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Settlement Period |
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Copper Age |
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Stone Age |
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Bronze-Age |
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Roman Excavations |
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Germany
Medieval |
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Etruscan
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Medieval Fortress
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Early Christian Basilica
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Placement dates: 2nd July - 12th August
Duration: 6 weeks
Number of places: 8
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Cherven Fortress
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Excavation Team from 2010
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Our previous four archaeology placements at Cherven have been a great success. Finds have included a great deal of pottery and the remains of small scale craft workshops and kiln bases outside of the fortifications. In 2004 the participants discovered and excavated medieval graves close to one of the church sites in the Cherven complex, leading to the first re-burial ceremony of archaeologically excavated human remains in Bulgaria. The 2005 placement continued with the excavations surrounding 'church number 11' in the Cherven complex and uncovered the foundations of buildings and human remains.
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Some of the finds 2010
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Cleaning the site ready for presentation to the public
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The Medieval town of Cherven’ researches during years of 2007 and 2008 were directed to the central part of the citadel. The findings and archaeological structures show that during the XV century, this territory is densely build-up area. A living neighborhood and artisan workshops existed here. Blacksmith’s workshop with furnace (kiln) was discovered. This territory was inhabited during Thracian period (IV century B.C.) and the early Ottoman period (IV-IVI century).
The 2009 and 2010 seasons focused in the same area as 2009 revealed more questions than answers, so 2010 was focused on continuing on wiht the work from 2009. The excavations focused on the saddle of the Inner Town. The structures and findings from these 2 seasons backed up the theory that the area of the saddle was tightly built up and was inhabited in the middle-late 14th Century, which has proven to be the most intensive development period of Medieval Cherven. However, there could be earlier development as much of the building material shows signs of being reused. A necropolis was also discovered during these 2 seasons.
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Excavated area at the North Boundary Wall
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The stunning Roussenski Lom Valley
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The 2011 season focused on a building that turned out to be an unknown church. In previous years, there had been finds associated with a church discovered but the building itself was only located in 2011. The church showed signs of being restored after destruction, as where the walls were preserved, the earlier wall is made up of orderly cretaceous squares with mortar cement and oiled joints. The later walls are constructed with broken rocks and mortared with mud cement. The reason for destruction is not known, but it may have happened naturally as the surviving earlier walls have several large cracks.
The necropolis was also the focus of this season. Several human skeletons were found and all had been buried in standard Christian practice, all on thier backs with their hands crossed over their stomachs. The skeletons are very close together with some parts missing, which suggests that they were disturbed in later burials. This could explain the large amount of human bone found in the surrounding soil. The necropolis seems to have been used for a generally short period of time but intensively (taken from the 2010 and 2011 reports).
The Leonardo da Vinci funding available for these placements will cover travel (return travel from main UK airport), insurance, subsistence allowance (equal to three meals a day) and accommodation.
Read the report by Claire Smith, 2011 participant
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NOTE: Participants on all of our placements will now require a European Health Insurance CARD (EHIC). CLICK HERE to visit the external website and apply for your EHIC online. |