ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN PLISKA (Yanko Dimitrov – yanko_aim@mail.bg, Hristina Stoyanova) Four trenches (2, 2А, 3, 3А) were carried out, in order to trace out the ditch of the timber wall explored in the previous archaeological seasons. Two rectangular places for stirring mortar, constructed of fragmentary and intact bricks, were discovered in trenches 2 and 3. They are parallel to the eastern fortification wall and are situated at 1.05 – 1.16 m from it. A second row of rectangular places for stirring mortar, constructed of fragmentary tiles, was discovered in trench 2A, under a layer of fragmentary tiles. Another 3 m from the wall, a foundation constructed of bricks and clay, was explored in trench 2, while only the layout of the foundation was registered in trench 3. The construction dates to the end of the 9th – first half of the 10th centuries AD. A pavement of intact and fragmentary bricks was explored to the east of the wall foundation layout in trench 3. A timber construction was traced out at 1.50 m in depth in trenches 2A and 3A. During the previous archaeological seasons, a ditch with a timber wall oriented north – south was registered running trough trenches 4A, 5A, 6A and 7A. Two rows of pits were explored to the east of the ditch. The wooden constructions had two stages of building. According to the pottery, the constructions date to the end of the 8th – beginning of the 9th centuries AD. Probably, the constructions are parts of buildings dug into the ground and situated to the east of the southeastern corner of the earlier timber fortification of the residence of the proto-Bulgarian khan.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN PLISKA (Yanko Dimitrov – yanko_aim@mail.bg, Hristina Stoyanova) Six trenches were carried out: 1B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 2C, 3C. The latest construction was pit No. 1, 1.40 m in depth and 2.30 m in diameter, discovered in trench 2B. Fragmentary bricks, tiles, pottery, animal bones and a Byzantine anonymous follis of class A2 minted during the reign of Emperor Basil II were found in the pit. A layer of fragmentary tiles, lying on a mortar construction, was discovered alongside the eastern fortification wall, in trenches 1B, 2B, 3B and 4B. Large patches of charcoal and slag, containing sherds and a fragment of melting-pot, were discovered in trenches 2B and 2C, at 1.30 – 1.40 m in depth. The finds from the excavations include five iron arrowheads, a stone catapult ball, a small iron knife, a bone handle, a small bronze head of hippocampus, a gilded bronze hemisphere with relief decoration of cross-like palmettes and lines filled with scaly motifs, etc.

EXPLORATIONS IN PLISKA (Yanko Dimitrov – yanko_aim@mail.bg, Hristina Stoyanova) The timber buildings date to the end of the 8th – first half of the 9th centuries AD. A second trench, parallel to the previously excavated, was discovered at 10 – 20 m from the eastern fortification wall. Similarly to the first one, the newly discovered trench was the foundation of construction of vertical wooden posts that were arranged closely to each other. Sherds of the beginning of the 9th century AD were found in the trench. Both trenches are situated at 5 m from each other and were the foundation of a large timber building. This building is the earliest one among all constructions in the sector, which preceded the fortification wall. Forty-one post holes arranged in five rows were explored. Pottery of the 8th – 9th centuries AD was found. Trenches and postholes from two timber buildings were discovered. These buildings are associated with a layer containing charcoal, iron slag, melting-pots and pottery of the 9th century AD. The stone buildings date to the second half of the 9th – beginning of the 10th centuries. Two walls from the long stone building of the 10 century, which was discovered in 2003, were explored. Two semi-dug sunken-floored houses and 13 midden pits date to the end of the 10th – first half of the 11th centuries. The finds include pottery, a pierced Roman coin of the 3rd century AD, five anonymous Byzantine folles of class A2 (AD 976 – 1030/1035), a histamenon minted by Constantine IX Monomachos (class IVa, 1054 – 1055 emission), glass and bronze bracelets, iron arrowheads, a bronze cross-encolpion and a Byzantine lead seal. A pottery kiln was discovered. The finds include pottery of the 11th century, six anonymous Byzantine folles of class A2, one anonymous follis of class C (1042 – 1050), one anonymous follis of class D (1050 – 1060), a Byzantine lead seal, glass and copper bracelets, a copper buckle, a copper finger-ring, iron arrowheads and iron tools.