Locating the Timacum Maius Station on the Roman Road Lissus-Naissus-Ratiaria: New Archaeological Research

Abstract

As the exact location of two Timacum stations remains an open issue, the results of the latest archaeological investigations in the environs of Svrljig, southeast Serbia, seem to offer some corroborative evidence for the hypothesis proposed in our previous contribution that this might be the location of Roman Timacum Maius. A small-scale trial excavation was undertaken on the Roman site at Kalnica in the Niševac village area in July 2008. A trench 4 by 2m was opened in the zone of the site that had yielded plentiful fragments of building debris as well as small finds. A massive wall over 1m thick was found immediately beneath the surface. Built of bro­ken limestone and pebbles bound with lime mortar, it obviously was part of a larger structure. To the northeast of the wall was an area covered with fragmented roof tiles. The discovery of two ceramic tumuli embedded in the wall, indicating a wall-heating system so far unregistered on the representative Roman urban and settlement sites in Serbia, gives additional grounds to presume that this was a larger Roman settlement extending over an area of more than 5ha, possibly Timacum Maius, a station on the Roman road Lissus-Ratiaria-Naissus.