Homes

Medieval Bulgarian households occupied compact sunken-floor dwellings, buildings standing above ground and larger urban residences. The choice of materials and layout depended on terrain, resources and wealth. Excavated homes reveal floors, heating installations and objects used for storage and work within the changing lands of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires.

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Homes in villages and towns

Most people lived in a predominantly rural society, but towns brought homes close to places of trade and production. In the First Empire, major urban centres were often divided into an inner town and an outer town. The inner town, enclosed by stone walls, held administrative and defensive buildings as well as residences for the nobility. The outer town was generally less protected and contained markets, workshops, gardens, vineyards and dwellings.

At Pliska, excavation and geophysical survey show groups of modest dwellings within the enormous outer enclosure. Many were rectangular houses with floors sunk below ground. Stone ovens stood in a corner of some; others used a clay-covered hearth. These installations occupied part of the same small interior in which household activities took place.

An early medieval house near Velino, on the Pliska plain, had a horseshoe-shaped stone oven in its northeastern corner. Postholes mark the supports for the roof, and grain pits stood within and beside the dwelling. Its pottery, bone awls and casting-vessel fragment place food storage and small-scale work around the occupied interior.

In the Second Empire, Tarnovo spread across fortified hills and the Yantra valley. Households lived near churches, shops and workshops. Space on a slope could require a stone lower level and a lighter upper structure, while a street provided access to neighbouring buildings and places of work.

Building forms and household space

Descriptions of Second Empire housing include both semi-dug dwellings, set partly below ground, and houses built above ground. In towns, some overground houses had two storeys: the lower level was made of crushed stone joined with mud or plaster, while the upper level was timber-built.

Archaeologists have also uncovered the foundations of a bolyar house near Tarnovo’s Imperial Palace, dating to the beginning of the thirteenth century. A bolyar was a member of the aristocracy. The excavated house had an L-shaped plan, with a residential area and a small, single-nave church.

Other urban buildings combined work and living space. In Preslav, a commercial building had eighteen rooms for trade on its first floor and accommodation rooms above. Rectangular buildings with production space below and living space on the upper floor were also used for craft and monastic purposes.

Water and heating in urban settings

Preslav received water through masonry channels and clay pipes from sources outside the city. Household users had to obtain water where it was available and carry it to the place of use. The palace baths at Pliska represent a more elaborate installation supplied within an elite complex.

A stone oven concentrated the fire within a built installation and retained heat in its masonry. An open hearth offered more direct access to the flame and cooking vessel. In Pliska’s small dwellings these features stood in corners, leaving the rest of the room for movement and other activities. A fire provided warmth but also demanded fuel and attention, making its position a practical part of the house plan.

Pottery and domestic objects

Pottery provides another route into household life, though much of the evidence for vessels intended for domestic use comes from burial grounds at Novi Pazar, Devnya and Varna. In the First Empire, pottery was made on a potter’s wheel, and two-storey kilns were used from the ninth century. Vessel shapes and decoration changed as exchange with the Byzantine Empire increased, particularly after Bulgaria adopted Christianity in 864.

Storage vessels could hold a household’s staple supplies. A tenth-century house at Odartsi contained ceramic vessels with charred wheat, directly connecting pots with stored food. Bone awls and craft debris from other domestic contexts show how working tools could share a home with cooking and storage equipment.