During a ground penetrating radar survey in the village of Danilo, located in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, archaeologists identified a monumental Roman structure.
Radar pulses are used by the geophysical technique known as ground penetrating radar (GPR) to image the subsurface. In order to find and map underlying archaeological artifacts, features, and patterning, it is a non-intrusive approach of subsurface surveying.
The survey uncovered a massive rectangular structure with significant signs of a colonnade and entrance beneath the area of an 18th century church.
According to the news of Heritage Daily, for years, archaeologists have found evidence of a Roman structure, with numerous architectural elements and decorative masonry being uncovered.
It is well known that the 18th century church was constructed on the ruins of an earlier, diminutive Romanesque Christian temple, but the analysis indicates an even earlier structure that is roughly 20 by 10 meters in size.
The location was a significant Roman center during antiquity, and inscriptions discovered during earlier research mention enigmatic Municipium Riditarum, a Romanized settlement of the Ridite tribe. The Riditae are a branch of the Illyrian tribe once known as the Delmatae. (Illyrians is the ancient name of Albanians, It became a province of the Roman Empire from the 2nd century BC.)
Professor Fabian Welc said, from the Institute of Archaeology of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw: “The data we have collected, indicates that beneath the church and the adjacent cemetery, there are remains of the temple, which was part of the forum, i.e. the most important part of every Roman city”.
A joint Polish-Croatian project has been underway in Danilo since 2019. It is made up of researchers from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyski University’s Institute of Archaeology in Warsaw, the Institute of Archaeology in Zagreb, and the Museum in Ibenik.
Cover Photo: Part of the ornate braid of a monumental Roman temple unearthed in a medieval cemetery near the church in Danilo in the 1950s.