Archaeological museum “Roman Municipium”, located in Crvica in Skelani, at the territory of the Municipality of Srebrenica, preserves the remains of the imperial palace from the era of the Romans, for which it is assumed that it served as the mayor’s headquarters. The museum preserves metal, plastics, glass and ceramics, and the most valuable exhibits are the mosaics that the Romans wisely preserved from oblivion.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany donated 60.000 EUR for the preservation of the Roman mosaic in Skelani that is still hidden underground.
Director of the Archaeological museum Svetlana Marković says that three locations at this site are being explored, where valuable artifacts from the second century are located.
“First location is Banjino dvorište in Crvica, from where we excavated the present exhibition in the museum in 2008, and that is one of three localities of the protected zone. Monuments that are now in the archaeological museum were explored in 1896 at the territory of Skelani by Karlo Patsch, and then he found 80 monuments. He was an archaeologist and minister of finance in the Austro-Hungarian period, and he also worked in the National Museum in Sarajevo, where some of his manuscripts are still kept,” Marković says.
Archaeological team from Bijeljina discovered in Skelani a complete room of the Roman administrative building – basilica of urban surface amounting to nearly 30 square meters. That is one of the largest preserved mosaic surfaces in BiH. Basilica was discovered at the depth of 90 centimeters and it was confirmed that it originates from the fourth century before the new era.
Archaeological museum in Skelani preserves exhibits from metal, plastics, glass and ceramics, as well as different frescos that testify to the period of the second century. A room that is currently being explored at the locality of Banjino dvorište is believed to be the imperial palace, i.e. headquarters of the mayor, given the quality of creation of mosaics and the size of the room.
Marjović added that archaeological exhibits in the museum are visited by foreign guests more than the domestic ones, and the last tourists who visited were from Germany and Russia. Residents of this small village are happy that their local community is being developed and they hope that the development trend will continue.
Entrance fee for the museum is not charged, and in the coming period the entrance fee will be symbolic – only the amount that is sufficient to provide funds for further excavations.
(Source: klix.ba/photo: municipiumskelani.net)
