“Armira” (I-IV century AD

Geoarchaeology and Archaeomineralogy (Eds. R. I. Kostov, B. Gaydarska, M. Gurova). 2008.
Proceedings of the International Conference, 29-30 October 2008 Sofia, Publishing House “St. Ivan Rilski”, Sofia, 315-319.
GEOMORPHOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF THE PALAEOENVIRONMENT IN THE AREA OF
ANCIENT VILLA “ARMIRA” (I-IV CENTURY AD) NEAR IVAYLOVGRAD, SOUTH-EAST
BULGARIA (PRELIMINARY RESULTS)
Ahinora Baltakova
University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski”, 15 Tzar Osvoboditel Blvd., 1504 Sofia; [email protected]
ABSTRACT. The ancient villa Armira (I-IV c. AD) near Ivaylovgrad is historically related to the Golden Age of the Roman Empire in the times of the
emperors Trajan and Hadrian. In this period near Adrinopolis rose and bloomed suburb estates (villas) where the local aristocracy resided. The
villa, discussed in this research, is situated in the valley of the Armira River on slant South slope of the Eastern Rhodopes, named also Armira. The
Valley of Armira River is open to the Lower Thracian Lowland and it provides abound of natural resources and connection to the main roads. In
September 2007 geomorphological investigations have started in the area of the villa and its necropolis at Svirachi village. Their aim is to study the
geomorphological processes in this region. This will be the first step to the examination and reconstruction of the environment during the occupation
of the villa and the next centuries. The article presents the results from the sedimentological analyses (morphoscopy and granulometry) of samples
taken during the first field investigation of the site. The samples from the Armira site are characterizing slope processes and approve their intensity.
The results from the necropolis site are confirming the complicated character of the scientific problems and the need of interdisciplinary research in
the study of archaeological sites.
Plotinopolis, but the main part still lived in their areas of origin.
This area was well developed and settled during the Roman
and the Medieval times.
The archaeological site “Villa Armira” is situated in the
Eastern Rhodopes, North from the town of Ivaylovgrad in an
area, named also Armira, of the Ladzha village, now district of
Ivaylovgrad. The place is named after the Armira River, which
crosses through the area and forms a little valley. “Villa Armira”
is exposed on a slant South slope on the left bank of the river.
The river springs are at Kobilino village, 10 km westward from
the site. It flows in East direction and 5 km from the “villa”
crosses the Greek border. There it turns to the North and runs
into the Arda River. To the South of Armira is the valley of the
larger Bjala River, which mouths into Maritza River at the town
of Dimotika in Greece. To the North is the valley of the Arda
River which mouths into the Maritza River at the city of Edirne
in Turkey. The three valleys have direction to the valley of
Maritza River.
Consecrate tables from the II and III centuries AD were found
that had Thracian names on them. These Thracians were
under a process of Romanization but they had a Thracian
name and a father’s name. In this period the cities and their
surroundings were settled by immigrants from other provinces
(Mladenova, 1991).
Most probably the large building with marble and mosaics
near Armira River was a suburban villa. This placement is not
suitable for larger settlement. The exploration of the site up to
now proves that this is one of the biggest and richest villas
near Adrianopolis, which are mentioned by the ancient
sources. However, it is the first of them found so far
(Mladenova, 1991).
The building of the villa is related to the time of the Roman
emperors Trajan (98-117 AD) and Hadrian (117-138 AD).
Trajan, who founded several settlements at Moesia and
Thracia, has founded here Plotinopolis (today Dimotika).
Hadrian enlarged the older Thracian town of Uskudama and
named it on himself – Adrianopolis (today Edirne) (Mladenova,
1991).
In September 2007 the site was visited for the first time by a
geomorphologicial group. The purpose was to investigate
problems connected with the contemporary (Holocene)
processes in this region. During the field trip, the opportunities
for a general reconstruction of the environment in the period of
the occupation of the villa were discussed. This paper could be
considered as the first step in this direction.
It is very difficult to specify which of the Thracian tribes lived
in this part of the Eastern Rhodopes – Kojlalets, Odricians,
Bennies, Korpilies etc., but most probably they were Odricians.
May be they were part of the Odrician state because they lived
very close to its capital Uskudama. The same people, after the
Roman conquest, lived near one of the largest cities in Thracia
– Adrianopolis. Maybe part of them worked in Adrianopolis or
Object and main tasks of the study
The object of this preliminary research of the environment
covers the area of Armira. The big mound near the Svirachi
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The mound was disturbed in ancient times and there is
information that during the Russian-Turkish Liberation war in
1878, there were shelters in it (The Common Inheritance…,
2006).
village, where the necropolis has been found, was additionally
studied.
