Constantine the Great inaugurated his bridge across the Danube between Oescus (Ghighen) and Sucid... more Constantine the Great inaugurated his bridge across the Danube between Oescus (Ghighen) and Sucidava (Celei) on July 5, 328. It was first mentioned by Sextus Aurelius Victor, in Liber de Caesaribus, 41.18, and then by late chronographers during the VII th – IX th centuries (Chronicon Pascale, I, 526, 16-17 (P 284) and Theophanes Confessor in Chronographia, a. 5820 (328), p. 28, (19-20 De Boor). The great constructive moment also appears during the 11th century in the chronicle compiled by the Byzantine monk Georgios Kedrenos, Synopsis historion (Synoptic History, also commonly rendered as A Concise History of the World). The bridge was subsequently suggested or explicitly rendered in the Index Geographicus Celsissimi Principatus Wallachiae – Map of Wallachia of vel Stolnic [High Steward] Constantin Cantacuzino by the end of the 17th century, and shortly after that in the „Istoria delle moderne rivoluzioni della Valachia” (1718, Venice). The latter was written by Anton Maria Del Chiaro, who was Constantin Brâncoveanu`s, Prince of Wallachia (1688-1714), personal secretary. Called „the brass bridge” by the local people on both banks of the Danube, according to a popular belief that its legs would have been cast from metal, the bridge was in olden times attributed to Trajan. In local folklore, the ”Domnul de Rouă” (Lord of Dew) would have passed on its wooden platform during the night, toward the Romanați Plain, heading to the courts of Ler Împărat from the fortress of Antina (Romula/ Reșca).
The bridge of Constantine the Great is also mentioned in the second half of the 19th century in the monograph of Felix Kanitz, based upon information collected from the locals and from the pilots of the Vienna Danube Steam Navigation Society (Erste Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft – the DDSG). One of the masonry pillars of the bridge on the fairway close to the Romanian shore was mentioned in July 1869 by passionate journalist and amateur archaeologist Cezar Bolliac; a mere four years later, his archaeological sleuthing culminated in the discovery of the bridge’s northern portal. Quickly covered with soil and waste discharged from the hillside of Celei village, the portal was reinvestigated by Pamfil Polonic and Grigore Tocilescu during a two-month campaign, between June 16 and August 15, 1898. We owe the 1902 publication of those results to the latter, based on the rigorous observations and detailed drawings of topographical engineer Pamfil Polonic. Only in the summer of 1968, Dumitru Tudor coordinated excavations whose precise purpose was to document again the northern portal and to check the neighboring southward pillar(s). The results of these investigations have been relatively modest, but still provide welcome additional information. They were later found in an article by Octavian Toropu and several monographic studies on the site and the Roman bridges on the Lower Danube, primarily due to Dumitru Tudor.
Our contribution makes a critical review of all historical and archaeological data pertinent to the bridge of Constantine the Great at Oescus-Sucidava. It introduces as elements of absolute novelty for specialized literature the results of the bathymetry carried out in 2017 through the Danube bed and those of the magnetometric survey (October 2022) in the floodplain on the left bank of the river, today a communal pasture. Thus, within the FAST DANUBE Project, the team of specialists from Marine Research carried out bathymetric measurements with multibeam sonar, on which occasion they identified 27 possible traces (pillars) of the Constantine I Bridge erected between Oescus and Sucidava. The traces of the piles stretch along a linear route for 820 m, while the average distance between them is around 30 m. Additional magnetometric investigations were carried out in the fall of 2022, between the northern portal, the ancient tributary and the mouth of Bozahuzului (from Tr. boğaz, mouth, narrow strait or entrance), also called Banului, or Celeiului backwater. Their result consisted in the identification of seven other anomalies (pillars) due to the Constantinian bridge, over a length of approx. 210 m. The respective anomalies show a rigorous alignment with the northern portal and the masonry piles highlighted by the bathymetry carried out through the Danube bed, and the distance between them is, again, identical.
ADVANCES IN ON- AND OFFSHORE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROSPECTION Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection, 2023
In this paper we analyze the applicability of seismic full-waveform inversion (FWI) for investiga... more In this paper we analyze the applicability of seismic full-waveform inversion (FWI) for investigation of tells, which are often characterized by heterogeneous and small-scale stratigraphy. Major aim is to identify location and shape of settlement layers and house remains. Furthermore, a paleochannel, which is important to understand the interaction between tell and the surrounding landscape, was found at the tell flank.
