Le réseau des fortifications dans l’arrière-pays basdanubien tardo-antique : la Dacia Ripensis

Abstract

Despite the presence of a large mountain range, the Balkans, the phenomenon of hilltop fortified sites can only be studied with difficulty in the Lower Danube. For one thing, there is currently no complete inventory of the fortifications found there ; for another, the rest of the territory belongs to the Danubian plain. This paper proposes to review the question by focusing on the Late Roman province of Dacia Ripensis. It is part of a group of provinces that are less well known because they are the least studied. Only a few sites within its territory have been the subject of planned excavations and in-depth studies, including a very limited number of hilltop fortifications. It was decided not to devote this paper to the establishment and the presentation of a complete inventory of hilltop constructions in Dacia Ripensis, even if such an approach might afford a certain interest, but rather to focus on the analysis of new settlements in the lower Danubian hinterland and the Christianisation of rural communities, in view of the strategic value of hilltop fortifications. Consideration will be given in particular to larger fortified sites such as Romuliana, Berkovitsa, Golemanovo Kale, as well as less well-known sites in the regions of Knjazevac (Serbia) and Vratsa (Bulgaria). This analysis will be made in the light of the relationships between imperial power and rural communities, of the role of the Church in the phenomena studied as well as of changes in urban culture.