Roman Bulgarian City Found

[guy]

 

Sometimes it is easy to forget the presence and impact of ancient Rome in Bulgaria, ancient Thrace. Rome conquered the area in AD 46 and created the province of Thracia. 

Recently, there had been a discovery of a tombstone to a legionnaire found in Northwest Bulgaria. The stone was probably made by his dedicated slave.

 

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In today’s Bulgaria, there are only three Roman cities which enjoyed the status of colonies of the city of Rome: Ratiaria (Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria) near the Danube town of Archar in Northwest Bulgaria; Ulpia Oescus near Gigen, also near the Danube, and also in Northwest Bulgaria; and Deultum (Colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium) near the Black Sea city of Burgas in Southeast Bulgaria.

 

Now, there has been a discovery of another ancient Roman city in Northwest Bulgaria:

 

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A vast archaeological site, which was an Ancient Roman settlement with traces from the earliest Roman presence in today’s Bulgaria in the 1st century BC and was located halfway between the large Roman Empire cities of Bononia (today’s Vidin) and Ratiaria (today’s Archar) has been discovered by archaeologists in rescue excavations near the Danube River in Northwest Bulgaria.

 

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The Ancient Roman settlement found as a result of the construction of the highway between Bulgaria’s capital Sofia and the Danube city of Vidin, which includes finds from the era of both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, is also remarkable because of its location along the Roman Danube road (running along the southern bank of the river, in today’s Bulgaria’s) exactly in the middle between the Roman cities of Ratiaria (today the small town of Archar) and Bononia (today’s Vidin).

 

http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2021/04/25/1st-century-bc-traces-of-earliest-roman-presence-in-bulgaria-on-danube-discovered-halfway-between-major-antiquity-cities-bononia-vidin-and-ratiaria-archar/

 

Summary: Buried deep in the article, I found this disturbing quote:

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Unfortunately, the collapse of the communist regime in Bulgaria affected negatively the research and security of the Ancient Roman city [Ratiaria]. The archaeological excavations were terminated for lack of funding in 1991, and in the following years the once well preserved archaeological complex has been brutally looted and excavated by scores of treasure hunters – from poor local diggers to well-organized antique trafficking mobsters.

It is alleged that in the 1990s the Roman city was bulldozed by the local mafia with the alleged participation of some government officials, while local Roma clans have been picking at the archaeological site by hand for decades.

The treasure hunting plight of Ratiaria (and Bulgaria, for that matter) was documented in a 2009 documentary of Dateline on Australia’s SBS TV entitled “Plundering the Past". The damage done to one of the largest Roman cities outside Italy can hardly be calculated.

 

 It's good to see ancient history rescued and preserved.

 

guy also known as gaius