Archaeologists Find Altars Showing Ancient Roman Colony Ratiaria in Bulgaria’s Archar Had Temple of Goddess Diana

The Ancient Roman colony Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria, whose ruins are located near the town of Archar, Vidin District, in Northwest Bulgaria, had a temple of the ancient goddess Diana, show the latest discoveries of the archaeologists who are carrying out excavations there.

The archaeologists have discovered two marble altars with inscriptions erected in honor of Diana which indicate that Ratiaria, one of the major Roman cities in Southeast Europe, had a temple of the goddess, reports Radio Vidin.

Lead archaeologist Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zdravko Dimitrov from the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences points out that he and his colleagues are yet to search for the precise location of the Diana temple in what was a huge Ancient Roman colony right on the bank of the Danube River.

The newly discovered altars in question were erected by two of the Governors of the Roman Province of Moesia Superior – Fabius Minicius Opimianus and Mumius Sisana Rutilianus.

In the inscriptions, the former called goddess Diana “the Saintly”, and the latter called her “Augusta”.

This is the first time one of these names is mentioned in a historical source; for the other name it is the second time.

Both altars are about 1.5 meters tall, and their inscriptions are written in Latin. One of them even has a clear date – 151 AD, during the rule of Roman Emperor Antonius Pius (r. 138-161 AD).  The other inscription is also from the 2nd century AD.

“It is very rare for Roman provincial governors to place pedestals or altars in certain shrines. This [discovery] underscores the great importance of Diana’s temple for the Roman province,” says Assoc. Prof. Ivo Topalilov from Shumen University “Bishop Konstantin Preslavski”.

The 2014 archaeological excavations in Ratiaria are being held for the second year in a row, after in 2013 the digs at the Roman colony – which has come to symbolize the damage to Bulgaria’s cultural heritage done by the rampant treasure hunting around the country – were restored for the first time since the end of the communist regime in 1989.

The 2014 excavations in Ratiaria are focused on researching the residence of the Governor of the Roman province of Moesia Superior which has already been fully excavated. The digs are going to continue until the end of October.

The archaeologists are also working on the Late Antiquity thermae (public baths) of Ratiaria whose ruins are located 30 meters away from the ruins of the governor’s residence.

Dimitrov’s team has also started to excavate the northern fortress wall of Ratiaria, which is the first time it has been studied during archaeological excavations.

The lead archaeologist says that in spite of the horrendous damages done to the ruins of the Ancient Roman city by the modern-day looters, the site still has a lot more to offer to both archaeologists and tourists.

“We have brought to light the preserved architectural complexes that should be conserved, restored, and exhibited in the future. We have unearthed completely the residence of provincial governor of Ratiaria which has an area of 2-3 decares (app. 0.5-0.75 acres) making it the largest residence in Northern Bulgaria from this time period, the 4^th-6^th century AD,” explains Dimitrov.

In 271 AD, Roman Emperor Aurelian (r. 270-275 AD) transformed the province of Moesia Superior into the province of Dacia Aureliana with its capital at Serdica (today’s Sofia), after vacating Dacia Traiana beyond the Danube. Around 283 AD, Dacia Aureliana was divided into two provinces, Dacia Mediterranea, with its capital at Serdica, and Dacia Ripensis (“Dacia from the banks of the Danube”) with its capital at Ratiaria (Colonia Ulpia Ratiaria).

“We are studying the Late Antiquity thermae exposed by the treasure hunters’ bulldozers. It is a very bad condition but it still has a lot of elements that have been preserved such as marble slabs. What’s new this year is that we have started studying the northern fortress wall of the Roman fortress. When it gets fully excavated, it can serve as the business card of Ratiaria. It will be visible from the road passing by. We have also found buildings behind the northern fortress wall, most probably barracks,” adds the lead archaeologist.

In addition to the two votive altars showing that Ratiaria had a temple of goddess Diana, the researchers have also found the gravestone of Roman citizen from the Italian Peninsula named Gaius Trebius Valerianus.

“The stone is probably from the end of the 1^st century AD, and it was no doubt part of the necropolis of the Roman colony which still evades us. At that time, the people who came from the Italian Peninsula enjoyed a higher status than the rest,” say Topalilov.

The archaeologists have also found lots of ceramic items such as lamps, jars, and amphorae. Some of them are ceramic vessels imported from Northern Italy in the 2^nd-3^rd century AD, and some comes from the Roman production centers in Butovo, Hotnitsa, and Pavlikeni in today’s Northern Bulgaria. There are also ceramic items from the Early Slavic period, the 5^th-7^th century AD.

