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Sat, May 26 2012
Bulgarian archaeological site destroyed by bulldozers
Photo: Reuters
An archaeological site in Bulgaria, including remnants of a village said to date back 8000 years, has been destroyed by bulldozers, allegedly the work of a construction company building part of a new road from Bulgaria to Greece.
The destruction means that archaeologists have lost thousands of years of history, Bulgarian National Television reported.
A special commission from the Ministry of Culture is inspecting the damage to the site, near Momchilgrad, and police are investigating.
Zharin Velichkov, chief inspector at the Ministry of Culture’s national institute for immovable cultural heritage, said that the site had individual layers dating back thousands of years, believed to reach back as far as 6000 BCE.
He told Bulgarian National Television that he could not say who had committed the destruction but it was most likely the company that had been carrying out work in the area.
The construction company had been given accurate maps of the area, with archaeological sites marked. The mound of the site, which also included a medieval church, were a few hundred metres from the future road to Greece.
Archaeologists were doing what they could to rescue anything remaining after the bulldozing, the report said.
The destruction means that archaeologists have lost thousands of years of history, Bulgarian National Television reported.
A special commission from the Ministry of Culture is inspecting the damage to the site, near Momchilgrad, and police are investigating.
Zharin Velichkov, chief inspector at the Ministry of Culture’s national institute for immovable cultural heritage, said that the site had individual layers dating back thousands of years, believed to reach back as far as 6000 BCE.
He told Bulgarian National Television that he could not say who had committed the destruction but it was most likely the company that had been carrying out work in the area.
The construction company had been given accurate maps of the area, with archaeological sites marked. The mound of the site, which also included a medieval church, were a few hundred metres from the future road to Greece.
Archaeologists were doing what they could to rescue anything remaining after the bulldozing, the report said.
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nice photo of the tractor by the way ,it just makes it a tat more horrifying .
Let me see ,how can it happen ? Very simple ,contact,plan,not much time,pile of rubble ,GONE! You have to understand Bulgarian bureaucracy for this to be swallowed . Some one with to much power and not much brain has made a executive decision ! We are building a motorway here people ! What there is some old ruins down there ? Is there any gold ? WHAT ? NO GOLD ? Keep going flatten the place like a pancake ,hmm I will have a pancake while I am watching 8000 years of archeological wonder being flattened and I will enjoy [...]
Read the full comment it.....no gold what were they thinking in those times?
History reduced to rubble,maybe it was a tragic accident or on the other hand it may have a major financial burden on part of the contractor's?
This is outrageous!! How can it happen???
A great pity both for people interested in history and culture and for the tourist industry.