New Reliefs Plaques from Pojejena (Caraș-Severin county) depicting the Danubian Riders (original) (raw)

2020, Ziridava Studia Archaeologica

In the summer of 2019 the archeological excavation of the auxiliary fort from Pojejena was resumed by a team of archaeologists from the National Museum of Banat (Timișoara), from the University of Warsaw and from the Museum of the Highland Banat (Reșița). In this campaign, in the area near a horreum, the fragments of two marble reliefs plaques with the representation of the Danubian Riders were discovered. These reliefs illustrate a locally distributed religious iconography that artistically translates indigenous myths and religious beliefs from the area bordering the Danube. The rectangular relief plaques can be included in the type of simple rectangular stelae with a single row, with two Riders flanking the goddess and there is no exact known parallel for this relief in the repertoire of monuments depicting the Danubian Riders. The fragmentary marble rondel belongs to type Nemeti B1b, two-row medallions. Their main field always depicts two Riders and a goddess, and the lower row various symbols and cult scenes. The auxiliary fort from Pojejena was part of Dacia Superior and it is considered to have been a harbor and a supply base 1. In support of this statement comes the discovery, near porta praetoria, of some lead seals with the inscription AVG N, and the discovery of one of the horrea, whose existence is suspected inside this camp 2. The construction of the fort was comprised of two phases: an earth-wood phase, in which the surface of the camp is considerably smaller and is surrounded by a single moat, and an extended stone phase, in which the camp is surrounded by two defensive ditches 3. The military camp and vicus from Pojejena is located on the north bank of the Danube, thus in the border area that separates Upper Moesia and Dacia 4 , an area where navigation was more difficult due to the fact that the Danube crosses a mountainous area, which made it narrower and dotted with rocks. This area, called the Iron Gates, was located between Drobeta (East) and Pojejena (West), and the strong currents that were felt here determined the Romans to initiate a series of measures to facilitate the communication route: carving a road in the rock of the mountain and the construction, in the Sip area, of a navigable canal finished in 101 AD 5. The garrison of the fort was cohors V Gallorum 6 , and recent research has shown that there were actually two military units with that name 7 , one being the garrison of the South Shields fort, located near Hadrian's wall, in the second half of the 2 nd century AD 8. As in the case of the auxiliary troops stationed at Pojejena, the role of the one from Britannia was to secure the harbour and the provision of supplies to the province. Cohors V Gallorum (Dacica) from Pojejena it probably continue to be stationed here until the end of the 2 nd century AD 9 without knowing, at this stage of the research, where * English translation: Ștefana Cristea, Sorin Nemeti, Mihnea Cristea.