Archaeology: Ancient statue discovered in "sewer"

Archeology still offers pleasant surprises for historians and the general public. Researchers from the Archaeological Academy of Sofia discovered a marble statue of the god Hermes in an ancient Roman sewer gallery at the site of Heraclea Sintica (near the border with Greece, in southwestern Bulgaria). The city was founded between 356 and 339 BC. by Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great. The discovery also tells a story about the conversion to Christianity on the territory of the Roman Empire. According to the French daily Le Figaro, this 2-meter-high statue is very well preserved because the inhabitants of Heraclea Sintica covered it with earth and placed it in the canals built under Roman rule after a terrible earthquake around 388 AD . devastated the city founded by the famous Macedonian king. Liudmil Vagalinski, the head of the Bulgarian archaeological team, gave Reuters a first assessment: "The head of Hermes is well preserved, there are only a few visible fractures on the hands. It is probably a Roman copy of an original dating from the ancient Greek civilization, that is between 700 and 300 BC .Hr.". The excellent preservation of this statue dedicated to the god Olympus, symbol of trade and fertility, has already given Bulgarian historians some clues about its interpretation: "The inhabitants of Heraclea Sintica probably tried to preserve this symbol of their mythology even after the Roman Empire adopted Christianity. Everything pagan was forbidden at the time. They eventually converted to the monotheistic religion, but they seem to have taken great care of their ancient divinities." Professor Liudmil Vagalinski, from the Academy of Archeology in Sofia, has been working intensively in this region in the southwest of his country since 2007. Before this statue, researchers also found a huge buried structure at Heraclea Sintica, made up of tunnels and arches.