ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) The site is situated on an elevation. The fortified area is c. 0.5 ha. The fortification wall is constructed of cut stones bonded with mortar. There is an Early Christian basilica on the top of the elevation. There were buildings in the area around the church. The excavations were carried out to the east of the church. An area of 448 sq. m was explored. Parts of buildings were discovered. They adjoin a fortification wall on the southern slope of the elevation, oriented east – west and 80 cm wide. The buildings are parallel. They consist of parallel rooms arranged in a line. The walls are 60 cm wide and are constructed of cut stones bonded with mortar. The walls are preserved up to 1.60 m in height. Parts of the pavement of square bricks, 35 cm by 35 cm by 4 cm in size, were preserved. The roofs were covered with tegulae. Two secondary Christian burials without grave goods were discovered. Four intact dolia placed in pits under the floor level and fragments of dolia were discovered. They testify to the farming functions of the rooms. The coins, which were found during the excavations, date from the 3rd to 14th centuries. The pottery is predominantly Late Antique, but there is Thracian and Mediaeval pottery, too. The finds include small iron knives, arrowheads, spearheads, iron and lead part-finished items that testify to metallurgical activities, loom weights, fragments of glass windows, fragmentary glass vessels and a head of human bronze figurine.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) In 2003, an Early Christian basilica and 28 graves in the adjacent necropolis were explored. In 2007 the explorations were resumed. During the present archaeological season the excavations continued and 560 sq. m were explored. Rooms with walls of stones bonded with mortar were discovered. Later, the rooms were rebuilt with a bonding medium of mud, while cut stones, bricks and tegulae from the earlier buildings were reused. The reconstruction occurred after the earlier buildings were burned, while the layer with traces of the fire was 40 – 50 cm thick. Piles of roof-tiles and building ceramics were discovered. Some rooms had pavements of square bricks. The fortification wall on the southern slope was 80 cm wide. A fortress wall, constructed of cut stones bonded with mortar and 1.50 m wide, was discovered. Finds from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age (late 2nd – early 1st millennia BC) to the Early Middle Age, including pottery, spearheads, iron tools, glass fragments and bonze jewelry, were found. Three graves in the Early Christian necropolis at the basilica were discovered and their total number reached 33. Two bracelets and two finger-rings were found in grave No. 5. The finds from the excavations include 203 coins from the 3rd to the 14th century, plus some later Ottoman coins, pottery from the Thracian period to the Middle Ages, small knives, arrowheads, spearheads, a small combat axe, a small bell, a hoe, bronze jewelry (fibulae, earrings, finger-rings, bracelets, buttons, belt buckles and appliqués), fragments of a marble vessel, a millstone, fragmentary marble votive reliefs of the Thracian Horseman, loom weights and spindle whorls.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) Walls, 60 – 65 cm wide and preserved up to 3.10 m in height, were discovered in the eastern part of the site. Their lower parts were built of stones bonded with mortar, while in a later period their upper parts were additionally built of reused stones, bricks and tegulae, originating from the earlier structures and bonded with mud. The layer with traces from fire was 40 – 50 cm thick and contained fragmentary roof-tiles and burned wood. A floor paved with bricks, 35 cm by 35 cm by 4 cm in size, arranged over a plaster of mortar, was documented on the level of the layer with traces from fire. Walls, 60 cm wide, constructed of stone slabs bonded with mortar, were discovered in the northeastern part of the site. The finds included fragmentary building ceramics, sherds, coins (mostly Roman), iron nails, fragments of glass vessels and fragmentary window glass. The explorations of the necropolis situated to the east of the basilica continued. Nine Christian graves were discovered, oriented east – west and arranged in a line. The burial pits were surrounded with cut stones and building ceramics. Two burials belonged to children, 5 – 7 years old, and one belonged to a baby. Judging from the grave goods and a coin from the Second Bulgarian Kingdom discovered in grave No. 14, the necropolis dated to the 13th – 14th centuries. Part of the eastern wall and the apse of a church, built of cut stones bonded with mortar, were explored in sondage No. 4 in the northeastern part of the site. The finds from the excavations included 166 bronze, copper and silver coins from the 3rd century AD to the 17th century, pottery, 15 dolia, iron knives, arrowheads, a small battle axe, hooks, buckles, latches and fasteners, bronze jewelry (fibulae, finger-rings, earrings, buttons and bracelets), and glass, iron and lead semimanifactures.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) The settlement covered an area of 2.5 – 3 ha. An inner town existed, which covered 0.5 – 0.6 ha and part of its fortification wall, 1.20 m wide, was discovered together with a northeastern square fortification tower built of ashlars bonded with mortar. Rooms of houses were explored. Their walls were built of stones bonded with mortar, 65 cm wide and preserved up to 3.20 m in height. The settlement was burned and a layer with traces from fire, 40 – 60 cm thick, was documented together with collapsed roof constructions. After the fire, the buildings were reconstructed with reused cut stones and bricks. The new walls were constructed over the still existing walls from the previous period, but mud was used as a bonding medium. Dolia were discovered in the rooms, placed in conical pits dug out into the bedrock and supported with clay and sand. Other ceramic vessels were placed in similar smaller pits. The finds included fragmentary window glass and glass vessels, two lead seals of the 9th – 10th century and the second half of the 11th century, hundreds of coins dated from the 3rd to 18th centuries, bracelets, earrings, finger-rings and a bronze vessel. Sixty-five graves were explored, situated to the east and to the north of the basilica. Three types of burial constructions were documented: burial pits dug out into the bedrock, burial pits surrounded with cut stones and building ceramics, and burial chambers constructed of cut stones and building ceramics bonded with mortar. The deceased were children and adults, some of them over 2 m in height. The grave goods included pottery, finger-rings, earrings, bracelets and coins from the 3rd to 17th centuries. Two metallurgical kilns were discovered to the east of the inner fortification wall.