Excavations at Dodoparon, Yambol province

Excavations during autumn of 2010 at the fortified hilltop settlement of Dodoparon complemented the Tundzha Regional Archaeology Project (TRAP) survey campaign in the Yambol province. Three trenches provided information about the third to sixth century AD at this regional centre. Thick fortification walls enclosing a 4-ha area revealed the defensive character of the site, while the presence of slag indicated metal processing. A depot of 55 vessels found inside a small, centrally located structure attested to the storage of consumption-ready foodstuffs. A variety of metal finds, including a coin hoard hidden in the storage structure, implied a rushed abandonment of the site at the end of the sixth century AD, consistent with historical records of settlement evolution in the Middle Tundzha River catchment. Archaeobotanical results from the site provided evidence for agriculture and diet in the Roman period, identifying cereal grains, legumes, fodder, and weeds. Of interest was the preponderance of millet, which corroborates written evidence concerning the typical diet in ancient Thrace, and is consistent with stable isotope analysis of skeletal remains from Boyanovo presented in Chapter 17.