Rock-cut Sanctuaries in the eastern Rhodope Mountains: the Gloukhite Kamani Cult Complex
This project is an investigation of the site of Gloukhite Kamani ('Deaf Stones'), near the town of Lyubimits in southeastern Bulgaria. The site has a variety of rock carvings, including a large number of niches carved into a cliff face, a large cistern on a mountain peak with a series of steps leading up to it, and an artificially enlarged cave with a domed ceiling. Preliminary investigation conducted in 2008, 2009, and 2010 by Dr. G. Nekhrizov of the National Archaeological Institute and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, have revealed evidence for Thracian occupation from the late second millennium through the first millenium BCE, and a subsequent Byzantine Christian settlement of the 5th and 6th centuries CE. The current proposal aims to expand on these investigations on two fronts, 1) to continue the excavation of the Early Iron Age and Thracian habitation levels and 2) to conduct more extensive field surveys of the immediate region, including an intensive recording of rock-cut monuments.