Viminacium


Viminacium or Viminatium was a major city and military camp of the Roman province of Moesia, and the capital of Moesia Superior. As of 2018, only 3 to 4% of the site has been explored.
The site is located from the modern town of Kostolac in Eastern Serbia. The city dates back to the 1st century AD, and at its peak it is believed to have had 40,000 inhabitants, making it one of the biggest cities of that time. It lies on the Roman road Via Militaris. Viminacium was devastated by Huns in the 5th century, but was later rebuilt by Justinian. It was completely destroyed with the arrival of Slavs in the 6th century. Today, the archaeological site occupies a total of, and contains remains of temples, streets, squares, amphitheatres, palaces, hippodromes and Roman baths.
Viminacium holds a distinction of having the largest number of graves discovered in any Roman archaeological site. As of 2018, 15,000 graves have been discovered.

History

The remains of Viminacium, the capital of the Roman province of Moesia Superior, are located on territories of the villages of Stari Kostolac and Drmno, about 12 km from the town of Kostolac and about 90 miles southeast of Belgrade. Viminacium was one of the most important Roman cities and military camps in the period from 1st to 4th centuries. Its exceptional strategic importance was reflected both in the defense of the northern border of the Roman empire and in turn of communications and commercial transactions. No less appealing to the Romans was the hinterland of the Mlava river valley, which is rich in ore and grains. In Roman times, the town on the northern side of relying directly on the branch of the Danube, while the western side, touching the walls Mlava rivers. Only in the later period, Viminacium spread to the left bank of Mlava. Thanks to the location, land and waterways, Viminacium represented one of those areas where the encounter of cultures between East and West was inevitable. Although these roads were the primary military and strategic function, they are taking place throughout antiquity very lively traffic and certainly contributed to the very Viminacium become prosperous and an important trading and business headquarters.
A legion may have been stationed here as early as Augustus. In 33/34 AD a road was built, linking Viminacium and Ratiaria. Claudius garrisoned Viminacium, Oescus and Novae as camps for the Moesian legions.
The first legion attested at Viminacium was the VII Claudia that came from Dalmatia in 52 AD.
In Viminacium, Roman legion VII Claudia was stationed, and a nearby civilian settlement emerged from the military camp. In 117 during the reign of Hadrian it received city status. In the camp, 6.000 soldiers were stationed, and 30-40.000 lived nearby. In the first half of then
the 3rd century the city was in full development, as evidenced by the fact that at that time it acquired the status of a Roman colony, and the right to coin local money. Here, in 196, Septimius Severus declared his son Caracalla as successor with the status of "Caesar".
Emperor Trajan was headquartered here during the Dacian Wars. It became a colonia with minting privilege in 239 AD during the rule of Gordian III and housed the Legion VII and Legion IV.
In the mausoleum and the excavated tombs, the Roman emperor Hostilian, who died in 251, was buried. Hostilian was the son of the emperor Decius, who was killed in the ambush near the ancient city of Abrutus located in present-day Bulgaria. According to the old manuscript, emperor Hostilian and his mother came to Viminacium to supervise the organization of defense of northern borders, but both of them died of the plague. Because of the distance and the fear of spreading the plague, he was buried with all honors in Viminacium.
Viminacium was the provincial capital of Moesia Superior. In the late spring of 293-294, Diocletian journeyed through his realm and he re-organized Viminacium as the capital of the new province of Moesia Superior Margensis. He registered that the people wrote in Latin, as opposed to Greek in the southern provinces. Viminacium was the base camp of Legio VII Claudia, and hosted for some time the IIII Flavia Felix. It had a Roman amphitheatre with room for 12,000 people.
In 382 the city was the meeting place between Theodosius and Gratian amidst the Gothic Wars. Per Notitia Dignitatum, Viminacium hosted the section of the Roman Danube fleet.
Viminacium was destroyed in 441 by Attila the Hun, but rebuilt by Justinian I. During Maurice's Balkan campaigns, Viminacium saw destruction by the Avars in 582 and a crushing defeat of Avar forces on the northern Danube bank in 599, destroying Avar reputation for invincibility.

