Yurta-Stroyno Excavation report on 2015 season ****************************************************************************************** * Yurta-Stroyno Excavation report on 2015 season ****************************************************************************************** The excavation season 2015 took place between the 15th of June and 10th of July (20 days), by three weeks of finds processing. One of our main aims during the season was to shed lig foundations of the house we uncovered during the first excavation season conducted in 2014 Their surroundings were destroyed by treasure hunters and as such hindered any clear inter the first place. Fortunately during the season 2015 we were lucky enough to excavate place looters, enabling more precise interpretation of the researched area. Fig. 1.Ground plan of the excavated area, rooms A-E, named from W to E. Excavation During the excavations in 2015 we managed to uncover one more room of the elongated struct in 2014 (Fig. 01). Currently the excavated house composes of five rooms continuing towards The first three rooms (A, B and C) were entirely excavated by treasure hunters whereas the (rooms D and E) is fortunately preserved in an intact form. We observed layer of gravel in as outside the structure, indicating level of the floor and parallel in height with the pr house foundations. The room D revealed remains of terracotta pipeline countersunk in the g Foundations of the house are shallower in this area, most probably for the reasons of ligh they carried. We may tend to interpret the room as a porch or even an entrance to the hous assume the walls composed of organic material, most probably daub in boarding formwork con building was covered with terracotta tiles of Laconian type, 41 x 59 cm in size, we discov all over the trenches dug by looters. Massive stone foundations (max. preserved depth 0.8 0.76 m) have the potential to support structure of more than one floor. Fig. 2.Ortho photo of the excavated area taken at the end of the 2015 season. Northwestern part of the house disappears under the roots of an extensive tree whereas the part is entirely missing (Fig. 2). Last year we assumed the walls were in this part destro away by treasure hunters. However this year we disclosed that the whole left corner of the missing as well as the entire southern wall of room A (at least four meters of the structu we speak about simple stone wall without solid bonding it seems highly improbable its abse by recent human activity. More likely it was disturbed by the Dereorman River running by n meters western from the excavated area. The river greatly meanders and therefore it is lik and finally took part of the structure. Finds discovered in the areas undisturbed by loote in the northern part, sustain the assumption. Namely the northernmost excavated area outsi revealed 50 cm thick layer situated right under the top soil and reaching the above mentio The layer is very rich on highly fragmented finds of various character, concretely bones, and small pieces of glass, iron and slag. Since the excavated sherds join not only across the whole layer (difference in elevation of joining fragments reaches 40 cm) but also in t excavated area (joins come from different squares, reaching the distance of 15 m), it migh as ancient leveling layer composed of waste. Based on the newly ascertained data we may assume the house was destroyed by the nearby ri by a thick layer of waste afterwards. Whereas we disclosed an analogical layer of waste al stone paved road north of the house, we assume the entire area was not used as living quar (viz Fig. 02). Foundations of the house revealed bronze coin of Diadumenian, son of the Roman Emperor Mac office between 217 and 218 AD (Fig. 3, above). The coin enables to date foundation of the the 20’s of the 3rd century AD. As long as the leveling layer did not reveal any material for a certainty dated later than to the 3rd century AD, the house was used within relative Selection of the Best Finds The coin of Diadumenian minted in Kyzikos in Greece is not a solitary find of this type. T outstanding piece is perfectly preserved bronze coin of Julia Domna, minted locally in Anc situated in province of Thrace, directly on the Black Sea shore (Fig. 4, below). The coin filling layer right next to the foundations of the house. The mighty leveling layer revealed distinctive amount of finds. To the most exceptional pi a lamp medallion depicting Athena in helmet with spear. The lamp itself seems to be import Athens (Fig. 5-6, below). The intriguing marble finds are acroterion in the form of palmette (Fig. 7-8, see gallery) a Thracian horseman. The latter was found secondarily used in the wall and depicts legs of horse shoe and part of an altar (Fig. 9, see gallery). The most appealing terracotta find of tablet picturing on one side a temple with standing figure, situated in the middle of t figure bears a bird on her (?) right shoulder. Moreover there are two bucrania in the corn temple. Depiction in tympanon is unfortunately illegible. The other side of the tablet bea engraved before firing and mentioning male name in singular genitive ??????/???????/?????? been detected so far among any known inscriptions (Fig. 10-12, below). A fragment of terracotta statue depicting figure seated on a throne is an accidental find field, lying on the surface (Fig. 13, bellow). Site Allocation Geodesists from Slovak Technical University in Bratislava took part in the project from th the 25th of July. They allocated the entire site and measured its precise elevations, crea of the excavated squares, documented the whole area with dron and prepared precise square next season. During the grid creation we walked with them throughout the remotest parts of revealed appealing and brand new discoveries. The northern area disclosed a part of stone east of the excavated squares we discovered an immense amount of slag (remains of iron mel Fig. 17) and northeast of the squares an outstanding amount of raw glass and melted pieces (remains of glass production!, Fig. 18 a 19). Authors of the text Petra Tušlová a Barbora Weissová Participants of the 2015 Season Stefan Bakardžiev (RIM) - director of the project Viktoria Čisťakova (ÚKAR) – iron and glass Věra Doležálková (ÚKAR) – total station, drawing documentation Robert Frecer (ÚKAR) – terracotta lamps Petra Janouchová (ÚKAR) – database, inscriptions Markéta Kobierská (ÚKAR) – digital documentation Miroslav Kozarev (RIM) – supervisor of the project Johana Tlustá (ÚKAR) – photographic documentation Petra Tušlová (ÚKAR) – pottery documentation Michaela Smiejová (ÚKAR) – drawing documentation Hana Šofková (ÚKAR) – drawing documentation Jakub Havlík (ÚKAR) – drawing documentation, pottery classification Barbora Weissová (ÚKAR) – GIS and database, architectural terracotta Special guests: Tibor Lieskovský, Alexandra Rášová and Ondřej Trhan (STU Bratislava)