Contents

EMPIRES & PERIPHERIES

An Architectural Reassessment of a ‘Villa Rustica’
Near Serdica

Dimitrina Popova

Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Krakra str. 21, Sofia 1504, Bulgaria
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This article focuses on the search for answers concerning the architecture of villas located around the Roman city of Serdica. My thesis is that a villa rustica is a place for trade and business, and not only for agricultural production, as they have been considered up to now. I highlight the boundary between public and private space within the architecture of the villa. It is my position that both in its architectural composition and aesthetics, these villas are also intended for visitors. My reassessment of villa rustica architecture is conducted on a case study of a villa now situated in the residential quarter of Obelia in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Through graphic reconstruction, the villa is represented in one possible use, as a stud farm. I suggest its role as one of logistical supply to mansio and mutatio along the Via Diagonalis trans-provincial road. The redefinition of the Villa Obelia is conducted by recreating the whole building in graphic form. The ‘villa rustica’ is a widespread architectural archetype in the Roman Empire, so consequently the paper offers a new opportunity for discussion about villas in their generality.

ROUND TABLE: THE PROBLEMS OF TRANSITION FROM THE LATE ANTIQUITY TO THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

This round table discussion outlined a number of important problems in the study of the transition from the Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Europe and the Middle East. The most important of them are the problems of preservation and continuity of statehood, and of cultural and ideological processes, as well as the evolution of material culture; this discussion reveals significant regional differences. The most important historiographical issues include the source base and the interpretation of available sources, as well as problems of church history.

Late Antiquity as a Transitional Period
N. N. Bolgov

Belgorod National Research University
Pobedy st. 85, Belgorod, 308015, Russia
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Sources on the Late Antiquity
V. V. Serov

Altai Institute of Economics
Lenina pr. 106е, Barnaul, 656011, Russia
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Church in the Late Roman Empire: the Current State of Research
M. V. Gratsianskiy

Moscow State University
Lomonosovskii pr. 27/4, Moscow, 119991, Russia
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Regions of Early Byzantium
A. Z. Harutyunyan

Yerevan State University
Kh. Abovyan st. 52, 0025, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
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Center and Periphery in the Late Antiquity (on the Example of Bosporus)
A. L. Yermolin

The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa
199 Aba-Hushi Avenue, Haifa, 3498838, Israel
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