Rescue archaeological investigations in the harbour of Sozopol

Abstract

The rescue investigation was carried out by the Centre for Underwater Archaeology in May 2020 in part of Sozopol’s harbour that has not been archaeologically explored before (Dimitrov et al. 2020). They were funded by Sozopol municipality under a project for anchoring of floating piers (fig. 1). The investigations comprised geophysical investigation, archaeological excavations, creation and analysis of a GIS database, and underwater surveys of the central part of the harbour. Archaeological excavations were carried out in a single grid-square (Z) located 7 m SW of the outermost anchor of the proposed floating piers. Grid-square Z was set on the flat sandy-mud bottom at a depth of -4.1 m (from the
surface). From that depth (modern bottom) down to -4.7/4.8 m, the entire surface of the grid-square was excavated, and from -4.8 m downwards only its western half, revealing the following layers (fig. 2):
- Bottom of the modern harbour – from -4.1 м to -4.7/4.8 m.
- Harbour accumulation from the Ottoman period – from -4.7/4.8 to -4.9/5.1 m.
- Harbour accumulation from Classical Antiquity – from -4.9/5.1 to -5.5/5.6 m. It contains numerous well
preserved materials of utilitarian character, mostly relatively modest tableware, cooking ware, and amphorae (fig. 3).
The earliest vases could be dated to c. 600 BC. The chronological distribution of the finds is uneven, the 6th and the
5th c. BC being best represented. After a clear drop in the 4th c. BC, there may be a hiatus from about the middle of the
century to the second quarter of the 3rd c. BC. The later Hellenistic and the Roman periods are also attested with not so
numerous vases.
- Sterile layer without archaeological materials, explored with a trench down to -7.4 m.
To summarize, the sector of Sozopol’s harbour excavated in 2020 has not been dredged during port construction
works and its stratigraphy is intact and illustrates an historical development from the end of the 7th c. BC to present day.
No remains of prehistoric settlements were discovered here.
The analysis of all available data indicates that the construction of the modern harbour of Sozopol in 1927 and
the reconstructions in the late 1980s have destroyed to a great extent the archaeological remains underwater along the
centre line of the port (figs. 4 and 5). However, in the eastern half of the harbour, a sector is identified with intact strata
from the historic periods and prehistory.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Pavel, Yordanov Georgiev: orcid.org/0000-0003-2744-2055

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