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This paper summarizes the results of studies in the Petrova Niva Locality within the Sboryanovo Archaeological Reserve. It refers to the previous research on the study area and briefly comments on its environmental conditions and natural resources. The available data on earlier habitation in the area from the Neolithic, Hellenistic and Late Roman periods are also presented. This study’s focus is on the Medieval structures in the Locality. These are placed into three individual phases based on stratigraphic observations and a set of repeating features. The first phase includes dug-in dwellings whose pits are disturbed by other negative structures. The second phase comprises dwellings that disturb earlier Medieval houses. The last phase consists of mainly above-ground structures that overlie dwellings from the previous two phases. Some specific features of the different construction periods are outlined, like the wooden structure characteristic of the first period, the significant use of stone and the presence of stone ovens and food storage pits during the second, and the above-ground structures with a stone socle and perishable upper wall courses in the third. Arguments for the three phases’ dating are based mainly on metal artifacts, specifically jewelry. Altogether, the Locality’s Medieval structures have been dated to the second half of the 9th – 10th c. based on the observations described here. Archaeological evidence from the Locality’s Medieval habitation points to an economy focused mostly on agriculture (cereal and leguminous crops) and animal husbandry (small ruminants and support animals including cattle, horses, donkeys, and dogs). Evidence for a number of crafts suggests their practice in a household environment. Data pointing to iron processing is also discussed. Data on settlement organization during the first two phases of habitation in the Petrova Niva Locality points to a community of free peasants and suggests collective ownership of resources (probably including the land), shared responsibility, and the fair distribution of goods within the community. In contrast, the preserved structures from the latest phase of Medieval habitation attest to a feudal estate with its separate territory and inhabited and served by a relatively limited number of people with specific skills and occupations. The change to this economic model is dated in the 10th c. Archaeological studies searching for a necropolis related to the Locality’s Medieval habitation are briefly discussed here as well. The final section of this study attempts to review the settlement in the Petrova Niva Locality in the context of synchronous settlement sites in the region.

The article analyzes the results of the study of a complicated stratigraphic situation excavated within a single grid square (grid sq. 34/23) of the settlement at Petrova Niva locality, “Sboryanovo” Archaeological Reserve. The best preserved structure in height is a Medieval utility building. The large number of finds from it, as well as the stratigraphic observations so far, allow dating its destruction in the period from the last third of the 10th c. to the first quarter or mid-11th c. Consequently it was built and inhabited in the 10th c. The presence of a utility building close to the excavated dwellings from the same period indicates advance planning and differentiation of zones with different functions in the arrangement of space in the researched household. The most significant feature, which was completely covered by the remains of the utility building, is a Late Antique dwelling. It has an almost regular oval shape, dug into the sterile soil. It can be dated to the second half of the 4th c. One of the structures that can be connected with the functioning of the dwelling is a pit (No. 3). This pit, as well as the nearby pit (in grid sq. 34/22), were probably used by the occupants of the dwelling for the storage of grain. The earliest documented structure is a Neolithic pit. The rest of the pits disturb the fill of the Late Antique dwelling and precede the construction of the medieval utility building. The situation uncovered in Petrova Niva locality offers a possible answer to the question of the presence of ancient materials in a Medieval context and opens the door to clarifying the nature of the early habitation of the site.