ADVANCES IN ON- AND OFFSHORE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROSPECTION Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection, 2023
We did geophysical investigations in a provincial vicus in Moesia Inferior, Romania. Magnetics an... more We did geophysical investigations in a provincial vicus in Moesia Inferior, Romania. Magnetics and GPR surveys were combined to detect the rural archaeology. With these methods, we could map the internal layout and buildings in a rural Roman settlement.
Romula, once a flourishing colonia of the Roman Empire and capital of Dacian Inferior and later o... more Romula, once a flourishing colonia of the Roman Empire and capital of Dacian Inferior and later of Dacia Malvensis, lies buried under the village of Resca. The Central fortification area where the initial castrum was is now an archaeological protected site of the highest importance. Here, Legio VII Claudia and Legio XXII Primigenia among others stationed troops. Buildings in the centre of this Roman city have been looted over the centuries and revealing its internal structure and organization can be difficult because of displacement and destruction of structures. Over large areas, dismantled walls are spread within the first 0.5 m in the soil and can be an obstacle in conducting non-invasive research. In this paper, we assess the effectiveness of a delineation survey by means of Electrical Resistivity Tomography, a non-invasive geophysical prospection technique used widely in research on Roman period sites. Having the possibility to compare our survey results to those of research excavation conducted later that year (2019), that targeted a large resistive body present in the geophysical data, we found that the ERT method was successful in accurately locating anomalies later identified as being the walls of a large building with the bonus of another wall adjacent to it, implying a more complex internal organization than initially assumed. The survey helped delineate multiple anomalies associated with structures which is a first step in reconstructing the layout of the centre of the Roman colonia Romula.
Constantine the Great inaugurated his bridge across the Danube between Oescus (Ghighen) and Sucid... more Constantine the Great inaugurated his bridge across the Danube between Oescus (Ghighen) and Sucidava (Celei) on July 5, 328. It was first mentioned by Sextus Aurelius Victor, in Liber de Caesaribus, 41.18, and then by late chronographers during the VII th – IX th centuries (Chronicon Pascale, I, 526, 16-17 (P 284) and Theophanes Confessor in Chronographia, a. 5820 (328), p. 28, (19-20 De Boor). The great constructive moment also appears during the 11th century in the chronicle compiled by the Byzantine monk Georgios Kedrenos, Synopsis historion (Synoptic History, also commonly rendered as A Concise History of the World). The bridge was subsequently suggested or explicitly rendered in the Index Geographicus Celsissimi Principatus Wallachiae – Map of Wallachia of vel Stolnic [High Steward] Constantin Cantacuzino by the end of the 17th century, and shortly after that in the „Istoria delle moderne rivoluzioni della Valachia” (1718, Venice). The latter was written by Anton Maria Del Chiaro, who was Constantin Brâncoveanu`s, Prince of Wallachia (1688-1714), personal secretary. Called „the brass bridge” by the local people on both banks of the Danube, according to a popular belief that its legs would have been cast from metal, the bridge was in olden times attributed to Trajan. In local folklore, the ”Domnul de Rouă” (Lord of Dew) would have passed on its wooden platform during the night, toward the Romanați Plain, heading to the courts of Ler Împărat from the fortress of Antina (Romula/ Reșca).
The bridge of Constantine the Great is also mentioned in the second half of the 19th century in the monograph of Felix Kanitz, based upon information collected from the locals and from the pilots of the Vienna Danube Steam Navigation Society (Erste Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft – the DDSG). One of the masonry pillars of the bridge on the fairway close to the Romanian shore was mentioned in July 1869 by passionate journalist and amateur archaeologist Cezar Bolliac; a mere four years later, his archaeological sleuthing culminated in the discovery of the bridge’s northern portal. Quickly covered with soil and waste discharged from the hillside of Celei village, the portal was reinvestigated by Pamfil Polonic and Grigore Tocilescu during a two-month campaign, between June 16 and August 15, 1898. We owe the 1902 publication of those results to the latter, based on the rigorous observations and detailed drawings of topographical engineer Pamfil Polonic. Only in the summer of 1968, Dumitru Tudor coordinated excavations whose precise purpose was to document again the northern portal and to check the neighboring southward pillar(s). The results of these investigations have been relatively modest, but still provide welcome additional information. They were later found in an article by Octavian Toropu and several monographic studies on the site and the Roman bridges on the Lower Danube, primarily due to Dumitru Tudor.