The ruins of Ratiaria, which had been almost perfectly preserved until the 1980s when the site was excavated by Bulgarian and Italian archaeologists, have been ripped apart by treasure hunters in the years since 1990-1991.

However, since the site still harbors a great potential for archaeological discoveries and cultural tourism, the local authorities in Dimovo Municipality are expected to find a way to provide at least some security to protect what is left of Ratiaria.

The 2014 archaeological excavations of the once glorious Roman colony are being conducted with BGN 80,000 (app. EUR 40,000) in government funding from the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture.

Background Infonotes:

Ratiaria, also known as Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria, is an Ancient Roman arsenal city located on the right bank of the Lower Danube, near today’s Bulgarian town of Archar, in the Vidin District. Some scholars believe that the city of Ratiaria was first founded by the Thracian tribe Moesi in the 4^th century BC, near a gold mine. In 29 BC, the Moesi were defeated by Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus sealing the Roman conquest of today’s Northwest Bulgaria. All of Ancient Thrace south of the Danube was conquered by the Roman Empire in 46 AD, and in 87 AD, Roman Emperor Domitian (r. 81-96 AD) organized the region of Moesia into the Roman provinces of Moesia Superior (in today’s Northwest Bulgaria and Eastern Serbia) and Moesia Inferior (in today’s Northern Central and Northeast Bulgaria, and the Romanian part of the region of Dobrudzha).

It is assumed that the Roman arsenal city of Ratiaria was set up during the reign of Emperor Vespasian (r. 69-79 AD). After the Roman conquest of the Dacians, the Thracian tribes north of the Danube, in 107 AD, Ratiaria became a colony in Moesia Superior under the name Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria, taking the names of its founder, Roman Emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 AD). In 271 AD, Roman Emperor Aurelian (r. 270-275 AD) transformed the province of Moesia Superior into the province of Dacia Aureliana with its capital at Serdica (today’s Sofia), after vacating Dacia Traiana beyond the Danube. Around 283 AD, Dacia Aureliana was divided into two provinces, Dacia Mediterranea, with its capital at Serdica, and Dacia Ripensis (“Dacia from the banks of the Danube”) with its capital at Ratiaria (Colonia Ulpia Ratiaria).

Throughout its entire existence in the Roman Empire, and later the Early Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), Ratiaria was a key Roman outpost defending the Limes Moesiae, i.e. the frontier area of the Roman Empire on the Lower Danube. It was one of a total of six Roman arsenal cities, i.e. producers of arms, along the Limes Moesiae. The Roman Legion Legio IV Flavia Felix (“Lucky Flavian 4^th Legion) was based at Ratiaria at least until the Roman conquest of Dacia (101-106 AD). During the reign of Emperor Vespasian (r. 69-79 AD), it was the headquarters of Classis Moesica, the Lower Danube fleet of the Roman Empire established between 20 BC and 10 AD, which controlled the Danube from the Iron Gates to the Northwest Black Sea as far as the Crimean (Taurica) Peninsula. At different points in time, it was headquartered at Noviodunum (near Isaccea, today’s Romania), Ratiaria, Sexaginta Prista (today’s Bulgarian city of Ruse), and with secondary bases at Novae (near Bulgaria’s Svishtov) and Ulpia Oescus (near Bulgaria’s Gigen), and Tomis (today’s Constanta in Romania).

The name of Ratiaria is derived from the Latin word “ratis” (raft) or from “ratiaria”, a type of vessel, signifying its significance for the Roman Navy, especially since only two of all Roman frontier outposts on the Limes Moesiae have names connected with sailing – Ratiaria and Sexaginta Prista (meaning “Port of the Sixty Ships”, today’s Bulgarian city of Ruse). As the capital of Late Roman province of Dacia Ripensis, Ratiaria served as the seat of the military governor and the base for Legio XIII Gemina (the 13^th Twin Legion). Colonia Ulpia Ratiaria was the home of many Roman patricians (aristocrats). According to 7^th century Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta, the city of Ratiaria existed until 586 AD when it was destroyed in a barbarian invasion of the Avars.

