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Desa Archeological Site in Oltenia, Romania
Desa site on Google Earth.
Photo: Google Earth
Desa site on Google Earth, with important information added to a close up.
Photo: Google Earth
The Ruptura Site
Adrian and Arch. Dr. Florin Ridiche, the well known specialist from the Oltenia Museum went to the Desa area, on the left bank of the Danube. At the important site of Ruptura, there are a lot of artefacts from ancient Roman times and the Bronze age.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 12th June 2011
Artefacts include pottery, bricks and coins.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 12th June 2011
It is important to make a good evaluation of the site, because very soon a new period of archaeology digs will start in the area, the Alexis project being part of this important endeavour. Many artefacts were taken to the Oltenia Museum.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 12th June 2011
Adrian and Arch. Dr. Florin Ridiche, the well known specialist from the Oltenia Museum went to the Desa area, on the left bank of the Danube. At the important site of Castravita, there is a Roman Castrum discovered by Dr Ridiche.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 12th June 2011
Soon there will be digs there in the area, in which Alexis will take part, and Adrian and Dr Ridiche were in the area to make an evalution of the Roman Castravita site. They also looked for artefacts along the left bank of the Danube. There was a lot of pottery in the area, as well as burnt human bones, as well as coins and other artefacts.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 12th June 2011
Adrian and Arch. Dr. Florin Ridiche, the well known specialist from the Oltenia Museum went to the Desa area, on the left bank of the Danube. They made a search not far from the Maglavit Monastery, at Km 806, where there is a huge quarry, or Balastiera, for stone and gravel for construction purposes. They are taken from the bed of the Danube River by a dredge, shown here, from a hole 25 metres deep, and piled on the bank for later removal.
Even though it has not been used for four years, this gravel and stone depot is covered with a lot of small hills with stones from the river, and inside the hills are lots of artefacts such as Roman pottery.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 12th June 2011
A while ago, workers at the quarry found an ancient Roman sandal, in very good condition, taken from the river, but, because they did not know much about it or what to do with it, they dropped the sandal back into the river.
Adrian and Florin made a search of the area, but only a few artefacts were found this time.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 12th June 2011
This is the Balta Lata protected area, a beautiful landscape with a shallow lake full of flowers and birds, in the Desa region.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 12th June 2011
In the lake there are a lot of fish. Athough it is ten kilometres from the town of Desa, it would still be a very good tourist destination.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 12th June 2011
An important letter to the Alexis Project
From Dr. Florin Ridiche
It should be noted that Dr. Florin Ridiche was the first specialist to have made important discoveries in the Radovan/Lipovu area, and the general manager of Oltenia Museum has stated that, starting in September 2010, in the Radovan/Lipovu area, the specialist Dr. Florin Ridiche is ready to open a new campaign of digs for the Oltenia Museum, possibly in cooperation with Alexis teams.
Dr. Ridiche, with the cooperation of the well known Prof. Dr. Gherghe from Craiova University, has studied and searched in the Desa area for many years with very important results there.
In addition, this specialist is a very good friend of the Alexis Project, known well by Dr. Adrian Gheorghe after Dr. Ridiche's very important contribution in the autumn of 2008, when, together with Dr. Gheorghe and another specialist in GPS maps, an extraordinary GPS maps operation was concluded, covering about 110 ancient sites in Dolj County.
To the Alexis Project:
After archaeological researches made in 2009 and with consultation between some important and famous specialists, the chronology of the Desa sites has been clarified 100%, and what is there has been similarly determined to 100% accuracy.
So, at "La Ruptura" - near the old frontier guard picket – a castra was built during Constantine the Great's reign, most probably over a "castra aestiva" from the Emperor Trajan's period. During the 2nd - 3rd AD centuries, a small civil settlement developed here together with the nearby cremation cemetery.
With regard to the site "Castravitza", a "castellum"or "quadriburgium" fortress was built here, dating from the period of the Emperors Anastasios or Justinian (or any Emperor in between). As for the hill of Castravitza, this is an ideal place for such a small fortress as an observation point, which was naturally protected by the surrounding Danube's waters, as you remarked as well.
In conclusion, I would like to underline and appreciate your efforts for discovering and protecting historical sites along the Danube.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Florin Ridiche.
A New Theory on the Desa Site
In this first image, a general view of the Desa site today, we can see a large and important area of the site on the left bank of the Danube, but there is also visible a huge triangle, 10 x 10 x 3 Km, where we have a lot of information about secondary sites, with a lot of artefacts.
Just in front of the site, in the middle of the Danube, there is a small island, used perhaps by the Romans to ease the passage over the Danube, from Ratiaria, a very important site on the right bank of the Danube, where there was the Head Quarters of the ancient Roman fleet.
Thus, there must be a connection between Ratiara, the HQ of the Roman fleet on the Daube, and an important staging point, on the small island, perhaps by using a bridge of ships, to a very interesting site on the left bank of the Danube, perhaps a storage building and a castrum for the protection of ships, and the bridge over the Danube, as well as an important Roman area to the north, as part of the triangle.
