DOMAVIA
Gradina, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Yugoslavia.
Near Srebrenica ca. 85 km NE of Sarajevo on
a tributary of the Drina river.
The silver-bearing lead mines in the Drina valley were
probably worked by the Illyrians before the beginning of
large-scale Roman activity there in the reign of Marcus
Aurelius. The city, granted municipium status sometime
in the 3d c. A.D., flourished as the administrative center
for the mining industry in that region. Exploitation of
the mines continued through the 3d c. and into the 4th c.
After the reorganization of the mines by Marcus, equestrians with the title of procurator metallorum Delmaticarum et Pannoniarum administered from Domavia the
mines of both Dalmatia and the adjoining Pannonia. During the Middle Ages nearby Srebrenica took the place
of Domavia as the mining center in the area.
Excavations have found extensive remains of Roman
mines and settlements around the city. The mines were
concentrated mostly on the NE slopes of Mt. Kvarac;
connected with them were several wide canals presumably
related to processing the ore. Traces of smelters were
also found.
The city was located on irregularly sloping terrain in
a small valley. Excavations have uncovered a bath complex, some official buildings, and two residential areas.
Inscriptions mention the existence of a macellum and an
aqueduct built for the baths.
The baths occupy a slightly irregular square area on
the E edge of the town and show two building phases.
The first produced a relatively simple structure containing waiting rooms, two cold rooms, a warm and hot
room. Later, in the second half of the 3d c., a more
elaborate structure was built, incorporating the rooms
from the first phase. In addition to the usual bath facilities, this structure included a separate set of rooms for
women, provisions for dining, and an unusually large
number of small rooms, perhaps reserved for officials
since no other baths were discovered in the city. The
floors of two heated rooms were paved with mosaics. The
baths, used throughout the 3d c. and into at least the
early 4th c., are the most elaborate in the province.
The group of official buildings is near the city's center.
The principal structure is rectangular with an apse at the
S end of its short axis; it is flanked on the E and W by
smaller buildings. The larger enclosure has been interpreted as a part of the imperial procurator's residence,
the town curia, or a basilica. The lack of an open forum
area in the city and the presence here of a number of
dedications to the various procurators indicate a public
function for the building group. Domavia's residential
areas were located on two level spaces on the site. The
houses consisted of small single rooms built close together in the confined space available.
The finds from the site are in the Zemaljski Muzej at
Sarajevo.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. W. Radimsky, “Berichte über di Ausgrabungen von Domavia bei Srebrenica in 1892 und
1893,”
Wissenschaftliche Mitteilungen aus Bosnien und
der Hercegovina, 4 (1896) 202-42
PI; E. Pašalić, “O antičkom rudarstvu u Bosni i Hercegovini,”
Glasnik
Zemaljskog Muzeja u Sarajevo, NS 9 (1954) 47-75; id.,
Antička naselja i komunikacije u Bosni i Hercegovini (1960); J. J. Wilkes,
Dalmatia (1969)
MP.
M. R. WERNER
