Строителство с абсиден план в българските земи
Construction to Plans with Apres in the Bulgarian Lands

Summary/Abstract: The tradition of construction to plans with apses in the Bulgarian lands is traced, from the transition period between the Aeneolithic Age to the Early Bronze Age up to the present day. This tradition was conditioned not so much by an ordinary conservative spirit in the course of this vast period of five thousand years, as by the preservation of the reasons which led to the appearance and the existence of construction to plans with apses. In this respect the ethnic continuity and the considerable participation of the Thracian ethnic element in forming the Bulgarian nationality, and its material and spiritual culture were favorable circumstances. It is proved that the appearance and existence of plans with apses were connected with stock-breeding, and more concretely with sheep-breeding. The preservation of buildings with apses allows us to divide them into two groups: those whose foundations have been preserved and those which are entirely preserved. Basically, the first are subjects for archaeological studies, and the second — for ethnographic studies. The base of sources being thus divided, prehistorical buildings with apses, and those belonging to Antiquity should be interpreted with a view to the data provided by the 19th and 20 th centuries. This retrospection can be done on a large one-apse two-part building of the 6th level of a settlement mound in Nova Zagora (Middle Bronze Age). The apse is on the north side, and there is a hearth in each of the two rooms. Bearing in mind the data on the single-apse house in Dolno Yabulkovo, Bourgas district (mid-19th century), we think that the apse of the house in Nova Zagora served as a sheepfold for 25—30 sheep in winter, and in summer for farming purposes. That is probably when the hearth was used. The rectangular part was a room in which people lived.

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