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Archaeological Excavations at the City Bulwark Connecting Point North of the Porta Caesarea in Solin (1970 – 1973)
Ante Rendić-Miočević
Sažetak
During the archaeological excavations at the city bulwark connecting point north of the monumental city gate, Porta Caesarea, performed in 1970, 1972 and 1973, discovered were numerous details that had not been sufficiently known before, especially about parts of the Salonitan fortification system, functioning of the water supply system etc. The excavations were to provide answers to other questions as well, such as reliability of the genesis of the Salona’s earliest urban core, the part of the city considered by many researchers to be the oldest part within the city areal. The excavations produced interesting results, especially
in the context of separation of particular stages of building of the city fortifications and recognising the facilities that made important factors in the lives of inhabitants of this part of Salona, the metropolis of the province of Dalmatia. Among significant discoveries – besides
the details related to the wall building technique with two faces of stone blocks connected with transversal walls that are strengthening them, forming the »pockets« (chambers) filled with compressed earth mixed with smaller stones – most certainly is the corner quadrangle
tower. At its southern facade preserved are lower parts of windows or doors, and in the vicinity discovered are also corresponding examples of weapons, catapult stone balls, iron spear tips, etc., clearly demonstrating its primary, defensive, function. Discovering the
tower enables a more complex analysis of the fortification system concept, not only at this place, but in other parts of Salona as well. Besides the parts of the bulwarks that may have remained from the bulwarks erected as early as in the Republican period, discovered
at some places long time ago, discovered are also new parts of the bulwarks built by the same technique (opus quadratum), that also may be supposed to have belonged to earlier stages of their construction. Another important result of the excavations is the discovery
of the water supply system, that is, the canals that follow the bulwark route from north to south, lined with stone slabs made of the local lime stone: the water supply canal is best visible near the opening in the tower, bridging the narrow corridor and continuing along
the bulwark that is running to the Porta Caesarea, its northern and on to the southern polygonal tower: they protected the city gate and the entrance into the oldest part of the city, but also made water tanks (castella aquae). The long period of running of water through
the canal is visible from the large quantity of tufa in these parts of the water canal and at the bulwark. It is also interesting that in the final part of the water canal, at the part of the bulwark by the opening in the tower, there is an enclosing stone slab perforated with three
round openings: through the central opening passed is a lead pipe, preserved around 2 m in length, whereas in the other two perforations there are no pipes. It is justified to assume that lead pipes distributed water to the users in various parts of the city: one branch was
directed west, and it seems that through the preserved pipe water was provided to the oldest part of the city, the thermae and the industrial facilities built in the area west of the Porta Caesarea.
Ključne riječi
archaeological excavations; fortifications; bulwark; Salona; tower; water supply canal; Porta Caesarea; lead pipe,industrial facilities
Hrčak ID:
186046
URI
Datum izdavanja:
8.9.2017.
Posjeta: 1.097 *