SOFIA, BULGARIA—According to an Archaeology in Bulgaria report, the head of a statue thought to depict the Roman emperor Aurelian has been discovered at the site of Ulpia Oescus in northern Bulgaria. The entire figure, which probably stood about five feet tall, is thought to have been carved in a workshop in the city. “The hairstyle, the depicting of the chin, the way the eyes are depicted all speak of the fact that this statue is from the third century A.D., the period of the so-called barracks emperors, or soldier emperors of the Roman Empire (A.D. 235–284),” said Gergana Kabakchieva of Bulgaria’s National Institute and Museum of Archaeology. Aurelian is known to have visited the region, where as many as 100,000 people lived, and it was during his reign that the Macedonian Fifth Legion moved to Ulpia Oescus. The head is thought to have been damaged hundreds of years later, when someone tried to fashion it into a building block and eventually discarded it in a pit. To read about another recent discovery in Bulgaria dating to the Roman period, go to “Mirror, Mirror.”
