August 31, 2000
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) -- Archaeologists in southern
Bulgaria have located
the remains of what they believe to be the capital
of a Thracian kingdom in
the latest of a series of major Bronze Age finds,
state radio reported
Thursday.
Parts of the ancient Perperikon were unearthed around
a three-story palace
dating from the fifth or fourth century B.C., discovered
a week ago near
the village of Perperek, some 200 miles southeast
of Sofia, head researcher
Nikolai Ovcharov told the radio.
Perperikon is believed to have been the capital of
the Odrisses, a Thracian
tribe, which had established a state over what today
is southeastern
Bulgaria and European Turkey in the fifth and fourth
century B.C., Ovcharov
said.
The city, including a fortress and a residential section,
was one of the
Thracians' holy places, rife with sacrificial altars,
the oldest of which
dates back to 2000 B.C., Ovcharov told the radio.
He said there was evidence that the Thracians, known
for their advanced
fine arts and crafts, have also conducted astronomical
observations of the
sun from their city, nested in the Rhodope Mountain.
The Thracian rulers' palace located earlier in the
area includes a
staircase hewn into a rock and leading up three floors
with intact internal
corridors and at least 20 well-preserved rooms.
In a similar find earlier this month near the village
of Starosel, 100
miles east of Sofia, archaeologists discovered the
tomb of what appears to
have been a Thracian ruler. The tomb is next to the
biggest Thracian temple
found to date in Bulgaria.
Articles in the tomb, including a gold tiara and a
gold ring depicting a
Thracian horseman piercing a wild boar, were dated
to the fifth century,
B.C. and suggest it was a royal burial site, experts
said.
Other items found include four silver and eight bronze
vessels, ancient
Greek ceramics, a bronze shield, a helmet, swords
and arrows with bronze
tips.