ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN DUROSTORUM – DRASTAR – SILISTRA (Rumyana Koleva – rukoleva@gmail.com, Chavdar Kirilov) Significant part of the site was destroyed during excavation works for construction a new building. At least three monumental buildings belonged to the Ottoman period. Coins and pottery of the 13th – 14th centuries were found. Twenty-three Christian graves were explored, some of them containing coins, the latest ones Latin imitations minted in Constantinople during the first half of the 13th century and coins minted by the Bulgarian Despot Yakov Svetoslav (c. 1258 – 1275). The graves belong to a necropolis of the 12th – 14th centuries situated at the southern fortification wall of Drastar, which was explored in 1986. At least four buildings dated from the end of the 11th to mid 13th centuries were discovered. Their walls are bonded with mud and the floors are of trampled clay. The buildings were constructed over pits and remains of houses of the 11th century. Anonymous Byzantine coins of the last decades of the 11th century were found on the floor levels of the buildings and below them. Materials and structures of the 10th – 11th centuries were discovered, including at least four sunken-floored houses partly dug into the ground and more than 100 pits. A corner of building with walls up to 1.50 m in width was explored. The walls were constructed of ashlars, 1 m by 50 cm in size. The building was dismantled during the Middle Ages. Its foundations were dug into a stratum containing Late Antique pottery, a bronze coin of the 3rd century AD and a coin minted by Emperor Maximian Herculius. The building could be dated between the Late Antiquity and the end of the 10th century AD and probably it was a proto-Bulgarian pagan shrine demolished at the end of the 9th century AD after the Baptism of the Bulgars. An Early Byzantine stratum with fragmentary building ceramics and sherds was explored. A sunken-floored house partly dug into the ground with pottery of the second half of the 6th century AD and a pottery kiln with two chambers of the 6th century AD were discovered.

DRASTAR (Varbin Varbanov – ramonearhaeology@abv.bg, Nikola Rusev) A stratum of the 13th – 14th centuries was explored. A hoard was found, consisting of 56 copper coins of Manuel I Komnenos, Isaac II Angelos, Alexios III Angelos, Bulgarian and Latin imitative coins of the 13th – 14th centuries, the Bulgarian kings Ivan Alexander and Ivan Shishman. Three Christian burials were discovered over the central nave of the earlier Basilica No. 4. A three-aisled Basilica No. 4 of the 10th – 11th centuries was discovered under the stratum of the 13th – 14th centuries. The southern aisle, part of the central nave and the wall dividing the narthex and the nave were explored. They were built of ashlars bonded with mortar. The outer wall of the central apse was hexagonal. A two-step synthrone was discovered in the apse and a stone pavement was documented in the central nave. The southern aisle was 11.05 m long and 2.60 – 2.80 m wide. It had stone pavement and an apse with pentagonal outer wall. There was a secondary constructed entrance on the southern wall and two pilasters were built at the outer side of the wall. Thirty-seven Christian burials were discovered in both naves and to the east of the basilica. The burials outside the church were dug into a layer that contained anonymous Byzantine folles of the end of the 10th – 11th centuries. The burials were carried out after the end of the 11th century. One grave contained two bodies and another one was reused. Six burials contained grave goods: jewelry, decorations from clothes and coins.

DOROSTOLUM – DRASTAR (Georgi Atanasov – geoatal@abv.bg) The explorations of Basilica No. 4 continued. It was built in the beginning of the 10th century and destroyed at the end of the 11th century. The floor in the southern aisle was paved with stone slabs arranged over a layer of mortar. Sherds of the 4th – 6th centuries AD and of the 9th – 10th centuries were found under the floor. The foundation of the apse was built of roughly-cut stones bonded with mortar and was 50 cm deep. A house with a stone stove was explored in front of the central apse and sherds the end of the 10th century were found. Christian burials of the 11th century were discovered over the remains of the house. The foundations of Basilica No. 5 of the second half of the 9th century were discovered under Basilica No. 4. The southern aisle 3 m wide was partly explored. The foundations were 0.95 – 1.05 m wide, dug into a layer with sherds of the 4th – 6th centuries AD. Four buttresses were documented along the outer face of the wall.

DRASTAR (Stanislav Ivanov – stanislavivanovarh@gmail.com, Gergana Ilieva) A wall of the Ottoman fortification was documented, built after the Crimean War in 1853 – 1856. Three buildings were partly discovered. Two of them were built of ashlars bonded with mortar and dated to the 9th century AD. Building No. 3 was the latest one. Its wall was 75 – 80 cm wide, built of ashlars. An entrance was explored. Probably, it was the western wall with an entrance of a church of the 13th – 14th century. Fragments from terracotta plastic decoration were found, typical of the decoration of the façades of the churches in that period. Sixteen Christian burials from two Mediaeval cemeteries were explored.

DRASTAR (Stoyan Mihailov – mihaylov.stoyan@gmail.com, Svetlana Gancheva) A sector, c. 100 m long and 0.70 – 1.50 m wide, was excavated. In 2007, 23 Christian burials of the 13th – 14th centuries had been discovered nearby. Two buildings of the second half of the 13th – 14th centuries were explored, one of them constructed of ashlars. The graves in the cemetery situated over the destroyed Basilica No. 4, located close to the north, dated to the 12th – 13th centuries. An oven from the same period was discovered and a coin hoard of the middle of the 13th century was found close to it. A building was documented, constructed of well-cut stones bonded with mud and dated to the end of the 10th – 11th centuries.

DRASTAR (Boyan Ivanov – b_totev@abv.bg) Part of the proto-Bulgarian pagan temple discovered in 2007 was explored. The temple consisted of two square rooms, the smaller one situated inside the larger. In 2015, the foundations of the outer western wall and the inner northeastern corner were discovered. The ashlars of the walls were arranged over two layers of mortar plastered over wooden posts driven into the ground. The foundation of the outer wall was 1 – 1.10 m wide and the foundation of the inner wall was c. 1.30 m wide. The distance between both walls was c. 4 m. The floor was plastered with mortar. The temple was situated in the centre of the proto-Bulgarian aul and close to the remains of the Early Byzantine basilica. During rescue excavations in the past, three altars were discovered nearby, probably originating from the interior of the pagan temple. A dugout of the 10th century and buildings constructed of stones of the Middle Byzantine period were discovered over the foundations of the temple. The finds included three pots, a glazed jug, anonymous Byzantine folles and four lead seals of the second half of the 11th century.