Dataset of findings recovered through water flotation at Pliska, North-Eastern Bulgaria
Description
Dataset description The initial assessment after the flotation shows that five types of organic materials were recovered, including charred seeds, wood charcoal, animal bone and teeth, fish scales and molluscs. Considering both the heavy residue and fine flot, the following observation can be made regarding the vegetal remains. Wood charcoal is present in 69% of the samples (in 34 samples out of 49: for the HR – in 20 samples, while for the F – in 14 samples); charred seeds are present in 25 samples or 51% (for the HR – in 9 samples, for the F – in 16 samples). In terms of faunal remains, molluscs are registered in 37 of the samples for 75% (for the HR – in 22 samples, for the F – in 15 samples), followed by animal bones and teeth, that are registered in 32% or 16 out of 49 samples (for the HR – in 15 samples and for the F – in 1 sample). The final group is presented by fish scales, in our case only one scale recorded in the HR fraction, representing 2% of the samples. The soil sediment colour was also recorded, including grey, yellow-red, black, brown and white-grey. The above results are presented in Sheet 1 of the dataset, which describes the organic materials, collected from the HR, while Sheet 2 is describing the materials collected from the F fraction, both recovered from the 2023 Pliska excavation. Each finding category is represented by an abundance value, according to the following system: figure 1 marks absolute values ranging between 1 and 10; figure 2 assigns to values between 11 and 20; figure 3 describes absolute values between 21 and 50, while figure 4 is attributed to values between 51 and 100 (Reitz and Shackley, 2012). Bibliography: 1. French, D. H., (1971) An experiment in water-sieving, Anatolian Studies, XXI, pp. 59–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3642629 2. Reitz, E., Shackley, M. (2012) Environmental Archaeology. Springer. London 3. Williams, D. (1973) Flotation at Siraf. Antiquity, Volume 47, Issue 188, pp. 288–292. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00039132
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Materials and methods This dataset captures the findings retrieved from water flotation procedure applied to sediment soi samples from the National Historical and Archaeological Reserve “Pliska”, located near the town of Shumen, North-Eastern Bulgaria. The analysis targets the soil samples, collected during the excavation season in 2023, which originate both from the Outer City (15 samples of a total of 25) and the so-called Round Stone Site (10 samples of a total of 25). The number of samples collected came to 25 (approximately 125 l of soil sediment), while their volume was standardised to 5 liters per sample. Each of them was processed via water flotation ‘Siraf’ machine (French, 1971; Williams, 1973). Two fractions were produced of each bulk sample – the heavy residue (HR) and the fine flot (F). The goal was to keep heavy materials in the HR mesh and let light materials float on top so they could be collected separately in the F sieve. The heavy residue collects findings larger than 1 mm, whilst the fine flot fraction – findings larger than 250 µm. After each flot dries, we proceeded with a sorting process – macroscopically for the HR, and microscopically for the F (binocular Optika SZM-2 with magnification 0.7 x to 4.5 x; (Reitz and Shackley, 2012). The weight of the dry samples prior to sorting is as follows: the HR is ranging between 210 gr and 873 gr, while the average mean value for this fraction 442,05 gr. On the other side, the weight of the F ranges between 5 gr and 110 gr and the mean value for the flot fraction is 42,4 gr.