Rural Environment and Local Settlement Networks in the Territory of Augusta Traiana in 2nd - 5th c. AD
Hristo Popov, Plamen Georgiev, Nikola Tonkov, Veselka Katsarova
NAIM-BAS
The lecture present the results from long-term study that was set in 2008 with rescue excavations of a settlement of the Roman period, located along the route of the Thrace highway, which passes in southern Bulgaria in the east-west direction. Subsequently, between 2015 and 2021 with application of non-destructive field survey methods were documented a number of new settlement elements in a small microregion of the Roman province of Thrace. Some of these elements have been identified as complexes of the villa and kome types.
In Аntiquity, this area falls on the eastern periphery of the city territory of Augusta Traiana. In its immediate hinterland to the east are two settlements with a specific administrative and legal status - emporium Tuida and military camp of Kabile.
In several successive campaigns, field observations as well as large-scale geophysical surveys were carried out. Magnetic gradiometry was madе of an area of about 1 million square meters. It was established that the microregion was densely populated in the Roman and Late Roman period. Remains of 9 villages, 3 large (villae rusticae) complexes, separate farm buildings, several burial mounds and an early Christian basilica were registered.
The analysis of the information obtained in our long-standing research makes it possible to distinguish specific settlement patterns in the eastern parts of the territory of Augusta Traiana in the 2nd – 4th centuries.