- Title Pages
- List of Plates
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Maps
- 1 The Transition to Late Antiquity
- 2 The Transition to Late Antiquity on the Lower Danube: the City, a Fort and the Countryside
- 3 The Lower Danube Region under Pressure: from Valens to Heraclius
- 4 The Late Roman Army and the Defence of the Balkans
- 5 Goths in the Roman Balkans <i>c</i>.350–500
- 6 The Two Anglo-Bulgarian Research Programmes and the Results of the Bulgarian Excavations
- 7 The Late Roman Agora and the State of Civic Organization
- 8 The Environmental Archaeology Research Programme at Nicopolis: Methodology and Results
- 9 Dichin (Bulgaria): Interpreting the Ceramic Evidence in its Wider Context
- 10 Seeds of Destruction: Conflagration in the Grain Stores of Dichin
- 11 A Short Report on the Preliminary Results from the Study of the Mammal and Bird Bone Assemblages from Dichin
- 12 Coin Circulation in the Balkans in Late Antiquity
- 13 The Transformation of Cities in Late Antiquity within the Provinces of Macedonia and Epirus
- 14 Caričin Grad and the Changes in the Nature of Urbanism in the Central Balkans in the Sixth Century
- 15 Nicopolis ad Istrum: Backward and Balkan?
- 16 Ephesus in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Period: Changes in its Urban Character from the Third to the Seventh Century AD
- 17 Amida and Tropaeum Traiani: a Comparison of Late Antique Fortress Cities on the Lower Danube and Mesopotamia
- 18 The Fort of Iatrus in Moesia Secunda: Observations on the Late Roman Defensive System on the Lower Danube (Fourth–Sixth Centuries AD)
- 19 The Fortresses of Thrace and Dacia in the Early Byzantine Period
- 20 From the Danube to the Po: the Defence of Pannonia and Italy in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries AD
- 21 Extensive Field Survey in North Central Bulgaria
- 22 Site-Specific Field Survey: the Methodology
- 23 Geophysical Survey and Rural Settlement Architecture on the Lower Danube at the Transition to Late Antiquity
- 24 Another View on Late Antiquity: Sagalassos (SW Anatolia), its Suburbium and its Countryside in Late Antiquity
- 25 The Contribution of Regional Survey to the Late Antiquity Debate: Greece in its Mediterranean Context
The Transition to Late Antiquity on the Lower Danube: the City, a Fort and the Countryside
The Transition to Late Antiquity on the Lower Danube: the City, a Fort and the Countryside
- Chapter:
- (p.51) 2 The Transition to Late Antiquity on the Lower Danube: the City, a Fort and the Countryside
- Source:
- The Transition to Late Antiquity, on the Danube and Beyond
- Author(s):
A. G. POULTER
- Publisher:
- British Academy
After excavations carried out on the site of Nicopolis ad Istrum in Bulgaria, the results were used to reconstruct the city's physical and economic character from its foundation under Trajan down to the end of the sixth century. The incentive for the subsequent programme, ‘The Transition to Late Antiquity’, was the discovery that the city was replaced by a very different Nicopolis, both in layout and economy, during the fifth century. A site-specific survey method was developed to explore the countryside. The survey discovered that the Roman villa economy collapsed late in the fourth century. The excavations on the site of the late Roman fort at Dichin provided an unexpected but invaluable insight into the regional economy and military situation on the lower Danube in the fifth and sixth centuries. The results of both these two research projects are summarized and an explanation proposed as to how and why there was such a radical break between the Roman Empire and its early Byzantine successor on the lower Danube.
Keywords: Nicopolis ad Istrum, Bulgaria, excavations, countryside, fort, Dichin, lower Danube, Roman Empire, Late Antiquity, city
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- Title Pages
- List of Plates
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Maps
- 1 The Transition to Late Antiquity
- 2 The Transition to Late Antiquity on the Lower Danube: the City, a Fort and the Countryside
- 3 The Lower Danube Region under Pressure: from Valens to Heraclius
- 4 The Late Roman Army and the Defence of the Balkans
- 5 Goths in the Roman Balkans <i>c</i>.350–500
- 6 The Two Anglo-Bulgarian Research Programmes and the Results of the Bulgarian Excavations
- 7 The Late Roman Agora and the State of Civic Organization
- 8 The Environmental Archaeology Research Programme at Nicopolis: Methodology and Results
- 9 Dichin (Bulgaria): Interpreting the Ceramic Evidence in its Wider Context
- 10 Seeds of Destruction: Conflagration in the Grain Stores of Dichin
- 11 A Short Report on the Preliminary Results from the Study of the Mammal and Bird Bone Assemblages from Dichin
- 12 Coin Circulation in the Balkans in Late Antiquity
- 13 The Transformation of Cities in Late Antiquity within the Provinces of Macedonia and Epirus
- 14 Caričin Grad and the Changes in the Nature of Urbanism in the Central Balkans in the Sixth Century
- 15 Nicopolis ad Istrum: Backward and Balkan?
- 16 Ephesus in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Period: Changes in its Urban Character from the Third to the Seventh Century AD
- 17 Amida and Tropaeum Traiani: a Comparison of Late Antique Fortress Cities on the Lower Danube and Mesopotamia
- 18 The Fort of Iatrus in Moesia Secunda: Observations on the Late Roman Defensive System on the Lower Danube (Fourth–Sixth Centuries AD)
- 19 The Fortresses of Thrace and Dacia in the Early Byzantine Period
- 20 From the Danube to the Po: the Defence of Pannonia and Italy in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries AD
- 21 Extensive Field Survey in North Central Bulgaria
- 22 Site-Specific Field Survey: the Methodology
- 23 Geophysical Survey and Rural Settlement Architecture on the Lower Danube at the Transition to Late Antiquity
- 24 Another View on Late Antiquity: Sagalassos (SW Anatolia), its Suburbium and its Countryside in Late Antiquity
- 25 The Contribution of Regional Survey to the Late Antiquity Debate: Greece in its Mediterranean Context
