Tour of Halmyris (7/2/2012)

I woke up at 6:45 this morning to get myself washed up and dressed for the day, before heading to breakfast with Allison, Andrea and Mihail at seven. Breakfast consisted of an egg omelet with veggies and bacon, a side of sliced fresh tomatoes and cucumber and homemade apricot jam and fresh butter with toast. Again, I feel bad speaking up about the bacon, so I just did my best to eat what I could of the omelet, while discreetly feeding the bacon pieces to a slim cat purring at my feet. The apricot jam, however, was fantastic. It wasn't too sweet, as some jams can be, and it tastes as fresh as ever. We also were served some kind of lemon, herbal tea (possibly mint) that was also delicious.

After breakfast, we took a five-minute drive to the archaeological site. We spent the next two hours walking around the site with John, who gave us a full history of its occupation.

You don't realize how vast it is until you really walk around everything and get a feel for what the fort was like in it's prime. The fort boasts visible ruins of six meter high walls with 13 towers and adjacent defense ditches and turf walls. In ancient times, the site lay on the bank of the southern arm of the Danube. But over time, the river moved north and the terrain around the settlement gradually silted. Miles of corn crop and wild canibis now grow where the river once flowed. When this essential element of the biotope became hardly accessible, the equilibrium environment deteriorated. From then on, Halmyris was vulnerable to attacks from barbarians, and the settlement was eventually abandoned sometime after 700 A.D.

Nevertheless, Halmyris was occupied for some 11 centuries, containing no less than 13 identified archaeological levels. But three main periods of occupation have been established; the native Geto-Dacian settlement, the early Roman fort and the late Roman fort.

Although John says the civilian settling outside the fort walls was most likely a poor one, where soldiers were the wealthiest class, the military part is so well built and fortified. There is a private bathhouse behind the walls as well as a basilica sponsored by Constantine the Great, who hired the best builders and muralists from Constantinople.

The site contains many mysteries, one of which includes the infamous "pits of hell," giant stone-built pit holes located far outside the fort, whose purpose has yet to be determined. There is also a secret tunnel in the bathhouse, which must be 15 meters deep and extends more than 30 meters underground. It is unknown where the tunnel ends because no one has braved the journey, although its built very well with supports still intact (most likely built by Roman soldiers). Some people think the tunnel connects to the "pits of hell," which may have been used as an escape route.

I learned a lot about Halmyris' history today, and it was nice to refresh my knowledge of Roman culture. Tomorrow, we start digging. And I. Can't. WAIT.