The Ancient Roman city of Ratiaria is located on a high terrace with an area of 60 hectares (app. 148 acres), overlooking the Danube River, about 30-40 above the river; from the east and south it is surrounded by the Archaritsa River. It was mentioned by Greco-Egyptian ancient geographer Claudius Ptolemy (ca. 90-168 AD) in his work “Geography” in the 2^nd century AD, and was marked in the 4^th century AD Tabula Peutingeriana (the Peutinger Map showing cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire, covering Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia), and was mentioned in the so called Antonine Itinerary (Itinerarium Antonini Augusti, “The Itinerary of Emperor Antoninus”), an Ancient Roman register of road stations. The name Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria is first mentioned in a Roman inscription from 125 AD. Other inscriptions discovered by the Bulgarian and Italian archaeologists excavating the site in the 1980s indicate that the city of Ratiaria had a lot of resident settlers from the Italian Peninsula as well as aristocrats of Eastern origin. One of the finds is a rare inscription dedicated to the Roman deity Pales, a patron of shepherds, flocks, and livestock.

Judging by the excavated graves and numerous discovered artifacts, slabs, statues (for example, a marble statue of the resting Hercules (Heracles)), and sarcophagi, Ratiaria was a key center of arts, agriculture and crafts, and there are indications that many of the landed estates around the city were cultivated with slave labor. In the 2^nd-3^rd century AD, it likely emerged as the most important Ancient Roman urban center not just in the province of Moesia Superior but also in the entire northern part of the Balkan Peninsula. Its importance as a commercial center was underlined by the major Roman roads passing through it: the road from the Roman city of Singidunum (today’s Belgrade in Serbia) to the delta of the Danube, and from there down the Western Black Sea coast to the city of Byzantium, which later became Constantinople; the Roman roads from the province of Dacia to the Italian Peninsula.

Some of the most interesting Late Antiquity structures excavated at Ratiaria include a building with agricultural tools, clay lamps, household items, and Byzantine coins from the middle of the 6^th century AD, a building with a mosaic floor which likely was an Early Christian basilica, and pipes from the main aqueduct of Ratiaria. Bones of a total of 18 species of wild and domestic animals have been found there. According to Bulgarian paleo-ornithologist Prof. Zlatozar Boev, the most interesting of those are the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus colchicus), and the now nearly extinct in Bulgaria griffin vulture (Gyps fulvus).

Modern-day archaeological interest in the Ancient Roman city of Colonia Ulpia Ratiaria first started in the 1860s when it was visited by Austro-Hungarian geographer and archaeologist Felix Kanitz. In the 1890s, it was explored by Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist Vaclav Dobrusky, and in 1900 – by Bulgarian archaeologist Boris Dyakovich. The first paper on the history of Ratiaria was published in 1911 by Nikifor Nedelev, and in the first half of the 20^th century his word was built upon by archaeologists Ivan Velkov, Georti Katsarov, and Bogdan Filov. In the 1960s, Ratiaria’s history was explored by archaeologists Velizar Velkov and Boris Gerov. In 1958-1968, Ratiaria was partly excavated by archaeologists from the Vidin Regional Museum of History, including its then Director Yordanka Atanasova. In the 1980s, Ratiaria was excavated by a joint Bulgarian-Italian archaeological expedition led by Prof. Dario Giorgetti and Prof. Maria Bollini from the University of Bologna, which led to the publication of a the four-volume collection book Ratiariensia. Also in the 1980s, Bulgarian archaeologist Georgi Kuzmanov excavated the residence of the governor of the Roman province of Dacia Ripensis.

Unfortunately, the collapse of the communist regime in Bulgaria affected negatively the research and security of the Ancient Roman city. The archaeological excavations were terminated for lack of funding in 1991, and in the following years the once well preserved archaeological complex has been brutally looted and excavated by scores of treasure hunters – from poor local diggers to well-organized antique trafficking mobsters. It is alleged that in the 1990s the Roman city was bulldozed by the local mafia with the alleged participation of some government officials, while local Roma clans have been picking at the archaeological site by hand for decades. The treasure hunting plight of Ratiaria (and Bulgaria, for that matter) was documented in a 2009 documentary of Dateline on Australia’s SBS TV entitled “Plundering the Past”. The damage done to one of the largest Roman cities outside Italy can hardly be calculated. The archaeological excavations of Ratiaria were resumed in 2011 by archaeologist Krasimira Luka from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, and in 2013 by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zdravko Dimitrov from the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Treasure hunting and illegal trafficking of antiques have been rampant in Bulgaria after the collapse of the communism regime in 1989 (and allegedly before that). Estimates vary but some consider this the second most profitable activity for the Bulgarian mafia after drug trafficking. One recent estimate suggests its annual turnover amounts to BGN 500 million (app. EUR 260 million), and estimates of the number of those involved range from about 5 000 to 200 000 – 300 000, the vast majority of whom are impoverished low-level diggers.