Late Roman and medieval settlement - Alfatar

Overview

There is a late antique fortress in the area "Suhata Cheshma", 5.24 km southeast in a straight line from the center of Alfatar. It was built on the southern slope of Krushaka. From the east, south and west the slope is limited by three dry valleys, on which water probably flowed in modern times. Northeast, 65 m from the fortification, there is a spring. The site was explored only through drillings made in 1977. The fortress wall ran along the periphery of the slope, following the configuration of the terrain. The outer face of the wall is made up of large squares with a dense joint, arranged in an opus mixed. The inner face is made of smaller, cut and broken stones, arranged in regular, horizontal rows. The solder is made of red mortar. The fortress wall is 2.6 m thick. The squares on the outside face are 0.8-1.5 m in size. Brick material was found in abundance. Remains of buildings made of adobe were found inside the fortress. Only one construction layer, 0.8 m thick, formed of burnt building materials - bricks, ceramics and mortar - was found. The pottery dates back to the IV-VI century. In the photos in the community center of the town of Alfatar, when the drilling took place, the remains of round or semicircular towers can be seen. The extremely precise construction is analogous to the construction of Tropeum Trayani. The probable maximum dimensions of the fortress are about 120 m in the east-west direction and about 75 m in the north-south direction. The fortification is built at an extremely important crossroads. From the north the road coming from "Dudostorum" here is divided into three: North of it in the southwest direction deviates the road to Plisko-Preslav field and "Veselinovsky pass", even further south, somewhere near the village Grancharovo there is a branch to Kabile "Through the" Varbishki Pass ". The second branch passes west to the site in a southerly direction to the Deultum through the Lopushan Pass. The third fork passes north to the fortress in a southeasterly direction to Marcianopolis, and from there through the passes of Golitsa - directly to Constantinople, and at Bourgas it meets the West Pontic Road. Probably somewhere here was the first Roman road station south of the Durostorum, and the fortress is its direct successor. Perhaps this site is the late antique Palmatis. South and west of the fortification there is a settlement whose remains date back to the VII-X century. In the time of socialism, a barn was built here. At the moment there are only pieces of household and building ceramics, mortar, stones and a few squares of the fortress wall.