Three Settlements Unearthed in Southern Bulgaria

RADNEVO, BULGARIA—Archaeology in Bulgaria reports that an early Thracian settlement dated to about 1000 B.C., a Roman town dated to about A.D. 200 to 400, and a settlement occupied from the early Byzantine through the medieval periods were uncovered in southern Bulgaria on land slated for coal mining. Dwellings, industrial buildings, figurines, pottery, spindle whorls, loom weights, millstones, stone tools, and human remains buried in ritual pits were found at the site of the early Thracian settlement. A bronze statue depicting the goddess Athena was uncovered on the edges of the Roman town, in addition to coins, pottery, and bricks. At the third site, researchers uncovered two Byzantine coins, fragments of bronze and glass bracelets, an iron spur, iron arrow tips, small knives, an iron fishing hook, spindle whorls, candlesticks, pottery, 12 dwellings, 14 pits, two kilns, and one hearth. Artifacts from these excavations will be housed at Radnevo’s Maritsa East Museum of Archaeology. To read about an oil vessel recovered from the grave of a Thracian man, go to "Bath Buddy."