ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN SERDICA (Konstantin Shalganov – director@sofiahistorymuseum.bg) The site was situated to the west of the eastern fortification gate of Serdica. Part of a room of the 17th – 18th century was explored. Part of a domus with a peristyle was discovered. The court was paved with slabs, 20 cm thick. The stylobates from the south and the west were explored. They were 30 cm high, built of ashlars with a maximum size 1.92 m by 0.53 m. There were porches behind the stylobates. Three rectangular brick columns were discovered on the southern stylobate. The intercolumnar space was 1.84 m. Two corridors, parallel to the court, were explored from the west and the south. The corridors were open towards the court and were 2.70 m wide and 9.40 m long (the southern corridor) and 10.20 m long (the western corridor). The floors of the corridors were 7 cm thick in opus signinum. Parts of the rooms of the domus, constructed of bricks bonded with mortar, were discovered behind the porches. Fragments from floor mosaics were found. Coins of Constans minted n AD 337 – 341 and of Leo I the Thracian were found. The domus dated to the 4th – 6th centuries AD.

SERDICA (Konstantin Shalganov – director@sofiahistorymuseum.bg) Eight adjacent parallel rooms, arranged in a line and dated to the 4th – 6th centuries AD, were explored to the south of the inner yard of the domus. The rooms measured from 2.55 m by 1.80 m to 7.35 m by 7.95 m. Their walls were 55 cm and 65 cm wide and were constructed of bricks 32/35 cm by 32/35 cm by 3.5/5 cm, bonded with mortar. Hypocaust floors were discovered in six rooms (1 – 3, A, B, G) and tubuli and marble veneer were found. The columns of the hypocaust under the floors were constructed of rectangular or square bricks, round bricks and terracotta pipes. The walls of the rooms were repaired and some of the entrances between the rooms were closed. There was a wall, 20.80 m long and 75 cm wide, situated to the east of the rooms and built in opus mixtum with alternating bands of three courses of bricks. A hall, 14.95 m by 3.10 m in size, was situated to the east of it. The rooms were divided in two groups by a passage, 3.20 m wide and 8.20 m long, leading outside the domus to the south towards a decumanus. Part of that decumanus, located to the south of the rooms and the first one to the south after decumanus maximus, was explored. The excavated section was 18.35 m long and the roadway was 4.90 m wide. A kerbstone of one row of ashlars, 0.95 – 3.80 m long, up to 65 cm wide and up to 50 cm high, was discovered along the northern edge of the decumanus. A water-conduit, constructed of terracotta pipes, 50 cm long and 14 cm in diameter, was situated parallel to the kerbstone. A drain was explored, situated longitudinally under the central axis of the decumanus. The drain measured 55 cm by 95 cm and its walls were built of boulders and roughly cut stones bonded with mortar, while its bottom was paved with bricks. The pavement of the decumanus consisted of stone slabs, 17 – 20 cm thick, which were arranged over a layer of sand, 5 – 7 cm thick. The finds from the excavations included pottery of the 4th – 6th centuries AD, the 11th – 14th centuries and the 17th – 18th centuries, and 131 coins of the end of the 2nd – 7th centuries AD and the 10th – 12th centuries.

SERDICA (Konstantin Shalganov – director@sofiahistorymuseum.bg) The explorations of the first insula to the south of decumanus maximus of Serdica and to the west of via sagularis along the eastern fortification wall continued. The insula was 29.30 m wide (north – south). The partly-preserved decumanus maximus was documented in the northern part of the sector. It was explored in 1968 – 1970, when the eastern fortification gate of Serdica and 29 m from decumanus maximus were discovered. In 2011, the street level of the 6th century AD was discovered, 29.25 m long, 6.35 m wide and paved with slabs 20/25 cm thick and reused architectural elements. At 50 cm below the pavement, remains from the earlier decumanus maximus of the end of the 3 – beginning of the 4 century AD were discovered. A drain was explored along the longitudinal axis of decumanus maximus. Its size was 0.62 m by 1.10 m, with walls built of boulders and roughly-cut stones bonded with mortar and bottom paved with bricks, 33/35 cm by 33/35 cm by 4/4,5 cm in size. A double water-conduit was documented under the pavement of the street, at 1.10 m to the north of the drain and parallel to it. Its terracotta pipes were 50 cm long and 14 cm in diameter. A pedestrian gallery, 2.10 m wide, was discovered to the south of decumanus maximus. Two bases of columns from the colonnade were found. The peristyle yard of the domus was discovered. It was 10.30 m long, paved with slabs 20 cm thick, with galleries 2.50 m wide. Parallel rooms arranged in a line were discovered to the south, west and north of the peristyle yard, two of them with mosaics on their floors. The domus dated to the 4th – 6th centuries AD. Three rooms of the 17th – 18th centuries were discovered in the western part of the site.

SERDICA (Konstantin Shalganov – director@sofiahistorymuseum.bg) The Late Mediaeval rooms were dismantled. Room E was dug into the ground and it served as a cellar. A pot was discovered under its brick floor, containing a hoard of nine silver coins, one of them a denar of Louis II of Hungary minted in 1521 – 1525. Part of a cardo 5 m wide was discovered, with kerbs on its both sides, each one 60 cm wide. A stone wall with a pediment that probably supported a column of a stylobate was documented to the east of the kerb. A drain and three terracotta water-conduits were documented under the cardo. The pottery that was discovered indicated the chronology of the construction activities. The drain functioned after the middle of the 3rd century AD and until the middle of the 4th century AD. At the end of that period, or a little bit later, the water conduits were installed, while the latest reconstructions and repairs of the street occurred at the end of the 4th century AD, or during the 5th century AD. A layer with pieces of charcoal was documented under Room L, situated under a layer of tegulae and imbrices from a collapsed roof of the end of the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD, judging from the pottery. A layer with pieces of charcoal and sherds of the 2nd – beginning of the 3rd centuries AD was explored, containing a hoard of 15 denarii, mostly Republican of the 1st century BC, one Republican of the end of the 2nd century BC and three from the Roman Imperial period, the latest one of Trajan.