Location and excavation

Viminacium is located in Stari Kostolac a Serbian town on the Danube river, east of Belgrade.
Viminacium is the location of the first archaeological excavation in Serbia, which started in 1882, by Mihailo Valtrović, founder of archaeology in Serbia and the first professor of archeology at the college in Belgrade, but himself a non-professional archaeologist. The only help he received was from twelve prisoners for manual work, because the state did not have enough resources to provide him with a better work force.
His research was continued by Miloje Vasić, the first Serbian trained archaeologist, in the mid 1890s. Serbian Queen Draga Obrenović visited the site and donated 100 gold ducats for further excavations, which is considered the first donation in Serbia given to the exploration of the Antiquity. It has intensified in the last ten years in the area of the Roman city of the Roman legionary camps and cemeteries. Many studies suggest that the military camp at Viminacium had a rectangular plan, measuring, and that is not far from its western wall of civilian settlement in an area of approximately. The Legionary camp in Viminacium is now in an area of arable land, so that Viminacium is easily accessible to researchers, but unfortunately also to robbers. The National Museum in Belgrade and Požarevac have 40,000 items found in Viminacium, of which over 700 are made of gold and silver. Among them are many objects that are rare and invaluable.
The tombstones and sarcophagi are often decorated with relief representations of scenes from mythology or daily life. We have found numerous grave masonry construction. Especially interesting are the frescoes of the 4th-century tombs. The Frescos of young women have high artistic value as examples of Roman art. During the excavation, an amphitheater was discovered, which with its 12,000 seats was one of the largest in the Balkans.
One specific fresco of a young woman is labeled the jewel of Viminacium and the most beautiful fresco of the Late Antiquity. The fresco resembles somewhat a famous Mona Lisa and local archaeologists named it "Divina". Woman is dressed in the golden hemmed dress which point to the higher social status. "Divina" is the centerpiece of the tomb and probably represents the woman who was buried in it.
Tomb No. 5517 has an unusual representation of the Heavenly Rider and the Christogram. In front of the rider there is a turquoise panther with wide open jaws. Behind the rider is a running dog, colored in dark red, with the dark blue contour. The trees are painted in the dark and light blue colors, in the manner of the Garden of Eden. Though purportedly depicting a hunting scene, it actually symbolically shows the transformation of paganism into Christianity. The rider is placed between a panther, which in Christian iconography depicts sin, cruelty and Antichrist, and a dog, which symbolizes justice, grace, peace and truth. The Pagan is depicted in red color, climbing to the heaven, and then transform in the rider which is blue. It is estimated to be painted in the 3rd century.
Artisan shops with the furnaces for baking bricks were discovered, so as the thermae. Six pools were uncovered, which were decorated with the floral and animal motifs. It was a steambath, with hot air circulating between the colonnettes and warming the bricks below the floor slabs. Massage rooms occupied the central section of the thermae. Lanterns were discovered in the facility, pointing that the night bathing was possible. The water was conducted using the natural fall via an aqueduct. of aqueduct have been explored so far.

Archeological site

In 1980 the Sevso Treasure affair broke out, when Hungary, Yugoslavia and Lebanon contested the ownership over the silver objects hoard which appeared on the market. Yugoslav journalists began an investigation which lasted for years. It was discovered that numerous artifacts were smuggled and illegally sold outside of Yugoslavia. Though the Sevso Treasure itself was not from this site, Viminacium, due to the poor maintenance and low protection at the time, was specifically named as the find which "enriched many foreign collections with the valuable artifacts, sold below their true value".
The chief manager of the Viminacium project, archaeologist Miomir Korać stated in April 2018 that only 3 to 4% of the site had been explored so far. Viminacium has been geophysically explored since the mid-1990s. Thanks to this, the existence of numerous objects was confirmed, but as of 2018 they were still not uncovered: hippodrome, forum, imperial palace, several temples, theater, etc.
There is evidence that from the 1st to the 3rd century a wide medical network existed in the camp as hospitals in the military camps were regulated by the law. Remains of the surgical instruments and equipment for the medication production were discovered. In one of such bowls, discovered in the office of an eye doctor in 1985, the pastilles survived and had an imprinted inscription which explained that the medication contains saffron extract. There were 8 instruments in the bronze box. The pastilles were kept in the arch-shaped cartridges, and themselves were round, flat and spindle. The instruments barely differ from the modern ones and based on that, and the composition of the medicaments, it is believed that the doctors were treating cataract and trachoma. This discovery is considered the most important medical-pharmaceutical find in Serbia and it shows that the science-based medicine and pharmacy developed before Galen, who is considered the father of scientific medicine. Additionally, there are only four other findings of the survived Roman medicaments in Europe. Chemical examination of the medicines began in 2019 by the experts from the Sorbonne's Laboratory for the Molecular and Structural Archaeology. After its completion, the lab will try to recreate two written medical recipes discovered in Viminacium: collyria crocodes and collyria stactum. Additionally, there is also evidence of trepanation, surgical procedure of skull opening.


