as a whole. Sherratt could not demonstrate the political form of the
network, or the ways in which it may have been protected or reinforced,
but the broader cultural relationships between regions amply support the
scheme he postulated.^54 Far from being marginal, these deep trajectories
linking continental regions with south-eastern Europe were the essential
motors of intra- and extra-continental dynamics. The eastward move-
ment of Celtic mercenary bands during the third and second centuriesbc
was as much a response to changes in the dynamics of intra-continental
commodity transfers as they were to political developments.^55 A web of
mutual transactions and obligations linked coastal and inland settle-
ments, which can now be examined in ways that Sherratt did not live
long enough to explore, including Horden and Purcell’s‘connectivity’,as
well as Network theory.^56
Velizar Velkov and settlement history in the BalkansVelizar Velkov (1928–1993) was both a product of the post-war aca-
demic environment and one of the keyfigures who helped to transform
it. A relative of one of the pioneers of Bulgarian archaeology, Ivan Velkov
(1891–1958), Velizar Velkov revealed his nascent curiosity in the evolu-
tion of settlement types in his postgraduate research dissertation, entitled
‘City and village in Thrace and Dacia, fourth to sixth centuryad’(1954).
He studied at Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia and from 1955
worked at the Institute of Archaeology at the Bulgarian Academy of
Sciences and simultaneously as a university assistant professor. He was
primarily a classical philologist, promoted to the Chair of Ancient and
Medieval History, and directed the Epigraphy Section from 1972
onwards. The publication of a wide variety of Greek and Latin inscrip-
tions furnished a distinguished record in itself. But Velkov had a wider
vision. In 1982 he initiated an important series of colloquia onSettlement
Life in Ancient Thrace. This was a uniquely inspired initiative, which
survived him to be continued by a new generation of archaeologists and
philologists.^57
(^54) Bauer 2011, 99–103. (^55) Sherratt 1995, 20–3; Vagalinski 2010.
(^56) Networks;Manning 2011; Malkin 2011.
(^57) Volumes I and II were edited by V. Velkov; volume III by D. Draganov; and volume
IV by Iliya Ilyev; afifth symposium was convened in 2010 under the chairmanship of
Lyudmil Getov, in coordination with Totko Stoyanov, Peter Delev, Kostadin Rabadjiev,
Iliya Iliev, and Veneta Handjiyska.
Introduction 29