Stobi

Стоби

North Macedonia · Vardar, Gradsko

Ancient cityExcavation ongoing
Approximate period300 BCE — 1,400 CEHellenistic, Roman, Late Antique and medieval phases See on the map ↓

In brief

Stobi is an important ancient city that developed at the confluence of the Axios and Erigon rivers. Excavations investigate public buildings, religious buildings and necropolises of the Roman and Late Antique periods.

What was found?

  • 1Roman theater

    It is one of the city's principal monuments from the Roman period. It shows that Stobi had large buildings for public performances.

  • 2Episcopal basilica and baptistery

    This is an important religious building complex of the Late Antique city. It provides tangible evidence of Stobi's development as a Christian center.

  • 3Terracotta figurines

    150 terracotta figurines were found in the 2009 excavations. These small finds open up the city's material world to research alongside its monumental buildings.

  • 4Coins

    3.568 coins were recovered in the 2009 excavations. This assemblage is an important resource for dating excavation layers and studying monetary circulation.

What does it point to?

Situated at the intersection of roads, Stobi was a city where trade, administration, and religious life were intertwined. The theater and basilica show different aspects of the transformation from Roman urban life to a strong Christian center.

What did it teach us?

  1. Documented cultural layers extending from the Early Roman period to the Early Byzantine period.
  2. Revealed that large Christian building complexes later developed in a city containing buildings such as a theater, temple, and synagogue.
  3. Showed that a small settlement also existed among the ancient city's remains during the Middle Ages.

Images

Stobi theatre panorama
Tomisti · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Mosaic floor decorated with a deer in the baptistery of the Episcopal Basilica, Stobi (735
Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Stobi - Münzkabinett, Berlin - 5477003
Reinhard Saczewski · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Small bath at Stobi
Ajta · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Paeonian; Macedonian; Roman; Byzantine
First modern dig
1917
Team / historical
National Institution Stobi; Balkan Heritage Foundation
Coordinates
41.5517°, 21.9750°

Sources

  1. stobi.mk
  2. balkanheritage.org
  3. ifrglobal.org
  4. en.wikipedia.org

Nearby excavations


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12.000

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    Arkeofili ↗ · Excavation notebook
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