SGS and the Glac Project

22 March 2018

SGS and the Glac Project

The Glac Project is an Australian-Serbian archaeological excavation of a site just outside Sremska Mitrovica, north-west of Belgrade on the Sava River in the Republic of Serbia.

Sremska Mitrovica was once the Roman city of Sirmium, an important imperial capital in the third and fourth centuries AD due to its proximity to the frontier along the Danube River. Ten Roman emperors were born in or around Sirmium, including the military strongman MaximianHerculius, who ruled as a member of the Tetrarchy at the beginning of the 4th century. The site being excavated by the Glac Project is a large luxury villa complex in a field outside Sremska Mitrovica. It is likely that this complex was a palace built by the emperor Maximian that is referred to in literary sources.

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The Glac Project is a collaboration between the University of Sydney and the Serbian Institute of Archaeology, and is headed by Professor Richard Miles from Sydney. It receives enthusiastic support from the Australian Embassy in Belgrade, as well as all levels of government in Serbia. Excavations began in 2017, the first season helping to identify some of the extent of the site, as well as revealing opulent mosaic flooring. Sydney Grammar School is proud to be a partner of the Project, and will play an active role in developing the educational profile of the excavation.

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Excavations at Glac will go on for many years, and will result in the creation of a permanent education and visitors’ centre at the site. The economic and cultural benefits of this will have a transformative impact on Sremska Mitrovica and its citizens. Sydney Grammar School is developing links with schools in Sremska Mitrovica, with the aim of taking a group of boys to Serbia in 2019, and then hosting Serbian students in 2020. As a result, the School’s involvement in this project provides unique opportunities to engage with an active archaeological project and to experience cultural and educational connections with a country very different to our own.