The 2004 field season at Porolissum (June 7-July 3) was conducted thanks to a number of individuals. The directors are deeply indebted to the first participants in the Porolissum Field School:

Stephanie Barrante (Salve Regina University)
Christopher Blanchette (Salve Regina University)
Margaret McIntyre (Wake Forest University)

We owe profound thanks to Dumitru Gheorghe Tamba (Director, Zalãu County Museum of History and Art) as well as Sanda Bãcuet-Crisan and Dan Bãcuet-Crisan for their support of the project and friendship. The field trips were thoroughly enjoyable and educational thanks to Prof. Doina Benea, Calin Timoc, and Dorel Micle (West University of Timisoara), Sandu Frutur (Researcher, Banat Museum of History), Dr. Ani Catinas (Turda Museum of History and Art), Prof. Grigore Man (Director, Maramures County Museum), Dr. Carol Kacso (Assistant Director, MCM) and Mihaela Manarazan (Reseacher, MCM).

E.C.D. wishes to thank Ambassador James E. Creagan (President, John Cabot University),Prof. Susan Kane (Oberlin College), Prof. Lester Little (Director, American Academy in Rome), Dr. Archer Martin (Archaeology Supervisor, AAR) Prof. Anna Marguerite McCann (M.I.T.), Fausta McDermott, Esq. (McDermott and McDermott Attorneys at Law), Prof. Franco Pavoncello (Dean, JCU), Prof. J. Theodore Peña (SUNY, Univeristy at Buffalo), Dr. Portia Prebys (Director, Saint Mary's College Rome Program), Dr. Ingrid Rowland (Mellon Professor of the Humanities, AAR) and Mark S. Tauber (Cultural Affairs Officer, U.S. Embassy to Romania) for their advice and support. Finally, I am very grateful to my extremely supportive and patient family: Loredana Fauci, Patrick and Sandra De Sena, Alicia and Michael Kempin!

Between June 7 and July 3, 2004 team members of the Porolissum Forum Project excavated three trenches in order to define the central area of the Forum and to investigate the structures facing onto the courtyard. The trenches revealed more surprises than a simple verification of geophysical results. We also gained knowledge about the chronological development of the Forum and how the area of the Forum was utilized in the post-Roman period


Trench 1, located on the east side of the Forum, was excavated in order to seek a segment of a N-S wall suggested by the magnetometry readings that defined the east side of the forum’s courtyard. Very early in the excavation season, the magnetometry readings were proven to be correct. This trench also yielded our most important evidence for the chronological development of the forum. At least four phases of construction and use were noted in this trench: a pre-forum or early forum phase; two phases that involved the construction of and modifications to the mature forum; and a post-Roman phase.

Phase 1. The earliest feature within Trench 1 pertains to a pre-forum or early forum phase and consists of the corner of a stone building that underlies and is off-axis with the N-S wall. Two walls of identical stone and concrete masonry meet to form the corner of a room. We are uncertain whether this represents an early public building, a shop or a house. Moreover, it is difficult to provide an absolute chronology for this phase, although a date in the second quarter of the 2nd century is not unreasonable based upon ceramic and architectural indicators. This feature was systematically demolished in order to construct the mature forum.

Phase 2. The excavations revealed a 6-meter long segment of the N-S wall that represents a component of the mature phase of the Roman forum. This segment of the wall was constructed over the Phase 1 structure, which had been razed to a uniform level. A small area of packed earth on the west side of the N-S wall and below the destruction level may represent the original walking surface of the courtyard or a preparation for pavement.

Phase 3. An unanticipated discovery was a large hypocaust system on the east side of the N-S wall. There were no indications as to the function of this heated area. It may, thus, represent a heated space within a public building or a bath complex.

Phase 4. We suspect that this structure was utilized well into the post-Roman period, either according to its original function or to serve another purpose. A portion of the N-S wall was demolished at an unknown time to create a crude passageway, suggesting that the area served a different function in the post-Roman period. Two sherds of lead glazed pottery (4th-5th centuries AD) were revealed in related strata on the west side of the Roman N-S wall, providing an approximate date for the duration of activity in this area prior to the destruction of the forum building. The building containing the hypocaust system was destroyed by fire, but not before it had been stripped of its internal furnishings.


Trench 2, located on the north side of the Forum, was excavated with our sights set upon what appears to be a Roman basilica. The magnetometry study suggests that the northern side of the forum’s courtyard was bounded by a large structure composed of a series of parallel walls, which is consistant with the plan of a basilica. The archaeological evidence is not overwhelming, yet it reinforces the hypothesis of a basilica. In the 2004 season, we revealed the corner of porticus consisting of a foundation wall of concrete and stone masonry (2.8 meters long by 0.6 meters wide) with a column base (ca. 0.5 x 0.5 meters) at the easternmost end. A drain runs parallel to the porticus on the side of the courtyard. Four meters to the north, the excavations revealed a solid wall of similar masonry situated parallel to the porticus and preserved to a height of 1.1 meters. We suspect that the solid wall represents the southernmost wall of the presumed basilica. The section of the porticus, thus, served as a covered walkway on the north side of the forum’s courtyard. A similar arrangement occurs in one of the few known fora in Dacia, namely the forum at Colonia Ulpia Traiana where a basilica defines the east side of the courtyard. We cannot be certain of the date of this structure, since the masonry is not identical to the N-S wall in trench 1 and the artifacts found in association with the presumed basilica provide only a generic “Roman” date


Trench 3, also located on the east side of the Forum, was a narrow exploratory trench beginning seven meters to the southeast of Trench 1, revealed a wealth of architectural features, most of which require further study. The westernmost end of the trench pertains to the mature forum phase, including the continuation of the hypocaust area of Trench 1. A concrete and stone wall runs E-W through this trench and probably joins to the N-S wall of Trench 1. To the north of this wall are two additional hypocaust pillars and a partitioning wall composed of large sandstone blocks set perpendicular to the E-W wall. The two pillars and sandstone blocks had been subjected to a very hot oxidizing flame. This evidence may indicate that a praefurnium was situated nearby. Immediately to the south of the E-W wall, we revealed the beginning of an apsidal space pertaining to the same “mature” phase of the forum.

To the east of the partitioning wall, the situation becomes more complicated. The E-W wall continued for 11 meters. It was partially built against what appears to be the base of a massive pillar (ca. 2 meters broad). Judging by the seams between the masonry, it appears that the pillar corresponds to a somewhat earlier phase in the sequence of Roman-period building activity. The east end of the E-W wall joins with a N-S wall, which extends immediately into the balk. Another N-S wall emerges from the main E-W wall some 2.5 meters to the west, defining a small space, perhaps a taberna.

At some moment, a segment of the E-W wall near the hypocaust area was removed and a drain was inserted. Finally, the area near the hypocaust revealed the same pattern of destruction observed in Trench 1.


In addition to the architectural features, a modest assemblage of artifacts and ecofacts - pottery, glass, animal bone, worked bone, iron, bronze, painted plaster and slag - were recovered. To date, this material has only been studied in a cursory fashion, but some knowledge has been gained with respect to subsistence and industry at Porolissum. It appears that in the first period of Roman occupation there was a small, but steady chain of supplies deriving from other areas of the Empire, whilst many supplies were acquired or manufactured in the area surrounding Porolissum. By the mid second century virtually all supplies derived from Porolissum's hinterland, or were, at most, from other areas of Dacia. There appears to have been no break in craft production in the immediate post-Roman period.