The strategic position at the southernmost river section of the Danube from the early Iron Age to the end of the Roman limes. Archaeological investigations of settlements and fortifications at the Tash Bair hill near Novgrad (Bulgaria)

• Applicant: Dr. Sven Conrad
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 388543935

The river Danube reaches the southernmost point of its course between the Bulgarian city Svishtov and the mouth of the Yantra River, and still in modern times this river section owned a geostrategic importance. This project is based on previous extended surveys that revealed the crucial importance of a multi-phase site complex on the Tash bair hill for the understanding of the settlement systems on the lower course of the Yantra river. In the first three-year funding phase, the sites were examined by a cross-discipline cooperation using a comprehensive range of methods. The Tash bair and its surroundings, including large parts of the Yantra lowlands, were investigated by an intensive survey. The five main sites were surveyed geomagnetically, and some important structures explored by targeted archaeological soundings. As a result of our research, it was found that this ridge was perceived as an important landmark on the southernmost section of the Danube River from a strategic- geographical perspective. The south-facing slope and the direct access to the river at the mouth of the Jantra into the Danube can be considered fundamental geographical factors that favoured the settling here. At the middle slope, a two-phase circular enclosure was located which belonged to the Middle and Late Bronze Age (around 1900 and 1400/1300 BC). At an extensive site on the southern hill foot, large and partly fortified settlements have repeatedly developed since the late Neolithic (approx. 5000 BC). Besides that, the embankments along the old Yantra meanders were almost completely settled between the early Iron Age (8th / 7th c. BC) and the early Middle Ages (8th to early 11th c.).In the second part of the research project, the focus of the planned work will be on targeted explorations of settlement and fortification structures that have not yet been investigated in order to find out their function and position in the settlement hierarchy. The high scientific potential of the sites is to be used to enable a more precise description of the settlement processes at the mouth of the Jantra, in particular with respect to continuity and discontinuity, by an extension of the data basis. Furthermore, the geomorphological research on the reconstruction of the old river meanders in the Jantra lowlands is being continued by a working group from the University of Leuven (Belgium). The data obtained so far indicate that the change in environmental conditions accompanied by a gradual silting up of the meanders was probably a decisive factor for the complete abandonment of all settlement sites on the Tashbair and in the lowlands after the early Middle Ages. The results of the research project will be published in an overall publication in which the settlement history on the Tash bair is to be embedded in the prehistoric and early historical development on the lower course of the Danube.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants