Novae – Castra Legionis, 2010 – 2012: Preliminary Report on the Excavations of the University of Warsaw Archaeological Expedition

Abstract

The present report covers three excavation campaigns (2010-12) carried out within the head¬quarters building (principia) and along the eastern and northern curtain walls of the legionary base at Novae. In the principia, two trial trenches in the eastern and northern porticos of the building revealed a small section of the inner wall of the northern portico and four intersecting pits. Two of them contained rich material dated to the 50s and 60s and possibly also to the very early 70s of the 1st century AD and mostly left by the legio VIII Augusta in AD 69. The work along the legionary defences was concentrated on the northern and eastern gates of the fortress, in the central part of its eastern front with Tower No. 5 and in the eastern intervallum with a long masonry water tank dated to the 2nd century AD. On the basis of new documentation of old excavation areas it was possible to propose reconstructions of both timber-and-earth and stone defences on the eastern front of the legionary fortress