Archaeology

The second volume of Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus is dedicated to archaeological monuments and antiquities that Marsili studied and attributed to be of Roman origin. The volume begins with a double-page thematic archaeological map of the Roman provinces that once existed in the territories in and surrounding the Kingdom of Hungary. It depicts the locations of settlements, forts, ramparts, ditches and mounds along with paved Roman roads found by or known to Marsili in addition to the locations of inscriptions and other remains. The map also shows the Roman trade and supply routes across the Adriatic Sea between the Italian peninsula and the Balkans and southeastern Europe.[1]

Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus: Observationibus Geographicis, Astronomicis, Hydrographicis, Historicis, Physicis (The Hague & Amsterdam, 1726), ii, frontispiece.

The above image is the frontispiece to the second volume and depicts the construction of Trajan’s Bridge in 103-105 A.D. The bridge was erected by the architect and engineer Apollodorus of Damascus (fl. 1st century-2nd century) for Trajan, Emperor of Rome (53-117) during the two Dacian Wars (101-102, 105-106) to allow Roman troops and supplies cross over the Danube from the province of Moesia into and conquer the region of Dacia. Marsili discovered the remains of Trajan’s Bridge near Kladovo in Serbia and Drobeta-Turnu Severin in present day Romania during the winter of 1689-90. The bridge was known to classical authors, but its precise location had been lost in the mists of time.[2]

Marsili had been ordered to build a bridge across the Danube near Kladovo as well as a road along the Serbian shore from Ram downstream to Kladovo so that Habsburg troops and stores could bypass the river’s defiles and cataracts.[3] He measured the width of the Danube where Trajan’s Bridge spanned the river and gives a detailed description of the remains and construction of the twenty masonry piers and the fortifications at either end of the bridge.[4] He abandoned his initial plan to build his new bridge adjacent to the ruins of Trajan’s Bridge because of the strong winds that blew at the site and chose to move further upstream a short distance below the Iron Gates gorge instead where a group of small islands provided better shelter for the bridge’s construction.[5] The image below is an illustration of Trajan’s Bridge as it is depicted on Trajan’s Column in Rome, which was constructed to commemorate Trajan’s triumph over the Dacians and consists of a continuous spiral band of relief sculpture that winds around the shaft of the freestanding marble column.

Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus: Observationibus Geographicis, Astronomicis, Hydrographicis, Historicis, Physicis (The Hague & Amsterdam, 1726), ii, Plate 15. Trajan’s Bridge as depicted on Trajan’s Column in Rome.

Marsili also examined as many archaeological sites as possible along the length of the right bank of the Danube in Serbia and along the opposite left bank in the region of Wallachia in what is now Romania throughout this time, measuring and drawing sketches of plans and elevations of remains he thought to be Roman. The first half of the second volume consists of descriptions and plates with illustrations of the plans of settlements, fortifications and watchtowers. There is also a plate with two illustrations of Roman war elephants carrying turrets and four plates with illustrations of elephant bones that were found in various marshes.

The double-page map below depicts the plan and location of what is classified as a ‘major‘ Roman trench that Marsili called ‘Die Römer-Schantz‘, with the north shown on the left-hand side and the south shown on the right-hand side of the map. It is a defensive earthen rampart and ditch running in a north-easterly direction from the village of Čenej near the left bank of the Danube opposite the fortress of Petrovaradin to the Tisza river between the villages of Čurug and Bačko Gradište in present day Serbia. The trench intersects at two points with a so-called ‘minor‘ Roman trench, which are both part of a system of earthworks known by several names, including the Devil’s Dykes, Csörsz Ditch and Limes Sarmatiae that stretch across present day Hungary, Serbia and Romania.[6]

Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus: Observationibus Geographicis, Astronomicis, Hydrographicis, Historicis, Physicis (The Hague & Amsterdam, 1726), ii, Plate 4. Map depicting the location of ‘Die Römer-Schantz’ defensive earthen rampart and ditch.

The plates of the latter half of the second volume illustrate inscriptions on tombs, stone fragments and sarcophagi as well as statues, columns and pottery.[7] An Ottoman offensive in October 1690 retook Belgrade, which had only been captured by the Habsburgs in September 1688, which forced them to retreat and lose territory they would not regain before the end of the Great Turkish War (1683-99), thereby depriving Marsili of the opportunity to study the antiquities in the region any further.[8]

TEXT: Mr Antoine Mac Gaoithín, Library Assistant at the Edward Worth Library.

