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EASE BULGARIA 2011

The Grampus Bulgaria placement which I took part on during June/July 2011 was one of the best months of my life. For a month we stayed in the small town of Hissar which was one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited, with huge Roman walls reaching 12m high in some parts surrounding the town and many other Roman remains such as the Roman baths, Roman shops and the Emporer's house spread throughout. For our excavation site we dug within the impressive Roman Baths in the centre of the town and even though during the month we didn't seem to find anything of huge significance in the form of artefacts we made a huge difference to the structural layout of one room and managed to find two arch ways, the edge of the bathing pool, a wall and two entranceways - which alone were very exciting!

The excavation itself was the highlight of my time in Bulgaria and time flew by whilst we were working at the site. An average day started at 8am and finished at 1pm with a break in the middle at a local cafe which was one of the only places in the town to have an English menu! The reason that we only worked the morning was that the afternoons were either way too hot with temperatures over 40degrees or it would rain as one afternoon we even had hailstones that were the size of golf balls. The early start at the museum allowed us enough time to get loads of work done whilst the weather was cooler, then the break would make sure we had enough energy to do another hour and a bit before packing up and heading off!

Personally I had experience on excavation sites previous to Bulgaria, however 3 out of the 6 students on the placement had never had any experience and felt that this was a perfect introductory excavation with the helpers, archaeologist and museum director eager to help and instruct at every available moment. Whilst for people like me who did have experience it was amazing to have people ask your opinions on different aspects and we were also allowed to do some recording on our own! However, I will not pretend that the digging itself was easy work with hoeing, shovelling and pickaxing taking up most of the time as we dug through tons of soil, bricks and stones and then had to lift it all out by hand in buckets! We did on occasions have the chance to trowel and if there was any particular element in which you thought it would be more appropriate to trowel rather than hall it out with a pickaxe then the archaeologist was more than keen to let you experiment and use your own judgement in all situations. Other than us 6 students at the site there was also the archaeologist of the museum Dima who was always overlooking the work as she made a constant diary of the work that was happening. Radka the museum co-ordinator was also there as she was the main translator for us and was never afraid to get stuck into the work, helping us with the buckets and constantly telling us to stop working too fast and to take breaks! At least once a day "Mr Boss", the director of the museum (whose real name I don't know after giving him this nickname on the first day of meeting him) would come down to the site and give directions of where the work should be going and take pictures of the work we had done. Apart from these three leaders we also had numerous other workers of the local museum who would carry the buckets, pick up the large stones and would help out generally when some work became too hard! Although they didn't speak English I felt that we bonded a huge amount with them throughout the trip, with especially Mitko who would take our shovels and equipment away from us if we worked too fast or looked too tired so we would have to break and who would try and teach us words in Bulgarian. We found out at the end of the project his children are somewhere in Great Britain in university and that listening to us speak English made him feel happy as it would remind him of his children who he rarely saw. By the last week of digging the hard work did take its toll on us and with aching muscles and sore arms, even though sad to leave I also was relieved to never see a steel bucket filled with soil again! However it was very fulfilling to see all the work that we had completed and how pleased everyone at the museum in Hissar were of the work we had achieved!

Another great thing about the project in Hissar was that we also had a huge amount of free time to explore the town and its archaeological treasures and also to visit surrounding areas with trips organised by the hosts whilst also free time for you personally to visit areas in which you might have a personal interest. With the museum we went to many places including Starosel where we were taken around a Thracian tomb on a hill top which was spectacular and the only Thracian temple to feature a colonnade. As a special treat organised by the Mayor of the town we also were taken on a trip to a recently discovered archaeological Thracian settlement on the top of a mountain which was spectacular and a real treat as not many people had yet to visit the site due to its location! Other trips also included the amazing thracian tomb at Kazanlak which we all thoroughly enjoyed despite the extreme weather warnings and heat over 40degrees!

As a group of students we also visited many other places together on our weekends such as visiting the nearby city of Plovidv with its extremely impressive Roman amphitheatre , vast amounts of museums and great shopping! Some of the others in the group went to some really interesting places including Varna for the weekend and also two of the group also went trekking into the mountains for the weekend! Personally I spent a lot of time enjoying the local mineral swimming pools that the town had to offer in both nearby hotels and also the public pool which was only a 5 minute walk down the road. We also spent a lot of our free time during the evenings wandering round the shops in the town and having a pancake and a beer in the local restaurants which were really lovely and characteristic. There are also a couple of nightclubs in Hissar which was explored and "The Sound Factory" which was the biggest nightclub there, became a particular favourite of ours as we danced with the locals and enjoyed nights out with Dima - the archaeologist on our site!

Our time in Hissar was concluded with a magical three day trip with Velis to Sofia! We were taken on a beautiful route through the mountains visiting places such as Troyan and a Roman military fort on the way before finally ending up in Sofia for a two night stay. Our hotel was located right in the CBD and Velis did a great job of showing us round the city! One of the most interesting places we went to was one of the biggest hotels built in Sofia which whilst construction realised it was being built on the site of a Roman amphitheatre and instead of deciding to stop the work on the hotel they conserved it! Now the hotel incorporates the amphitheatre into its interior with a bar and restaurant in between the amphitheatres surviving sections! We also visited the hugely impressive archaeological museum within Hissar and spent a couple of hours looking over the huge collection of archaeological artefacts collected here. After this we were given a day to do whatever we liked and it was a perfect opportunity to check out the local markets, look round the shops for last minute presents, visit museums and take in the last couple of days of Bulgarian life before heading home.

Taking part in the Grampus archaeological dig in Hissar, Bulgaria is easily one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The excavation was so much fun and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the outcome of our work at the end of the month and felt extremely pleased with the huge amount that we had achieved. The free time we had during the placement also contributed hugely to the amazing time I had, as the places we visited, people we met and time spent in Hissar were amazing! I would highly recommend this placement to anyone interested in archaeology as it's an amazing learning experience to see how archaeology REALLY works and take part in something that really is contributing to our understanding of a Roman town.