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Archaeologists have uncovered a well-preserved marble statue of the Greek God Hermes while carrying out excavations at an ancient Roman sewer.
Knewz.com has learned that the statue has been found in southwestern Bulgaria, at a site where the ancient Roman city of Heraclea Sintica once stood.
The latest discovery came nearly a week after two ancient Roman villas were discovered in the Shropshire region of England during a National Trust survey.
Archaeologists currently involved in the excavation project at the ancient Roman city believe that the 6.8-foot-tall statue of Hermes was placed in the sewer and covered with soil following an earthquake sometime around 388 A.D.
Being carefully buried in the sewer is likely the reason why the statue has been preserved so well, according to the team of archaeologists working on the dig.
"Its head is preserved. (It’s in a) very good condition. There are a few fractures on the hands," Lyudmil Vagalinski, who is leading the team, said in a statement, via Reuters.
Vagalinski added that the statue was a copy of the original Greek iteration made by the ancient Romans.
Speaking about the condition of the statue, the team of archaeologists also theorized that the people of the ancient Roman city possibly tried to preserve the statue, despite the Roman Empire having adopted Christianity as the official religion.
"Everything pagan was forbidden, and they have joined the new ideology, but apparently they took care of their old deities," Vagalinski commented, according to Reuters.
The ancient Roman city of Heraclea Sintica is located near what is now the village of Rupite, in Southwestern Bulgaria, near the border with Greece. The region is also known as Pirin Macedonia.
The sprawling city was founded by the ancient Macedonian king Philip II of Macedon, the father of Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great, sometime between 356 B.C. and 339 B.C.
Reuters reported that the city likely fell into rapid decline following the earthquake around 388 A.D., and over a century later, by 500 A.D., the city was abandoned.
The ancient city of Heraclea Sintica was identified in 2002 after the discovery of a Latin inscription documenting the correspondence between the Roman Emperor Galerius Valerius Maximianus and Caesar Maximinus II, according to Heritage Daily.
The website Ancient Bulgaria mentioned that archaeologists have been excavating the site of this significant city since 2007.
The website further noted that discoveries are made at the site every year, giving rise to newer theories about how the ancient Roman city was abandoned.
A little over a week prior, Knewz.com reported the astonishing discovery of two Roman villas, along with the evidence of several farmsteads dating back to the Iron Age, at a National Trust site in England.
The discovery was made during a National Trust survey aimed at helping the organization plan for upcoming nature conservation efforts and tree-planting schemes as part of the organization's efforts to battle climate change.
Using ground-scanning technology, the survey attempted to map undetected features that lay underneath the Wroxeter region in Shropshire, close to the site where the ancient Roman city of Viriconium once stood.
Janine Young, an archaeologist associated with the National Trust, said in a statement via The Guardian:
"It’s a very rich area archaeologically speaking. I look after other National Trust properties as well, and there is no way you would get such a level of occupation [elsewhere]. The landscape had quite dense occupation throughout history, and it is that continuous occupation that is very exciting."
