Archaeological excavations at the roman fort Băneasa in the summer 2017

Abstract

Following a brief, exploratory campaign in 2016, we focused our efforts in the next year on the NE corner of the Roman fortlet from Băneasa. The excavation brought evidence for the existence of a rather large defensive ditch, with a wooden obstacle at the ditch’s exit. The berm is unusually long (10 m) making it impossible to see from the palisade towards the middle of the ditch. The palisade is built from wooden stakes, that were not buried very deep, nor extremely solidified, with the supporting wall short and small. The barrack starts just two meters away from the palisade, leaving no room for a tower, an intervallum or a via sagularis. The construction was built on a wooden basis, with the walls made entirely from wattle and daub, covered with vegetation. Thus, the barrack was destroyed by a very intense, but probably very fast, fire. Not even fragmentary elements from the resistance structure were discovered because the wood that did not burn was recovered. The series of unusual facts taking place in this fortlet continues with, the relative absence of nails used in construction as well as the obvious scarcity of tegulae, which warned us that the topic of fuel was of vital importance in an area with a half-steppe character, with little vegetation. The excavation diagonally traversed the northern part of a barrack. The inventory that was recovered is typical, with material from the military equipment. The dating is given by the four coins discovered in the barrack ruins, all dated in the first quarter of the 3rd century.