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Archaeologists found these interesting finds in the first days after the resumption on October 5 of the excavations of the fortress in the “Balak Dere” area on the land of the village of Ivaylovgrad Huhla, Haskovo region.
Since 2007, periodic archaeological excavations have been carried out by the team of Ivaylo Kanev, chief curator of the National Museum of History in Sofia. They are funded by the Ministry of Culture, with the support of the Ivaylovgrad Municipality.
During excavations last year, a 2-3 century marble column was discovered with a fragment of an ancient Greek inscription dedicated to a deity whose name begins with the letter “A”.
Ivaylo Kanev believes that he came across an ancient shrine, marking the earliest period of the fortress’s existence.
According to the archaeologist, this may be the sanctuary of Apollo or Asclepius, comparable in importance to the largest cult centers of antiquity. Your assumptions are based on the big picture outlined by the results so far.
“Part of it is the geographic location and the natural phenomenon: the meanders of the Arda River. They impress even now, they have impressed before (even Tarnovo doesn’t have them), and the ancients adore these phenomena. The other is the fury with which Christians erase memory. Such power is not used against small and insignificant spiritual centers.
The next “clue”, for example, are the artifacts from Antiquity, and with a religious focus, so to speak, and the fact that in the Middle Ages there is a necropolis here, apparently the memory is very strong for the holy place “said the head of the excavations.
With the continuation of last year’s research, Kanev wants to get full information on the timeline in which the site was developed.
Many artifacts from the 2nd-3rd century have been collected, but a clear cultural layer from this time has yet to be discovered. The archaeologist must find him to make sure he found the oldest period of his life in the fortress.
But the ancient layer may not be the oldest, because Ivaylo Kanev found several monuments from much older times there. For now, assume they arrived at the fortress by accident, which is a common occurrence.
The fortress is located only 30 kilometers from Adrianople, today Edirne, at the entrance and exit of the Rhodopes to Thrace and vice versa, on the banks of one of the ancient rivers of Southeast Europe: Arda.
Excavations show that originally at this low peak, in the meanders of the “Balak Dere” and Arda area, there was a pagan shrine from ancient times. After the defeat of the Emperor Valente on August 9, 378 near Adrianople and the destruction of the administration center at Villa Armira, the administration of the area in late antiquity moved here.
Apparently, this decision was influenced by the geographical and natural location of the fortress, ”explains Ivaylo Kanev. The establishment of Christianity under Emperor Theodosius the Great led to the deliberate elimination of any memory of the pagan age.
Pagan monuments and buildings were demolished and destroyed.
This makes it difficult today to establish ancient horizons. Then the fortress wall was built, after several reconstructions of the land the main building was built, fully corresponding to the concept of “Principle”.
At the beginning of the 7th century, during the reign of Emperor Heraclius and the last Slavic-Avar attacks, the fortress was destroyed and its habitation was interrupted for almost two centuries.
“The discovery of ancient Bulgarian applications and the foundations of a yurt-like dwelling, as well as several coins from the 10th century, suggest that a Bulgarian military garrison was stationed here during Tsar Simeon’s wars against Byzantium,” Kanev said. In the 11th century there was a necropolis on the site and the population lived near Arda.
The last period of the fort’s operation can be related to the wars of the Emperor Alexios Komnenos against the Normans in the 12th century. Extremely rare and high quality 1 billion coins were discovered before the reform of this period.
Balak Dere’s life came to a halt in the first half of the 13th century. For almost a thousand years there has been an active life here, preserved in the cultural strata, with little interruptions.
“Disclosure requires patience, financial and logistical assistance,” said Ivaylo Kanev. He thanked the Ivaylovgrad Municipality and Mayor Diana Ovcharova for their support of the study.
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