site.btaResearchers Find Bone Tool, Amulets from 11-10th Century BC in Cave Dwelling "Chaya"

A bone tool and two amulets from the period of 11-10th century BC are among the finds from this year's ongoing research of the cave dwelling "Chaya" near Chepelare in the Rhodopes, BTA learned from Sofia Hristeva, head of the research operation.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Chepelare Municipality finances the research, which not only enriches the collection of the Museum of the Rhodope Karst, the knowledge about our ancestors, but also develops cultural and historical tourism in the region, the press centre of the local administration said.

"We continue to work in the inner part of the cave, in the hall, where we have almost exhausted the cultural layers and we are currently drilling," Hristeva added. According to her, there are more paleontological finds in this section. The earliest layer uncovered is precisely from the period of the finds of this archaeological summer, 11-10th century BC. No evidence of earlier occupation has yet been found. Towards the end of the excavations, the outer part of the cave will be revisited and the later archaeological layers will be investigated.

One of the archaeological team's hypotheses since the beginning of the research is that there may have been dwellings during the Chalcolithic period - the end of the fifth to the beginning of the fourth millennium BC, but according to Sofia Hristeva, no confirmation has been found so far. “We're not ruling them out, we're just getting into the depth to investigate, so there could be surprises,” she said.

The plans of the Chepelare Municipality are to turn the explored cave dwelling "Chaya" into a tourist attraction.