page_title: Viminacium
section_title: Location and excavation
hierarchical_section_title: Viminacium / Location and excavation
caption_attribution_description: English: Toys exibited at National Museum in Požarevac
context_page_description: Viminacium or Viminatium was a major city and military camp of the Roman province of Moesia, and the capital of Moesia Superior. As of 2018, only 3 to 4% of the site has been explored.
  The site is located 12 km from the modern town of Kostolac in Eastern Serbia. The city dates back to the 1st century AD, and at its peak it is believed to have had 40,000 inhabitants, making it one of the biggest cities of that time. It lies on the Roman road Via Militaris. Viminacium was devastated by Huns in the 5th century, but was later rebuilt by Justinian. It was completely destroyed with the arrival of Slavs in the 6th century. Today, the archaeological site occupies a total of 450 hectares, and contains remains of temples, streets, squares, amphitheatres, palaces, hippodromes and Roman baths.
  Viminacium holds a distinction of having the largest number of graves discovered in any Roman archaeological site. As of 2018, 15,000 graves have been discovered.
context_section_description: Viminacium is located in Stari Kostolac (Old Kostolac) a Serbian town on the Danube river, east of Belgrade.
  Viminacium is the location of the first archaeological excavation in Serbia, which started in 1882, by Mihailo Valtrović, founder of archaeology in Serbia and the first professor of archeology at the college in Belgrade, but himself a non-professional archaeologist (he was an architect). The only help he received was from twelve prisoners for manual work, because the state did not have enough resources to provide him with a better work force.
  His research was continued by Miloje Vasić, the first Serbian trained archaeologist, in the mid 1890s. Serbian Queen Draga Obrenović visited the site and donated 100 gold ducats for further excavations, which is considered the first donation in Serbia given to the exploration of the Antiquity. It has intensified in the last ten years in the area of the Roman city of the Roman legionary camps and cemeteries. Many studies suggest that the military camp at Viminacium had a rectangular plan, measuring 442 m × 385 m (1,450 ft × 1,263 ft), and that is not far from its western wall of civilian settlement in an area of approximately 72 acres (29 ha). The Legionary camp in Viminacium is now in an area of arable land, so that Viminacium is easily accessible to researchers, but unfortunately also to robbers. The National Museum in Belgrade and Požarevac have 40,000 items found in Viminacium, of which over 700 are made of gold and silver. Among them are many objects that are rare and invaluable.
  The tombstones and sarcophagi are often decorated with relief representations of scenes from mythology or daily life. We have found numerous grave masonry construction. Especially interesting are the frescoes of the 4th-century tombs. The Frescos of young women have high artistic value as examples of Roman art. During the excavation, an amphitheater was discovered, which with its 12,000 seats was one of the largest in the Balkans.
  One specific fresco of a young woman is labeled the jewel of Viminacium and the most beautiful fresco of the Late Antiquity. The fresco resembles somewhat a famous Mona Lisa and local archaeologists named it "Divina". Woman is dressed in the golden hemmed dress which point to the higher social status. "Divina" is the centerpiece of the tomb and probably represents the woman who was buried in it.
  Tomb No. 5517 has an unusual representation of the Heavenly Rider and the Christogram. In front of the rider there is a turquoise panther with wide open jaws. Behind the rider is a running dog, colored in dark red, with the dark blue contour. The trees are painted in the dark and light blue colors, in the manner of the Garden of Eden. Though purportedly depicting a hunting scene, it actually symbolically shows the transformation of paganism into Christianity. The rider is placed between a panther, which in Christian iconography depicts sin, cruelty and Antichrist, and a dog, which symbolizes justice, grace, peace and truth. The Pagan is depicted in red color, climbing to the heaven, and then transform in the rider which is blue. It is estimated to be painted in the 3rd century.
  Artisan shops with the furnaces for baking bricks were discovered, so as the thermae. Six pools were uncovered, which were decorated with the floral and animal motifs. It was a steambath, with hot air circulating between the colonnettes and warming the bricks below the floor slabs. Massage rooms occupied the central section of the thermae. Lanterns were discovered in the facility, pointing that the night bathing was possible. The water was conducted using the natural fall via an aqueduct. 10 km (6.2 mi) of aqueduct have been explored so far.
caption: Toys from Viminacium, National Museum in Požarevac
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