Bulgarian archaeologists have found what has been described as a 'wealthy' 8000-year-old town close to the Danube city of Ruse. The town, which flourished between 5,800 BCE and 5,500 BCE had well-organized streets and even two-storey houses with oak floors.
     "The ceramics that we found here is of a very high-quality, and with no analogy compared to other settlements from this age. People of this period had taste, and we can say they had an aristocratic style," explained archaeologist Dr. Svetlana Venelinova from the Regional History Museum in the city of Shumen. In her words, a survey using electromagnetic waves has shown that the prehistoric settlement was structured in a way comparable to a much later Antiquity town.
     Dr. Venelinova believes the settlement might have been a religious center because of the superb quality of the ceramics and tools found there. The town had a 5-meter fortress wall and a 3-meter-deep moat. Yet, in the 300 years of its existence the town was burned down seven times.
     The archaeological excavations of the site near Ivanovo started by accident in 2008 after a construction firm destroyed part of the mound covering the prehistoric town as it was digging out soil in order to use it for a dike along the Kamchiya River.

Source: Novinite (25 July 2010)