New finds from Bulgaria's Diocletianopolis

Archaeologists from Bulgaria's Hisarya (Diocletianopolis) Archaeological Museum unearthed a lion's head, a consecrated tablet with nymphs and a part of a life size statue, reports Bulgarian media..

Excavations at the Roman Thermae in Diocletianopolis
[Credit: RSF Archaeological Trust]

According to the director of the town museum, Mitko Madzharov, the artifacts were dated end of the second and beginning of the third centuries AD and prove that the settlement existed before the rule of the Roman emperor Diocletian.

“The nymphs are depicted in the traditional Roman manner – naked, two facing the viewer and one with her back, holding each other,” Madzharov said. “Their hair is lifted up in buns. The lion's head was part of a fountain – the head is well shaped and has a hole in the mouth, through which flowed the mineral water.”

According to the Hisarya Mayor Penka Ganeva, whose administration sponsors the excavations, the new discoveries prove that the Roman baths may have existed before the town was settled as such.

The next archaeological season will uncover the plumbing system of the Roman baths, under which still flows hot mineral water.

Source: Novinite [November 02, 2014]