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THE ROMAN MILITARY CAMP CONBUSTICALocation and layout of the camp. The archaeological site is situated 7 km to the South-West of the town of Dimovo and only 27 km to the south of the capital of the Roman province Dacia Ripensis - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria. The site is located in the vicinities of the village of Kladorub. It lies in the valley of the river Archar, which flows along the northern wall of the fortification. The defensive fortress of the town was built near the estuary of the river Vestitsa (Varbovska reka), which here runs along the northern and eastern walls. The fortress is 171 m above the sea level. The entire plateau, in which the fort is situated, spreads over 4 sq. km.  The name of the town CONBUSTICA is known from the Tabula Peutingeriana where it is mentioned on the main Roaman rode leading from Ratiaria to Naissos. Many epigraphic monuments are also known to the scholars. In the late 19th century some of them had been taken from this place and transported to the Public Museum in Sofia (the present Archaeological Museum at the BAS) and the Museums of Vidin and Belogradchik. The additional on-site surveys evidenced the existence of two necropolis and many other ancient sites in the vicinity of the Conbustica. The fortified town near the village of Kladorub may be defined as castra. The fort is of the so-called permanent basic camps (castra stativa). The layout of the castra is nearly rhomb-shaped as was established in the course of the investigations. The longer diagonal of the rhomboid castra is oriented southwest - northeast. The defended territory comprises approximately 1.87 ha (125 m west - east and 150 m north - south). The exact measures allow the parameters of a standard base camp of an auxiliary infantry unit (cohors quingenaria) to be calculated.
Defense system The well-preserved superstructure of the fortress walls allowed the principal characteristics of the fortifying system to be established. The preserved sections of the wall had survived in different places of the eastern part of the fortress. In the summer of 2008, a part of the northeastern wall was revealed. The curtain consisted of two main parts - substructure (foundations) and superstructure (ground work). The foundations were 2 m deep and 1,50 m wide. The superstructure was 1,30 m wide. The preserved height was maximum 1 m. The facings of the wall were made up of larger stones and well-tooled blocks; the core filling between the two facings was of rubble and mortar. The safeguard of the fortress was secured through towers, situated at the corners of the fort. At this stage of the investigations, towers have not been discovered. It's conceivable that it might have probably been round.  Finds During the excavations, a bronze artifacts and imported pottery from the end of the 1st century were found. Two bronze fibulae which belong to the so-called "fibulae with height leg" type were also found. This type of fibulae appeared in the military camps along the borders of the empire in the middle of the 1st century and still remained in use in the first quarter of the 2nd century. Considering the results of the excavations, it was conceivable that the early fortress wall was build most likely in the beginning of the 2nd century. As the fortresses on the Lower Danubian limes, where the first stone construction began in the time of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, Conbustica was reinforced with a stonewall during the same period. This is the first stronghold located in the interior of the contemporary Bulgarian lands which can be dated in the first half of the 2nd century. In the next 2009 season the archaeological excavations will continue both inside the fortress and outside its walls. Parallel to the clearing up of the site, conservation funding should be sought, and where possible, the exposed archaeological structures should be subjected to conservation. The hopeful fact is that the municipality of Dimovo has already made positive steps in this direction. On the other hand, the continuation of the archaeological excavations will justify itself by the complete localization of the Conbusitca vicus and its necropolis, of which we have acquired useful and sufficient information. Downloads Annual report "Cambustica 2008" |
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