Bulgarian archaeologists have found what has been described as a “wealthy” 8000-year-old town close to the Danube city of Ruse.

The town, which flourished between 5 800 BC and 5 500 BC had well-organized streets and even two-storey houses with oak floors.

“The ceramics that we found here is of a very high-quality, and with no analogy compared to other settlements from this age. People of this period had taste, and we can say they had an aristocratic style,” explained archaeologist Dr. Svetlana Venelinova from the Regional History Museum in the city of Shumen.

The newly-found prehistoric settlement is located near the village of Ivanovo, whose rock-hewn monasteries are recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage site.

In her words, a survey using electromagnetic waves has shown that the prehistoric settlement was structured in a way comparable to a much later Antiquity town.

Dr. Venelinova believes the settlement might have been a religious center because of the superb quality of the ceramics and tools found there. The town had a 5-meter fortress wall and a 3-meter-deep moat. Yet, in the 300 years of its existence the town was burned down seven times.

The Shumen archaeologists have complained about the lack of funds to carry out their research. The excavations in the summer of 2010 were funded with a total of BGN 3 325 by the Regional History Museum, of which BGN 1 000 were paid for the electromagnetic wave survey.

The archaeological excavations of the site near Ivanovo started by accident in 2008 after a construction firm destroyed part of the mound covering the prehistoric town as it was digging out soil in order to use it for a dike along the Kamchiya River.

The prehistoric town exposed back then has survived the raids of treasure hunters thanks to the lack of precious metal objects on the site.