Statue of Hermes Unearthed at Roman City Site in Bulgaria

RUPITE, BULGARIA—According to a Reuters report, a Roman marble statue of the Greek god Hermes has been recovered from a Roman sewer at the site of southwestern Bulgaria’s ancient city of Heraclea Sintica. Archaeologist Lyudmil Vagalinski said that the statue measures nearly seven feet tall and its head has been preserved. The sculpture had been carefully placed in the sewer and buried, he added, perhaps because Christianity had been adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire. “Everything pagan was forbidden, and they have joined the new ideology, but apparently they took care of their old deities,” Vagalinski explained. The city was hit by a devastating earthquake in A.D. 388 and was abandoned by about A.D. 500, he concluded. To read about artifacts recovered from a Roman frontier camp in northern Bulgaria, go to "Legionary Personal Effects."