PRESLAV (Snezhana Goryanova – sgoryanova@gmail.com, Margarita Vaklinova) The excavations continued in the so-called farm yard, situated to the north of the Throne Room and the building with three rooms. The exploration of the dugout of the 11th – 12th centuries was completed; it was located over the debris of the surrounding stone wall of the farm yard. Five pits were discovered: three containing limestone ashlars and architectural fragments, and two containing sherds of the 11th – 14th centuries. Pit No. 1 was probably related to the dugout and contained a decorated horn handle and a lead seal, probably belonging to “Manuel, (who is) Anthypatos and Patrikios”. Five places for stirring mortar were discovered. A street was excavated, 1.50 m wide and paved with stone slabs, leading towards the supposed entrance of the Aule of Preslav, documented in the southern part of the Inner Fortification. The water supply system had several phases of building and reconstruction. Five of the water-conduits were connected to a distributing shaft built of ashlars. The explorations in the northern antechamber of the Western Palace showed that the foundation of its western wall was c. 1 m deep, built of small ashlars.

PRESLAV (Snezhana Goryanova – sgoryanova@gmail.com, Margarita Vaklinova) The excavations continued in the Western Sector situated to the north of the main palatial buildings and in the Eastern Sector situated to the north of the Royal Basilica. In the Western Sector, two pits were explored, one of them containing animal bones, sherds, snail shells, an anonymous Byzantine follis of Class B (AD 1030/1035 – 1042), two billon scyphates of Manuel I Komnenos minted in Constantinople, a copper scyphate of the mid 13th century minted in Thessalonica, an unstamped core of a lead seal. Water-conduits were documented; they supplied water for the shaft discovered in 2018. Another shaft was explored, 70 cm by 34 cm in size and 62 cm deep, built of small ashlars and covered with a stone slab. The shaft had an inlet terracotta pipe 13 cm in diameter and two outlet terracotta pipes 13 cm and 15 cm in diameter. A water distribution shaft with multiple terracotta shafts was cleaned; it was discovered in the mid 1960s and was situated close to the Small Palace. The water conduits were constructed before the northern parts of the Palatial Complex were built. Places for stirring mortar were discovered. In the Eastern Sector, the exploration of the horizontal construction of wooden beams continued. A building with an area of c. 20 sq. m was discovered and a copper scyphate of the mid 13th century minted in Thessalonica was found there.