Archaeologists discovered numerous burials belonging to the Eastern necropolis of the ancient city Serdica, which once existed where Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, is now located.

The discovery was made during construction of a new Hyatt Regency Sofia hotel at the site of the former Serdica Cinema in the Bulgarian capital. Archaeologists discovered six family tombs and 20 pit burials. Human remains were found in the 23 intact pit burials between the tombs. They are in various state of preservation as they were damaged during the construction of buildings at the site in the 20th century.

The tombs were cut practically at foundation level, with little of their higher reaches preserved, probably as a result of the construction work in those past decades, mostly in the 1950s and 1960s. The archaeologists were aware that the area was a former necropolis of the ancient city, so the recent finds were no big surprise. The tombs are believed to date from the Early Christian period, between the fourth and sixth centuries, when it was not customary to leave burial gifts. There were no remains in them, which means that over the centuries, they had been subject to vandalism.

(after The Sofia Globe)