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) Walls from buildings constructed of cut stones bonded with mortar and 65 cm wide were discovered in the northeastern part of the site. Tegulae and bricks, which collapsed during a fire, were found. A layer with traces from fire, 20 – 30 cm thick, was discovered. The finds included pottery, an iron hoe, a small axe, a pickaxe, a sickle, wedges, chisels, a pair of scissors, nails, clamps, latches for doors and windows, knives, arrowheads, spearheads, a cross, fragments from small glass vessels and from windows. A wall, 1 m wide, probably part of the inner fortification wall, was discovered in the northwestern part of the site. A small bronze plate, probably a buckle, with an inscription that reads: εὐλογ(ε)ίτω κύριος κόσμου, was found. Bronze coins of the 3rd – 4th centuries AD and the 6th century AD were found during the excavations. A coin hoard of 17 nummi with face value “K” and “M” minted by Justinian I was discovered. The fortress was probably burned at the end of the 6th – beginning of the 7th century AD, maybe during the Slavic invasions in the Byzantine Empire. Ottoman coins and coins minted by the Italian city-states were found, too.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) The explorations continued in the northeastern sector of the site. A complex of buildings was thoroughly explored. Their walls were constructed of cut stones bonded with mortar and were c. 65 cm wide. The floors of some rooms were paved with bricks and they accommodated dolia dug out into the ground. A layer with debris and traces from fire, 40 – 60 cm thick, was documented. It contained sherds and Late Roman copper coins. Six Christian burials were explored close to the basilica. The graves were stone cists that did not contain any grave goods. The finds from the excavations included lead weights for fishing nets, terracotta loom weights, spindle whorls, fragments from glass windows, fragments from glass vessels, iron knives, iron keys, bronze buttons, earrings, bracelets, belt buckles, arrowheads, two sherds with graffiti, one of them in Cyrillic. The coins included Late Roman, Byzantine (including scyphates), Ottoman and a Kreutzer minted in 1781.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) Piles of precisely-cut stones and fragmentary building ceramics and traces from fire were discovered in the northern part of the site. The finds comprised sherds, iron objects, jewelry, a Roman Republican denarius, a coin of Thessalonica minted in 158 – 149 BC and a Roman colonial bronze coin minted in Philippopolis. Nine Christian burials were explored in the cemetery around the basilica.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) The explorations continued in the northern part of the fortified settlement. Walls constructed of cut stones bonded with mortar were discovered. Thracian and imported Greek sherds, including from Thracian pottery of the Tsepina Type, and a bronze coin of Philip of Macedon were found. A layer with traces from fire was explored above these finds, containing sherds and tegulae. A terracotta lamp, bronze jewelry, a bronze finger-ring, iron needles, clamps, a spearhead, arrowheads and Roman and Byzantine coins were found. The fire occurred after the reign of Justinian I.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) The explorations continued in the northern part of the settlement to the north of Wall No. 3, 70 cm wide, built of well-cut stones and occasional fragments from tegulae and bricks. Wall No. 4 was discovered, 1 m wide, built of cut stones bonded with mortar. A layer with traces from fire was explored, containing mostly fragments from building ceramics, single sherds and glass fragments, iron nails, iron arrowheads, knives, iron needles, fragments from fibulae and coins of the 2nd – 6th centuries AD.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) The explorations continued in the northern part of the fortified settlement. Wall No. 3 had three construction periods. Several Roman bronze coins, two bronze fibulae, iron needles, nails, an iron belt buckle, arrowheads, sherds and fragmentary building ceramics were found there. Wall No. 4 was entirely excavated. It was reconstructed with a bonding medium of mud. A denarius of Nerva was found there. A layer with traces from fire, 15 cm thick, was discovered. Apparently there was an earlier fire in the settlement that occurred before the fire of the end of the 6th century AD. Wall No. 5 was discovered, built of well-cut stones bonded with mortar.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) Several rooms of the 4th – 6th centuries AD were explored. Also, several buildings adjoining the inner and the outer side of the fortification wall were excavated. The finds included sherds, fragments from window glass and glass cups, coins, mostly nummi minimi, from Constantius II to Anastasius I, including two coins of Theodosius II minted in Constantinople and Siscia, a brick with Latin cursive inscription that reads: PAIB, which is the abbreviated Thracian personal name Paib(es), a local silver Rhodope imitation of Venetian grosso of the 1330s. The Late Antique settlement was occupied by Christian population, probably with mixed origins: Thracians and perhaps Goths.
