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On 3 March, 2009  the Regional History Museum of Stara Zagora finally opened the doors for the public after 26 homeless years with a grand openning ceremony. The sandgalss shaped building is built on top of the Roman street and buildings with mosaic flooring that are now restored and exhibited in the subterrain level. The exhibitions on the four Museum's floors guide the visitors from the very early History of the region (Neolithic - 6000 BC) to the early twentieth century.
Field report in brief: in 2008 AVGUSTA TRAIANA-BEROIA-BORUI (the same town with different names changing in the course of time) rescue excavation project by BH took place in one sector of the archaeological reserve. Location: 64 M. Kusev Blvd. Stara Zagora ( Bulgaria). At the beginning the excavations main goal was to prove the presence or absence of a moat alongside of the northern curtain wall (some 5 to 10 meters southern from the site). The initial trench unearthed 18 graves from the Ottoman period (sixteenth to eighteenth century). After widening the excavations area the team came across a part of unknown aqueduct (water conduit) bringing water from the foothills of Sredna Gora Mountain down the ancient city. For decades it was assumed that the roman city was supplied with fresh water only through a single aqueduct. The latter was discovered more than 50 years ago. This newly discovered aqueduct crosses the citys moat through a solid stone masonry built on top of scattered re-used building materials (marble architraves, fragments of column shafts, marble window frame etc.) from earlier buildings situated nearby. The moat was filled with a lot of charcoal, ashes and burnt artifacts (pottery and glass fragments, metal objects and coins). One of the most interesting discoveries on the site was a huge collection of fragmented clay lids from sixth century bearing various relief decorations (including early Christian symbols and old Greek inscriptions). Large quantities of iron slag and iron objects as well as oil lamp moulds were discovered in the northern periphery of the site. Most probably in this sector outside the fortification walls was situated a workshop quarter of Avgusta Traiana (including a couple of blacksmith and pottery workshops).
Project director: Georgi Iliev
Field report: Fresco-hunting expedition 2008 (PDF file)

As a part of the Regional History Museums 100-th anniversary celebrations, the international conference "Museum, cultural and historical heritage and cultural tourism" took place on 3-th and 4-th of October 2007 in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. The brand new Museum building hosted more than 80 experts in the area of archaeology; history and culture among them were BH field school director and affiliates in Stara Zagora. After 25 homeless years, the Museum finally gained the deserved space to exhibit at least some of hundreds thousand artifacts presenting 8000 years old history of the area.

Field report in brief: in 2007 AVGUSTA TRAIANA-BEROIA-BORUI excavation project took place in seven sectors on the territory of the archaeological reserve in Stara Zagora (Bulgaria). Mainly one of these sites hosted in the summer of 2007 participants in the BH field school projects in Stara Zagora.
The sector is located in the center of the reserve covering an area of 736 sq. m. Building structures uncovered belong to five building periods as follows:

  • Second century  mid. third century AD - some walls (probably of shops and workshops), a sewage channel and a vaulted tomb are dated to this period.
  • Mid. third century  fourth century AD - soon after 250s AD when Goths sacked and destroyed the town, a large rectangular building (probably basilica but its eastern part falls under a present-day street) covered the earlier structures in the area. This representative edifice was abandoned after Roman-Gothic war (Goths sacked the town again) in 370s and collapsed. Its remaining was used for certain time probably as a store.
  • Sixth century - the ruined and abandoned building was completely reconstructed and enlarged. New doors and annexes were added to the old building. Archaeologists cannot date exactly when the building was destroyed again but suggest the end of 10  11 century (the time of Bulgarian-Byzantine wars).
  • Twelfth century - 1360s A.D.- no clear preserved structures from the period but trash pits and traces from a brick-floored building reusing some of the Roman edificial walls standing. Two skeletons found in a pit partially destroying the brick floor, miss their hands and feets bones and definitely belong to fast buried people. An iron loop found there may suggest a story about crime and penalty.
  • 1500s -1877- constructions during the Ottoman period damaged the structures from all four previous periods. In the sector were found the foundations of a late medieval Islamic school (can be seen in the old town maps) and more than 40 pits (trash-pits, grain storages, and wells).
Project director: Maria Kamisheva