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN PLISKA (Yanko Dimitrov – yanko_aim@mail.bg, Hristina Stoyanova) The explorations of trenches and postholes of timber buildings, stone buildings, sunken-floored houses and midden pits, dated from the 8th to the second half of the 11th centuries, continued over an area of 450 sq. m in sectors 1 – 4. Postholes and a trench of the southeastern corner of the long timber building, which preceded the construction of the fortification wall, were explored in sector 1. Ten quadrilateral postholes located at 2.50 – 3 m from each other were discovered in the trench and sherds from the end of the 8th – first half of the 9th centuries were found. A pavement of bricks, production kilns and postholes for timber posts which were 30 – 45 cm in diameter, were discovered in sector 2. A big midden pit and a sunken-floored house were explored in sector 3 and pottery, Byzantine coins and a lead seal of the first half of the 11th century were found. An occupation layer and structures of the post-capital period of Pliska were explored in sector 4. The finds date to the end of the 10th – first half of the 11th centuries and include pottery, an umbo-like appliqué, terracotta spindle whorls, a copper bracelet, a bronze pendant-amulet showing a horseman, a copper finger-ring with encrusted small glass balls and a glass bracelet. A second section of the long and narrow stone building, discovered in 2003, was explored. The building dates to the end of the 10th – beginning of the 11th centuries and is situated at 6 m to the west from the preceding long timber building.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN PLISKA (Yanko Dimitrov – yanko_aim@mail.bg, Hristina Stoyanova) Postholes, adjoining the outer Г-like foundation trench of the long timber building, were explored in squares 2-3/A-B. Two rectangular postholes of vertical timber beams were situated at 2 m from each other and measured 1.40 m by 1 m. The exploration of the long stone building continued in squares 2-3-4/G-D. The southern wing of its eastern part was occupied by a single room. The walls were constructed of stones and fragmentary bricks bonded with mud and clay. The semi-dug sunken-floored house, situated under the foundation of the eastern wall, was completely explored in square 5/G. Pottery and three anonymous Byzantine folles of Class A2 (AD 976 – 1030/1035) were found. A pavement of fragmentary mortar, bricks and boulders, 3.50 – 7 m wide and up to 30 cm thick, was explored in squares 3-4/G-D, under the foundations of the long walls of the stone building. A new part of the long stone building, continuing to the west and parallel to the southern fortification wall, was documented. It was constructed in rubble masonry with a bonding medium of clay. The stratum of the 8th – 9th centuries AD was documented. It contained charcoal, iron slag and melts, fragments of melting pots for producing objects of copper and bronze, and a fragment of a pitcher with an incised drawing of a winged horse. Rows of postholes dug into the ancient terrain and the two foundation trenches of the long timber building were documented at 1.20 – 1.40 m in depth.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS IN PLISKA (Yanko Dimitrov – yanko_aim@mail.bg, Hristina Stoyanova) The explorations of the long stone building of the 10th century, the foundation of the surrounding wall built of bricks bonded with clay and the preceding pits from timber columns and trenches from timber buildings dated to the Capital Period of Pliska continued. About 100 pits from timber columns and sectors from two trenches of the southern part of the long timber building (the earliest structure in the explored area) were documented in squares 1–5/G–D. Three pits (Nos. 1 – 3) were explored in squares 3–4/G and 5D: initially they were storage pits and later became midden. The pits contained material from the end of the 10th – first half of the 11th century. A layer, 40 cm thick, containing ash, charcoal, fragments from terracotta melting pots and pottery from the end of the 8th – first half of the 9th centuries AD, was explored in squares 1/G–D. Two trenches and pits for timber columns of a timber building, not yet identified, were documented below the layer. Both trenches were situated under the foundations of the southern part of the long stone building. The level of the excavations carried out during the 1970s, situated below the plinth of the southern fortification wall of Pliska, was reached in squares 0–1/V, G, D, E. A new sector of the southern foundation of the long stone building, situated parallel to the fortification wall, was discovered.

