THE THRACIAN RESIDENCE ON KOZI GRAMADI PEAK (Ivan Hristov – ivchristov70@abv.bg) The site is surrounded with fortification wall and has an area of 0.045 ha with trapezoid layout. Foundations of rectangular tower at the outside part of the fortification wall are situated in the northeastern corner. A building, partly destroyed by clandestine digs, was explored in the center of the fortification. The building has an area of 104 sq. m and measures 8.30 m by 12.50 m. Its wall is 90 cm in width and has foundations of one course of stones at 57 cm in depth. The wall has two faces of ashlars with drafted margins, 1.10 – 1.40 m in length, 44 cm in height and 30 cm in width, stuck with leaded iron clamps, with a core structure of small stones and sand. The wall is preserved up to 1.96 m in height. The building has an entrance from the southeast, 1.68 m in width with jambs decorated with vertical strips in relief. Two bases are situated in front of the entrance. The stone threshold has a socket for door axle. The floor is situated 23 cm below the threshold of the entrance and consists of broken tiles plastered with clay. An entrance, 1.04 m in width, is situated at the northeastern wall. A staircase with six steps leading to a platform follows. The roof of the building consisted of tegulae and imbrices. An iron labrys, a bronze coin of Philip of Macedon, a bronze coin of the mid 4th century BC minted by the Odrysian King Teres II, a silver coin of the Thracian Chersonessus, sherds of Thracian pottery, a lead sling shot inscribed with two letters – AN, a bottom of an amphora and fragments of black-gloss pottery were found on the floor. Presumably, the building was destroyed during the military campaigns of Philip of Macedon in Thrace in the 340s BC. The fortified site was a Thracian tyrsis or royal residence.

EXPLORATIONS ON KOZI GRAMADI PEAK (Ivan Hristov – ivchristov70@abv.bg, Gavrail Lazov) The Thracian royal residence was built on a leveled rock platform situated at the lowest slope of Kozi Gramadi Peak. It covered an area of 0.45 ha. Building No. 1 with an area of 104 sq. m, built in the middle of the 4th century BC, was situated in the middle of the residence. The foundations of two other buildings were documented to the southeast and northeast of Building No. 1. They were built during the Late Antiquity (4th – 5th century AD) with ashlars taken from the demolished Building No. 1. The Thracian residence had a fortification wall 218 m long. It was polygonal, constructed of roughly cut ashlars with an emplectum. The western fortification wall was 44 m long. There was a bastion, 3.60 m by 2.20 m in size, situated in the southwestern corner from the inner part of the fortification wall. The wall in the southwestern corner was 2 m wide. The northern fortification wall was 50 m long and 1.40 m wide. The northeastern fortification wall was 44 m long and the southern fortification wall was 80 m long. Two fortification towers were situated in the southeastern corner of the residence. The earlier tower covered an area of 30.25 sq. m and was built around a cut rock. The later tower, 5.50 m by 5.80 m in size, was adjacent to the southeastern corner of the fortification wall. A passage, situated between the outer and the inner fortification wall, 32 m long and 1.20 m wide, was documented. The finds from the excavations included Thracian sherds of the Early Iron Age and of the 4th century BC, including from imported Greek amphorae and black-gloss pottery, an iron fibula of the 8th – 7th century BC, an iron ring-stamp of the 4th century BC, iron nails, lead sling-bullets and iron arrowheads. The Thracian residence functioned during the 4th century BC. Then the site was abandoned and unoccupied for c. 600 years, when it was reoccupied in the 4th century AD.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS ON KOZI GRAMADI PEAK (Ivan Hristov – ivchristov70@abv.bg) The Thracian residence covered an area of 0.34 ha. The main tower-gate was discovered in the southeastern part of the fortification, in the middle of the first fortification wall. The tower-gate was 6 m by 5.95 m in size and was built of granite ashlars with an entrance to the northeast, 2.30 m wide. In a later period, the entrance of the tower-gate was closed with roughly cut stones bonded with mud. The first southeastern fortification wall was built in polygonal _opus emplectum_ with roughly cut ashlars. The area between both fortification walls was explored, where the residential part of the fortification was situated. Several rooms arranged in a line along the outer face of the second fortification wall were discovered. Their walls were constructed with sun-dried bricks and their roofs were covered with Corinthian tegulae. A street was documented to the north of the second fortification wall and a yard, 300 sq. m in size and situated to the east of the main residence building, was explored. Six cisterns, pits for dolia, Corinthian tegulae and Laconian imbrices were discovered to the northeast of the main residence building. The northeastern wall of the main residence building, situated in the center of the complex with an entrance to the southeast, was discovered. The wall was 13 m long and preserved over 2 m in height. The finds included Corinthian tegulae, Laconian imbrices, sherds, including from imported Greek amphorae and black-gloss pottery. The residence functioned during the first half of the 4th century BC.