Villa Armira
The villa is situated on a slope, which according to
Geological Map of Bulgaria (Ed. by Kozhuharov et. al., 1995) is
formed by the conglomerates, sands, clays, tuffs and coals of
the Valchepole Formation (Upper Oligocene – Lower
Miocene). These authors described also little area of loess,
which covers the conglomerates in the valley of the Armira
River. The profile was situated on the right bank of the Armira
River and it was at a 5 m depth.
Materials and methods
During the terrain study of the area of villa Armira, two
profiles of different kind of unspoiled materials were found. The
first one is situated on the slope at about 50 m to the NorthEast of the farm buildings of the villa. Its 130 cm cut lies under
a calcite ledge and a clayish-sandy fill (Fig. 1). The coordinates
of this profile are 41o30’01,1’’ N, 26o06’21,4’’ E, 203 m.
According to the information from the excavations “the terrain
was leveled before the starting of the building because of the
slope inclination. The North part of the construction is lower
than the natural terrain and this is the reason why it was saved
to a highest level. After the abandonment and destruction of
the villa the walls were buried under a level of “soil”. The level
above the floor at the North part is up to 3.2 m high. The North
part of the villa had been saved to a height of 1.10-1.80 m.
This height slightly decreased southward (Mladenova, 1991).
The main task of this preliminary research is to confirm the
slope origin of the material, which buried the ruins of the villa.
А
B
The big mound near Svirachi village
The mound was used as a family necropolis by the owners of
the villa Armira. The use period of the mound structures has
been related to the Roman Ages (I-V c. AD) and more
specifically to the early period of the Trajan governance (97117 AD).
C
During the archaeological excavations two secondary graves
(built after the construction of the mound) were found. The first
burial is of a child and it has been fenced by marble slabs. The
second burial is of a young person who was burned on a pyre.
The remains of the pyre were piled in the centre of a platform
and covered with tiles.
The mound is enclosed by a stone fence, fairly destroyed by
the extraction of the blocks for nowadays constructions. The
width of the stone blocks is 0.9 m maximum and some have 3
m length. They have plaster junction strengthened with metal
clamps. Each row after the first goes back to the center and
gets stair effect. There were 10 rows that formed a circle with
inner diameter of 17.7 m. The height of the mound now is 11.5
m. The entrance of the tomb has not been found during the
excavations.
Fig. 1. Profile with calcite ledge: А – 0-6/8 cm pebbles with calcite spoil; B
– 6/8-73 cm – light sand with well rounded pebbles and gravels; C – 73130 cm light sand without pebbles
The second exhibited cut is preliminary defined as diluvium.
It is formed by slope material and it is situated at 20-30 m to
the East from the villa on the left bank of the river (Fig. 2). It
has coordinates 41o29’56,8’’ N, 26o06’23,6’’ E, 176 m. There
were no layers under the humus horizon. The profile is
overgrown with plants.
The mound was formed by a number of smaller moulds and
the material is local. Prehistoric materials have been found in
the mounds that were probably taken from a nearby settlement
(The Common Inheritance…, 2006).
Samples for granulometric and morphoscopic analyses were
taken from both profiles in order to identify their origin.
The white plaster is significant for the Roman ages but the
tradition for burial mounds is Thracian. The problem of insisting
on Thracian aristocracy during the Roman ages and how to
relate this fact to the existence of a Roman estate with rich
architecture is still under discussion in archaeology. There is a
possibility that the owners of the villa, who were not Thracians,
to have been fascinated by the Thracian traditions (Mladenova,
1991).
There are 2 problems to solve regarding the big mound near
the Svirachi village: 1 – the origin of the layer with pebbles in
the base of the mould, and 2 – the existence of a spring within
the mould.
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sacred meaning for the ancient people. There has not water
surface at present time. The profile that has been made there
contains light and dark clay (Fig. 4). The clay forms lens
without gradation. Samples for granulometric and
morphoscopic analyses from both types were taken.
