Ancient Town Yailata

A small fortress is situated on the northern part of the plane terrace known as the Big Yayla. The place it was built on, slightly dominates over the surrounding terrain and is separated from the sea by 20 m high rocky cliffs to the north and east. Thus fortification walls were needed only to the west and south. These are 2.60 m wide, with total length of 130 m. Facing the mainland, four solid towers are placed in front of the western fortification wall, and the gate to the fortress was located in the southern end of the southern fortification wall. The faces of the defense constructions were precisely built from closely fitting stone blocks, which at some places are 2.00 m long and 0.70 m wide. In the inside there are three stairs closely attached to the fortification wall, which are in a good state of preservation. They were positioned in such a way as to allow fast and easy access to the platforms of the walls and the towers. A small area from the interior of the fortification settlement has been excavated and investigated. The main street has been cleared leading from the gate to the fortress center and a large-sized building, probably the sentinel premises. Stone stairs closely fit to one of the building indicate that this was a two-storey construction.

The gate would have been the most neuralgic and most important spot for the functioning of the fortress. It is a tower-type gate with two entrances, each 2.60 m wide. The outer entrance was barred by a descending cataracta, and the inner entrance had a two-winged door barred with massive beams that glided into deep grooves made for this purpose into the fortification wall. The entrance arch was watched over by a tower, which provided better guard for the entrance gate and the surrounding area.

The various archaeological artifacts made from copper, bronze, bone and clay and numerous coins found there indicate that the fortress was built at the end of the 5th – beginning of 6th century A.D. Existing during the time of some of the most devastating raids of the Slavs and proto-Bulgarians, the fortress was short-lived. It was finally destroyed in the last quarter of the 6th century and the settlement survived the burned ruins of the fortification for another couple of centuries. A Proto-Bulgarian settlement emerged there as late as the 9th century. At that time the entrance gate was blocked with a wall of secondary-used stone blocks and a small temple was built at the fmall gate in the western wall. Similar to the fate of most settlements in the Dobroudja region, this one too was destroyed by the invading Pecheneg tribes at mid-11th century. After that time life entirely ceased at this place.

On the territory of the reserve, there is a great number of human-hand carved caves, either single or grouped in complexes. Just on the Big Jaila they are 101. Within a matter of years, with the help of geologists and technicians they were fully described and documented. The caves are situated in several levels in the vertical cliffs, limiting the place to the Dobrudja plateau and the Black sea. They have been used for centuries as lodgings, some of them as tombs or churches. In the early Byzantine period – 5C -6C they served as monastic monastery i.e. here existed one of the so called rock monasteries in Dobrudja.

Over 120 grave constructions were found in the three cemeteries in the Natural Reserve Yaylata; they were cut into the even rocky plateau or in the steep vertical cliffs. Several cave-type tombs were investigated on the southern terrace. They were cut into the base of the rock and consisted of small antechambers leading to rectangular burial chambers.

Cemetery 1, situated in the Dobroudja plateau about 700 m to the north of the early Byzantine fortress, has been investigated more systematically. It is situated along the ridge of the rocky cliffs standing 50-60 cm above the sea. According to their architecture, the burial constructions can be divided into: Cave type with small-sized shaft-like antechambers with or without steps; the burial chambers have a comparatively large, usually rectangular or oval-shaped opening to the surface closed with slab-stones. This type of tombs is usually with well-shaped ante-chambers and steps; Rectangular or oval-shaped graves covered with one or several slabs. This type of grave construction was for burial of children. The cemetery emerged around the sanctuary cut into the rock. Similar to the greater part of the grave construction, it faced the sea, towards the rising sun. Cemetery 12 with 14 investigated tombs is situated in close proximity to Kamen Bryag village, to the east of it. In contrast to Cemetery 1, the tombs here are isolated into small groups oriented both east-west and north-south. Most of them are larger and more precisely cut in the rock. Tomb No 2 is of special interest; its eastern wall is decorated with a stylized image of a bull’s head, which is the only relief decoration discovered in the cemeteries investigated up to now.

With a few exceptions, all tombs have been plundered already in antiquity or in more recent times. The grave goods found: ceramic bowls, pots, mugs, lamps, bronze and iron clasps, glass beads, coins, etc, date within the chronological range 2nd-5th century A.D. These were family tombs that had functioned for a long time; in some of them up to 15 skeletons have been excavated. The cemeteries in the archaeological complex Yailata pose rather important and interesting problems related not only to the burial rites practiced there but also to the ethnical origin of the people buried. The formal and typological comparison of the constructions in the investigated cemeteries showed more similarities to analogous constructions along the north Black Sea coast than to the burial constructions from the East Rhodopi or Strandja-Sakar mountain regions. Therefore their occurrence along the Dobroudja Black Sea coast can be related to the invasion and settlement of barbarian tribes, most probably of Sarmathian origin.