Bulgarian Museums Publish English-Language Digest about Excavations of Ancient City Heraclea Sintica
Part of the ruins of Ancient Thracian, Greek, and Roman city of Heraclea Sintica. Photo by Petrich Museum of History
A digest with information about the excavations of Ancient Thracian, Greek, and Roman city of Heraclea Sintica located near the town of Petrich in Southwest Bulgaria has been presented in the Petrich Museum of History.
The digest is bilingual – it is published in English and Bulgarian; it has been presented by Sotir Ivanov, director of the Petrich Museum of History, the Bulgarian National Radio reports.
The digest about Heraclea Sintica features information about the archaeological excavations of the ancient city conducted by a team of scholars from Bulgaria and other Balkan countries as well as about its history and the numismatics of the coins found there.
The publishing of such books aims to boost the interest in these types of historical sites that may come to symbolize the foundation of the European civilization, Sotir Ivanov says.
The newly published digest is just the first volume of its kind dedicated to Heraclea Sintica, more volumes with information about its archaeology and history are also expected.
The chief editors of the digest about Heraclea Sintica are Ass. Prof. Dr. Lyudmil Vagalinski, director of Bulgaria’s National Institute of Archaeology with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and Emil Nankov from the American Research Center in Sofia.
The Ancient Thracian, Greek, and Roman city of Heraclea Sintica has recently seen a growing number of visitors.
In order to curb treasure hunting incursions into its archaeological riches, the Petrich Museum of History has installed surveillance cameras at Heraclea Sintica.
Background Infonotes:
Heraclea Sintica is an Ancient Thracian, Greek, and Roman city located near the town of Petrich in Southwest Bulgaria. It was the center of the ancient region of Sintica along the Struma River, which was inhabited by the Thracian tribe of the Sintians. The ancient city of Heraclea Sintica was mentioned by Homer, Herodotos, and Thycudides in their works. It was founded around 300 BC by Cassander, King of the Kingdom of Macedon (r. 305-297 BC), who also founded Thessaloniki. In the not so distant past, the location of the ancient city of Heraclea Sintica was a matter of contention between archaeologists from Bulgaria and Greece. In 2002, Bulgarian archaeologists managed to identify the city for sure after they found a Latin inscription dated back to 308 AD, in which Roman Emperor Galerius (r. 293-305 AD as Caesar, 305-311 AD as Augustus) addressed the local urban citizens of Heraclea Sintica responding to a plea to restore their lost civil rights. In the late Antiquity, the city of Heraclea Sintica gradualy waned and was replaced by nearby Sveti Vrach (today’s town of Sandanski) as a regional center. In recent years, Heraclea Sintica has been excavated by Ass. Prof. Dr. Lyudmil Vagalinski, director of Bulgaria’s National Institute of Archaeology with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and Sotir Ivanov, director of the Petrich Museum of History.