This "ghost" castrum presents some difficulties, because an old document shows the castrum on the left bank of the Danube, marked as destroyed by the Danube waters, but without an accurate location for it.
Photo: Google Earth
In this image, we can see a better view of the area, so that the ghost castrum must be placed, in accordance with the old documents, on the left bank of the Danube, in the area of the site we know from exploration in the area today.
Photo: Google Earth
In this image, we can see Dr Gheorghe's theory. Because behind today's important site on the left bank of the Danube, there is a large valley, and also because during all the years in between, the Danube has been moving one way and another, as detailed in the page on Ostrovu Mare, there is a way to find the ghost castrum if we believe that there was a large branch of the Danube behind the known important site from Desa. The ghost castrum must be behind the site known today, on a hill, after transiting the huge valley to the north, perhaps an ancient branch of the Danube.
Only an accurate ancient map of Oltenia can show us the former branches of the Danube in history, and a good search in the northern part of the known site may find it.
Thus, the theory becomes that, starting from Ratiara, the ancient Roman HQ of Roman ships on the Danube, today in Bulgaria, on the right bank of the Danube, there must exist in ancient times a bridge of ships to ancient Dacia, present day Romania. just over the small island near the left bank of the Danube, and a large storage area on the left bank of the Danube, and a castrum to the north of there, to protect the storage area.
Photo: Google Earth
These are artefacts found by the Alexis team at the Desa Site, over the last two years, and given to the specialists at Oltenia Museum, including Arch. Dr. Florin Ridiche.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 30th November 2009
Images from the Desa site, in Autumn, after the digs of summer.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 30th October 2008
Adrian searching for artifacts in the area, in a very hot summer!
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 21st August 2008
Roman artefacts and ancient animal bones in the waters of the Danube.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 21st August 2008
The last digs in the area of the Desa site, this year, at the Ruptura area.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 21st August 2008
Following on from their first exploration, the Alexis Project team made a search in the Desa area, far away from the digs area (Castravitza), about 500 metres to 800 metres east from the old house of soldiers of the borders (Graniceri), on the left bank of the Danube river, and on the hills above
A lot of artefacts were found, including terra sigillata, Roman and Middle Ages pottery, Roman glass for windows, a piece of a middle ages sword, pottery from the Bronze age/Garla Mare and many others. All artefacts are now going to the Oltenia Museum for study. The Alexis team believes strongly that in the area 500 to 800 metres east of the house of soldiers of the borders there was a Roman fortification, so the Alexis team will ask Archeologist Florin Ridiche to make a dig there, from north to south, to search for the Roman castrum.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
Alina looking at a stone cross, just near the old house of the border guards.This stone is for a guard killed many years ago by bandits here.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
Alina in front of the house of the border guards.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
The house of the border guards must be very old, older than 1909 to judge from the cross of the soldier above, and has on the walls part of old painting decorations, as shown here.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
Inside the old house of the border guards we can find on the walls old pictures, covered today, from the old times.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
Another lost stone cross on the left bank of the Danube, not very far from the Desa site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
Sample of ancient artefacts, Garla Mare culture pottery.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
Alina searching for artefacts in the hills near the banks of the Danube, two kilometres west from the digs at Desa, in an area where we believe that there is a Roman fortress.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
Adrian searched on the bank of the Danube, also in the same area, for artefacts.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
We found there three stone pieces called Stalp de Hotar, or Border Markers (with the letters S.H. carved on them) put there on the border from the time of King Carol I of Romania, in the second half of the 19th century, as stone markers for the border.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
Alina searching for artefacts on the left bank of the Danube river
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
Desa GPS map.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 17th August 2008
Digs of the specialists from Oltenia Museum and Craiova University at Desa, in the area called Castraviţa, a large area with a lot of interesting material from Roman times.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 16th August 2008
An old building used by border soldiers during the 20th Century, which the Alexis Project team believes is a historical monument, pre 1903, with old paintings on the walls which look like ancient Roman fortifications.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 16th August 2008
An old dig area, called Ruptura, which the Alexis Project team regards as the Roman castrum. There is a lot of evidence for this. The site is about 500 metres east from the soldiers building, at Desa, on the left bank of the Danube River.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 16th August 2008
Pottery from the Girla Mare, bronze age, and Roman times in the area Ruptura, as well as pieces of glass from windows, and the tombs here, show that this may be the Roman castrum of Desa, still undiscovered. Other items found include stones for the walls which come from Vratza/Bulgaria, bricks and pieces of roof, pottery and bones.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 16th August 2008
Fifty metres to the west from the soldiers building is the solitary tomb of a soldier killed by bandits in the year 1909, Tuca Constantin, another historical monument with a hidden story.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 16th August 2008
See the table above for relevant GPS coordinates.
Campus with tents for the specialists and students at DESA during the digs on this important site, and the students and specialists from Oltenia Museum working on the Desa site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 7th August 2008
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Alexis Project Filiasi/Romania
RC J/263/230/2007 CIF 21464151
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