Gaál Attila (szerk.): A Wosinszky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 22. (Szekszárd, 2000)
Bertók Gábor: Adalékok a Dél-Dunántúl római kori településtörténetéhez: Iovia lokalizációja
Gábor Bertók „Item a Sopianas Bregetione m. p. CXS: lovia XXXII m. p...." Contributions to the settlement history of Southern Transdanubia in Roman times: localization of lovia The author does archeological survey research of Western Tolna County, Hungary. During his work he found aerial photographs in the aerial archaeological archive of Pécs University Department of Ancient History and Archaeology of a long known but mostly ignored Roman site at Dalmand, Felsöleperd puszta.(Gölösi-dűlő) Subsequently, he made a repeated aerial and ground survey. The results of his research, put together with data from earlier field-walkings of other researchers provide evidence that the site was an urbanized Roman settlement. It has yielded finds so far from the 2 nd to the 4 th centuries A.D. Cropmarks on the aerial photographs show the following features: A-B) two large buildings (approx. 100 m long each) C) parts of a defensive wall with half-projecting towers with square-shaped plan and a gate, D) 200 m long street of the settlement with traces of around 80 columns on its sides, E) a 90x100 m square (possible/orwm) of the settlement into which the street (D) runs F) a colonnade that runs through and around the square as the continuation of the feature (D) G) a building with columns along both of its longer sides H) two buildings on the northern and southern sides of the square (E) I) partial traces of several interconnected buildings and a possible square with columns on its sides J) partial traces of a building L-M) possible traces of earlier ditches and/or roads; their relation to the Roman features is unknown It is clear from the aerial archaeological evidence that the cropmarks that show up on an area of 400x500 m do not cover the whole of the site. Field walkings provided finds from an area almost half of a square kilometer. Based on these data, it is quite obvious that the site cannot be anything else but a Roman town. .Written sources that refer to the area are the Itineraria Antoniniana (264, 8) and the Notitia Dignitatum (Occ. XXXIII, 61), both mentioning a place-name lovia. There is another source. A decree of the 391 Synod of Aquileia mentions Amantius, bishop of lovia. The data of the Itineraria cannot be later than the end of the 3rd century A.D. The Notitia Dignitatum on the other hand refers to a place that existed most likely on the turn of the 4 th and 5 th centuries. Archaeological research discovered earlier a later Roman fort or heavily fortified settlement at Alsóheténypuszta, some 8 km South of Felsöleperd. This site has been excavated during the 1970s and 1980s and has been indentified with the place-name lovia of the above mentioned written sources. The excavations show that the construction of the fort cannot be dated earlier than the reign of the emperor Constantius II, i. e. the middle of the 4 th . century A.D. The walls of the fort contained several hundred broken and reused pieces of stone statues, tombstones and stones with inscriptions. Near the fort several early Christian graves and a chapel with burials were found. It indicates that the suspected settlement around the fort had a significant role in the early Christian church. Quite possibly it could have been the seat of the bishop Amantius mentioned above. The contradiction of the written sources and the archaeological evidence (i. e. how a 4th century fort could have been mentioned in a late 3 rd century source) could not have been safely solved yet. Having proved that the Felsöleperd site is an urban settlement the following solution can be proposed for the problem. Since the Felsöleperd site provided 2 nd and 3 rd century finds it could have been the town of lovia the Itinerarium refers to, not later than the end of the 3 rd century. This town was subsequently destroyed for a reason yet unknown, and its stones were reused and its name could have been transferred to the mid-4 n century fort and settlement of the lovia mentioned in the later sources. This latter lovia can be identical with the Alsóhetény fort. Reusing of stones was frequent practice in later Roman times, and it is even more likely to happen in this area because the bearest natural source of building stones is 40 km away in the Mecsek mountains. The Felsöleperd site also fills the gap in the settlement structure of Southern Transdanubia between Lake Balaton and Sopianae (Pécs), where no urban settlement has so far been known from the era of the Principate. 112