SOURCES

Deák, Antal András (ed.), A Duna Fölfedezése. Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Tomus I, A Duna Magyarországi és Szerbiai Szakasza = The Discovery of the Danube. Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Volume I, The Hungarian and Serbian Section of the Danube (Budapest, 2004).

Deák, Antal András, ‘Marsigli, Luigi Ferdinando’, in Matthew H. Edney & Mary Sponberg Pedley (eds), The History of Cartography. Volume 4, Cartography in the European Enlightenment (Chicago & London, 2019), pp 920-922.

Deák, Antal András, ‘Müller, Johann Christoph’, in Matthew H. Edney & Mary Sponberg Pedley (eds), The History of Cartography. Volume 4, Cartography in the European Enlightenment (Chicago & London, 2019), pp 1019-1020.

Gajić, Aleksandar M., ‘Trajan’s Bridge and the Danube River in the work of Count Marsili‘, in Gerhard Mayer, Paul F. Langer & Tanja Salzmann-Reißer (eds), Impulse für den Donauraum = Impulses for the Danube Region : 10 Jahre Europäische Donau-Akademie, 5 Jahre Danube Schools ; Dokumentation und Ausblick (Ulm, Germany, 2019), pp 332-341.

Istvánovits, Eszter & Valéria Kulcsár, ‘Actual State of Research of the Csörsz- or Devil’s Dyke‘, in Horea Pop, Ioan Bejinariu, Sanda Băcueț-Crișan & Dan Băcueț-Crișan (eds) Identităţi culturale locale şi regionale în context european : studii de arheologie şi antropologie istorică = Local and regional cultural identities in European context : archaeology and historical anthropology (Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2010), pp 311-321.

Stoye, John, Marsigli’s Europe, 1680-1730 : the life and times of Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, soldier and virtuoso (New Haven & London, 1994).

Štulić, Sanijela, ‘Research of the Roman Trenches in Serbia in relation to the Csörsz Ditch in Hungary‘, Hungarian Archaeology e-journal (2015).

 

[1] Deák, Antal András (ed.), A Duna Fölfedezése. Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Tomus I, A Duna Magyarországi és Szerbiai Szakasza = The Discovery of the Danube. Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus. Volume I, The Hungarian and Serbian Section of the Danube (Budapest, 2004), p. 146; Gajić, Aleksandar M., ‘Trajan’s Bridge and the Danube River in the work of Count Marsili‘, in Gerhard Mayer, Paul F. Langer & Tanja Salzmann-Reißer (eds), Impulse für den Donauraum = Impulses for the Danube Region : 10 Jahre Europäische Donau-Akademie, 5 Jahre Danube Schools ; Dokumentation und Ausblick (Ulm, Germany, 2019), p. 334; Stoye, John, Marsigli’s Europe, 1680-1730 : the life and times of Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, soldier and virtuoso (New Haven & London, 1994), p. 155.

[2] Deák, The Discovery of the Danube, p. 147; Stoye, Marsigli’s Europe, 1680-1730, p. 80.

[3] Stoye, Marsigli’s Europe, 1680-1730, pp 80-86.

[4] Deák, The Discovery of the Danube, pp 102 & 147; Gajić, ‘Trajan’s Bridge and the Danube River in the work of Count Marsili‘, pp 335-337; Stoye, Marsigli’s Europe, 1680-1730, p. 80.

[5] Stoye, Marsigli’s Europe, 1680-1730, p. 81.

[6] Istvánovits, Eszter & Valéria Kulcsár, ‘Actual State of Research of the Csörsz- or Devil’s Dyke‘, in Horea Pop, Ioan Bejinariu, Sanda Băcueț-Crișan & Dan Băcueț-Crișan (eds) Identităţi culturale locale şi regionale în context european : studii de arheologie şi antropologie istorică = Local and regional cultural identities in European context : archaeology and historical anthropology (Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2010), p. 312.

[7] Deák, The Discovery of the Danube, p. 147.

[8] Stoye, Marsigli’s Europe, 1680-1730, pp 95-96.