Our contribution makes a critical review of all historical and archaeological data pertinent to the bridge of Constantine the Great at Oescus-Sucidava. It introduces as elements of absolute novelty for specialized literature the results of the bathymetry carried out in 2017 through the Danube bed and those of the magnetometric survey (October 2022) in the floodplain on the left bank of the river, today a communal pasture. Thus, within the FAST DANUBE Project, the team of specialists from Marine Research carried out bathymetric measurements with multibeam sonar, on which occasion they identified 27 possible traces (pillars) of the Constantine I Bridge erected between Oescus and Sucidava. The traces of the piles stretch along a linear route for 820 m, while the average distance between them is around 30 m. Additional magnetometric investigations were carried out in the fall of 2022, between the northern portal, the ancient tributary and the mouth of Bozahuzului (from Tr. boğaz, mouth, narrow strait or entrance), also called Banului, or Celeiului backwater. Their result consisted in the identification of seven other anomalies (pillars) due to the Constantinian bridge, over a length of approx. 210 m. The respective anomalies show a rigorous alignment with the northern portal and the masonry piles highlighted by the bathymetry carried out through the Danube bed, and the distance between them is, again, identical.
ADVANCES IN ON- AND OFFSHORE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROSPECTION Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection, 2023
In this paper we analyze the applicability of seismic full-waveform inversion (FWI) for investiga... more In this paper we analyze the applicability of seismic full-waveform inversion (FWI) for investigation of tells, which are often characterized by heterogeneous and small-scale stratigraphy. Major aim is to identify location and shape of settlement layers and house remains. Furthermore, a paleochannel, which is important to understand the interaction between tell and the surrounding landscape, was found at the tell flank.
ADVANCES IN ON- AND OFFSHORE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROSPECTION Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection, 2023
We did geophysical investigations in a provincial vicus in Moesia Inferior, Romania. Magnetics an... more We did geophysical investigations in a provincial vicus in Moesia Inferior, Romania. Magnetics and GPR surveys were combined to detect the rural archaeology. With these methods, we could map the internal layout and buildings in a rural Roman settlement.
Romula, once a flourishing colonia of the Roman Empire and capital of Dacian Inferior and later o... more Romula, once a flourishing colonia of the Roman Empire and capital of Dacian Inferior and later of Dacia Malvensis, lies buried under the village of Resca. The Central fortification area where the initial castrum was is now an archaeological protected site of the highest importance. Here, Legio VII Claudia and Legio XXII Primigenia among others stationed troops. Buildings in the centre of this Roman city have been looted over the centuries and revealing its internal structure and organization can be difficult because of displacement and destruction of structures. Over large areas, dismantled walls are spread within the first 0.5 m in the soil and can be an obstacle in conducting non-invasive research. In this paper, we assess the effectiveness of a delineation survey by means of Electrical Resistivity Tomography, a non-invasive geophysical prospection technique used widely in research on Roman period sites. Having the possibility to compare our survey results to those of research excavation conducted later that year (2019), that targeted a large resistive body present in the geophysical data, we found that the ERT method was successful in accurately locating anomalies later identified as being the walls of a large building with the bonus of another wall adjacent to it, implying a more complex internal organization than initially assumed. The survey helped delineate multiple anomalies associated with structures which is a first step in reconstructing the layout of the centre of the Roman colonia Romula.
