The 54th scientific and research season of the International Interdisciplinary Archaeological Expedition of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań at the site of a Roman legion camp and the early Byzantine city of Novae near the town of Svistov in Bulgaria has begun.
Exploration work focused on the site of a presumed residence from the time of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths between 471 and 526 AD. The courtyard is being uncovered, with a columned portico, where a well has been preserved, topped by an oculus made of a single monumental limestone block. The courtyard is lined with stone slabs.
The Poznan researchers also discovered a unique limestone capitol, which they classified as a so-called fluted capitol in the ‘Hellenistic style’. This is only the fifth specimen of this type of capitals so far discovered in Novae in over 60 years of research. It probably comes from the columnar portico closing the courtyard of the alleged residence of Theodoric the Great.
