Underwater archaeological excavations (Early Bronze Age, Antiquity, Ottoman period) in the sea bay at the mouth of Ropotamo river, Burgas region

In 2019, the third season of renewed underwater archaeological excavations took place in the bay between CapeSt. Dimitar (Skombolito) and the mouth of Ropotamo River (fig. 1).The work was conducted in two stages (June – early July and September – October) with a total of 49 workingdays. The study had the following main research goals and objectives:- To excavate the EBA layer over the entire technologically possible area of T2–T3.- To make a stratigraphic trench below the EBA layer in order to determine whether there is earlier occupationor other anthropogenic activity at the site.- To excavate a new area closer to the shore in order to search for the “central part” of the EBA settlement.The main results of the 2019 season can be summarized as follows:1. The work in T1 and T2–T3 was completed (fig. 2). The underwater landscape has been restored, with metalframes and trench sacks removed.2. The exploration of a new trench (T4) began (fig. 3), confirming the general observations from previous seasonsof the stratigraphic sequence of Ropotamo site – a port accumulation from the historical periods over settlement remainsfrom the EBA (figs 4–5).3. The quantity and character of the finds and structures discovered in T4 unambiguously indicate that the EBAsettlement center lies towards the shore at the base of the shallow waters to the SW of Scombolito Cape (fig. 6).4. In T2–T3, the hypothesis for the existence of a Chalcolithic settlement below that of the EBA was rejected.5. It was found that the EBA settlement (at least in the section T2–T3) was built on land and was only later floodedwhen sea level rose (fig. 2).6. The detailed stratigraphic observations demonstrated that at the end of the 4th mill. BC in the area of Ropotamothe sea level was -5.80 m below the modern one