Archaeology Hot Spot on St. Cyricus Yields Yet Another Greek Treasure

Over the last few years, excavations on St. Cyricus, near the Bulgarian town of Sozopol, have been particularly fruitful, unearthing a long and eventful history in the area. Now, on the St. Cyricus island-turned-peninsula, located on the southwestern Black Sea coast in Bulgaria, archaeologists have discovered a 2,500-year-old terracotta relief that includes a depiction of ancient Greek warriors on the march.

What Were Greek Warriors Doing on St. Cyricus Peninsula?

The warriors depicted on the terracotta relief were known as hoplites. Recruited from the ranks of the civilian population in Greek city-states, these citizen-soldiers were used to defend their people against invasion or other external threats. It might seem unusual to find a carved image of this type in such a remote location, but there was in fact a prominent Greek settlement in the area now occupied by the Bulgarian town of Sozopol in the sixth century BC, a time when hoplite warfare was widely practiced.

Far from being unusual, the newly discovered artifact is just the latest to be found on St. Cyricus Island (also known as Sts. Quiricus and Julietta Island). Now connected to Sozopol via a bridged roadway, the St. Cyricus peninsula is one of the most extraordinarily fertile archaeological sites ever discovered on the Black Sea coast. This Black Sea colony, which was known as Apollonius Pontica, was named after the Greek god Apollo, perhaps the most admired of the Olympian deities.