Tracii si vecinii lor în antichitate: arheologie si istorie / The Thracians and Their Neighbours in Antiquity: Archaelogy and History

The area between Starossel and Strelcha and their adjacent territories can be defined as a specific micro region in the northern confines of the Odrysian Kingdom in the 4th century BC. Chetinyova Mound was part of the Starossel Thracian cultic center. The monumental construction under the mound excavated in 2000 is so far the biggest in Bulgaria and in the entire southeastern Europe. It displays the exceptional architectural, building and mathematical skills of Thracian builders in the first half of the 4th century BC. The mere existence of such a building in Thracian cultural milieu poses questions about its functions and the phases of its use. Remains of pits, hearths, excharas and pottery fragments along the crepis, and at various places and at different heights of the mound testify to multiple ritual and/or utilitarian activities performed simultaneously with the use of the temple but also after it had been partially destroyed and covered with soil on purpose, as if to conceal its existence. The reasons for the damaging of the construction remain unclear.