Fortificatia quadriburgium (?) de la pestera Veterani din Clisura Dunării

Abstract

The Veterani Cave is one of the most well-known natural caves on the territory of Romania, nowadays being often visited by tourists. It is not only an impressive natural monument but also a multilayered archaeological site with a very rich history. The fortification of the grotto is certain for the Middle Ages and the modern era. The traces of the Roman era are less clear, with specialists hesitating between recognizing it as a fishing settlement that at some point, in the late Roman era, could have been fortified, or classifying it as a sacred cave or even a mithraeum. As it is expected, its strategic position in the area of the Danube Cauldrons strait made this unusual place to be included in the UNESCO list of the Danube Limes of the Roman Empire. In the following text, we try to decipher the character of the Roman ruins at Veterani Cave (Peskabara) corroborating all the sources at our disposal: archaeological, epigraphical, archival and cartographical information. We consider that in front of the cave there existed, starting from the end of the 3rd century AD, a small fort (similar to a quadriburgium) with a small port, also defended by walls made from stone and bricks.

Keywords

• defending walls
• fortress-cave
• quadriburgium
• danube cauldrons
• late roman period