Archaeological Guide of Kosovo

The Late Antique Period and
Medieval Period
The Late Antique Period, respectively kwon also as the Early
Byzantine Period, in Kosovo marks the time frame from the rule
of the Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337 AD), respectively
during the 4th, 5th and 6th century AD; a time period which was
perceived by historians to describe the transitory phase from antiquity
to medieval. One of the most distinguished features of the
‘Late Antiquity’ was the centralization of power into the emperors
hands, division of the military from civil administration, but on top
of that, this period is related with the crises in ancient production
system and with a decline of the Roman Empire. Nonetheless, besides
the inner crises, the empire was confronted also with barbarian
invasions. In regard to this period that is entwisted between innovations
and tradition, the present day territory of Kosovo, which
used to be the central part of the ancient Dardania, passes through
some changes, transformations and developments in economical,
social, cultural, religious and political-administrative aspect, which
made an impact on future evolution of this area. Furthermore, the
novelty of this epoch was the consolidation of the Christianity and
the bloom of the Christian art and architecture, a characteristic for
combination of tradition and innovation. Therefore, the construction
architecture of this time is known by archaeologists, architects
and art historians as the early Christian period architecture. On
the other hand, the ancient written sources, archived church written
sources, but even the oral histories in the form of myths, legends
or local toponomy of the archaeology site locations, stored in the
collective memory of the different parts of the Kosovo inhabitancy,
have offered and will provide very important data that is used in
synthesised form to provide a general overview of either common
or individual extraordinary rich archaeological heritage, not only
Archaeological Guide of Kosovo 77