Budapest Régiségei 34. (2001)

STUDIEN = TANULMÁNYOK - Dyczek, Piotr: An imperial marble head from Novae (Moesia Inferior) 63-69

PIOTR DYCZEK AN IMPERIAL MARBLE HEAD FROM NOVAE (MOESIA INFERIOR) Novae, a site known from several ancient written sources, marked on the Tabula Peutingeriana and probably also depicted on two metopes of the Column of Traian, has a long historical record, primarily connected with the Roman legions stationed there. First, about the middle of the 1st cent. AD, it was the Legio VIII Augusta, later, starting from the year ca. AD 70, the Legio I Italica, which, to believe Svetonius, was known as the „Phalanx of Alexander the Great".

1 The Archaeological Center for Archaeological Research Warsaw University is investigating the site, concentrating mainly on the legionary architecture: thermae legionis, valetudinarium and principia (Fig. 1). Exploration of the site of the hospital and the changes which occurred in the architecture following its abandonment presumably in the times of Caracalla brought to light in 1983 the remains of a big building.

2 Comprehensive investigations were undertaken again in 1992-1998, aimed at revealing the entire structure.

3 The foundations of the building, from 0.60 to 0.73 m thick, turned out to be dug about 0.4 m into the layer of debris left from the destruction of the hospital; they were executed of irregular stone bonded in mud mortar, while the walls above them, 0.60-0.65 m thick, were made of mudbrick measuring 9 x 21 x 21 cm. Several shattered elements of the ruined hospital were reused in the construction of these walls: pieces of inscribed marble slabs, fragments of a marble architrave decorated with a cymatium, parts of votive marble plates depicting the Thracian rider, small altars. In the last stage of the occupation, the complex consisted of four rooms (Aa, Ba, Ca, Da) and a small courtyard (Ea),

4 (Fig. 2). Two furnaces, a domed one and a rectangular one, numerous glass accretions, pieces of slag, vessel and pane shards indicate beyond all doubt that the complex had served as a glass workshop.

5 The structure was destroyed violently by fire and to judge by the traces of burning, the catastrophe had been caused by an unsafe glass furnace. The flames consumed the whole building causing the roof and the mudbrick walls to collapse, after which sparks presumably jumped to the nearby horreum.

6 The violence of the fire took the residents by surprise, hence the large quantities of storage and table wares, coins, fibulas, iron tools and even remnants of a cart, of which the metal fittings have survived in the debris. In 1998, a short portico was discovered next to the domed furnace which had once stood in the courtyard. The portico was 1.40 m long and its foundations, made of building material from the earlier ruins, revealed two big pedestals and a piece of a marble head. The latter object was associated immediately with another fragment found in 1997 in the wall closing off court Ea on the west. Upon reconstruction the two pieces formed a marble portrait head of natural size (Fig. 3). It is the second head found in this area, the first one being a portrait of Maximinus Thrax presented at the Congress in Celje; this piece came from a paved street running in front of the structure here described.

7 With respect to the newly discovered head, there is dating evidence coins and fibulas for a terminus post quern of the building in which it was found. The erection of the workshop (referred to as a Mudbrick Building in the provisional report) was dated on the grounds of a coin of Helena to after 330.

8 However, coins of Claudius II and Aurelian found in 1998 in the earth bonding the foundations have pushed the dating to the eighties of the 3

rd century AD, after the raid of the Goths. This data is in agreement with other observations, including a provisional dating of the road running along the axis of the former military hospital.

9 The head itself was not just smashed; I believe the features had also been obliterated on purpose. Taking all this into consideration, it appears that we are dealing with a case of damnatio memoriae

10 of an emperor after Aurelian but who reigned before the end of the 280s. The head was made of a fine-grained marble with pale gray veining. The preserved height is 18 cm, transversal axis 17 cm, long axis 18 cm. The crack runs obliquely from the right temple, above the right eye, through the base of the nose and under the left eye to the upper part of the left cheek, damaging also the upper part of the ear lobe. The blow smashing the head came from the top, from the right, where a small piece of the marble is chipped away. To judge by the head, the statue must have been life-size, hence the smashing could have taken place only after it had been pulled down. The right ear lobe was removed and the outside part of the left one. Most of the hair on the head was also hammered off, as was the upper part of the forehead, the beard which was removed very precisely, and the nose and mouth which were broken off. Despite this treatment, the characteristic features of the image are still in evidence. The oval head with sunk temples looks straight ahead. Small fragments of the original hair modeling testify to a schematic carving style with the slightly wavy locks shown flat against a smooth head. The short hairdo reached the ears. To judge by a surviving line, the lower hairline arched on the back of the neck. The sideburns joined the beard. Despite very precise 63