New discoveries of marble sculptures in the Sirmium imperial palace

Abstract

In the course of archaeological excavations carried out in 2012 and 2013, in the northwestern section of the palatial complex in Sirmium (locality 85), many fragments of porphyry and marble sculptures were discovered. Worth mentioning among the marble sculptures is a female head with a lunular diadem that had, most probably, been made during the Antonine period. The head was used as spolia incorporated in the medieval wall. It was a fragment of a statue of some goddess, possibly Juno, Minerva or the deified empress Faustina the Younger, and erected in the area of the palatial complex during the Late Antique period. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177007: Romanization, urbanization and transformation of urban centres of civil, military and residential character in the Roman provinces on territory of Serbia]

Keywords

• Roman period
• Sirmium
• imperial palace
• sculptures
• marble