Bulgaria's largest dolmen, a rather peculiar 'stone egg', and other megalithic monuments near Zlatosel (Bulgaria) have been recently discovered, and presented to the media and the public for the first time by Prof. Valeriya Fol. Up until now, this hard to reach megalithic site in the eastern section of the Sredna Gora Mountain in Southern Bulgaria has literally been known only to a few local mountaineers from Zlatosel.
     "This dolmen is part of the earliest aristocratic necropolis in the region of the Brezovo Municipality," says Fol who dates the dolmen and the other megalithic man-made structures around it to at least the 2nd millennium BCE. She believes that the newly discovered dolmen was the family tomb of an Ancient Thracian royal or aristocratic family.
     "This dolmen was indeed just one part of a large dolmen necropolis. Unfortunately, it is the only one of the dolmens that has been preserved standing. It is the size of a two-room apartment. The other megaliths could be lifted [and restored]," the archaeologist said. Fol emphasizes the beliefs of the people in ancient times that stone is a divine matter. She adds that the Ancient Thracians believed that they could become 'anthropodemon', that is to acquire a status between human and divine nature.
     In the same location near Zlatosel, the expedition led by Fol has come across a rock shrine with a huge stone stele in its middle and a megalith said to resemble a 'stone egg'. "This is a rock shrine dedicated to the sun which has a huge stele in its middle. The stone stele alone is 2.5 meters tall," Fol says. According to the archaeologist, the stone egg symbolizes the birth of life.
     Since the stone egg appears to have fallen on the ground from its supporting structure, Zhenya Milcheva - chief editor of 'Magazine 8', which is to publish a detailed report of the expedition - has called for an effort to restore the megalith to the position where it was originally placed by the people who lived in the area several thousand years ago.

Edited from Archaeology in Bulgaria (16 October 2015)