Керемиди и улуци от Филипопол през XII–началото на XIII век
Roof tiles and clay gutters from Philippopolis (Plovdiv), middle of the 12th–beginning of the 13th century

Summary/Abstract: A significant change in the material culture is noted in Philippopolis at around the middle of the 12th century. This change is also to be seen in the mass housing. The traditional partially dug in the ground dwellings, with thatched or reed roofs, have been replaced by houses with stone walls and bricks with mud solder. The new roofs were covered with roof tiles, with clay gutters on the periphery of the eaves. These roof tiles and gutters are found everywhere in the present-day Plovdiv, where archaeological research is made and layers and structures from the period are studied. They are of the same type as shape, size, technological features and specific elements. The roof tiles are made of red clay with a very large admixture of finely chopped straw, as a result of which they are highly porous. Although they are thick, the tiles are always well baked and, unlike the household ceramics of the period, do not have a grеy stripe in the fracture. The roof tiles follow the ancient system of lower ones – tegulae and upper ones – imbrices. The tegulae are rectangular, with low arc profiles. Characteristic elements for them are an arcuate groove on the upper part, most likely for gripping when worn, shallow grooves that served as stoppers to prevent the covering imbrices from sliding, and shallow vertical furrows for easier drainage of water. The imbrices have a profile of the inverted letter V. The clay gutters are made as a clay pipe cut longitudinally before firing. They always have a strip of mortar on one periphery, with which they were attached to the roof. It is a characteristic of the gutters that they are not made of the same clay with which the tiles are made, but of the clay used in the production of household ceramics. It has no admixture of straw, the sand is much less, the gutters are much thinner than the tiles and, unlike them, almost always with grey scrap in the fracture. Most of the gutters were covered with red slip, such as a large part of the household ceramics in the city at that period. Though the clay gutters are typical for Philippopolis, only one of them has been published so far on the territory of Bulgaria, but identified as a tile. Their appearance in the city coincided with the appearance of red-slipped ware, which is believed to have been brought by Armenian settlers. Probably they also passed on the tradition of making rain gutters.

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