Roman villas in the present-day Bulgarian lands
Римските вили в днешната българска територия
Language: Bulgarian with a summary in English
Category: Roman archaeology
 

     Detached estate centers in the present-day Bulgarian lands ot Roman and Late Roman times (1st—4th century AD) are the objective of the present study. These were usually designated in the written sources by the term villa, and more rarely by other terms, for example — casa agrestis. The wider term villa rustica has been set up in literature under the influence of the works of the Roman authors. We use here villa rustica (villae rusticae) with the reservation that the attribute rustica (rusticae) emphasizes the settlement detachment and not the economic characteristics and the architectural pattern as is the case with the works of Cato, Varo and Vitruvius. Thus, we would like to differentiate between the villae, detached estate centers and the imposing houses in the Roman cities and other settlements, in their central areas, or in the suburbs. The present study is not concerned with the latter, sometimes designated by the terms villa urbana and villa suburbana.

Table of contents

Introduction

I. Historiography and present problems of the studies on the Roman villae in the present-day Bulgarian lands

Historiography

Classification, social and economic interpretations

Chronology, periodization and regional peculiarities

ІІ. Description of the sites, identification, classification and chronology

Villas without imposing housing units (1st group)

Villas with imposing housing units (2nd group)

Villas initially without imposing housing units which were later constructed (1st —> 2nd group)

Villas without imposing housing units or agricultural sections of villas with imposing housing units (1st of 2nd group)

Villae-residences (3rd group)

Sites wrongly identificated as villae rusticae

Sites prematurely identificated as villae rusticae

III. Development of Roman villas in the present-day Bulgarian territory. General characteristics and regional peculiarities

General peculiarities

Regional peculiarities

Summary

Bibliography

Abbreviations

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