Large Hellenistic building unearthed in Heraclea Sintica

Bulgarian archaeologists have discovered a large public building dating back to the 4th-3rd century BC, the Early Hellenistic Period, during their 2015 summer excavations of the Ancient Thracian, Greek, and Roman city of Heraclea Sintica near the southwestern town of Petrich.

Part of the ruins of the early Hellenistic buidling unearthed in the ancient city
 of Heraclea Sintica [Credit: Petrich Museum of History]

The discovery has been announced by Assoc Prof. Lyudmil Vagalinski, Director of Bulgaria’s National Institute and Museum of Archaeology, who is also the lead archaeologists in the excavations of Heraclea Sintica.

Heraclea Sintica was founded around 300 BC by Cassander, King of the Kingdom of Macedon (r. 305-297 BC), who also founded Thessaloniki. It was named Heraclea after the mythical Ancient Greek hero Heracles, also known as Hercules, and Sintica after the Thracian tribe of the Sintians who inhabited the valley of Struma River.

The newly found archaeological structure is said to be valuable precisely because it dates back to the beginning of the Hellenistic Age.

“This building is from the Early Hellenistic Age, the 4th-3rd century BC. It literally dates back to the very beginning of the ancient city. It lies at a depth of 8 meters. Its construction is exquisite. This find is huge success for us, there are very few such Early Hellenistic buildings found in Bulgaria,” Vagalinski explains.

“That’s why it would be a sin to re-bury and abandon it. It is a problem that a road passes by close above it but we are obliged to unearth it as much as possible, and to conserve it”, he adds, assuring that his team will do all it can to preserve the ancient building, and will draft a project to make it accessible for tourists.

Source: Archaeology in Bulgaria [September 06, 2015]