| dc.description.abstract | In Pécs due to the continuous development of the town throughout many centuries, there are only few sites where the remains of the Roman town can be excavated and even fewer remains come to light undisturbed. Some archaeological monuments have already been disappeared for good, others are situated under streets and houses unavailable for any archaeological research. In many cases it is not easy to follow what happened to the finds and remains. The mosaic floor that was found in 1841 during the building of a house at 6 Káptalan Street and a Roman burial chamber, observed during canalization in 1927 belong to this category. Some researchers still consider these as they were parts of the same early Christian building.
Some authors made mistakes or misinterpreted the sources, because they relied on old, short and inaccurate descriptions of the finds. Either they were not aware of the sources or did not read them carefully. Therefore there are many different opinions in the publications often contradicting each other. Also, the lack of drawings and documentation added to the difficulties of later research, just like the inaccurate observations in some previous publications.
In 2011 when we made the illustrations to Pécs Története (History of Pécs town), Volume I, it became evident, that the reconstruction of the mosaics, published in 1984, and the interpretation of the archaeological remains found in 1927 were inaccurate.
These Roman remains did not come to light in the same time yet they are connected to each other in so many ways. We have started our research with the examination of both the written sources and the actual archaeological material. Later we have researched the different opinions of earlier publications and only after that were we in the position - with the help of few survived drawings and photos - to re-evaluate the remains and to make an attemp to reconstruct what they might have looked like in Roman times.
Our recent research on the finds from 1841 and 1927 started in 2011, when we made a presentation about them for the archaeology PhD students of the University of Pécs for the first time. In accordance with the topic of the semester first we gave an account of our ongoing research regarding the actual size of the mosaics and the location and identification of Burial Chamber X that came to light in 1927. We have also presented the new, amended reconstruction of the mosaics and some of the corrections we have made.
We have published our finished research about the building and the mosaics on the 10th of December 2013 at the Morsa Archaelogica Conference in Pécs.
We hope that this article helps to answer the questions that emerged or were left unanswered so far about the mosaics and the archaeological remains found in 1927. | hu |
