Gamzigrad – Felix Romuliana – the northern settlement and the villa 2011.

Excavations outside the Feliks Romulianа palace walls were conducted in the southern part of the northern settlement. Excavations of the structure close to the northern settlement were also conducted, its measures being 30 × 24 m. Several trenches were excavated within the structure (Fig. 1). It was established that, due to erosion, the walls were mostly destroyed and their foundations dislocated. The walls running east-west inclined towards the south, while those running north-south declined towards the south-east. The foundations were mostly made of broken stones bound with lime mortar, while the walls were made of bigger stones, occasionally levelled with brick fragments. The floors remained preserved only partially and mostly in the northern part of the structure. They were made of lime mortar. Above them, there is a layer of debris originating from collapsed structure parts and also containing a limited number of small finds dated at the end of the 3rd and into the 4th century.
Until 2011, eight rooms were discovered: seven of them have a rectangular ground-plan and one has an apse. Traces of smelting kilns were discovered within it, along with small finds dated into the 4th and the 5th century. Since no traces of floor heating or drainage were discovered, the purpose of this structure remains undefined.

Source: Pop-Lazić S., Popović B., Vujadinović V., Gamzigrad – Felix Romuliana. Iskopavanja 2011. godine, Arheologija u Srbiji (Projekti Arheološkog instituta u 2011. godini), Beograd 2012, 74-77.

Fig. 1. Felix Romuliana: the site ”Villa”, view from the south (after: Pop-Lazić et al. 2012, 74, Sl. 3).