PLISKA (Yanko Dimitrov – yanko_aim@mail.bg, Hristina Stoyanova) The explorations along the southern fortification wall close to the entrance of the southeastern circular tower were completed in Sector I. Three trenches for timber scaffoldings for the construction of the fortification wall, three places for stirring mortar and a Christian burial of an adult were explored. A section of the northern wall that closed the southern wing of the long stone building was discovered in Sector II. The building was part of an architectural complex dated to the second half of the 10th century. An entrance, 1 m wide, was documented at 14 m to the west of the northeastern corner of the southern wing. A layer with charcoal, iron slag and pottery of the 9th – beginning of the 10th centuries was explored under the long stone building. Nineteen pits of wooden posts with pads of bricks on their bottoms and containing sherds of the 9th century AD were explored. The long timber building of the Capital period of Pliska is the earliest structure in Sector III. Three pits, initially used for storage and later as midden pits, were explored. Judging from the finds, including a handle of a bronze vessel in the shape of a head of a dragon, the pits dated to the end of the 10th – first half of the 11th centuries. A room with 26 pits for dolia in its floor was explored in Sector IV. It was a storage room of a large timber building. Judging from the pottery, the room dated to the end of the 8th – first half of the 9th century AD. A domestic oven and six storage pits, containing pottery of the end of the 10th – first half of the 11th century, were explored. The two trenches of the long timber building were documented. A fragment of a marble relief showing a female figure was found. A sector of a sunken-floored house was explored and later pits with material of the end of the 10th – first half of the 11th century, which cut the house, were documented. A trench for the long timber building was documented close to the eastern fortification gate and pits for a timber construction that preceded the gate were discovered.

PLISKA (Yanko Dimitrov – yanko_aim@mail.bg, Hristina Stoyanova) The area between the eastern gate of the stone fortification and the eastern tower of the southern fortification wall was explored. A pair of trenches for the foundations of the Long Timber Building of the end of the 8th – first decades of the 9th century AD was discovered. The building had a passage situated against the passages of the eastern gates of the timber and the subsequent stone fortification walls. The construction of the stone fortification wall occurred while the Long Timber Building still existed, but soon after the stone fortress was constructed the timber building was dismantled. The explorations of the dug out cellar and its timber structure with posts above the ground, dated to the first half of the 9th century AD, continued. Pits that accommodated dolia were discovered and amphora-like pitchers and sherds from jugs were found. During the 10th – beginning of the 11th century, a shelter with roof covered with tiles was constructed over the cellar that was filled with earth. The explorations of the stone boundary wall with foundation built of bricks bonded with clay continued. The wall dated to the end of the 9th – beginning of the 11th centuries and surrounded an area 144/147 m by 85/98 m in size. A trench for the foundation of a timber fence was discovered below it. The eastern one from the pair of trenches for the foundations of the Large Timber Fortification was discovered below the fence and the boundary wall. A trench from the foundation of a timber fence of the last decades of the 10th century was documented in Sondage 9 and it cut sunken-floored houses that previously existed on that place. One of the houses was burned and contained pottery of the second half of the 10th century. The finds from the excavations included bronze belt buckles and appliqués of the 10th – beginning of the 11th century, a bronze cross-encolpion of the 10th century, a fragment from a copper vessel with an inscription in Mediaeval Greek of the 9th – 10th century, 14 coins: 20 nummi of Anastasius I Dicorus minted in Constantinople, anonymous Byzantine folles: one of the Class A1 (AD 969 – 976), eight of the Class A2 (AD 976 – 1030/1035), two of the Class B (AD 1035 – 1040), one of the Class C (AD 1042 – 1050), and one follis of Constantine X Doukas and Eudokia Makrembolitissa of the Class 1 minted in Constantinople.

PLISKA (Yanko Dimitrov – yanko_aim@mail.bg, Hristina Stoyanova) The northern part of the Long Timber Building was discovered in Sondage No. I in front of the eastern gate of the fortress. The building was situated along the southern and the eastern fortification walls and dated to the end of the 8th – first decades of the 9th centuries. Sherds and four coins were found: a follis of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos and Zoe minted in AD 914 – 919, two coins of Nikephoros II Phokas and an anonymous Byzantine follis of Class A2 (AD 976 – 1030/1035). The stone pavement was done soon after the demolition of the timber building and dated from the first quarter of the 9th to the beginning of the 10th centuries. The passage in the building was 8.80 – 9 m wide and its axis coincided with the axis of the passage in front of the eastern gate of the stone fortress and the axis of the eastern gate of the Large Timber Fortification. Sectors from the northern surrounding wall of the complex of houses and farm buildings of the second half of the 9th – beginning of the 11th centuries were explored. Three stages in the stone constructions were documented. A pavement parallel to the western surrounding wall was discovered. Sherds of the 10th century were found above the pavement and sherds of the 9th century below it.