Archaeological excavations at the roman fort Băneasa in the summer 2017

Cercetări Arheologice 24, 2017, 83-98
https://doi.org/10.46535/ca.24.03



Archaeological excavations at the roman fort Băneasa in the summer 2017

Archaeological excavations at the roman fort Băneasa in the summer of 2017

Authors: Eugen S. Teodor Emil Dumitrașcu Dan Ștefan

Keywords:

limes, castru, șanț apărare, baracă, materiale de construcţii

limes; fort; defensive ditch; barrack; construction materials

Abstract:

După o primă scurtă campanie informativă în 2016, în anul următor ne-am concentrat eforturile la colţul de NE al castrului roman mare de la Băneasa. Săpătura a probat existenţa unui şanţ de apărare relativ mare, cu obstacol de lemn la ieşirea din şanţ. Berma este neobișnuit de lungă (10 m), făcând imposibilă vizibilitatea dinspre palisadă către mijlocul şanţului. Palisada este realizată din stâlpi de lemn, nu foarte adânc îngropaţi, nici foarte bine solidarizaţi, valul de sprijin fiind scund şi scurt. Baraca începe la doar doi metri de palisadă, fără a exista deci loc pentru un turn sau pentru un intervallum sau o via sagularis. Construcţia a fost realizată pe structură de lemn, cu pereţi integral din chirpici, iar acoperirea era vegetală. Ca urmare, baraca a fost mistuită de un foc violent dar foarte probabil scurt. Din structură nu au fost găsite nici măcar fragmente ale structurii de rezistenţă, fiindcă lemnul care nu a ars a fost recuperat. Seria faptelor neobişnuite, din acest castru, continuă cu relativa absenţă a cuielor de construcţii, cât şi cu evidenta raritate a tegulelor, ceea ce ne-a atenţionat că problema combustibilului era una vitală, într-o zonă cu caracter semi-stepic, cu vegetație săracă. Săpătura a traversat în diagonală capătul nordic al unei barăci. Inventarul recuperat este tipic, cu materiale aparţinând echipamentului militar. Datarea este asigurată de cele patru monede găsite în dărâmătura barăcii, toate din primul sfert al secolului al III-lea.

Following a brief, exploratory campaign in 2016, we focused our efforts in the next year on the NE corner of the Roman fortlet from Băneasa. The excavation brought evidence for the existence of a rather large defensive ditch, with a wooden obstacle at the ditch’s exit. The berm is unusually long (10 m) making it impossible to see from the palisade towards the middle of the ditch. The palisade is built from wooden stakes, that were not buried very deep, nor extremely solidified, with the supporting wall short and small. The barrack starts just two meters away from the palisade, leaving no room for a tower, an intervallum or a via sagularis. The construction was built on a wooden basis, with the walls made entirely from wattle and daub, covered with vegetation. Thus, the barrack was destroyed by a very intense, but probably very fast, fire. Not even fragmentary elements from the resistance structure were discovered because the wood that did not burn was recovered. The series of unusual facts taking place in this fortlet continues with, the relative absence of nails used in construction as well as the obvious scarcity of tegulae, which warned us that the topic of fuel was of vital importance in an area with a half-steppe character, with little vegetation. The excavation diagonally traversed the northern part of a barrack. The inventory that was recovered is typical, with material from the military equipment. The dating is given by the four coins discovered in the barrack ruins, all dated in the first quarter of the 3rd century.

Download: PDF

How to cite: Eugen S. Teodor, Emil Dumitrașcu, Dan Ștefan, Archaeological excavations at the roman fort Băneasa in the summer 2017, Cercetări Arheologice, Vol. 24, pag. 83-98, 2017, doi: https://doi.org/10.46535/ca.24.03

Bibliography

  1. L. Angelova Traykova, The belt south of Lower Danube – end of the 3rd c., the beginning of the 7th c., Sofia, 2017
  2. M.C. Bishop, J.N.C. Coulston, Roman Military Equipment from the Punic Wars to the fall of Rome, sec. ed., Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2006
  3. S. Cociş, Fibulele din Dacia romană (The brooches from Roman Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 2004
  4. J. Nicolay, Armed Batavians. Use and significance of Weaponry and Horse Gear from non-military contexts in the Rhine Delta (50 BC to AD 450), Amsterdam University Press, 2007
  5. E.S. Teodor, New Archaeological Researches at the Roman Fort from Băneasa (Teleorman County), CA, XXIII, 2016, p. 107–125
  6. E.S. Teodor, Environmental impact in building a new Frontier, Angustia, 21, forthcoming
  7. E.S. Teodor, C. Nicolae, Civilians in the fort. Răcari case, AMN, 50/1, 2013, p. 157–180
  8. E.S. Teodor, M. Ştefan, Al. Bădescu, Systematic field survey on Limes Transalutanus, Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology, 4.2, 2017 51–76
  9. G. Tocilescu, Fouilles et recherches archaeologiques en Roumanie. Communications faités à l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belle Lettres de Paris, 1892–1899, Bucharest: Imprimerie du Corps didactique, 1900
  10. Limes Transalutanus Breviary – http://breviary.limes-transalutanus.ro/

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License