Byzantium14th century · Rusokastro, Burgas Province, Bulgaria
Medieval building lined with waterproof pink plaster found at Rusokastro fortress in Bulgaria
The ground floor near the southern wall probably held water or food, and the dig produced silver coins of Tsar Ivan Alexander and of Venice.
In brief 3 key points
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- A large stone building has been found inside a medieval fortress town.
- Waterproof plaster suggests it stored water or food in the town centre.
- Its full length and the assumed upper floor are not yet confirmed.
Archaeologists from the Regional Historical Museum in Burgas have found a monumental stone building in the medieval town of Rusokastro, in south-east Bulgaria. The building is 7.60 metres wide. Its length is still unknown. It stands close to the inner southern wall of the fortress.
The team found it at the very end of this year's excavation season. A thick coat of pink waterproof plaster on its inner walls suggests that it held water or stored food.
Rusokastro lies inland from Burgas on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. In the Middle Ages it stood in the borderland between Byzantium and the Second Bulgarian Empire. In 1332 the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander defeated the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos in a battle near the fortress.
Walls plastered against water
The walls are 1.1 metres thick. They are built of stone set in generous joints of mortar. On the inside they carry a thick layer of pink hydrophobic mortar, a mortar that repels water.
The excavators say this lining indicates that the room was used as a water reservoir or as a food store. They think they have most likely found the ground floor of the building. It stood in the central district of the town.
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The team assumes that a second floor above it was used for living. That upper storey is an assumption. The full plan of the building has also not yet been traced, because its length is unknown.
Bulgarian and Venetian silver coins
The dig also produced a large number of small finds. Among them are silver coins of Tsar Ivan Alexander, who ruled Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371. There are Venetian silver groschen, known as matapans, as well as copper coins and other objects.
The matapan was Venice's large silver coin and was widely used in trade in the eastern Mediterranean. Finding it beside Bulgarian royal coinage shows that foreign money reached the town. The report does not say how the coins relate to the new building. Nor does it say whether they help to date it.
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A state priority site
The excavations are funded by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Municipality of Kameno. The Regional Historical Museum in Burgas organises and carries out the work. Rusokastro is on the state list of priority sites that receive funding for cultural tourism in Bulgaria.
The coins and the other finds from this season are now being cleaned in the restoration studio of the Burgas Museum.
Sources (1)
News reportsfrom Regional Historical Museum Burgas
Edited by Guiseppe Weijermars
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