Boundary Stones from Roman Dalmatia – Some Recent Discoveries

Tyragetia. Arheologie. Istorie Antică, s.n., vol. XVII[XXXII], nr. 1, p. 269-294, 2023

Funerary Monuments in the Interior of the Roman Province of Dalmatia, 2021

The present study deals with the question of the organization of the stonemasonry production of funerary monuments in the interior of the former Roman province of Dalmatia. The aim of the research was to identify a model of stonemasonry production that originated in a mountainous and difficult to traverse area, where the possibilities of water transport of stone material are minimal. The author started from the assumption that production centres formed in some geographical areas during Roman rule, using local limestone sources for their operation. The study includes funerary monuments discovered in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the western part of Serbia and Montenegro. By combining the methods of macroscopic petrographic analysis of the stone material and typological and spatial analysis, the existence of several production centres was proven. The results of the analyses indicate a very likely that they exploited the local limestone resources. Epigraphic data also made it possible to define their chronological aspect. The study is essentially divided into two parts. The first presents the results of the material analyses, followed by a typological analysis. The second part contains a catalogue of the funerary monuments. In the introduction, the basic framework of the study is presented. The next chapter focuses on the result of the macroscopic-petrographic material analysis carried out on the funerary monuments at National Museum in Sarajevo. The main focus is on the interpretation of the results of the material analysis and the attempt to establish a possible spatial relationship between the (limestone) source area and the individual funerary monuments that were the subject of the analysis. Since the study encompass vast study area, the territory was arbitrarily divided into several parts, namely the northern, north-western, southwestern, southern, central and eastern parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The typological analysis also presents stelae, cinerary urns and lids that were not included in the material analysis. This slightly extends the study area to the east, where it covers a small part of the stone funerary monuments from the southwestern part of Serbia and northern Montenegro. The analysis in this chapter aims to determine the main types on the three most numerous and best-preserved groups of funerary monuments in the study area, i.e. of stelae, cinerary urns, lids. The chapter analysing the spatial distribution of individual types and subtypes follows on from the previous chapter. Here, the mapping of individual types, subtypes of stelae, cinerary urns and lids is used to spatially delimit the most likely production centres. The results of material analyses are also considered and provide important arguments for the definition of production centers. In the chapter on organization and production process, the author looks for the evidence, which could indicate the organisation of work process, and also focusing onto the relationship between the quarry-based and sculpting workshops and the commissioner. The conclusion lists the main findings of the study and draws attention to the possible production model(s) of those rare funerary monuments that were not produced locally.

Several groups of monuments, recognizable within the corpus of architectural decoration and church furnishing of the Early Christian churches in area of the province of Dalmatia, are obviously the result of the existence of a larger number of workshop centres in this area. Distinct differences between these groups are evident in the shape of the elements, the way they were made, as well as in the choice and in the ways of composing decorative motives on them. Partly, the differences are undoubtedly the result of the transformation i.e. the development of the shape during time, but also, the differences may not have been conditioned chronologically, but spatially. By mapping particular groups of monuments, certain regularity may be noticed within their spatial grouping. Spatial grouping of products of particular workshops greatly correspond to the supposed territorial organization of the church under the jurisdiction of the Salonitan metropolis. As stonemason workshops during Late Antiquity were primarily directed towards the demand generated by the church in order to secure their own existence, their connection with the church centres may be rightfully presumed.

Adriatlas 4. Produzioni artigianali in area adriatica: manufatti, ateliers e attori (III sec. a.C. – V sec. d.C.), 2021

In this paper issues related to tiles and amphorae production in Roman Dalmatia are discussed on the bases of a new overview of workshops and stamps. The tackled themes include typology of workshops discovered so far, their statuses and markets, as well as stamps found in such sites, their owners and their backgrounds, as well as their estates. This data is further interpreted from a chronological standpoint.

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 207, 2018

The author is dealing with the tile-stamps found in the Roman auxiliary fort at Porolissum attempting to establish which of the many units recorded on tile-stamps stayed in garrison at Porolissum. The author of the present article is arguing his own hypothesis on the subject, based on his own excavations at Porolissum and on all the data gathered from the scientific literature. He finally proposes two tables and a graph that correlate all the information on the troops known from the tile-stamps and stone inscriptions, establishing which of them were in garrison at Porolissum and which were only temporarily attached for building activity. At the same time he sets in chronological order the tile-stamps, demonstrating that the three units which built the headquarters building and the gates of the fort (coh III, L VII GF, L III G) were brought to the Porolissum area late in Hadrian's reign, to build in stone the fort and other military facilities in the limes area of Porolissum. The permanent garrison of the fort was composed during the 2nd century AD of two infantry auxiliary units, cohors I Brittonum and cohors V Lingonum, while a third one, numerus Palmyrenorum was probably lodged in a smaller fort situated 500 m away, on the Citera Hill. In the third century, cohors V Lingonum was still there, cohors I Brittonum also for Caracalla's time (even not recorded by any later inscription, but, at the same time, not attested in another fort), while the smaller Citera Hill fort was out of use and the numerus Palmyrenorum Porolissensium was moved inside the big fort from Pomet Hill. The author is concluding that the garrison of the military site Porolissum was not changed during the Roman rule in Dacia, all the other tile-stamps found belonging to units brought mainly during the 2nd century to built the military facilities of this strengthened sector of the frontier.