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Modern Description: An important town of Dardania on the route Naissus (Niš)-Stobi. The ancient site is 1.5 km W of the important medieval monastery at Gračanica in Kosovo. Ulpiana was founded on the site of a large Bronze Age settlement probably during the reign of Trajan. The fact that the town was a municipium by the middle of the 2d c. is attested by numerous inscriptions. Its territory included the fertile valley of the Lab and the Drenica. Its location on the major route from the Danube to the Via Egnatia and its proximity to important mining areas made it important during the Early Empire. It was the residence of a procurator by the 3d c. and continued to be of importance during the Early Christian period. The town was probably one of the many communities destroyed by the Gothic army of Theodoric in A.D. 479. Ulpiana, in any case, was in ruins when Justinian restored it in the early 6th c. and renamed it Justiniana Secunda. Excavations have revealed several buildings of the later city and some sections of the city wall, including one of the principal gates on the N side. A three-aisled basilica (34 x 14 m) was cleared within the settlement and two phases of construction were detected, dating to the 5th and 6th c. Parts of the cardo maximus were cleared as well as several dwellings within the fortified area.
The N gate is flanked by two towers of horseshoe-shaped plan. Not far from the gate outside the wall a large industrial building of the 4th c. and a nearby basilica were excavated. Cemeteries to the N, W, and S of the town have been explored. Near the wall at the edge of the W necropolis a small Christian mortuary has been cleared which has two lateral apses in its principal room. The N cemetery has a three-aisled basilica with a crypt and numerous burials below it. Near the center of the necropolis was found a monumental marble sarcophagus probably 4th c.) and parts of a floor mosaic were uncovered, with geometric motives (early 4th c.) belonging to a building earlier than the basilica. Graves in the N cemetery date mainly to the 4th c., but the basilica was dated by the excavators to the time of Justinian.
Among the works of art from Ulpiana are several statuettes in marble and two bronze statuettes of Apollo and Mercury. A large bronze medal-lion of the Emperor Probus is also of interest.
Finds from Ulpiana are in the Museum oin Priştina. (PECS: J. WISEMAN)
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulpiana
Wikidata ID: Q1512876
Trismegistos Geo: 29666

Info: Princeton Encyclopedia

(Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, from Perseus Project)

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