Нови открития за строителната техника на църквата „Св. Йоан Алитургeтос” в Несебър
New Findings about the Building Techniques of the Church of St John Aliturgеtos, Nessebar

Summary/Abstract: In the course of the restoration work launched in 2015 on the roofing, part of the authentic roof structure was discovered in the northeast corner of the building: a mound of earth thickly strewn with sherds of medieval pottery. Deep down in the mound, amphorae were unearthed, arranged upside down upon evening courses of brickwork. No such find is known to the authors on medieval sites within the contemporary Bulgarian lands. Descriptions of similar building techniques occur in publications on the Ochrid Church of St Sophia of the tenth or the eleventh century. Using pottery to reduce the weight of the structures has been described as a widely spread building method in Byzantium by its earliest explorers. Constructive use of amphorae occurs in Roman buildings between the fourth and the tenth centuries in ribbing small vaults and domes cast of slaked lime or plaster. Using pottery in construction of churches across Europe dates back to the tenth through the fourteenth century and beyond either as a method to improve the acoustics and/or reduce the weight of massive roof truses. The find from Nessebar has an apparent structural function to take the weight off the mould, meant to shape the slopes of the pitched roof.

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