An archaeology project in Bulgaria is the key to understand what ancient mystery rituals said to involve wine orgies really looked like. At an excavation site in Southeastern Bulgaria -- Halka Bunar -- indigenous archeologists explore an ancient Thracian sanctuary for a third year in a row. Their discoveries begin to shed light on what is still a riddle to modern science.

Mystery rituals were performed only by adepts sworn into silence so they remained a puzzle throughout the millennia. "Really there must have been wine in abundance," the chief of the project, Milena Tonkova, confirmed in an exclusive interview for novinite.com. She said that the bulk of the prolific finds at Halka Bunar were namely cups.

Ritual fires were the essence of the ancient mysteries, the archeologist points out. The ancient who worshipped wine-god Dionysus and other gods of the earth made animal sacrifices on special altars and burned some of the meat. "They also might have used narcotic plants to fuel the sanctuary lamps," Tonkova says.

The Halka Bunar sanctuary that dates back to the 4th-3rd century BC was most likely dedicated to the state religion of one of the most mighty Thracian tribes - the Odrysians. It is just 60km to the north of ancient capital Seuthopolis where powerful Odrysian king Seuth III resided. Seuth III who was a contemporary of Alexander the Great might have come to Halka Bunar to offer gifts to the gods, Tonkova suggests.

The Thracian tribes, ruled by a powerful warrior aristocracy rich in gold treasures, inhabited an area extending over most of modern Bulgaria, northern Greece and the European part of Turkey.

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