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way, although the suggested hypotheses have sometimes been politically influenced.
Pliska was the first Bulgarian capital (ca. 681–893), and it existed as a town until the second half of the eleventh century. The outwork fortifications consisted of ditches and banks that enclosed about twenty-three square kilometers. A stone wall built in the beginning of the ninth century surrounded the inner town. The area between the outerworks and the inner town was occupied by settlements with semidug dwellings, workshops, and civil complexes. After the baptism of Bulgarians in a.d. 864–865, a lot of churches were built in Pliska, the most significant being a huge monastery complex, which included a great basilica. The central part of the inner town was occupied by a palace that was built on the foundations of an earlier enormous building, a shrine rebuilt in a church, a brick wall that enclosed the court areas, several baths, etc. There were also water supply and drainage systems as well as secret subways. All these remains reveal a complicated chronology with several building periods.
Preslav was the second capital (893–971) of the Bulgarian kingdom. The outer stone wall surrounded an area of three and half square kilometers, and in its center, the inner town included the court complex, episcopal complex, civic buildings, workshops, a shrine from the precapital period, water supply and drainage systems, etc. The complicated chronology shows several building periods. A number of monasteries were scattered within and outside the fortified area with various workshops for all kinds of art: ceramics, sculpture, bone carving, mosaic, and so on.
After a period of about two centuries when Bulgaria was under Byzantine rule, the Bulgarian kingdom was restored, and Veliko Tarnovo became the last medieval capital (1186–1393). This town was built on two hills—Tsarevets and Trapezica—and the surrounding area. Tsarevets had its own fortress with one main entrance. The patriarch church and the palace of the kings were built on Tsarevets together with houses and workshops of the common population, churches, and monasteries. Trapezica has not been as well studied, but the ruins of seventeen churches are known. In the late fourteenth century, Bulgaria fell under the Ottoman rule.
See also
Celts; Czech Republic; La Tène; Medieval Archaeology
References
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