EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) The fortress covered an area of 4 ha and closed the cape. Parts of the fortification wall were explored. It was built of stones bonded with mortar and was 1.80 m wide. Its foundations were up to 1.20 m dug into the ground. There was a ditch in front of the fortification wall. Dolia with lids, dug into the ground along the inner face of the fortification wall, were discovered. Part of a building, 6.30 m wide and over 15 m long, was explored. Probably these were barracks. The roof that collapsed during a fire was documented and two hoards of copper coins of the 6th century AD were found. Buildings burned in the beginning of the 7th century AD were documented inside the fortress. An Early Christian basilica of the 5th century AD was explored. It had three construction periods. Roman sherds and Late Roman coins were found in the leveled embankment situated under the basilica. A house of the 3rd century BC was discovered under the basilica. The basilica was three-nave and single-apse, 22.50 m by 14 m in size. Its walls were constructed of cut stones and the courses were leveled with bricks. There was an entrance in the eastern wall of the northern nave. A three-step synthrone with an Episcopal throne was documented. The foundation of an altar table was discovered in the center of the Bema. Parts of a marble altar table were found close to the outer side of the apse. A partly preserved pavement of bricks was discovered inside the basilica. Marble details of the altar rail and fragments of marble and limestone capitals, columns and bases were found. The basilica had a narthex constructed in opus mixtum with an entrance towards the central nave. There was a chapel, 4.50 m by 3.10 m in size, situated in the northern part of the narthex. During the archaeological excavations, over 50 copper coins of the 5th – beginning of the 7th centuries AD were found, the latest ones minted by Maurice, Phocas and Heraclius until AD 613 – 614/615. The fortress existed during 5th – 6th centuries AD and was destroyed and burned during the invasions of Avars and Slavs in the beginning of the 7th century AD.

EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) Twenty four ritual pits were explored under the church, containing fragmentary amphorae from the 6th to 3rd centuries BC (from Lesbos, Klazomenai, Chios, Heraclea Pontica, Thasos, Mende, Rhode and Kos, including seven stamps from Heraclea Pontica of 400 – 340 BC), East Greek cups and Attic black-gloss and red-figure pottery (skyphoi, kylikes, dishes and a lid of lekane) of the 5th – first half of the 4th centuries BC, Thracian pottery (ichthyai, kraters, bowls, pots and cups), fragmentary roof tiles and coins of the 5th – 2nd centuries BC. The church was a three-nave single-apse basilica with a narthex, 22.50 m long and 14 m wide, built of cut stones with bricks that were used to level the courses. Two occupation periods were documented with two apses and two floors paved with bricks, respectively. The columns separating the nave from the aisles had Corinthian capitals. During the first occupation period the narthex had an entrance towards the northern aisle, which was later closed with a conch, while the northern part of the narthex was transformed into a chapel. A baptistery, shaped as a circular pool with steps from the east and the west, was discovered under the level of the floor paved with bricks. During the excavations, fragmentary frescoes were found, some of them showing flowers in green and red, an image of a saint (or young Jesus Christ) and parts of Latin inscriptions. A path paved with stone slabs was discovered to the west of the entrance of the church, leading towards a building with several rooms, one of them accommodating a cross-like baptistery with marble veneer that was used during the second occupation period. The church was built at the end of the 4th or the first half of the 5th century AD. The second occupation period dated to the second half of the 5th – the beginning of the 6th centuries AD. The latest coins belonged to Heraclius minted in AD 613 – 614/615. The basilica was destroyed in AD 614 during the invasion of the Avars and the Slavs. Two buildings of the 5th – 6th centuries AD were discovered to the northwest of the church, one of them accommodating a wine press, 3 m by 3 m in size.