Bulgaria uncovers 2,000-year-old temple
Archaeologists have uncovered a Bronze Age temple thousands of years old in southern Bulgaria, news reports said Monday.
The site, near Perperikon, covers 2.9 square miles, and is reportedly five times larger than the Acropolis in Athens, the Bulgarian news agency BTA said.
Workshops for metallurgy, awls and molds for axes were found at the temple, which archaeologists described as the first of its kind in the Balkan Peninsula, RTS Serbian radio-television said.
Scientists also found a bronze cross dating to the ninth or 10th century A.D., along with well-preserved paintings of Jesus and his mother Mary.
Ceramics found near the temple in Bulgaria are very similar to those in the ancient Greek town of Troy, on the Aegean Sea coast of today's Turkey, the report said.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International