because Hercules was one of the most favoured gods in the Roman army, but also because he was a protector of miners and mines.
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