Terme u Donjem Nerodimlju kod Uroševca

During the exploration of a building in Donje Nerodimlje (locality of Kaluđerske Vodenice), at the end of the 1980s, two rooms were examined, one of which had a mosaic floor with the figural presentation of the Seven Wise Men. Researchers offered different interpretations of the purpose of the building (palace, villa, martyrium), and of the symbolism of the figural presentation. The building was explored on a greater scale in 1990 and 1992, and it was recognised as thermae from the period of Late Antiquity. Mosaics were found in three rooms: A, B and C (plan 2). In room A (apodyterium), “the floor was covered with a mosaic made of ceramic tesserae placed on a thick layer of mortar” (p. 252). Room B (palestra) had a floor decorated with a mosaic, on a support made of broken stone and mortar, with ground brick (p. 249, 254). The border of the mosaic consists of scrolls of acanthus, in which are depicted birds and fruit. The central field consists of a network of slanting squares, with four-petalled flowers, while in the west of the room there is a rectangular field with a damaged figural presentation: below seven arcades the pictures of the Wise Men. The central part of the room was occupied by a fountain of around 1.5 metres in diameter, decorated with a mosaic on the outside and with tesserae of various colours along the rim, with a braid motif, while inside, there were white tesserae (p. 247). Mosaics with various geometrical motifs decorated the four steps that had led to room C on the southern side. In room C (frigidarium) a mosaic, quite damaged, represented a later level of the floor, above the earlier floor level made of bricks. The border consists of a band with lotus flowers. The carpet consists of geometrical motifs (a network of squares, a field with a fish-scale motif) and a figural field, with parts of naked female figures in water (Nereides or Nymphs) and the head of a person with a wreath in the hand (drawing 2).