Abstract
The Roman archaeological site of Viminacium, a cultural property of exceptional importance to the Republic of Serbia and a place on the UNESCO Tentative List, is located about 3 km south of the Danube, in arable fields near the “Kostolac B” thermal power plant and the strip coal mine “Drmno”, within the administrative borders of the City of Požarevac. In addition to the large number of cultural properties, there are many natural properties in the area of Požarevac, whose internationally recognised representatives are located right next to the Viminacium Archaeological Park. In the summer of 2009, in the strip coal mine “Drmno”, a mammoth skeleton was found, preserved almost entirely. Although different possibilities for such a skeleton to remain in the mine were considered, it was eventually decided to relocate it to a secure location within the Viminacium Archaeological Park and, in 2014, the construction of a purpose-built area under the name of The Mammoth Park began. Together with the future reclaimed areas of “Drmno” and its valuable geoheritage, the presented archaeological remains of Viminacium, other exceptionally important cultural and historical properties in the vicinity, the river Danube and other significant natural assets, The Mammoth Park can form a unique cultural landscape.
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Notes
The project was led by the Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade and Dr. Miomir Korać. Associates from the Viminacium project carried out excavations of the mammoth, while Dr. Zoran Marković and Miloš Milivojević from the Natural History Museum in Belgrade performed the conservation of the skeletons and designed their presentation inside the temporary protective structure. The designer of the temporary protective structure is the civil engineer Krstan Laketić, from the “Piramida d.o.o” company, Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia.
Projects to relocate the skeletons and the supervision of the relocations were carried out by the civil engineer, Zoran Cekić, from the company “Duma d.o.o.“, Belgrade, Serbia.
The authors of the architectural design are the architect Emilija Nikolić, an associate of the Viminacium project, Dr. Miomir Korać, an archaeologist and the director of the Viminacium project, and the civil engineers Krstan Laketić and Zoran Cekić.
Dr. Jasna Korać, a landscape architect, from the company “Plant Art” was the author of the dendrological collection.
The author of the wooden mammoth is the artist Zoran Opačić.
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Acknowledgements
As the protection of such valuable paleontological findings as the mammoth skeletons was the human and professional obligation of all those working in the area of Viminacium—from the associates of the Institute of Archaeology Belgrade, to the workers of PD “TE-KO Kostolac” who led the processes in the “Drmno” strip coal mine, their relocation and presentation became a common goal. The author of this paper, who was active participant of the process, as architect and supervisor of construction works, wishes to give thanks for their cooperation to the director of Viminacium project—Dr. Miomir Korac, who initiated The Mammoth Park creation and managed the whole process, Krstan Laketić, the engineer who designed the wooden construction, Zoran Cekić, the engineer who led the relocation process and participated in the design of The Mammoth Park, the members of the Viminacium team—especially Dr. Nemanja Mrđić, Ilija Danković, Predrag Rajčić, Vladimir Miletić, Željko Jovanović and Dušan Tomašević, who took part in the processes of relocation of the skeletons and construction of The Mammoth Park, the engineers and project managers who participated in the projects and managed individual works, the teams of workers in the relocation and construction processes, the conservator Boban Filipović, who worked on the skeletons after their relocation, the artist Radoš Radenković who participated in the arrangement of the internal exhibition space, Dr. Jasna Korać, who assembled the dendrological collection of the Park, the researchers from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia and the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia for providing the team with the necessary administration documents, as well as the entire management and engineering personnel of the “Drmno” strip coal mine, who actively participated in every step of the relocation and construction works. All photographs, drawings and models used in this paper belong to the photo and technical documentation of the Viminacium project, Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade.
Funding
The article results from the project Viminacium, Roman city and military camp—research of material and nonmaterial culture of inhabitants by using the modern technologies of remote detection, geophysics, GIS, digitalisation and 3D visualisation (no 47018), funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.
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Nikolić, E.V. Creation of the Mammoth Park at Viminacium, Serbia. Geoheritage 11, 935–947 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-018-00345-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-018-00345-y