А
B
Fig. 4. Profile at the spring
Fig. 2. Profile of diluvium: A – 0-40 cm humus horizon; B – 40-130 cm
homogeneous clayish-sandy layer with inclusions of small not rounded
or slightly rounded rubble
Results from the laboratory analyses
The results of the granulometric analysis of the sample from
the diluvium are shown at Fig. 5. The sand content is nearly
50% of the whole sample, the gravel is almost 30%, and the
pebble is about 20%. The clay is less than 1%. The sample is
mixed fractional. The material has uneven distribution. There
are two maximums: 1 – at the pebble and the rough gravel,
and 2 – at the fine sand.
There is a horizon with well rounded pebbles in the base of
the mould near the Svirachi village (Fig. 3). The filling is sandyclayish. Above it there is a layer which belongs to the mound
with inclusions of plaster at depth of 216 cm from the surface.
The layer with pebbles is 30 cm in thickness. The pebbles are
mostly gneiss but very weathered and broken in situ. Below
this layer there is sandy-clayish horizon with structure similar to
the filling of the layer with pebbles. The colour is 2,5 Y 7/3 –
pale yellow.
The cumulative curve (Fig. 5) confirms the general
accumulation of material of the sand fraction and secondly of
the small pebble. The poor content of clay is remarkable. This
is significant for the superiority of gravity over water
transportation of the material.
100,00
%
90,00
80,00
70,00
60,00
50,00
40,00
30,00
20,00
10,00
0,00
>0,02
0,1
0,5
2
5
10
mm
Fig. 5. Cumulative curve of the diluvium
The results of the morphoscopic and granulometric analyses
give ground for some conclusions about the origin of the layer
with pebbles in the bas of the big mount near the Svirachi
village. The sample contains 30 pieces which are mainly
gneiss, but there are also limestone and quartz. The pieces are
very weathered and there are red and black spots, which are
connected to the minerals contained in the gneisses (the
weathered light minerals become red and the dark minerals
become black).
Fig. 3. Layer with pebbles
The layer with pebbles is visible only at the base of the
mound and not beyond. According to the morphoscopic
analysis the pebbles are very well rounded. There is also a
general orientation in their arrangement.
Regarding the form of the pieces: 36.7% have disk form,
46.7% have spherical form and 16.7% have cylindrical form.
Regarding the roundness of the pieces: I degree have 3,3%, II
degree have 16.7%, III degree have 16.7%, IV degree have
Traces of a peat formation were also found in the mould.
This is a sign for a source of water. Sometimes springs have
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16.7% and V degree have 46.7%. There are no pieces with 0
degree of roundness. The broken pebble is not additionally
polished. The average roundness of the sample is 3.9.
climate conditions are dry and humid season which cause
different direction of the chemical agents. As a result, different
types of hemogenic eluvium – calcrete, fericrete, alcrete,
silcrete etc. are formed. They are typical for the planar
surfaces and they all are “armor” layers (Baltakov, Kenderova,
2003).
Regarding the dimensions of the pieces, the average
measurement of axis “a” is 413 mm, the average measurement
of axis “b” is 324 mm and the average measurement of axis “с”
is 235 mm.
The results from the sedimentological analyses confirm the
slope origin of the material at villa Armira. The diluvium
typically is mixed fractional. The coarse materials are not
rounded or slightly rounded. This point to a very low percent
water transportation. This is the reason to connect the origin of
the material to the soil erosion downward the slope. Probably
the same material has formed the “soil” that had buried the
ruins of the villa. If we accept that the villa was destroyed in IV
century and 2.1-1.6 m thick slope material had been
accumulated above the ruins, then for about 1700 years the
speed of deposition is 1.24-0.94 mm/yr.
The results from the granulomertic analysis of the fill are
presented at Fig. 6.
%
100,00
90,00
80,00
70,00
60,00
50,00
40,00
30,00
20,00
10,00
0,00
>0,02
0,1
0,5
2
5
10
mm
The results of the sedimetological analyses surely confirm
the alluvium origin of the material in the base of the big mound
near the Svirachi village. According to its visible position, only
in the base of the mound but not in the surroundings, points to
a conclusion that it has an anthropogenic origin. There is a
possibility that this pebble was the basis of the mound. It could
have had a consolidation and drainage effect of the
constructions above.
Fig. 6. Cumulative curve of the fill of the layer with pebbles
The clay fraction dominates the sample – 62% and the sand
is 24%. Both fractions of the pebble and this of the sand are
less than 10% each. The sample has good sorting and despite
of that it is mixed fractional, it is very close to the
characteristics of the double fraction.
