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Megalithic tomb (dolmen), village of Plevun

village of Plevun in Haskovo, Bulgaria

A megalithic burial structure (5th-1st century BC), designated an archaeological monument of culture of national importance. It is made of large, chopped, roughly shaped gneiss slabs placed vertically in a preliminary dug pit on a small natural elevation. The tomb at Pelevun has a design which was modern for its time, typical of the monumental tombs of the 5th to 3rd century BC. The site has an overall length of 7.5 metres and represents a rectangular two-chambered dolmen with a dromos oriented east-west. It has a complex structure consisting of 4 parts: а corridor, an ante-burial chamber, an antechamber and a large burial chamber. A façade made of two slabs vertically rounded on the top leads to the tomb entrance. The entrance most probably used to be closed with a slab and leads to a 2.8-metre-long dromos with walls of long vertical stone blocks. Then one steps into a narrow and short anteroom leading into the burial chamber itself. Its longitudinal walls are made of slabs of a length of 2.75 m and its floor is covered with a large stone slab. A distinguishing feature of this site is that the antechamber is wider than both the dromos and the main chamber. In terms of its linear size this is the longest dolmen found in the Rhodope Mountain. In terms of its transverse dimensions the dolmen is relatively small and narrow, which is also unusual. It has an extremely sophisticated layout unknown among similar monuments so far explored in Bulgaria. The necropolis was used many times but it was pillaged already in Antiquity. During the archaeological excavations only pottery fragments and iron tools were found.

INTERESTING FACTS

The dolmen is the most recently discovered megalithic Thracian monument in Bulgaria and is unique in terms of its architecture because it combines both elements of the early Iron Age and also such reminiscent of the subsequent developments of Hellenism.

 

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