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) A building was discovered to the south of the basilica and judging from its location in the architectural complex and the finds discovered, it was probably the house of the head priest. The building was 16 m by 5.30 m in size, with walls 50 – 55 cm wide, and probably two-storey. Two floor levels of trampled clay were documented, and five dolia dug out into the ground and a hearth were discovered. The finds from the building included Early Byzantine amphorae, terracotta lamps, fragments from glass cups and a jug, copper coins of the 5th – 6th centuries AD, a gold solidus of Phocas and a gold finger-ring. A pit was explored in Trench LIV–21, 3.80 – 4 m in diameter, containing sherds from cups, bowls and pots of the 1st – 2nd century AD. A pottery kiln, 3.80 m by 2.20 m in size, was explored to the north of the basilica and at 5 m to the northwest of Baptistery No. 2. A midden pit for waste pottery was discovered in front of the opening of the fire box. A rectangular well, 1.50 m by 1.50 m in size and over 5 m in depth, was discovered at 7.50 m to the northeast of Baptistery No. 2. The explorations close to the lighthouse continued. Two rooms of the 6th – beginning of the 7th century AD were explored. Walls of a building, probably a temple, with several escharai were documented under the Early Byzantine stratum. The finds from the building included over 12 copper coins of Mesambria and Odessos of the 3rd – 2nd centuries BC.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) A building of the 6th – beginning of the 7th centuries AD was explored. It was a house and ergasterion and had two rooms adjoining the fortification wall. Judging from the layer with remains from fire and the debris of the building (roof-tiles and sun-dried bricks), it could be supposed that it was with a single floor and was reconstructed several times. The finds in the building included a gold solidus of Justinian I, a gold solidus of Maurice, over 250 bronze coins from the end of the 4th to the beginning of the 7th centuries AD, a pair of bronze scales, three lead exagia, a stamp for producing appliqués, sherds, including from amphorae mostly of the 6th century AD (one Cartage LRA 4, Gaza/Ashkelon Type, and several В-Іd Type), small lids for amphorae and terracotta lamps. The building was burned during the invasion of Avars and Slavs in AD 614. A cross-like baptistery was explored in the eastern room of the building, located to the north of the basilica, and another earlier baptistery was discovered below it. The later baptistery belonged to Type 21 (a cross inside another cross), while the earlier one belonged to the Type a circle inside a rectangle. The earlier baptistery was constructed in the middle of the 5th century AD and the later one in the first half of the 6th century AD. A building of the 3rd – 2nd centuries BC was explored, it was probably a Thracian temple. Over a dozen of square and circular escharai were discovered in the building, some of them with decoration imprinted with cords.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) During the 6th century BC – 1st century AD a temple existed on the site and more than 70 Thracian ritual pits were explored. A sanctuary of Heracles of the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD was discovered and six small marble statues and a small votive relief were found. The explorations of the Late Antique fortress of the end of the 4th – beginning of the 7th centuries AD revealed a sector of the fortification wall, houses, farm buildings, warehouses, streets, water conduits and drains. Three wineries were discovered as well.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) Buildings Nos. 6, 7 and 8 were discovered to the south of the Early Christian basilica in Sector LXIII. A well was explored to the northwest of Building No. 8. The street of the 6th – beginning of the 7th centuries AD that was discovered during the previous excavations was further explored. It was paved wit trampled small stones, fragments from bricks and roof-tiles and sherds. Several dozens of bone and horn tools were discovered within the pavement of the street. A pottery kiln was discovered to the east of Building No. 6. Judging from the ceramic vessels, the kiln dated to the 3rd – 4th century AD. A hoard of bronze coins of the 3rd century AD was found. Several Thracian ritual pits were explored, containing pottery of the 2nd – 1st centuries BC. A monumental stone wall of the 3rd century BC was discovered. Sherds from Thracian and imported Late Hellenistic pottery, an amphora stamp and three bronze coins (one of Dionysopolis of the 3rd – 2nd century BC, one of Odessos of the 3rd – 2nd century BC and one of the Thracian King Kotys V or Kotys VI minted in 57 – 48 BC) were found.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) The explorations continued in Sector LXIII to the south of the basilica. The excavation of Buildings Nos. 7 and 8 continued in the upper stratum of the end of the 4th – beginning of the 7th centuries AD. Both buildings were two-storey. There was a shelter to the east of Building No. 7 and stone bases pf columns and dolia were discovered. A cross, two bunches of grapes and a Greek inscription were incised on the shoulders of one of the dolia discovered in the ground floor of Building No. 7. The inscription reads: Kυριε βοηθι – “God help!”. A mould for terracotta lamps, bronze semi-prepared objects, etc. were found in Building No. 8, indicating production activity in the house. A sector of the street of the 6th – beginning of the 7th centuries AD was explored to the east of Building No. 7. The eastern wall of Building No. 7 was constructed over a fortification wall of stones, 1.30 m wide, dated to the 3rd – 2nd centuries BC.