Pottery finds from the excavations extra muros at the Late Roman palace of Galerius Romuliana near Gamzigrad (Serbia)
The Late Roman palace Romuliana was erected at the beginning of the 4th c. as a representation and memorial complex of emperor Galerius and his mother Romuliana. The excavations started in 1953 and revealed the palace ensemble, two temples, thermae, some smaller buildings with uncertain function and parts of the fortification.
The Roman Germanic Commission Frankfurt/M. and the Division of Building History of the German Archaeological Institute together with the Archaeological Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences carried out a joint project for the interdisciplinary investigations of the surrounding area of the palace. Some graves and different buildings like a villa complex, a basilica and a circle monument were uncovered by the geomagnetic prospections and partly excavated. Some of these structures can be attributed to a period before the erection of the palace itself.
The ceramic finds from the complexes extra muros date for the large part to the 2nd half of the 3rd and to the 4th c. and consist mainly of typical settlement pottery of local production. Transport amphorae and imported fine wares appear in a very small scale. The processed pottery as like as the published finds from the palace itself show no evidence for a pottery service of excellent quality what can be expected for an emperor’s palace. For that reason, it can be put in question if the palace has ever been in function.
