Sunken Fortress and Ritual Pits Discovered at Holy Island in Bulgaria

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have discovered a Late Middle Ages Byzantine settlement, in the form of a sunken fortress, and a small monastery on Bulgaria’s tiny St. Thomas Island in the Black Sea.

In June 2018, during the initial phase of the island’s first ever archaeological research, a team led by Prof. Ivan Hristov from Bulgaria’s National Museum of History in Sofia discovered the first signs of what they called a “sunken fortress from Ancient Thrace” in waters between the island and the Bulgarian mainland. This area was at one time an isthmus, while the St. Thomas Island used to be a peninsula until the Middle Ages, according to an article in Archaeology in Bulgaria.

St. Thomas Island Archaeological Endeavor

St. Thomas Island in the Black Sea, otherwise known as Snake Island, is part of the Ropotamo Natural Preserve and as such the archaeological explorations were all “carried out under the strict requirements of Bulgaria’s Ministry of Environment and Waters and the project is being wholly funded by Bulgaria’s Ministry of Culture, according to the report.

The Island’s territory totals 0.012 square kilometers (12 decares, or 3 acres) and it lies only 0.2 nautical miles (appr. 370 meters) from the mainland. A 1955 archaeological expedition on Bulgaria’s St. Thomas Island exposed “the ruins of a small church and some auxiliary buildings” but the 2018 archaeological expedition has discovered the remains of an “Early Byzantine (/Late Roman) settlement from the 5th – 6th century AD with “ritual pits” and a small monastery from the 12th – 14th century during the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185 – 1396/1422).”