A bronze box shaped like the façade of a temple has been discovered at the site of a Roman settlement in Turda, central Romania. Dating to the late 2nd and early 3rd century A.D., it is a unique object on the archaeological record of the Roman province of Dacia.
The artifact was unearthed in this year’s excavation of the canabae legionis (civilian settlements that emerged outside Roman military forts) of the Legio V Macedonica when it was stationed in Potaissa. It was found in a building in the civilian residential area. The casket is complete and features a detailed temple façade, complete with columns, a pediment and architectural trim.
The archaeological material recovered is substantial, including ornaments (glass bracelet and beads, bronze ring), clothing accessories (bone hairpins, bronze belt appliques), furniture components and decorative elements (a bronze tripod leg with zoomorphic decoration), as well as coins and cult objects. The most remarkable discovery consists of a bronze box, ornamented with a decoration illustrating the facade of a temple, preserved in its entirety — a unique piece, to date, on the territory of Roman Dacia — most likely used in religious contexts!”
On a tangential but fascinating note, Legio V Macedonica was founded by Octavian in 43 B.C., just after the assassination of Julius Caesar, and was one of the first 28 legions he ever raised. It is believed to have fought in the Battle of Actium (31 B.C.), Octavian’s decisive defeat of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, before moving to Macedonia where it earned its monicker. The legion served in Judea, Moesia and Dacia. It is last mentioned in an inscription in Egypt in 635/6, a year or so before the Islamic conquest of Egypt. This extraordinary record makes it the longest-lived Roman legion known, covering 680 years from literally the first year of the Roman Empire to the end of Eastern Empire’s control of North Africa, the Levant and Arabia.
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