Archaeology: Excavations start at last four archeological sites under Via Pontica programme in Bulgaria
Archaeological excavations are starting at the last four archaeological sites under the Via Pontica programme along Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, National History Museum head Bozhidar Dimitrov said on September 10 2012.
Work on the archaeological digs in the government’s Via Pontica programme was delayed because each site is in a summer resort and the work might have been inconvenient for tourists, Dimitrov told local news agency Focus.
Now that most of the summer’s tourists have left Bulgaria, it was possible to start the underwater archaeological excavations of Akra fortress close to the town of Chernomorets, the excavations of the Northern Tower – a big feudal castle on the northern coast of the Old Town in Sozopol, archeological excavations in Urdoviza fortress in the town of Kiten and archeological excavations in a fortress in the village of Sinemorets, on the hill above the mouth of the Veleka river.
The archeologists are already reporting the first results, Dimitrov said.
Close to Akra fortress a port settlement was found separately from the fortified town. It existed for nearly 1000 years, according to the report. Amphorae and construction ceramics dating back to the fifth century BCE to the sixth century CE were found in at the site.
A large feudal tower was discovered in the town of Sozopol. It is fortified with buttresses in the “most picturesque part of the town,” Dimitrov said.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