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The bridge of Constantine the Great is also mentioned in the second half of the 19th century in the monograph of Felix Kanitz, based upon information collected from the locals and from the pilots of the Vienna Danube Steam Navigation Society (Erste Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft – the DDSG). One of the masonry pillars of the bridge on the fairway close to the Romanian shore was mentioned in July 1869 by passionate journalist and amateur archaeologist Cezar Bolliac; a mere four years later, his archaeological sleuthing culminated in the discovery of the bridge’s northern portal. Quickly covered with soil and waste discharged from the hillside of Celei village, the portal was reinvestigated by Pamfil Polonic and Grigore Tocilescu during a two-month campaign, between June 16 and August 15, 1898. We owe the 1902 publication of those results to the latter, based on the rigorous observations and detailed drawings of topographical engineer Pamfil Polonic. Only in the summer of 1968, Dumitru Tudor coordinated excavations whose precise purpose was to document again the northern portal and to check the neighboring southward pillar(s). The results of these investigations have been relatively modest, but still provide welcome additional information. They were later found in an article by Octavian Toropu and several monographic studies on the site and the Roman bridges on the Lower Danube, primarily due to Dumitru Tudor.
Our contribution makes a critical review of all historical and archaeological data pertinent to the bridge of Constantine the Great at Oescus-Sucidava. It introduces as elements of absolute novelty for specialized literature the results of the bathymetry carried out in 2017 through the Danube bed and those of the magnetometric survey (October 2022) in the floodplain on the left bank of the river, today a communal pasture. Thus, within the FAST DANUBE Project, the team of specialists from Marine Research carried out bathymetric measurements with multibeam sonar, on which occasion they identified 27 possible traces (pillars) of the Constantine I Bridge erected between Oescus and Sucidava. The traces of the piles stretch along a linear route for 820 m, while the average distance between them is around 30 m. Additional magnetometric investigations were carried out in the fall of 2022, between the northern portal, the ancient tributary and the mouth of Bozahuzului (from Tr. boğaz, mouth, narrow strait or entrance), also called Banului, or Celeiului backwater. Their result consisted in the identification of seven other anomalies (pillars) due to the Constantinian bridge, over a length of approx. 210 m. The respective anomalies show a rigorous alignment with the northern portal and the masonry piles highlighted by the bathymetry carried out through the Danube bed, and the distance between them is, again, identical.
The bridge of Constantine the Great is also mentioned in the second half of the 19th century in the monograph of Felix Kanitz, based upon information collected from the locals and from the pilots of the Vienna Danube Steam Navigation Society (Erste Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft – the DDSG). One of the masonry pillars of the bridge on the fairway close to the Romanian shore was mentioned in July 1869 by passionate journalist and amateur archaeologist Cezar Bolliac; a mere four years later, his archaeological sleuthing culminated in the discovery of the bridge’s northern portal. Quickly covered with soil and waste discharged from the hillside of Celei village, the portal was reinvestigated by Pamfil Polonic and Grigore Tocilescu during a two-month campaign, between June 16 and August 15, 1898. We owe the 1902 publication of those results to the latter, based on the rigorous observations and detailed drawings of topographical engineer Pamfil Polonic. Only in the summer of 1968, Dumitru Tudor coordinated excavations whose precise purpose was to document again the northern portal and to check the neighboring southward pillar(s). The results of these investigations have been relatively modest, but still provide welcome additional information. They were later found in an article by Octavian Toropu and several monographic studies on the site and the Roman bridges on the Lower Danube, primarily due to Dumitru Tudor.
Our contribution makes a critical review of all historical and archaeological data pertinent to the bridge of Constantine the Great at Oescus-Sucidava. It introduces as elements of absolute novelty for specialized literature the results of the bathymetry carried out in 2017 through the Danube bed and those of the magnetometric survey (October 2022) in the floodplain on the left bank of the river, today a communal pasture. Thus, within the FAST DANUBE Project, the team of specialists from Marine Research carried out bathymetric measurements with multibeam sonar, on which occasion they identified 27 possible traces (pillars) of the Constantine I Bridge erected between Oescus and Sucidava. The traces of the piles stretch along a linear route for 820 m, while the average distance between them is around 30 m. Additional magnetometric investigations were carried out in the fall of 2022, between the northern portal, the ancient tributary and the mouth of Bozahuzului (from Tr. boğaz, mouth, narrow strait or entrance), also called Banului, or Celeiului backwater. Their result consisted in the identification of seven other anomalies (pillars) due to the Constantinian bridge, over a length of approx. 210 m. The respective anomalies show a rigorous alignment with the northern portal and the masonry piles highlighted by the bathymetry carried out through the Danube bed, and the distance between them is, again, identical.