Andrey Aladjov

Archaeology Ranger – Andrey Aladjov

Going through the CV of Andrey Aladjov, scholar and curator at the National Archaeological Institute and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, it is easy to imagine him as a venerable wise man buried in his books in a musty office somewhere. His list of publications makes our site, devoted to documentary cinema as it is, into the catalogie of the British Library.Andrey however is a man of action who is happiest when when on terrain. Excavation work led him to crisscross Bulgaria, a country famously rich in archaeology. According to some studies, Bulgaria comes third in archaeological treasures after Greece and Italy. Conducting excavations is not merely a question of knowing your sources and possessing technical expertise. Settling on a site, securing funding, applying for permits, winning over sceptical investors, angry land owners and phlegmatic bureaucrats would befuddle Indiana Jones, let alone a mere mortal. But Andrey does not shy away from trouble. His preference is for urban development – the hiatus between late Antiquity and early Medieval periods. That takes him through many cultural strata: Thracian, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman. Expeditions and excavations serve as a source and inspiration for his many scholarly publications, chief among which is the monograph ‘The Byzantine city and the Bulgarians, VII-IX century’ (Sofia, 2012).

Andrey Aladjov has a personal tribute for the renewed excavations of the Western gate of antique Serdica.

Andrey Aladjov took part in the film ‘The Western gate of the Eastern Roman Empire’.