Novensia: Studia i Materiały (10.1998)

19

only part of the Western and Southern wings of the hospital and its yard could be
replaced with new buildings. Thus the initially big insule was divided probably into
four smaller area units. Borders of such new insules were constituted of the JL Street
described above and presented in profiles: a Street along part of the Building with
Porticoes. Since the L portico and J building are organically connected with the
JL Street, so they are the oldest constructions discovered in the IV section after
abandoning the valetudinarium. The horreum complex discovered to the north
of the JL Street was probably an architectonic pendant for the complex. It will be
a topie of a subseąuent report.12
The chronology of the walls in the Building with Porticoes shows that it was not
created as one compact, thoroughly planned architectonic complex, but it was built
after erecting the J construction and the Southern older hospital with the usage of its
walls as foundations for new constructions. The process of the finał spatial shaping
of the Building with Porticoes was completed in the 2nd half of III A.D. We still do
not know reasons of such a behaviour of antiąue constructors because we still do
not understand the function of the J building. Ali data indicate its high importance.13
The JL Street madę it impossible for us to uncover the military hospital, so after
completing all the documents a decision was madę to take off its boards. After they
were removed, it turned out that most of them were fragments of grave stones and
other architectonic elements connected with graves. The steles, which seemed to be
too big for the Street constructors, were put into the Street surface. Others were cut
in order to give them shapes similar to a sąuare or rectangle, when still some other
steles were cut irregularly. All of them were put with the inscriptions and decorated
side downwards a mortar layer. Not only the fragments of grave constructions were
used for making the Street surface. Generally speaking, we can divide all excavated
fragments into three basie groups.14
The first and most numerous group is composed of elements of grave con-
structions. It also gave the working name of JL Street, i.e. via inscriptionum. They
are, first of all, grave steles adorned with rosettes or vine-grapes. One of them is
especially richly adorned in its upper part representing a faęade of a building
surrounded with fantastically sculptured trees. Birds of the wood-pecker, thrush,
hoopoo, starling, sparrow and pigeon species are presented in flowery corolla and
among vine-grapes15 (Fig. 1.1). The richness of the ornaments and iconologic depth
ofthese representations still reąuires further studies. Most inscriptions are engraved
in stone and, just like decorative motives, are stressed with the red paint, whose
numerous remnants are still visible (Figs. 2.1-3; 3.4). There are also steles whose
inscription fields are empty, although the whole piąte is completely finished
(Fig. 3.2). It seems that in this case we have found grave stones with painted in-
scriptions, although no traces of the said inscriptions have been preserved till our
times. One of these steles with torches represented on lateral edges has its lower part
not completed. The field is sufficiently big if compared with the size and mass of
the whole stele. It cannot be explained only by the fact of a deep sinking into the