Heritage
Archaeological glossary
Opus, valum, cardo — 15 terms for Dobrogean sites. No pretension of a treatise. You learn them once at Tropaeum or Histria and you recognize them at Capidava.
The city
Cardo and decumanus: the axes. Forum: the square. Basilica: a public hall, not necessarily a church. Thermae: baths. Tomis on today's street shows them under the asphalt.
The wall
Opus incertum, latericium, mixtum: how the stone or brick is laid. A close photograph stands in for a speech.
The castrum
Valum, fossa, porta, principia. The limes is their line, on the Danube. Tropaeum is a victory monument, not a temple and not a castrum.
Layer
A site has layers. What you see is a cut, not “the whole city.” The museum holds the pieces taken out; the wall holds the rest.
On the ground
Do not touch the plaster. Do not enter a dig. Do not take a stone “because it is only a brick.”