Novensia: Studia i Materiały (14.2003)

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century and the complex changed its function. An economic- productional activ-
ity began there and the construction is from stone and mud. The next building
period the researcher connects with the basilica and the necropolis attached to it
that existed from the 5th century to the beginning of the 7th century [Cicikova
1987, 185-192; Ćicikova 1997, 57-60].
While publishing different groups of materials from the Roman and the early
Byzantine epochs in Novae the authors include some finds found in the site VIII
A as well — A.Milćeva in her monograph about tema sigillata [Milćeva 2000,
kat. NN 132, 137], E. Genćeva in her publications about the fibulae [Genćeva
1998, kat. NN], Kolendo and collective in the corpus with inscriptions from Novae
[Bożilova and coli., 1992, kat. NN 46, 47, 48, 49]. Right here I want to mention
that in no one of the publications the researchers didn’t have the oppoitunity to
use the whole materiał acąuired during the many years of excavations. Inspite of
this the dates given by them are very precious in the dating of the different building
periods and phases/stages.
I don’t want to pass over one indecorous publication of the frescoes, found in
the west part of the building, with authors Pillinger, V. Popova and collective in
the corpus of late antiąue and early Byzantine frescoes from Bułgaria [Pilinger
and coli. 1999, Abb. 51, 31-32]. The authors prefer the mural paintings to the
bishop’s basilica, which is prospected by the expedition from Poznań. From here
comes their incorrect dating.
In some of the summary researches about the problems of the Lower Danubi-
an limes a passage is left for the building extra muros in Novae, for example in
those madę by L. Press and T. Sarnowski, who consider its function was of a
residence where high officials, staging temporary in the łager [Press, Sarnowski
1990, 239], rested as well as the monograph written by R. Ivanov, who States
pedantically the option of the above mentioned authors [Ivanov 1999, 237].
In the recent years the archaeological researches of the building, though re-
stricted, gave opportunity her plan and the building periods to be specified. In
our research we are based mainly on our personal observation of the area and on
the analysis of the movable materiał, but we also don’t ignore the option of the
authors, mentioned above. Of great importance is the numismatic materiał, one
big part of the coins are defmed by Kamen Dimitrov (AIM — Sofia), the other
— by Marko Tzoćev from the Historical Museum in Veliko Tamovo. By the
present moment over 100 coins are found.
The foundation of some installations in different parts of the site gave us
grounds to propose one new dating of the architectural complex.
The processing of the numismatic materiał revealed that for the period — the
second half of the lst century- the first half of the 2nd century, there are about ten
coins found. The six bricks with seals of the XI Claudius Legion as well as two
bricks with seals of the I Italie Legion, which are found, are related to the begin-
ning of the 2nd century. One bronze fibula from the first half of the 2nd century