Novae

Faculty of Archaeology University of Warsaw Expedition to Novae

The excavations carried out in Novae by the University of Warsaw started in 1960. Now, two Polish teams from Warsaw work on the site – the first one from the Faculty of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw, headed for years by Professor Tadeusz Sarnowski, and now by dr hab. Agnieszka Tomas, and the second one from the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Centre.

In past years the members of the Faculty of Archaeology Expedition carried out the excavations within the headquarters building (principia), and along the fortifications of Novae. Now, the headquarters building is partly recreated and opened for the visitors. The excavations of the legionary fortifications were finished in 2016. The results of these excavations were published in the journal Archeologia (Warsaw).

Apart from the excavations, the team carried out archaeological prospection around the legionary fortress. The project headed by dr hab. Agnieszka Tomas employed non-intrusive techniques – field walking, aerial photography, geophysical surveys (resistivity and magnetometer surveys), metal detecting and GIS. The project received financial support of the Polish National Science Centre and was completed in 2014. The publication of the results, titled “Living with the Army II”, is going to be published in 2022.

Recent excavations of the Faculty of Archaeology team were carried out in the eastern (legionary) necropolis and the Late Roman extension of Novae (the so-called annex). Preliminary results were published in Archaeologia Bulgarica in 2020. More on these investigations you can find here.

In 2021 the Faculty of Archaeology UW Expedition to Novae has started the excavations in the new sector – the central part of the legionary fortress, at the back of the headquarters building (principia). In many legionary fortresses this part was occupied by the legionary commander’s residence (praetorium).

This page presents the results of our research and the events organized by our team. The promotion of our Expedition is carried out under the activities of the “Excellence Initiative – Research University” Program, Measure III.3.2.

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