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/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE-BALKANS: Romans Rise from the Waters
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Nov 1 (IPS) - After 15 years of pause, archaeological excavations
have been resumed in Serbia, an area rich with remains of ancient Roman sites
along the Danube and Sava rivers.
The most attractive to local public was the first ever underwater expedition in
the Danube, the natural border between Serbia and Romania.
It confirmed the existence of the Trajan Bridge, which once had a 1070-metre
span across the river between what are today the towns of Kladovo and the
Romanian port Turnu Severin some 170 km east of Belgrade.
The Roman emperor Trajan is said to have started to build the bridge in the
year 103AD as a part of his forays into the kingdom of Dacians, in today's
Romania.
"There were disagreements among scholars in the West about the existence
of this bridge," Gordana Karovic from the Serbian Office for the Protection of
Cultural Monuments told IPS. "But we traced the existing seven of its 20 pillars
on the bottom of the Danube and they show the exact, straight direction of the
bridge."
The new investigations use sonar technology which sends out underwater
sound waves to measure distance and detect objects. Previously, Serbian and
Romanian archaeologists simply poked deep into the water with poles to search
the waterbed.
The remains of 16 pillars of Trajan Bridge had been located in 1932. In 1982
archaeologists were able to map 12 of them. Four were swept away by water in
the meantime, Karovic says.
Karovic, an archaeologist but also an active diver, says the last expedition in
September had centred around pillar number six, counting from the Serbian
side. Her three-member diving team filmed the remains of a square base of the
pillar covered with engraved stone plates.
Trajan's architect, Apollodorus of Damascus, chose a spot where the Danube
has a constant height of about eight metres. That enabled him to construct the
bridge with 20 pillars, of about 45 metres height. The remains of the first two
pillars are still visible on both sides of the river.
A memorial plaque that hails Trajan's conquest of Dacia and his victory across
the Danube still stands on the Serbian side of the river.
"Our final aim is to establish if this was a stone bridge or a wooden one with
stone foundations, to discover the secret of Roman bridge building," Karovic
says.
"But all the remains will stay under water until a suitable solution is found for
them on the land," she says. "If we took the remains out they would disintegrate,
as the river has kept them ideally preserved. We must respect the 19 centuries
that lie between us."
The underwater expedition is supported by the Serbian Culture Ministry, with
funds from the United Nations Science, Culture and Education Organisation
(UNESCO).
Archaeological work was almost non-existent under the rule of Slobodan
Milosevic who fell from power three years ago. His downfall led to the revival of
both foreign funding and excavations in a country rich with remains of the
ancient past.
Romanian archaeologists will join the quest for the secrets of the Trajan
Bridge next year. One aim will be to determine how it fell, Karovic says.
One version says Trajan's heirs destroyed the bridge several centuries later to
prevent incursions of tribes into the Roman empire. Another says the bridge
collapsed due to the decay of the river bed.
Excavations have also resumed in the nearby town Kostolac along the
Danube. The town was the site of ancient Roman camp of Viminacium.
"We dug up several hundred metres of aquaduct and a mausoleum, which
proves that this spot dating back to the first century was a very important Roman
camp," says Miomir Korac, head of the excavation team.
The search for the secrets of ancient Roman empire has been extended to
Sremska Mitrovica town, 75 km west of Belgrade.
Excavations through the summer centred on the site of ancient Sirmium, the
Roman fortress close to the Sava river that dates back to the first century. The
marble head of a statue of goddess Diana came to surface only two days before
the end of season.
Digging will continue here next summer with the help of the French
government. Experts believe that the location hides temples and homes of
wealthy residents of Sirmium.
Now experts in neighbouring Croatia want to dip into the Danube to see what
it can reveal. (END/2003)
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