Novensia: Studia i Materiały (20.2009)

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Some items belonging to this category have been already described in literaturę
concerning this site [Gacuta 1987; Genćeva 2000; Dyczek 2008], Pieces of body
armour known as lorica segmentata from Novae are of special interest.
The presented paper deals with a lońca segmentata fragments from the
principia at Novae. Contrary to the finds from the scamnum tribunorum, analised
by E. Genćeva [Genćeva 2000], they have not been published yet. The most
interesting is an assemblage from the pit 13 in Room Cz, especially when
confronted with other find produced by the same stratigraphical unit. Apart from
some animal skeletal remains [Gręzak, Piątkowska-Małecka 2006], this materiał
has not been presented. One of the aims of this work is to analyse the
archaeological and stratigraphical context of armour pieces from Room Cz, and
to set up a hypothesis about the circumstances of their burial. Other pieces of
armour were also found over last few decades in different contexts within the
principia, and have not been published either. The author attempts to describe
and datę these artifacts.

1. Fragments of the lorica segmentata from Room Cz and their
archaeological context

The largest assembly of lorica segmentata pieces produced by the excavation in
the headąarters building come from Pit 13 within Room Cz. The room is situated
in the south-western part of the building between Rooms Bz and Dz. It is 10 m
long and 6 m wide, and has two half-columns at the entrance. An eąuestrian
statuę was probably located before the doors. The room had a floor madę of loess
mixed with broken ceramics, with numerous marks of repairing and scaffold holes
under its surface [Sarnowski 1998, 196; Sarnowski 2002, 165]. Nineteen coins
from the period between the reign of Vespasianus (AD 69-79) and AD 336-341
have been found in the floor and tile rubble above it [Sarnowski 1998,196]. There
was a constant level of the floor in Room Cz from the lst century AD to the 5th
century AD [Sarnowski 1998, 197], In the lst half of the 3rd century AD the
marble plaąue with the tile bearing the name of Caracalla was placed on the
wali [Dyczek, Kolendo, Sarnowski 2001, 35]. Pieces of bronze statuary have
been found as well [Sarnowski 1999, 81]. The destruction layer on the floor
can be dated to the second ąuater of the 5th century AD.
Under the floor surface building layers and its make-up and, a rectangular pit
was discovered. It was 3 m long, 2,6 m wide, 1-1,6 m deep [Sarnowski 2002, 165;
Sarnowski 2003a, 74]. It is probable that this pit was dug in order to obtain clean
loess for building purposes [Sarnowski 2002, 165; Sarnowski 2003a, 74]. During
the excavations five layers of the filling were recorded:
- a dirty yellow layer;