Category: Bulgaria

Roman Tunnel in Plovdiv

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Another brief item from SNA:

Municipal employees discovered a well-preserved ancient Roman tunnel in the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv.

The workers were clearing up the Nebet Tepe (“Guards’ Hill”) fortress in order to turn into a tourist attraction when they came across the tunnel near the Maritsa River.

The tunnel has a fully preserved staircase and leads to the northern side of the fortress. Plovdiv’s Deputy Mayor Shopov, who is a historian himself, told the BGNES news agency that no one had any idea about the existence of the tunnel.

The clearing up of the fortress began after a month ago the Plovdiv Municipality got a permission from the Bulgarian state to be in charge of the ancient site, and to turn it into a clean and well-lit tourist attraction ready to welcome tourists.

The Guards’ Hill is one of the many historic sites in Plovdiv; it features remains of a prehistoric settlement, and in 12th century BC was the site of the Ancient Thracian city Evmolpia.

Plovdiv was one of those cities called Philippopolis in Greek times, then Trimontium when the Romans had control of the area.

Semper Aliquid Novi ex … Bulgaria

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 2 Comments

Still in catchup mode, over the past few weeks there have been several items reported in the Bulgarian Press varying amount of detail/clarity. We’ll begin, though, with one that just popped into my mailbox last night — the discovery of a second Peperikon-like sanctuary (hmmmm). Here’s the coverage from Standart:

Bulgarian speleologists have discovered a second Thracian sanctuary that may outshine the one at Perperikon, Mr. Evgeni Koev, chairman of the Dervent Speleology Club, broke the news.
“We have discovered a cave with four-meter-tall human statues and tombs inside. The whole complex is very well preserved and has a diameter of several kilometers. The site is close to the Danube, but its exact location is kept secret to prevent raids by black Archaeologists.
“I am ready to go and inspect the site immediately, although the comparison with the ancient Thracian sanctuary near Kurdzhali town has become very popular recently,” Prof. Nikolai Ovcharov told the Standart.
“If what these speleologists say is true, Bulgaria may have another cultural monument of global significance,” the professor stated.

We’ll assume that ‘black Archaeologists’ is some sort of bad translation of ‘illicit diggers’. Elsewhere:

The discovery of a tomb beneath a previously-looted tumulus near Dolno Izvorovo.:

A previously-unknown Roman settlement dating to the second/third century on the Black Sea Coast near Varna:

An “intact” Thracian settlement from the fifth century B.C. (or thereabouts) near Nova Zagora:

A “unique” Thracian tomb from Gagovo:

Plans to dig near Sliven:

Another Thracian Tomb

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Brief item from Focus-Fen:

A unique Thracian tomb has been unearthed close to the northeastern village of Gagovo, in the municipality of Popovo, Plamen Sabev, director of the history museum in the town of Popovo, told Focus – Shumen Radio.
The tomb dates back to the 4th century BC and is older than the one close to another northeastern village – Sveshtari. It consists of two round chambers with a dome and was built of big square stones. The newly excavated tomb is the biggest one found so far in Northern Bulgaria, he added.
Archeologists and thracologists have shown interest in the finding. The excavations works have been under way for a month. Before that the tomb was plundered and destroyed by treasure hunters six times, Sabev said.

Another Resort in Bulgaria … Another Bust

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Wow … it seems every time a hotel is built or expanded in Bulgaria, there’s some archaeological find. Here’s the latest coverage from Novinite:

The regional unit for combating organized crime in Bulgaria’s Burgas have seized a hidden treasure dating back to 3rd century BC.

The treasure was discovered in October 2008 during the construction of a new hotel in the Black Sea resort of Nessebar, which is also an ancient town with many ancient and medieval monuments.

Instead of turning it it, however, the hotel owners decided to keep the priceless treasure for themselves, and tried to conceal it.

The police learned about the treasure through its own local sources, and seized the treasure, which is now transferred to the Nessebar Archaeological Museum, and will be on display there starting May 15.

The treasure in questions is exceptionally elaborate and consist of several pieces of jewelry and decoration. It was discovered in what was the burial site of a women from a well-off family who lived in the town in 3rd century BC, during the Hellenistic period. Only the gold parts of the treasure weigh more than 200 grams.

Nessebar was initially a minor Thracian settlement but was later turned into a Greek colony to become part later of Rome and Byzantium, and was later conquered by the First Bulgarian Empire.

Echoes, somewhat, of previous finds of a thracian priestess burial or that statue of Cybele find from Balchik …

Unsubmerging Seuthopolis?

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The incipit of a piece in TopNews suggests:

Discovered under centuries-old layers of dirt in 1948, then submerged under 20 metres of water, the ancient city of Seuthopolis is to emerge once again in a bold rescue project.

The magnificently preserved city, founded by the Thracian king Seuthes III in 323 BC, was discovered in central Bulgaria during the construction of a dam on the Tundzha river.

Despite the stunning discovery, Communist authorities went ahead with the dam and created the Koprinka reservoir six years later, in 1954, flooding Seuthopolis under 150 million cubic metres of water.

Now, a 150-million-euro (192-million-dollar) project by Bulgarian architect Jeko Tilev aims to right the wrong and expose the polis at the bottom of the reservoir to archaeologists and tourist by creating a dry well 20 metres deep and 420 metres across.

Once in place, the 1.27-kilometre wall, effectively a round pier, would allow further exploration and the reconstruction of five hectares now at the bottom of the reservoir, 160 kilometres east of Sofia near Kazanlak.

Visitors will arrive to pier in the middle of the lake by boat and observe the city from a height of 20 metres or descend to ground level by glass-encased elevators, gliding along the tilted walls, all of it illuminated at night.

… like the underwater museum that’s constantly being bruited about for Alexandria, I’ll believe it when I see it …