ARCHAEOLOGISTS FOUND AN EARLY CHRISTIAN TOMB AT PERPERIKON

One of the biggest early Christian churches in Bulgaria was discovered at Perperikon by the team of the archaeologist prof. Nikolay Ovcharov. The temple was built in the late 5th century. On 25th of August, in the presence of journalists, a tomb was opened in which supposedly a bishop was buried.

The Early Christian tomb was cut into the rock and covered with stone slabs, which were removed in order to uncover the tomb. Then soil was removed from the grave, layer by layer, after a check with metal detector.

Meanwhile, nearby workers made a new discovery a church from the 5th - 6th century with wall paintings.This is typical for the period 5th -6th century, for the late antiquity, the professor said.

The church was impressive, with 3 meters high columns and rich wall paintings. Beside it, a tombstone was found with inscriptions in Greek. After nearly an hour of working, the archaeologists reached the bottom of the tomb. As expected, no metal objects were found in it. However, no bones were found either. Perhaps they faded away over the past 15 centuries, but there is another hypothesis.

Prof. Ovcharov explains that is is possible the bones of the bishop to have been transferred to an ossuary or inside the church. Especially if the person was a holy man who was much revered in his time.

Unlike the episcopal church, the graves are rich in finds. Archaeologists have unearthed many bronze and silver bracelets and other jewelry parts. They will be cleaned and restored.