2024-07-06 03:01:37
- Archaeologists are preparing the find to be moved to the museum in Petrich
- It is preserved, above human height, and with a head
A unique marble statue of the god Hermes was discovered by archaeologists from the team of Prof. Dr. Ludmil Wagalinski during excavations in the ancient city of Heraclea Sintica in Rupite.
The statue is fully preserved, 2.10 m tall and probably weighs around 600-700 kg.
We assume that it is of the god Hermes, one of the most popular deities in the region, and is from the 2nd century AD. It is rare to find such tall statues – above human height, and with a head. We have a similar one to Demeter, but she is without a head. This is the only one in Bulgaria, we found it by chance during protective emergency conservation of the Great Canal of the ancient city. The canal in the eastern part of the forum was opened in 2018 and then we put bars at the entrance to prevent people from entering because it is dangerous.
Now we decided to go in to see what the condition was, if there was any moisture. Scraping away the dirt, a marble appeared, almost to the exitsays Prof. Vagalinski.
The statue was made by a master who used a whole
marble block,
which was more complicated than making parts and then putting them together, but that was the tradition at Heraclea Syntica.
The cleaning and moving of the statue to the History Museum in Petrich has been in preparation for two days. A structure is being built so that the heavy sculpture can be safely removed from the canal, packed and lifted by crane to the museum.
We are considering options because there is a risk of damage during the move. There are fragile parts in places, the arms and legs are not attached, which creates a risk of breakage. At the same time, the lower part is too massive to stand upright, but this creates an imbalance when moving. We have to be careful because this is a delicate casesaid the archaeologist.
And how the statue of the god Hermes ended up in the dirty canal of the ancient city, archaeologists have an explanation.
In 380, Christianity was declared the sole state religion and it was dangerous for people to hold statues of deities. This one should have been removed. At the same time in 388
an earthquake destroyed the forum and the statue was toppled
After that, the terrain was leveled. People have hidden the statue in the disused canal. It is not vandalized and smashed, but carefully laid and covered with earth to preserve it for better times, showing the people’s respect for one of their old deitiessays Prof. Vagalinski.
It is supposed to be of the god Hermes, because it was made according to an iconographic scheme, according to which statues of deities and prominent people were made. During the excavations in the southern part of the forum, 15 sanctuaries were discovered, one of which is of Nemesis. In others, tiles and bronze statuettes of Hermes have been found, and one of the sanctuaries is probably his.
6 years ago, Prof. Wagalinski’s team found another large, extremely beautiful and well-preserved buried statue – Togatos, of a wealthy Herakleian, but it is headless. At the moment of the excavations in the western part of Heraclea Sintica, 9 foreign students from Europe and Colombia are working with the archaeologists.
A problem with working in the eastern part is that the terrain is private. Even the canal where we found the statue is now privately owned. The municipality of Petrich and the mayor, Dimitar Bruchkov, are making tremendous efforts to negotiate with the owner of the field to become municipal.
Then the municipality will be able to apply with a permanent conservation project. Now it cannot be done and we do emergency conservation work every year, but this is not a solution. There is a loophole in the law and someone must find the courage to change it so that in such cases the state or the municipality can become the owners of the landthe professor is emphatic.
Two months ago, the municipality of Petrich completed the first stage of a project for the restoration, conservation, protection, promotion and development of the Heraclea Sintika site and its transformation into a site for cultural-historical tourism in the part where archaeologists have already completed their work.
Statues, parts of columns with lion heads, capitals and other elements, the sanctuary of Nemesis,
realistic figures of Heracleans recreate a scene from life in the ancient city. On display are the artifacts found in Heraclea Sintica, so-called
home of the Thracian Sinti tribe, residence of Philip II of Macedon and later Roman polis.
6,000 square meters of the discovered archological structures have been preserved, which from a scientific point of view is a significant moment and enables the continuation of the excavations. The residential quarter, the fortress wall, the civic basilica, part of the forum of a building, chain rooms to the north of it, the artisan quarter and part of the ancient sewer have been conserved.
The discovery of the ancient city of Heraclea Sintika is one of the great mysteries in Bulgarian archaeology. For two centuries its exact location has been the subject of debate and conjecture, but in 2002 the reading of a Latin inscription on a stone tablet proved that just outside the temple of Vanga in
the Rupite area is the remains of the ancient city
of the Macedonian kings. Heraclea Syntica was founded in 340 BC. Archaeological excavations, actively supported by the municipality of Petrich, revealed the city of Thracians, Hellenes, Romans, etc., which existed from the 4th century BC. to the VI century, which was declared a cultural monument of national importance.
The settlement was inhabited by the Thracian tribe Sinti, who gave the name to the city, and later, when the Macedonian ruler Philip II captured Sintika, added Heracles to the name. A large part of the found artifacts are exhibited in the new building of the History Museum in the City Park of Petrich.