Felix Romuliana – Gamzigrad 2012

During this campaign, tower 15 was excavated. Aims of the excavation were to define the chronology of the architectural complex consisting of the tower and the portico, to establish the relationships of specific architectural units and to examine late Roman cultural layers in this area.
Tower 15 is one of the four corner towers of the later fortification and it is positioned at the SW corner (Fig. 1). It has sixteen sides on the outside, while its interior is circular and has a diameter of slightly more than19 m. The average preserved height is about 5 m. The entrance of the tower 15 is situated 4.50 m of the SW corner tower of the earlier fortification. A pier was erected in the entrance axis that carried the vault construction of the portico. Its base measures 3.20 х 3.20 m. Its core consists of broken stones bound with lime mortar, while the outer sides were made of cut stones of local origin.
In the area of the portico, in the youngest excavated horizon next to the southern wall of the later fortification, remains of a wooden structure were excavated (Fig. 2). Next to the wall, a hearth was found, made of horizontally placed bricks. According to the small finds, this horizon is dated at the end of the 4th and into the 5th century.
Within the tower, the youngest horizon consists of early Byzantine layers. The late Roman layer of the second half of the 4th and the 5th century was formed on top of levelling layers made of debris and mortar surplus from the later fortification. A modest number of small finds was discovered, mostly made of iron (nails, stylus, key-ring). Both horizons are sporadically interwoven with intense debris layers of the tower parts that collapsed.
Among the structural elements of the tower there were remains of one of the columns that used to support the upper floor (Fig. 3). Its ground-plan is trapeze-shaped and it has a base made of large stone blocks of the local andesite. The inside was filled with unprocessed stones and broken bricks bound with hard, hydrostatic mortar.

Source: Pop-Lazić S., Živić M., Popović B., Vujadinović V., Gamzigrad – Felix Romuliana iskopavanja 2012. godine – Kula 15, Arheologija u Srbiji (Projekti Arheološkog instituta u 2012. godini), Beograd 2014, 74-77.

Fig 1. Felix Romuliana: Tower 15 – the area excavated in 2012 (after: Pop-Lazić et al., 2014, 75, Sl. 1).
Fig. 2. Felix Romuliana: ground-plan of the late Roman structure next to the southern wall of the younger fortification (after: Pop-Lazić et al., 2014, 74, Sl. 2).
Fig. 3. Felix Romuliana: ground-plan of the pier within tower 15 (after: Pop-Lazić et al., 2014, 76, Sl. 3).