EXPLORATIONS IN THE PALATIAL CENTER OF PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg) The explorations of the ‘Building with Portico’ located in the southwestern corner of the Royal Palace in Preslav continued in 2004. Its front room and part of the room behind were discovered, in addition to two bases of pilasters of the portico situated in front of its northern wall. A layer formed during the late mediaeval period was registered down to 90 cm in depth. Ten Christian graves were discovered at 80 cm in depth, showing that this sector became part of the extensive cemetery that appeared in the territory of the Palace during the 12th – 13th centuries. A construction of ashlars preserved up to two courses in height was discovered between the second and the third pilasters. It had a quadrangular or a rectangular layout. Only the southern half of the construction was discovered. Its lower course is 2.10 m in length and its upper course is 1.40 m in length. There is a small basin faced with stone slabs in the middle of the construction. Most likely, the construction was related to water circulation. A walk paved with stone slabs, 80 cm by 90 cm in size, connects the construction with the building. The construction and the functioning of the ‘Building with Portico’ date to the end of the 9th and the 10th centuries.

EXPLORATIONS IN THE PALATIAL CENTER OF PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg) The excavations in the southwestern corner of the Palatial Center in Preslav covered an area of 300 sq. m. The explorations of the large building with a portico situated to the west of the baths and the pavement lying to the north of the pilasters continued. Two rooms and part of a third one were discovered within the building. The rooms are quadrangular, measuring 6.20 m by 6.20 m, and are interconnected through entrances. A row of bases of pilasters was part of the portico constructed in front of the northern façade of the building. Two bases of pilasters were discovered, in addition to two others found in 2004. The third pilaster stood at 2.50 m from the second one and the fourth pilaster stood at 4.30 m from the third one. Part of a two-step enclosing wall built of ashlars was discovered between both pilasters. The wall surrounded an extensive area, including the row of pilasters. A building with complex layout was discovered in the middle of the enclosed area. It was part of the architectural complex, which includes the explored monuments and dates to the Capital period (10th century AD). The foundations of the building are 80 cm in width and lie at 60 cm in depth. A room measuring 2 m by 2 m with an entrance from the west, 60 cm in width, leading to another room, was explored in the southeastern part of the building. Most likely, the buildings explored in the Palatial Center had sacred functions. A Christian cemetery functioned during the 12th – 13th centuries over the debris of these buildings. One hundred and five graves dug at 0.80 – 1.80 m in depth were discovered on an area of 160 sq. m.

EXPLORATIONS IN PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg) The explorations of the building with the portico continued. The third room is 5.20 m long. A room-annex, 3.20 m by 1.80 m in size, was explored in front of the northern façade. The building is 22.60 m long and consists of three rooms arranged in a line oriented east – west. The rooms are interconnected with entrances 70 cm wide. There is a portico supported by square pillars, 80 cm by 80 cm in size, at 2.80 m in front of the northern façade. There is a path of stone slabs in front of the middle room. The path leads to the southern wall of a step-like water construction. There is a building with the complex layout at 1.80 m to the north of the portico. Its foundations are 80 cm deep and its walls are 80 cm thick, while the eastern wall is 1 m thick. The building measures 12.70 m by 15.30 m and consists of nine rooms arranged in three lines. The western and the eastern lines of rooms are 2 m wide, while the middle line is 4.70 m wide. There are three bases of columns, 90 cm by 90 cm, in the middle of the central northern room. A pavement of stone slabs unified the area between the building with the portico, the building with the complex layout and the fortification wall that existed before Preslav became the capital of the First Bulgarian Kingdom in AD 893. Both building were demolished in the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century. At the end of the 11th century, midden pits appeared over the debris of the buildings. The pits contained pottery of the 12th century, iron objects and details of decorative sculpture. A Christian cemetery appeared on the site in the 13th century. In 2006, 70 graves were discovered, in addition to 105 graves excavated in 2005. Probably, the memory for the architectural ensemble, which existed in the period when Preslav was the capital (AD 893 – 972), was still alive in the 13th century and the place became sacred.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg, Radostina Georgieva) The architectural ensemble, consisting of two buildings dated to the end of the 9th – beginning of the 10th centuries, was discovered. The first one is a building with a portico consisting of parallel rooms arranged in a line and the second one with a complex layout is located to the north of it. The building with a portico is 22.60 m long and consists of three parallel rooms arranged in a line oriented east – west. The bases of the columns of the portico are located at 2.80 in front of the northern face of the building and measure 1.30 m by 1.30 m. The columns were square, built of ashlars, and measured 80 cm by 80 cm. A room, 3.20 m by 1.80 m in size, is added to the northern façade in the western end of the building. A path of stone slabs, which lead to the basin built of ashlars bonded with mortar, was situated in front of the second room of the main building. The building with a complex layout measures 12.70 m by 15.30 m and is located at 1.80 to the north of the portico. The building consists of nine rooms arranged in three lines. The western and the eastern rooms were 2 m wide, while the central rooms were 4.70 m wide. The pavement of stone slabs in front of the building with a portico and around the building with a complex layout is over 20 m long and is connected to the pavement situated to the south of the Archbishop’s Palace. The pavement was built over the remains of an earlier building destroyed during the construction of the palatial square. A water-conduit of terracotta pipes, 42 cm long and 16 cm in diameter, was discovered, leading to the building with a complex layout. At the end of the 11th – 12th centuries, 14 midden pits were dug over the debris of the architectural ensemble. During the 13th century, a Christian cemetery appeared on the site and 195 graves have been discovered so far.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg, Radostina Georgieva) The architectural complex in the southern part of the Preslav Patriarchate dates to the 10th century. It included two buildings: the first one consisting of three parallel rooms and the second one with a complex layout. The architectural complex served as the residence of the Bulgarian Patriarch. The area between the complex and the eastern fortification wall, situated at 25 – 20 m from the buildings, was explored. The construction level of the buildings of the capital period was documented at 1.10 m in depth. It consisted of a layer of crushed limestone, 7 – 10 cm thick. An occupation layer of the 11th century was explored at 70 – 90 cm in depth. Several platforms of ashlars, taken from the debris of the two buildings, were discovered. Places for stirring mortar adjoined two of the platforms. The finds include Byzantine lead seals and coins of the 11th century. Twelve pits of the 12th century were documented. The pits were 1.40 – 2.20 m in diameter and 1.60 – 2.40 m in depth and contained limestone ashlars, uneven stones, bricks and details of decorative sculpture of the 10th century. The Late Mediaeval occupation layer was documented at 40 – 80 cm in depth. The finds include pottery, including sgraffito, spindle whorls, nails, earrings, finger-rings, glass and bronze bracelets. Two graves (Nos. 196 and 197) of the necropolis of the the 13th century were discovered. During the excavations, decorative details of the 10th century were found: limestone cornices and semi-columns, marble columns and capitals, marble facing plates, small plates of floors, white and color glass of windows.

