K. Palágyi Sylvia szerk.: Balácai Közlemények 2005/9. (Veszprém, 2005)
GÁBOR, OLIVÉR: Suburbanum Sopianarum and Roman Villas around Sopianae
Canals, Fossae Under the northern side of the cathedral, there is a Medieval canal. 13 The canal narrows at the eastern end and is build of Roman bricks. Perhaps in the Middle Ages, a Roman canal was rebuilt being adjusted to the water drainage needs of the cathedral. Into the Medieval part, the Roman section joins for the north-east and leaves it at the south-west. It probably used to run through the area of the present bishop's palace or the Dóm Square. In case one of the streams springing in the Mecsek was lead on this way in the Roman era, it must have run through the 4 th century, early Christian cemetery or if it was built earlier, in the 2 nd-3 rd centuries, it must have run towards the buildings outside and west of the town. During the most recent excavation, at the eastern side of Burial Chamber No. XIX, another drainage canal came to light, which again supports the theory of J. Kraft i. e. that the Romans, in order to canalize the waters above the cemetery, at the foot of the Mecsek, formed a certain kind of spring gallery (according to the kind, verval information provided by J. Kraft). Similarily, around the 4 th century cemetery south-east of Sopianae (excavated by G. Kárpáti in the site of the Árkád shopping centre) a section of the ditches that of the cemetery may also have been functioning as a drain came to light. Further aqueducts are given information about by F. Fülep in Alsómakár-Homokbánya. 14 The leading of the water of the Tettye spring into the town of Sopianae would have gone without saying if the water was so limy that,in decades it blocks everything as it happened to modem pipelines even under pressure (according to the kind, verbal information of geologist J. Kraft). Roman traces of aqueducts have not come to light so far. The water of the spring flowed naturally on the surface both in Ancient and Medieval times and at the most, it used to work mills. (This picture is only changed during the century-and-a-half Turkish occupation.) According to this, into the town of Sopianae, probably the less limy water of another spring was lead. Cemeteries The contemporary cemeteries may be also listed among suburban structures. Unfortunately, there are very few graves from the first three centuries of Pannónia; only the (fragments of) gravestones give a hint that there must have been a cemetery beside the town. 15 A part of the cemetery that can be dated to the 3 rd century was found in the yard of the secondary school of the Cistercian Order in 2002. These are the earliest graves of the well-known, big cemetery. Later, the 4 th century Christians buried over these. Befor the foundation of the late-roman cemeteries, in the l s,-2 nd centuries however, the area had been utilized in a different way. It was this time when the water springs and brooks were regulated, the earth was upset due to clay and sand mining, so it is unlikely that more significant, suburban buildings were situated then. The well-known, early Christian cemetery of Sopianae lay north of the town. At the same time, Christian, sacral building have came to light only here and not in town. While the 2 nd-3 rd century constructions of Sopianae boast with significantly rich architecture
