2,000-year-old Roman sewer surprises archeologists with Greek god statue

Archeologists unearthed a treasure from antiquity during an excavation of Heraclea Sintica, a city in Bulgaria, this week.

The statue of the messenger God Hermes was an unexpected finding. Lead archeologist Dr. Lyudmil Vagalinski stated that statue’s head is preserved, and “it’s in “very good condition”, as per NYPost.

The team postulated that the statue ended up in a sewer and buried in dirt as relating to the Roman Empire having already become a Christian state which, in turn, preserved it, making it the exemplary statue from antiquity ever found in Bulgaria.

This is the best-preserved statue from antiquity in Bulgaria found

Excavations has been taking place since 2007 led by Lyudmil Vagalinkski at the National Institute of Archaeology in Sofia. Thus far, they’re found tunnels, arches, and even a studio that produced masks for a theater. Inside the Roman sewage system, however, the Cloaca Maxima, according to Greek City Times , they stumbled upon an exceptionally well-preserved state of a male.

Due to its attributes, archaeologists believe it to be a Roman copy of a Greek sculpture of Hermes, as per NYPost , the messenger of the Gods, but also of winter, travelers, shepherds, sleep, and dreams, so Hermes has quite the wing span. Given its location, in a sewer, which surprised archeologists, they imagined that the statue was placed there either to preserve it or reject it, as the city had already converted to Christianity, though its roots were still pagan.

The ancient city of Heraclea Sintica

The ruins of Heraclea Sintica , once a sprawling major Balkan city, were uncovered in 2002 when a Latin inscription documenting correspondence between Emperor Galerius and Caesar Maximinus II was found, accidentally, as per Greek City Times.

The ancient Greek city was the settlement center, as per research published by lead archaeologists, of the Middle Struma River valley for almost 800 years. Founded by Philip II of Macedon in 356 and 339 BCE in southwestern Bulgaria, it replaced an older site, a Thracian tribal center known as Sintia.

Though different tribal groups lived in the area, the inscriptions and coinage helped archeologists identify the city. “The strong spirit of the Heracleans helped them to overcome several enemy attacks .” However, not the fatal earthquake of 425 AD.

Earlier earthquakes slowed down its development as a city, but the absence of bones suggests that smaller earthquakes had forewarned its residents to evacuate the premises. Nonetheless, when the earthquake of 425 hit, it destroyed the city’s infrastructure. It fell into decline and was subsequently abandoned around 500. Along with the statue of Hermes.

Around 380, the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the official state religion, which could explain why residents tucked the Greek statue away, though they didn’t destroy it, the city already at risk from invaders and earthquakes.

“Everything pagan was forbidden, and they have joined the new ideology,” Vagalinski told NYPost. But he added that they still took care of the old deities, perhaps as works of art or out of some basic respect, and funny enough, they put it in the sewer. Perhaps strictly practical.

The discovery of the statue is significant, as Dr. Vagalinski notes, as the best-preserved statue from antiquity ever found at Heraclea Sintica and possibly in all of Bulgaria.