Dataset of findings recovered through water flotation at Pliska, North-Eastern Bulgaria

Dataset description
The initial assessment after the flotation shows that five types of organic materials were recovered, including charred seeds, wood charcoal, animal bone and teeth, fish scales and molluscs. Considering both the heavy residue and fine flot, the following observation can be made regarding the vegetal remains. Wood charcoal is present in 69% of the samples (in 34 samples out of 49: for the HR – in 20 samples, while for the F – in 14 samples); charred seeds are present in 25 samples or 51% (for the HR – in 9 samples, for the F – in 16 samples). In terms of faunal remains, molluscs are registered in 37 of the samples for 75% (for the HR – in 22 samples, for the F – in 15 samples), followed by animal bones and teeth, that are registered in 32% or 16 out of 49 samples (for the HR – in 15 samples and for the F – in 1 sample). The final group is presented by fish scales, in our case only one scale recorded in the HR fraction, representing 2% of the samples. The soil sediment colour was also recorded, including grey, yellow-red, black, brown and white-grey.
The above results are presented in Sheet 1 of the dataset, which describes the organic materials, collected from the HR, while Sheet 2 is describing the materials collected from the F fraction, both recovered from the 2023 Pliska excavation. Each finding category is represented by an abundance value, according to the following system: figure 1 marks absolute values ranging between 1 and 10; figure 2 assigns to values between 11 and 20; figure 3 describes absolute values between 21 and 50, while figure 4 is attributed to values between 51 and 100 (Reitz and Shackley, 2012).

Bibliography:
1. French, D. H., (1971) An experiment in water-sieving, Anatolian Studies, XXI, pp. 59–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3642629
2. Reitz, E., Shackley, M. (2012) Environmental Archaeology. Springer. London
3. Williams, D. (1973) Flotation at Siraf. Antiquity, Volume 47, Issue 188, pp. 288–292.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00039132