GrEASE BULGARIA 2011
In early July 2011 I travelled along with seven other UK participants
from various universities to assist on the annual excavations at Cherven medieval
fortress, in north-east Bulgaria. It was my first visit to Bulgaria and I
was excited not only by the excavation, but also to see a new country and
experience a different culture, which taking part in such an excavation really
gives you the opportunity to do.
Upon arrival in Bucharest airport, we were greeted by Nikolai Nenov (director
of Rousse Archaeological Museum) who drove us through Romania and over the
Danube River into Bulgaria and on to Tabachka, a small village about 30 kilometres
from Rousse which was to be our home for the next six weeks. Despite it being
about one o'clock in the morning by the time we arrived, our hosts Stefanie
and Ivan gave us a lovely warm welcome and made us feel instantly at ease.
After a nights rest, our first day was spent having lunch followed bya walking
tour of Tabachka with Nikolai in the afternoon. The following day, we went
up to Cherven fortress where we met Stoyan Jordanov (director of excavations
at Cherven) and were given a tour of the whole site. Stoyan also explained
what previous excavations had yielded and showed us the area we would be working
on for the next six weeks. The remainder of the week was spent clearing the
site and marking out the excavation grid and finally starting to dig! Our
first weekend in Bulgaria included a day trip to Vodna Cave, which is within
walking distance of Tabachka. Nikolai led us through the Bulgarian countryside,
along the stunning ChervenLom River, limestone cliffs and sunflower fields
-and although the landscape in the area is known as the Danubian flats, this
seemed to have little correlation with the hilly landscape and scrambling
walk at times! Vodna Cave itself did not disappoint, with tangible traces
of habitation going back many centuries, including a prehistoric stone altar,
Latin and Greek inscriptions carved into the walls and of course the fresh
water spring that it takes its name from.
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2011 group
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Cherven fortress
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On our second week, the excavation began to take shape; the
walls of the church started extending and the accompanying necropolis which
I was working on started to yield both human and animal bones. During the
second week, Nikolai also took us into Rousse on a couple of occasions to
see the archaeological museum which displays Stone-age, Thracian, Roman, early
Christian and medieval artefacts from the region. Later in the afternoon,
Nikolai also walked us through the city pointing out other significant sights
including Freedom Square, the Opera House, Rousse Bishopric and the Holy Trinity
Church which is the oldest church in the region dating back to 1632. That
weekend, we were also taken on an amazing trip to the Ivanovo Rock Churches.
This site comprises of numerous rock-hewn churches, chapels, monasteries and
cells which were carved out by hermits during the 12th century and later adorned
with frescoes in the 14th century, and it is instantly understandable why
it has been successfully chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Our third week in Bulgaria started with a press day held in Rouse Archaeological
Museum, where journalists from numerous papers interviewed us about where
we were from, our first impressions of Bulgaria and of course what we were
discovering at Cherven. Later that afternoon, we also visited several other
cultural sites in Rousse including The House of Calliope and The Pantheon
of Revivalists. During the third week of the excavation, the walls of the
medieval church began to extend even further and the beginnings of a stone
altar started to emerge. Similarly, as we excavated deeper in the necropolis,
full skeletons started to surface rather than just the miscellaneous human
and animal bones we were uncovering during the first couple of weeks. An exciting
week on site was followed by an equally packed weekend. Starting with a visit
to Dryanovo Monastery in central Bulgaria, we then moved onto Gabrovofor lunch
and Etar open-air ethnographic museum. This ethnographic complex is a reconstructed
19th century National Revival village, complete with a bakery, cobbler, glass-works,
jewellers, milliners, weavers and a plethora of other traditional Bulgarian
crafts set along narrow cobbled streets and acres of beautiful countryside.
That evening we were also fortunate enough to experience spending the night
at Sokalovo monastery, which was founded in 1833 and is nestled on the northern
slopes of the Balkan Mountains in the scenic Bulgarka Nature Park. The following
morning we drove to Veliko Tarnovo, once the medieval Tsars capital and today
a picturesque city housing the Tsaravets fortress and archaeological museum.
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Cherven at a distance
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Human remains discovered
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Church towards the end of the 2011 season
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During our fourth week the excavation continued apace, with
the church and necropolis continuing to yield finds including a lock and archery
ring near the church as well as earrings and buttons with the human remains.
Unfortunately, a couple of days of heavy rain towards the end of the week
meant that we were unable to continue excavating as the site became waterlogged.
Instead, we visited Sexaginta Prista in Rousse which contains the ruins of
a Roman castle situated along the banks of the Danube River, and also contains
an exhibition on religious cults during the Roman period in what was used
as a bunker during World War II.
Our penultimate week on site continued to produce exciting finds as an inscription
in Old Bulgarian on the church was identified and several additional skeletons
were uncovered in the necropolis. Stoyan also granted us an additional day
off that weekend, and several of us took the train to the Black Sea Coast
to visit the ancient city of Nessebar. Ancient Nessebar sits on a rocky peninsula
attached to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. It was recognised as a museum
town in 1956, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983 and is a beautiful
place to visit. There are Bronze-age archaeological remains, Greek fortifications,
Hellenistic remains, seven preserved medieval churches and a multitude of
19th century traditional wooden buildings as well as an archaeological and
ethnographic museum all squeezed into in a relatively small town, making it
a fascinating weekend trip.
The last week of the excavation seemed to come around very quickly. We spent
the first couple of days finishing excavating the remaining skeletons before
cleaning the church, sweeping the whole site, washing and numbering the significant
pottery finds as well as saying our goodbyes to Stoyan who had been fantastic
to work with. Our last weekend was spent making the most of our time left
in Bulgaria and also included a short trip to a nearby village where a competition
of traditional Bulgarian singing and folk music was being held. That evening
we had our last dinner together and were presented with our certificates for
taking part in the project.
The six weeks in Bulgaria flew by. Nikolai and Stoyan were wonderful hosts,
Stefanie and Ivan did everything they could to make us feel comfortable and
welcome in Tabachka, our translators Matthew, Denni and Kat not only provided
much needed assistance but were also lovely people to get to know, and the
medieval fortress at Cherven itself is a beautiful and engaging site to work
on - leaving me with many happy memories of my experience in Bulgaria.