DOI Artikel:
Press, Ludwika: Novae: Some pages from a diary of our expedition
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41276#0009
Ludwika Press
Warszawa
NOVAE.
SOME PAGES FROM A DIARY OF OUR EXPEDITION
It is already thirty years ago when two professors of Warsaw University, acting
upon an agreement between the Bulgarian and Polish authorities, came to Bułgaria
to select a site for the common Polish-Bulgarian archaeological research. The choice
fell on Novae on the lower Danube, near the town of Svishtov.
This was a place free of any buildings and it had not been iiwestigated before.
Its early localization had been simply based upon written sources and finds that
had been discovered accidentally in this century at all sorts of diggings. And once
a mention about the long stationing of Legio Prima Italica at Novae was connected
with the bricks and tiles stamped by that legion and found there, the localisation of
this particular site had to be accepted. The legion, as we know it, was formed under
the rule of Nero and was sent to Novae under Vespasian.
Having chosen Novae, Prof. Majewski introduced his pupils into the ąuestions
of the Roman Danube limes, a subject he had long been studying. At the same time,
Prof Hensel, who was interested first of all in Slavonic strata, hardly to be found at
Novae, having madę preliminary investigations, decided to move over, with a group
of archaeologists, to Starmen. So the Warsaw Expedition got as its head Prof.
Kazimierz Majewski, while the Bulgarian Expedition was headed by Professor
D. Dymitrov. Ten years later another expedition was formed, that of the Adam
Mickiewicz University in Poznań directed by Prof Stefan Parnicki-Pudełko, who
until then, at the invitation of Prof. Majewski, had been a member of the Warsaw
Expedition, with which also colleagues from the Polish Academy of Sciences did
cooperate. In 1977, a group of colleagues from Wrocław University worked with us
as well for a time.
As a result of systematic excavations at Novae it was established that the fortress
area, surrounded by defensive walls, covered a surface of 365 m by 485 m. Four
gates led into it: the northern one — porta praetoria, Southern — porta decumana,
western —porta principalis sinistra, eastern — porta principalis dextra.
The fortifications of the legioiTs fortress and of the subseąuent city used to be
rebuilt on several occasions during the centuries. They have been studied in details,
on their western and north-westerly sides, by Stefan Parnicki-Pudełko, and on the
Warszawa
NOVAE.
SOME PAGES FROM A DIARY OF OUR EXPEDITION
It is already thirty years ago when two professors of Warsaw University, acting
upon an agreement between the Bulgarian and Polish authorities, came to Bułgaria
to select a site for the common Polish-Bulgarian archaeological research. The choice
fell on Novae on the lower Danube, near the town of Svishtov.
This was a place free of any buildings and it had not been iiwestigated before.
Its early localization had been simply based upon written sources and finds that
had been discovered accidentally in this century at all sorts of diggings. And once
a mention about the long stationing of Legio Prima Italica at Novae was connected
with the bricks and tiles stamped by that legion and found there, the localisation of
this particular site had to be accepted. The legion, as we know it, was formed under
the rule of Nero and was sent to Novae under Vespasian.
Having chosen Novae, Prof. Majewski introduced his pupils into the ąuestions
of the Roman Danube limes, a subject he had long been studying. At the same time,
Prof Hensel, who was interested first of all in Slavonic strata, hardly to be found at
Novae, having madę preliminary investigations, decided to move over, with a group
of archaeologists, to Starmen. So the Warsaw Expedition got as its head Prof.
Kazimierz Majewski, while the Bulgarian Expedition was headed by Professor
D. Dymitrov. Ten years later another expedition was formed, that of the Adam
Mickiewicz University in Poznań directed by Prof Stefan Parnicki-Pudełko, who
until then, at the invitation of Prof. Majewski, had been a member of the Warsaw
Expedition, with which also colleagues from the Polish Academy of Sciences did
cooperate. In 1977, a group of colleagues from Wrocław University worked with us
as well for a time.
As a result of systematic excavations at Novae it was established that the fortress
area, surrounded by defensive walls, covered a surface of 365 m by 485 m. Four
gates led into it: the northern one — porta praetoria, Southern — porta decumana,
western —porta principalis sinistra, eastern — porta principalis dextra.
The fortifications of the legioiTs fortress and of the subseąuent city used to be
rebuilt on several occasions during the centuries. They have been studied in details,
on their western and north-westerly sides, by Stefan Parnicki-Pudełko, and on the