Iovia
A recently discovered Roman town in East Transdanubia
MúzeumCafé 32.
The exploration of the late Roman fortress at Alsóhetény started off as a routine excavation, yet it produced unexpected results with regard to the history of settlements in northeast Pannonia. The settlement network of the Roman province has become known over the past 50 years. Archaeologists of the Hungarian National Museum have done excavations in Alsóhetény since the 1970s with the aim of ascertaining the ground plan of the buildings, the history of their construction and their uses. The excavations have answered nearly every question. The large, almost square fortress with 120-150 cm walls was built in the 340s. Following the Sarmatians’ attack in 375 the protective facilities were reconstructed. A big surprise occurred when more than 700 fragments of inscriptions and carvings turned up from the foundation walls of a large warehouse situated next to the northern fortress gate. In eastern Transdanubia Roman inscriptions and carvings rarely turn up in the central region. The large number of fragments and the similar style of their carving led to the assumption that there was a large 3rd-4th c. cemetery nearby, whose gravestones were taken away and used as building material by the military. Due to the large number of gravestones and the use of marble, a settlement had to be assumed whose population had the economic means to not only obtain the marble but also maintain a stone-masonry. Such a population could only inhabit a town. That led us to think that a town was hidden under the earth near the Alsóhetény fortress. The buildings discovered at the site of Felsőleperd are the remains of the town of Iovia, which was the only town not situated by the limes in eastern Transdanubia in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.