Lecture | The Residence of the Bulgarian Khans in Pliska

The Residence of the Bulgarian Khans in Pliska

Peter Milo (FF MUNI)

23 October, 14:10 CEST

Přednáška proběhne hybridně – v knihovně ARÚ v Letenské 4, Praha, a online přes Zoom (https://cesnet.zoom.us/j/97923763562 | Password: 23102025).

Abstrakt:

Our understanding of Early Medieval power centres in the Balkans has been updated by recent findings made in the region that was home to the First Bulgarian Empire (681–1018). These include, in particular, the site Pliska, the home of the Bulgarian ruling elite. Despite archaeological investigations spanning over more than a century, fundamental questions concerning the nature, structure and settlement intensity of the site remain unanswered. According to the accepted scholarship, large parts of the site would have been covered only by loosely scattered buildings. However, recent large-scale geophysical surveys reveal dense settlement structures comparable with urban sites from Byzantium in the west to China in the east. The most surprising discovery was that the entire site exhibits an organized residential layout with a network of communications oriented along the north-south and east-west axes. Geophysical surveys and small targeted archaeological excavationspromise to shed new light on the economic and socio-cultural lives of Pliska inhabitants.