Journal Analele Banatului N.S. Archaeology-History

Călin Timoc

Hoffinger și Berzovia. Contribuții habsburgice la cercetarea arheologică a ruinelor romane din Banat / Hoffinger and Berzovia. Habsburg contributions to the archaeological research of Roman ruins in Banat

Jan. 1, 2017

Abstract

The Legion Camp from Berzovia is the only one of its kind in Banat and its archaeological research is very difficult, the site being completely covered today by the modern human settlement. But it was not always so! An article published more than 200 years ago, in a cultural almanac (Neues Ungrisches Magazin) in Bratislava, in the Habsburg Empire, reveals with remarkable details how the Habsburgs identified the ruins of the imposing roman fort and its inner buildings and annexes. At that time the village was called Jidovin and covered only a small part of the southern area of the fortification. The year 1783 seems to have marked the beginning of the systematic research of the archaeological site, on the surface of which the walls were visible in many places over 1 meter high, the archaeological excavations being led by the k.u.k. mining engineer von Braun from Bocsa and were supervised by Hoffinger – the one who also published them – a representative of the Oraviţa Imperial Upper Mining Office. The significance of this text may not be so great if information that does not match the real situation in the field does not persist in the literature. For the author of the present article it is very clear that the Romanian archeologist who dealt with Berzovia did not have access to this text and nobody tried to republic it completely. The information provided by Hoffinger and von Braun throws another light on the stratigraphic situation in the castle and even changes our knowledge about the size of the fortification. The text is accompanied by a situation plan and drawing profiles through the unveiled ruins, with very interesting details. It is worth mentioning the existence in Berzovia (Jidovin) of two balneary / thermae edifices, with underfloor heating system, which were completely unveiled by the excavation of the Habsburgs. Unfortunately, the Austrian report also reveals a sad reality of what followed the unveiling of the ruins, namely that the imperial administration reused the building material they had recovered from the Roman walls. Spelling was done systematically, the Austrians appreciating superlatively the quality of the stone and bricks resulting from the digging of the Roman ruins for their urban needs. For this reason, today there is a low chance of archaeologically identifying the existence of a Roman wall at Berzovia, at most its implanthole. The relevance of topographic sketches and measurements published by Hoffinger provides other important information that deserves a detailed analysis. Thus, at the moment, we are sure that the theory of Dumitru Protase, related to the existence of just one defensive system phase of the castrum made only from earth and wood, is denied by the text of the 18th century report and more real seems the succession of more phases offered by Alexandru Flutur, who explain us with stratigraphical arguments that the fortification had also a stone wall period in use before abandonment. Also from this german literary source we know that in Berzovia, during the functioning of the legion camp, there were two roman baths buildings, one extra muros and another one intra muros. The fortress bathrooms seems to be a likely annex of the praetorium, the commander house and presenting in one of the chambers the traces of a roman mosaic. All the construction bricks used by the bath buildings were stamped with the sign of Leg (io) IIII F (lavia) F (elix)