Augustan Military Finds in Thrace

[BenC44]

Recently I've done some archaeology in Bulgaria along the Danube and I came across a bronze fitting from some lorica segmentata. I was told by the dig leader that it was Augustan around 2 AD but I am not sure of this. I know that there was a lot of military activity in the area in 2nd Century AD with the Dacian wars. Is it more probable that this piece this is from the Era of Trajan or Domitian rather than Augustus?

[last_roman]

Salve, BenC44. Where did you found this /which site/?

[BenC44]

The site we were working on was called Cambustica or Conbustica and its near the town Vidin.

[last_roman]

The site we were working on was called Cambustica or Conbustica and its near the town Vidin.

O, Cambustica! So you had worked with Krassimira Luka this summer. 8)

There was a roman auxiliary camp from the end of 1 century B.C. So, there was a possible military action at the Augustan period, when the dacians under the Cotiso crossed the Danube, or that you say - from Flavian period, when Decebalus invaded in province.
Site about Conbustca field school:
http://www.cambustica.archbg.net/fs_excavations.html
From here you can see additional information about roman artefacts, excavated there:
http://dimovo.bg/download.php?id=30

[BenC44]

Yes, thats right I worked with Krassimira, and thankyou very much.

[D B Campbell]

Thankyou for posting details of this site. I had never heard of it. The neighbouring fort at Timacum Minus (near Vratarnica in Serbia, I think) seems well-known, with inscriptional evidence of successive garrisons (e.g. J.J. Wilkes, "The Roman Danube", JRS 95, 2005, p. 190). Is the fort at Cambustica/Conbustica (Wilkes has "Combustica") a recent discovery?

[last_roman]

Thankyou for posting details of this site. I had never heard of it. The neighbouring fort at Timacum Minus (near Vratarnica in Serbia, I think) seems well-known, with inscriptional evidence of successive garrisons (e.g. J.J. Wilkes, "The Roman Danube", JRS 95, 2005, p. 190). Is the fort at Cambustica/Conbustica (Wilkes has "Combustica") a recent discovery?

Salve, Duncan, Conbustica is not a recent discovery. It's dicovered more than a century ago by hungarian archaeologist Felix Canitz. But after that only 'black archaeologists' were digging there. But from 2008 year, we had already three archaeological expeditions. So I hope, that we'll finally find the name of auxiliary unit, that stood there.

[Crispvs]

The fitting you showed in your initial post is a Corbridge type fitting, which I would expect to come from the Flavian period occupation of the site you mentioned. For an Augustan period site I would have expected segmentata fittings to be of Kalkriese type. Of course, if the fitting really did come from an Augustan period level, we would have to revise our ideas on when the Corbridge type was introduced and how long the Corbridge and Kalkriese types existed side by side.

Crispvs

[bularchaeo]

Hi. i just saw this post. it is a bit confusing as i never sed that this find is Augustan. The published picture here is from 2008 season. This year we have one more fitting. Both of them are without context.
The archaeological data shows that the camp was founded under Tiberius-Claudius. The stone fortificatin is build in the end of 3 and beginning of the 4 century AD.

Here are the last short reports about the site.

http://uni-sofia.academia.edu/Krassimir ... nicipality

http://uni-sofia.academia.edu/Krassimir ... nicipality

Krassimira

[BenC44]

Oh sorry Krassimira, my mistake, I must have somehow got the idea that the site was from 2 AD, ahh thats ok, that makes a lot more sense.
Thankyou
Ben