Bulgaria: Pistiros

Location: 63VQ+8Q Septemvri, Bulgaria

Season: July 24, 2023 to August 20, 2023

Session Dates: July 24- August 20, 2023

Application Deadline: June 12, 2023

Deadline Type: Exact Date

Website: https://ifrglobal.org/program/bulgaria-pistiros/

Program Type:
Field School

RPA Certified:
No

Affiliation:
Institute for Field Research (IFR) & Balkan Heritage Foundation (BHF)

Project Director:
Dr. Angela Pencheva

Project Description:

The ruins of an ancient site in the heart of Thrace – on the left bank of Maritsa River (ancient Hebros) – were discovered in 1988. In 1990, a stone inscription was found which helped scholars identify the site as the Ancient Greek trade center (emporion) named Pistiros. Between the 5^th and 3^rd century BCE, merchants from the Greek coastal cities of Maroneia, Thassos and Apollonia lived and traded here with their Thracian neighbors under the supreme protection of the Thracian Odrysian kings.

To date, field school students have worked in a sector next to the fortification wall where two chronologically different building horizons were identified. In the earlier one, the area was covered with simple, half dug in houses, presumably dated to the very first period of the site’s existence – the end of the 5^th century BCE. The architectural remains from the second horizon, belonging to buildings made of wooden beams and wattle & daub, existed in the period between the second half of 4^th and beginning of the 3^rd century BCE.  A huge amount of local and imported Greek vessels, cult figurines, Greek and Thracian coins, and weapons were among the discovered artifacts. Training in Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) of small finds will supplement the excavation program.

Period(s) of Occupation: Hellenistic & Classical

Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: Students are expected to stay the full length of the program.

Minimum Age: 18 years or older

Experience Required: No previous experience required

Room and Board Arrangements:
Accommodation will be in the Villa Terres Hotel at Karabunar, in comfortable rooms with 2-3 beds, bathrooms with a shower, air-conditioning,and TV. The hotel has a small swimming pool and SPA, free of charge for the participants in the field school. Cheap laundry service and free Wi-Fi are provided. Karabunar is a small village: there are a couple of food & beverage shops, bars & taverns, a winery, and a Christian Orthodox church, St. John the Baptist. The closest supermarket, pharmacy, bank with ATM, and medical office are in the municipal town of Septemvri, 8km away from Karabunar. The distance from the hotel to the site is app. 15 km/9.5 mi, and it takes an app. 15/20 min drive. Daily BHF shuttle service is arranged for the participants to bring them to the site and back. The site has electricity, there are portable toilets and running water. Meals Three meals (fresh, organic Bulgarian homemade food) per day are covered by the reimbursement payment. Meals usually take place in the hotel’s restaurant, except lunch packages during excursions. This field school can accommodate vegetarians, vegans, and individuals with lactose-intolerance. Kosher and gluten-free diets are impossible to accommodate in this location.

Academic Credit:
8 Semester Credit Units (equivalent to 12 Quarter Units)