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) The explorations continued to the east of the street dated to the second half of the 6th – beginning of the 7th centuries AD and situated to the south of the basilica. Building No. 9 in the top stratum of the end of the 4th – beginning of the 7th centuries AD was entirely excavated. The building had three rooms and its walls were 70 – 80 cm wide. During the last years of the existence of the town, in the first decades of the 7th century AD, the building was used for storage. Building No. 9 was constructed over earlier buildings of the end of the 5th – first half of the 6th centuries AD, which were destroyed. A pottery kiln 2 m in diameter was explored. It contained a sherd of a bowl that was not fired and 38 terracotta weights for fishing nets. A smaller pottery kiln was also discovered. Both kilns dated to the end of the 5th – beginning of the 6th centuries AD. The extension of the early wall, which surrounded the temenos during the Thracian and the Roman periods, was discovered.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) The excavations continued in sectors LXXIII and LXXIV. In Trench LXXIII-1, the extension of the earlier wall was discovered at c. 2 m beneath the walls of the Late Antique building. The earlier wall was built after the Thracian cult center that existed during the 6th century BC – beginning of the 1st century AD, but before the buildings of the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD. In Trenches LXXIII-10 and LXXIV-1-2/6-7, ten dolia were discovered to the southeast of the Late Antique street. A room, 6.60 m by 3.60 m in size, adjoining Building 22, was discovered in Trench LXXIII-10. Four dolia were discovered in the room. A drachma of Apollonia of the 5th century BC and a tetradrachms of Mesambria or Odessos of the 1st century BC were found beneath the floor of the room. Several destroyed clay escharai and six ritual pits (Nos. 88 – 93) of the Thracian cult center were explored in the earlier strata. The ritual pits contained a fragmentary kantharos, a fragmentary bowl, terracotta loom weights, terracotta spindle whorls, fragments from tegulae, Thracian sherds, part of an ichthye with a graffito that reads: AHT…., a bronze arrow-coin, and six bronze coins of Mesambria of the 2nd – 1st centuries and of Odessos of 90 – 72 BC.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) Building No. 15 and the street of the 6th century AD that separated it from Building No. 16 were entirely excavated. The street was 1.80 – 1.90 m wide paved with trampled small stones, sherds and animal bones. It began from the western fortification gate and reached the Early Christian basilica. A layer with traces from fire was discovered over the street, containing roof-tiles and fragmentary sun-dried bricks from both buildings that collapsed. Two ceramic stands for vessels were found close to the southwestern corner of Building No. 16. Part of Building No. 26 was explored. A hoard was discovered, containing five bronze coins of the 6th century AD and a bronze lamp of the 3rd century AD that was used during Late Antiquity. Over 10 dolia were also discovered, indicating that the building was probably a wine cellar related to Winery No. 1. Building No. 27 had two rooms and stone walls up to 40 cm wide. It was a one-storey house. A pool for crushing grapes in Winery No. 4 was discovered, built of stones and bricks and 2.50 m by 2.50 m in size. A dug-out dolium was excavated in front of the pool and its mouth was 1 m in diameter. Roof-tiles, bricks and fragmentary sun-dried bricks were found, indicating that the winery was either a building or a shelter. Bronze coins of the 6th century AD were also found. The Late Antique town was an important center of wine production on the West Pontic coast.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) An area of c. 450 sq. m was excavated, situated to the south and to the east of the main street. The northern room of Building No. 15 was thoroughly explored. Part of the northern wall of Building No. 26 was excavated. A sector of the street of the 6th century AD was explored, oriented east – west, up to 2 m wide and paved with trampled small stones, sherds and animal bones. The finds discovered on the street included coins of the 6th century AD, copper semi-prepared and waste products, a small lead plate with monograms on its both sides. The extensions of the terracotta water-conduit and the drain were discovered. Part of Building No. 12 was excavated and two querns and two iron knives were found. The remains of a pottery kiln were discovered. It dated to the 5th century AD and was earlier than Building No. 12. Two drains of the baths of the 5th century AD were excavated beneath Building No. 12, too. A plate with a monogram from a Late Antique gold finger-ring was found in one of the drains.