site.btaForeign Scholars Visit Ancient Finds in Southwestern Bulgaria

Foreign scholars Thursday visited ancient finds in the southwestern towns of Petrich and Sandanski, BTA learned from Associate Professor Ivo Topalilov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Balkan Studies and Centre of Thracology. The visit was part of the 16th Conference of the International Association for the Study of Ancient Mosaics (AIEMA), which is being held for the first time in Bulgaria on October 14-20.

In Sandanski the scholars saw the Episcopal complex with basilica and the Archaeological Museum. In Petrich they saw the ancient city of Heraclea Sintica where two statues were found - a large marble deity and a large marble statue of a young man - and visited the History Museum.

"We are interested in what they will say about historical sites because these are leading art historians," Topalilov said. He hopes that the conference will pique the interest of the Bulgarian academic community in the study of ancient mosaics. 

The Paris-based AIEMA holds a conference every three years, which brings together the greatest scholars and researchers of ancient mosaics. This year's conference is attended by more than 100 scholars from four continents. The most prominent of them come from France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the UK, the US, and Bulgaria's neighbours Greece, Serbia and the Republic of North Macedonia, said Topalilov.