EXPLORATIONS IN PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg) The two buildings of the 10th century were located in the southern part of the Preslav Patriarchate where the Residence was situated. The exploration of the wall, 90 cm wide, continued. It was a continuation of the southern longitudinal wall of the building, consisting of parallel rooms arranged in a line, and was discovered at 11 m in length to the west. The excavations were carried out to the west of both buildings. The building level of the period when Preslav was the capital of the First Bulgarian Kingdom was documented at 1.10 m in depth, while the level of its destruction was discovered at 90 cm in depth. The foundations of two walls of the 9th – 10th century, 90 cm wide, and a square foundation, 1.50 m by 1.50 m in size, were explored. An occupation layer of the 11th century was discovered at 70 – 90 cm in depth, situated above the debris of the Residence of the Patriarch. A wall, 1 m wide, was explored. It was built of limestone ashlars, 50 – 60 cm by 30 – 40 cm in size, bonded with mortar. The wall was related to a single-room building of the 11th century, 4.70 m in width. Two ovens were discovered close to the northern wall of the building. The finds of the 11th century included lead seals, anonymous Byzantine folles, a plate of a composite bow, a tab from a nomadic quiver, two lead crosses and two terracotta acoustic pipes. Six pits of the 12th century were discovered. Two of them contained limestone ashlars and architectural details (cornices, a small marble plate showing a palmette in relief and marble frames from floor mosaics) originating from buildings of the 10th century. Ten burials, mostly belonging to children and young individuals, were explored in the Christian necropolis of the 13th century. A Late Mediaeval occupation layer was discovered at 40 – 70 cm in depth. It contained pottery, including sgraffito, terracotta and lead spindle-whorls, iron and copper objects, and Byzantine and Bulgarian scyphates of the 13th – 14th centuries.

PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg) The explorations of the building, discovered in 2010 in the Royal Palace, continued. It dated to the last quarter of the 9th – 10th centuries AD and was situated at 20 m to the west of the two buildings that were explored during the previous excavations. The eastern wing of the building was 21 m long and consisted of three rooms. Its foundations were 2 m wide and 1.30 m deep and their lower part was constructed of roughly-cut stones bonded with mortar with driven wooden posts, 8 – 10 cm in diameter and 70 – 80 cm in length, partly driven into the bedrock at 20 – 25 cm in depth. There was a plaster of mortar above the lower part of the foundations, followed by a course of stone slabs arranged above the plaster, a second plaster of mortar spread over the slabs and two courses of ashlars on top of it. The walls of the building were 2 m wide and were preserved at 1 m in height, built of ashlars 60 – 80 cm by 40 – 50 cm in size and 40 cm in height, bonded with mortar. A water-conduit of terracotta pipes was discovered across the northern room of the eastern wing. During the previous explorations of the two buildings, the architectural complex was specified as the Patriarchate of Preslav. However, the discovery of the new building indicated that the architectural complex was actually part of the Royal Palace of the Bulgarian kings.

PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg, Radostina Georgieva) The explorations of the large building consisting of three parts dated to the end of the 9th – 10th centuries continued. The building was 20 m wide and over 14 m long and was built of limestone ashlars, 0.80 – 1 m long, 40 – 60 cm wide and 40 cm high, bonded with mortar. The walls were 1.40 – 1.50 m wide, preserved up to 1.30 m in height. The foundations were 2 m wide and 1.60 m deep, built of roughly-cut stones and three courses of ashlars bonded with mortar, over timber posts driven at 30 cm into the ground under the stone structure. A central hall, 5 m wide, was located in the middle of the building. Its floor was paved with marble slabs, from 60 cm by 80 cm to 1 m by 1.20 m in size, placed over a mortar layer. Two rows of smaller rooms were documented from both sides of the central hall. The floors in some of the rooms were paved with square bricks, most of them with incised proto-Bulgarian symbols. Cornices with dentils, tori and semi-pilasters from the outer façade of the building were discovered. Fragments from marble columns, a marble base, marble capitals and elements from two types of floor panels in _opus sectile_ from the interior decoration were found as well. The building was a palace.

PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg, Radostina Georgieva) The explorations of the building discovered in 2010 in the southwestern part of the Royal Palatial Complex continued. Its walls were 1.50 m wide, constructed of ashlars, 0.80 – 1 m long, 40 – 60 cm wide and 40 cm high, bonded with mortar. The foundations of the building were also constructed of ashlars and were 1.70 m deep. The building was 20 m wide and consisted of three parallel wings oriented east – west along their longitudinal axes. There was a hall in the central wing. The hall was 5 m wide and was paved with marble slabs, up to 1.20 m long, arranged over a mortar layer. The northern and the southern wings consisted of parallel rooms arranged in a line. The third room in the northern wing was paved with limestone slabs and the third room in the southern wing was paved with marble slabs. Details from the architectural decoration of the building were found: cornices with torus, small columns from windows, marble frames and small plates from floor panels, small plates of green shale from multicolor floor panels. The building dated to the end of the 9th – first half of the 10th centuries and it may be identified as the Residential Palace of the king, which belonged to the complex of the two central palaces with throne halls.

PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg, Radostina Georgieva) The explorations of the palatial building were completed. It was built during AD 850 – 875 and existed through the 10th century. The building was 20 m wide and 17.50 m long and consisted of three wings: a central hall 5.50 m wide with two wings, each one consisting of tree rooms on either side of the hall. There was a room, 6.50 m by 6.30 m in size, located to the north of the northern wing. The walls of the building were 1.50 m wide, built of ashlars bonded with mortar. The finds included decorative architectural details from the interior of the building (fragments from veneer of the plinth with panels of floral ornaments in relief) and the top of a crenel with Cyrillic inscription, taken from the dismantled fortification wall of the proto-Bulgarian palace of Preslav and incorporated into the new building. There was a portico with pilasters of ashlars built on a stylobate, located in front of the southern façade of the palace. An entrance with propylaea was located in the western part of the portico leading towards the southwestern room of the palace. Two drains, a water supply shaft and a phiale were documented to the southwest of the portico. The building was a residential royal palace in Preslav.

PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg, Radostina Georgieva) The explorations of the Palace, 20.50 m by 19 m in size, continued. There was a colonnade supporting a portico situated at 3 m in front of its western facade. The colonnade was built over a stylobate constructed of ashlars bonded with mortar, 80 cm high and 2 m wide. The stylobate was paved with stone slabs and the steps of the columns were built over the pavement, 90 cm by 90 cm in size and 35 cm in height, constructed of stone slabs bonded with mortar. There were sockets, 20 cm by 18 cm in size and 15 cm in depth, situated in the centre of the steps of the columns. A base with a profiled plinth was discovered at the last southern step. The base measured 90 cm by 90 cm and was 40 cm in height. The foundation of the column, 65 cm in diameter, was engraved on the top of the base. The columns were constructed of semicircular segments, 65 cm in diameter. Numerous similar column segments were discovered during the excavations.

PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg, Radostina Georgieva) The explorations of the colonnade in front of the western façade of the Royal Palace continued. The Palace was built during the AD 870s – 880s and was used by the Bulgarian kings until the beginning of the 970s. The colonnade consisted of seven columns and was situated at 3 m in front of the building. The bases of the columns were placed over pedestals, 90 cm by 90 cm in size and 35 cm in height, situated at 1.80 m from each other. The columns were 70 cm in diameter and each one was constructed of two semicircular segments. A gold appliqué decorated with enamel and a veneer plate with floral decoration from a socle were found. A building was discovered, consisting of at least four parallel rooms arranged in a line. The rooms were 5.70 m long and 5 m wide, built of ashlars. The foundations of the building were c. 1.50 m deep, constructed over wooden posts driven into the ground. Probably, this is the northern wing of the Palatial Complex. The building was constructed simultaneously with the Palace during the AD 870s – 880s.