According to the Roman document Notitia Dignitatum, section of the Roman Danube fleet was anchored in Viminacium. As the locality is not situated on any modern watercourse, either the Danube was flowing further to the south than it does today, or some large arm was separating from the main flow in this direction, leaving the modern fossil riverbed which yields numerous navy artifacts. In 2019, at the old mouth of the Mlava into the Danube a large iron anchor was discovered, but was stolen the same night after the excavator dug it. In February 2020, the hewn boat was found at the same locality.
Just a month later, the discovery of the buried ship in the same former riverbed was announced. It was located west of the previous discovery. The ship was discovered at the depth of. It was partially embedded into the sand, alluvial sediment of the river, and partially into the marshy clay sediment, when the river changed its course and the remaining oxbow lake turned into the swamp. Layers above the ship were also mixed, including loess brought by the wind, and solidified mud from frequent flooding.
It was excavated, and partially damaged, by the large excavator, when the planks were spotted in its bucket. The ship is extremely well preserved thanks to the specific conditions and high moisture. It is the flatbed ship, built for the shallow waters. The casing for the mast of the auxiliary sail also survived, so as the rudder, stern and the square rowlock for the stern oar. Preserved part of the ship is long, but it is estimated that the entire ship was long and wide. It was definitely a war ship as it has remains of the rostrum. Two monoxyls were discovered next to it.
Exact dating will be conducted applying the C4 carbon fixation technique. The geologist will survey the dug to establish the timeline when the river was flowing through here. Though suggested that the ship may be even prehistoric, everything points to the Roman type of ship. The ship is the only such find in Serbia. It will be fully reconstructed, including the missing parts, and exhibited with two monoxyls.

Domus scientiarum Viminacium

Domus scientiarum Viminacium is a new scientific, research and tourist center built on the edge of the Archaeological park. The Domus was constructed in the manner of a Roman villa, with rooms and laboratories grouped around several atria. The Domus hosts an archaeological museum, a scientific library, laboratories for processing archaeological finds, an information center, conference rooms, a restaurant with dining hall and SPA center in the form of a Roman bath. There are also bedrooms available for researchers, students and visitors. One of the most spectacular features is a large conference room decorated by a Serbian mosaicist who installed mosaics based on Late Antique style.
The bedrooms are styled after the Roman military barracks and have six beds in one room. The complex became an archaeological congressional center, labeled the "congressional camp" which includes the central plaza, two debating halls and the large dining room patterned after the Roman military mess halls. When not used for the scientific gatherings, the part of the complex adapts into the "Roman children camp", with the adjoining adventure park partially made after the Roman training grounds for the legionaries. Some of the experiments include attempts to recreate other practices done in the "Roman way", like cremations or planting grapevines. The Limes Park, a recreated Roman training ground was finished in September 2018 while the adjoining adventure park was open in December 2018. It covers an area of and consists of 48 attractions.
In 2017 Viminacium had 100,000 visitors, the largest number of tourists in its history. Of that number, 17,000 came via boats as the pier for the tourist have been constructed.

Inhabitants

It is estimated that the city had 40,000 inhabitants at its peak. Human remains show mixture of different people. Facial reconstruction has been performed on several skulls for the purpose of the 2018 exhibition "Roman Limes and cities in Serbia" in the gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts prepared by the archaeologist and forensic anthropologist Ilija Mikić. Remains show that the population belonged to the various types, like the Mediterranean, but also the unusual for this region like the Nordic or the Black. Some of this different faces were reconstructed.
Other important findings include the skulls with the full sets of teeth or the elongated skulls. Though immediately labeled "alien" by the public, they are actually product of the special technics for the artificial cranial deformation, which would start with the tying up of children's heads. The elongation was deemed very beautiful and desirable. Mikić also stated that, based on the numerous skeletons, the average life span in Viminacium was 35 years, while the average height was for men and for women.

Ecclesiastical history

As provincial capital of Moesia Prima, Viminacium also became a Metropolitan archbishopric, presumably from about 300 to circa 400.
The Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Braničevo is considered the successor of both Viminacium and Horreum Margi.

Titular see

The archdiocese was nominally restored in 1925 as a Latin Catholic Metropolitan titular archbishopric Viminacium / Viminacio
It has had the following archiepiscopal incumbents: