RESCUE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS AT THE SITE OF VALCHI DOL, VARNA DISTRICT (original) (raw)
RESCuE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS OF SETTLEMENT REMAINS FROM THE EARLY CHALCOLITHIC, THE IRON AGE AND THE ROMAN PERIOD NEAR THE VILLAGE OF VODITSA, POPOVO MuNICIPALITY, TARGOVISHTE DISTRICT, 2021
The archaeological excavations are part of the investigation along “The extension of the gas transmission infrastructure of ‘Bulgartransgas’ EAD parallel to the north (highway) gas pipeline near the Bulgarian – Serbian border” and were carried out in June – August, 2020. The site was registered during field survey in the area in 2012. In 2020, preliminary investigations were carried out and revealed structures from the Early Iron Age. This fact required complete investigations of the site in Popastnik locality, 2.5 km north of the village of Voditsa, Popovo municipality. During the fieldwork, 47 archaeological structures were discovered sunken in the ancient terrain. They belong to four periods – Early Chalcolithic, first stage of the EIA, LIA and Roman period. Nine sunken features could be dated to the Early Chalcolithic. To the EIA belongs six pits. At the level of registration, they have a round plan with a diameter of 1.00 m, reaching 1.00 – 1.20 m from surface. Eleven archaeological structures date from the first half of the 4th c. BC: pits, semi-dugout features, linear sunken structures and an urn with cremated human bones. Five structures belong to the Roman period. They probably functioned as sunken parts of storage facilities. The structures could be interpreted as remains, related to a settlement in the micro-region during the various archaeological periods. An argument in favor of the settlement character of the site is its topographical position. The absence of heating installations and floor levels, the small amount of archaeological materials and finds support the hypothesis that during the registered periods the occupation of the settlements was short-lived.
JOURNAL OF VARNA MUSEUM, 2023
The archaeological site is situated in Kashlata/Vidanlak Locality, 1.5 km southeast of the center of the village of Brestak, Valchi dol Municipality. It falls entirely in cultivated land. It is located on the lower part of a west-facing slope, on the eastern bank of a ravine, along which flows a stream, a tributary of the Karaman dere River. The main scientific goals of the present study are to specify the type and chronology of the newly registered archaeological site. Stacks of remnants of secondarily fired wall plaster fragments were discovered in several places. In the remaining studied area, fifteen dug-in structures were entirely excavated. Some of them were round or elliptical, and others were square. The fill of the pits had an identical composition – dark earth, with inclusions of charcoal, small fragments of plaster, and a small number of ceramic pieces. For some pits, it can be noted that their narrowing at depth is formed by one or two indentations, clearly visible in the bedrock.