Byala No. 1 / Άσπρος / Aspros / Biala / Bjala / Град Бяла

An article in the 27 September 2012 edition of The Sofia Globe [https://sofiaglobe.com/2012/09/27/archaeology-early-christian-baptismal-fonts-found-at-ancient-fortress-site-in-bulgarias-byala/] [accessed 19 December 2021] reports the unearthing of three baptismal fonts on the site: "n all, three baptismal fonts were found. One was in the basilica and the other two some metres from it, located one above the other, one from the fifth century and the other from the sixth. [...] Two of the fonts are cross-shaped. The report said that scholars believed that in the fifth to sixth centuries, practices in Christianity varied and changes in rituals explain the presence of the third font. Archaeologists said that the discoveries change perceptions of early Christian architecture not only in Bulgaria but in the entire Byzantine world." The same news release appeared in the 27 September 2012 on Archaeological News [https://archaeologicalnews.tumblr.com/post/32389174339/early-christian-baptismal-fonts-found-at-ancient] [accessed 19 December 2021]. The fonts here were studied in Iotov and Minchev (2013: 20-28) whose work was later followed up by Gazgazi in her informative thesis of 2016: "The narthex took some of the functions of the atrium and the annexes at periods of time when construction activity has been restricted by economical or other reasons; that‘s why in some later cases parts of the narthex were closed with masonry and functioned as baptisteries or sacristies. The most telling example is the basilica of antique Byala at Cape Sv. Atanas (12): the excavator includes the baptismal font with the two facing stairs that he found in the north part of the narthex in the initial construction phase of the church and dates a small apse that blocked the entrance to the north aisle to a later period with no conclusive arguments. [...] If we are to believe the published reconstructions of the basilica‘s building history, this font has been constructed in alignment with the door to the north aisle and this alignment does not make any sense if we do not associate the font with the construction of the «later» apse that probably functioned as the apse of the baptistery." This source elaborates further on the location of the fonts and the different phases of construction/reconstruction they may have belonged to, but it appears to incicate that each font was built on top of the earlier one.