The Madonna of Perperikon

Irina Angelova, Standart daily

The Madonna of Perperikon is the newest find of the archaeologists’ team of Professor Nikolay Ovcharov this summer. The archaeologists came across a part of medieval necropolis, where a young woman with baby in hands was buried in a chamber hewn into the rock. The discovery was made during the excavations in the eastern part of the Acropolis. Most probably the burial dates back to the period X-XII century as on it underlies the wall of a medieval church from XIII-XIV century, prof. Ovcharov assumes. He told that three years ago he had similar experience in the necropolis of Nisovo village, Russe district. In Nisovo necropolis he found burials of mothers with their children, who presumably died from bubonic plague. After the thorough examination of the tomb it turned out the the child had some of its milk teeth, which means it was not a baby. This suggests that in both cases - in Nisovo and in Perperikon – the cause of death was plaque epidemic, Nikolay Ovcharov believes.

Photos