The coarse material in the fill may have been caused by the
weathering of the pebble and the fine material could have been
a result of the infiltration of fragments from the mound. This
confirms the drainage effect of the pebble horizon as basis of
the mound. Additional investigations of the area are needed in
order to prove this idea. Geophysical explorations of the site or
drilling at different points and to deeper depths are also
needed.
Fig. 7 presents the results from the granulometric analysis of
the light and dark clay from the spring. The cumulative curves
confirm the accumulation of the material from the fill of the clay
fraction. There are steep peaks at the fine sand and the small
pebble. The colour of the light clay sample is 10 YR 4/3 –
brown. Without the clay fraction the colour is 5 Y 5/2 – olive
gray. The colour of the whole dark clay sample is 2.5 Y 4/1 –
dark grey. Without the clay fraction the colour is 5 Y 7/2 – light
grey and the colour of the course clay is 10 YR 6/2 – light
brownish grey.
100,00
The results of the deposits from the spring confirm its
existence but not when and why it dried up. The different
colours of the clay are caused by the bigger sand content in
the light clay. The dark colours are significant for humus in the
clay fraction. Generally, in the parts with dark clay the
conditions were of reduction (without oxygen) and in the parts
with light clay they were of oxidation (with oxygen). The results
from both samples show calm conditions of deposition despite
the sand in the light clay.
%
90,00
80,00
70,00
60,00
50,00
40,00
light clay
30,00
dark clay
20,00
10,00
0,00
>0,02
0,1
0,5
2
5
mm
Fig. 7. Cumulative curves of the light and the dark clay from the spring
Discussion
The results from the two samples show double fractional
deposits with good to temperate sorting. The difference
between the two samples is in the sand fraction which is
presented better at the light clay.
The preliminary results from the geomorphological research
raised some questions about the processes in the area of the
archaeological site of villa Armira.
The Geological Map of Bulgaria in scale 1:100000, part
Ivaylovgrad and Suflion (Ed. by Kozhuharov et al., 1995) as
well as other geological sources describe loess at the right
bank of the Armira River. The results from this research
confirm with certainty that the material on the left bank of the
river is diluvium. The other exhibited profile has a calcite ledge
and is a response to every interpretation for weathering crust.
Loess deposits were not found on the left bank of the river at
the place of the archaeological site.
Conclusions
The profile with calcite ledge has pebbles with middle and
large size concentrated in the upper part. Only this part
contains carbonates. This layer “armors” the layers below. The
exposition of the lower sandy and unstable layers caused their
intensive destruction and formation of the ledge from the upper
more stable layer. This is very similar to the characteristics of a
typical weathering crust. This kind of calcrete crusts usually
form in specific conditions of weathering at the savanna. The
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There is a possibility that the position of the layer with
pebbles in the base of the necropolis to be of an anthropogenic
origin. It could have had consolidation and drainage effect of
the constructions above. To prove this idea additional
investigations are needed. Other mounds of that kind must be
observed in order to determine the manner of construction
during this period.
References
Baltakov, G., R. Kenderova. 2003. Quaternary
Palaeogeography. Maleo-63, Sofia, 324 p. (in Bulgarian)
The Common Inheritance from Prehistorical Times. 2006.
PHAROS BG2004/016-782-01.06.03-03, 56 p. (in
Bulgarian)
Geological Map of Bulgaria 1:100000. Part Ivaylovgrad and
Suflion. Explanation Book. 1995. Geological Institute,
Sofia, 64 p. (in Bulgarian)
Goranov, A., I. Boyanov, G. Atanasov. 1992. Lithostratigraphic
subdivision of the Palaeogene and Neogene in the Eastern
Rhodopes and its correlation with the Paleogene and
Neogene in Upper Thracia. – Ann. Sofia University ”St.
Kliment Ohridski”, 1, Geology, 82, 169-182 (in Bulgarian).
Mladenova, Y. 1991. The Ancient Villa Armira near
Ivaylovgrad. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, 5-44
(in Bulgarian).
The geomorphological results confirmed the existence of a
spring within the necropolis mould. At present, it is drained or
has changed its position. There are many springs of grunt and
artesian water in the area but only hydrogeological research
can solve this problem.
The preliminary results of the depositions type are the first
step towards the reconstruction of the environment in the area
of the archaeological site of villa Armira. The interdisciplinary
studies should continue in order to solve serious problems.
This has an importance for the different sciences. The
interesting results obtained during the cooperation work of a
study of archaeological sites show once more one of the
tendencies for the science development in the future.
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