ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN MESAMBRIA (Anelia Bozhkova – aneliabozkova@yahoo.com, Petya Kiyashkina, Metodi Daskalov, Todor Marvakov, Katya Trendafilova) The explorations in Sector A continued on an area of c. 200 sq. m. Two inhumation graves and a ritual pit containing Thracian sherds and materials from the second phase of the Early Iron Age (8th – 7th centuries BC) were discovered. Destructions of two buildings constructed of sun-dried bricks with basements, dated to the first half of the 5th century BC, were explored. Sherds from amphorae, Attic painted and black-gloss pottery, terracotta figurines and Corinthian pottery (exaleiptra, kalathiskoi and kotylai) were found in the remains of the buildings. The Hellenistic house, which had been explored in 2006, has a plinth of stones and walls built of bricks. Sherds of black-gloss pottery, kitchen pottery, amphorae, etc. were found in the basement of the house. According to the finds, the destruction of the house dates to the beginning of the 3rd century BC. The Early Byzantine building, located in 2006, was entirely explored. Its walls are built of stones, reused bricks and tiles with a bonding medium of mud. A stratum with Early Byzantine materials was registered outside the building. According to two minima minted by Emperor Leo I the Thracian (AD 457 – 474) and a follis minted by Emperor Tiberius II Constantine (AD 578 – 582), the building and the stratum date in the second half of the 5th – 6th centuries AD. The Early Byzantine kiln for building ceramics was entirely explored. It is preserved up to 1.70 m in height and is 3.80 – 3.90 m in diameter. Four Christian graves were explored in the necropolis of the 7th century AD and the total number of the graves reached 25. The graves are arranged in two rows oriented northwest – southeast. There were child burials between the graves of the adults. The funerary constructions were burial pits, burial pits encircled with stones and stone-built burial chambers. Four mediaeval Christian graves from another necropolis and 10 midden pits were explored. They contained pottery, including sgraffito, tiles and coins of the 12th – beginning of the 14th centuries.

MESAMBRIA (Anelia Bozhkova – aneliabozkova@yahoo.com, Petya Kiyashkina) The site was thoroughly explored. Sherds and a small votive relief of the Thracian Horseman with Greek inscription dated to the Roman period were found. Two cellars of houses, c. 3 m by 2.20 m in size, were thoroughly explored. The cellar of the house in Trench E2/Zh2 contained sherds from pots, lekanai, cups, black-gloss kylikes and bowls, black-figure cups and amphorae, small Corinthian vessels, terracotta lamps, loom weights, terracotta figurines, fragments from sun-dried bricks and plaster from the structure of the house and from an oven that collapsed into the cellar. The cellar of the house in Trench A4 contained debris from the destroyed house, sherds from black-figure, black-gloss and Corinthian pottery and from amphorae, including from Lesbos, terracotta figurines, terracotta lamps and loom weights. Over 30 amphorae were discovered arranged upside down on the floor of the cellar, originating from Chios, Miletos and Thasos. The houses with the cellars were built in the first decades of the 5th century BC and were destroyed in the middle of the 5th century BC.

MESAMBRIA (Anelia Bozhkova – aneliabozkova@yahoo.com, Petya Kiyashkina) The explorations continued in the southwestern part of the site. Part of a basement of a building of the Late Hellenistic period was discovered under the wall of the Late Antique building that was explored in 2007. Debris from a fire was discovered, containing roof-tiles, fragmentary architectural decoration, sherds, including from Megarian bowls, vessels with West Slope decoration, vessels of the Red Slip Type, imitations of the Eastern sigillata, amphorae, local pottery of the Pontic Group and imitation of Anatolian tableware, terracotta figurines, fragments from painted wall plaster and coins. The building was burned around the middle of the 1st century BC.

MESAMBRIA (Anelia Bozhkova – aneliabozkova@yahoo.com, Petya Kiyashkina) The exploration of the cellar of the Late Hellenistic house that existed from the end of the 2nd to the middle of the 1st centuries BC continued. The stratum was up to 2.50 m thick and contained debris from the burned house that collapsed in the cellar: stones from the foundations of the house, fragmentary sun-dried bricks from the walls, roof-tiles, fragments from architectural decoration, fragments from color plaster from the decoration of the inner sides of the walls. The finds included sherds, including from imported pottery: Megarian bowls, vessels with West Slope decoration, imitations of Eastern sigillata and amphorae, a number of terracotta figurines, 20 bronze coins mostly of Mesambria of the second half of the 2nd – first half of the 1st centuries BC. The building was burned around the middle of the 1st century BC and testified to the conquest of Mesambria by the Getic King Burebista (82/61 – 45/44 BC), attested in the historical sources.