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The village of Dyadovo is located in Southeast Bulgaria, in the Nova Zagora municipality, Sliven province, roughly 225 km from Sofia.
Dyadovo Mound
The mound rises near Dyadovo, about 10km south of Nova Zagora. It has an irregular oval shape and is 18m high, which makes it one of the largest in Bulgaria.
The early Thracian farmers and stock-breeders looked for sites with favorable climate and good natural conditions. Thus, their settlement was established on a small elevation on the banks of the Blatnitsa River, around two springs situated in its northern periphery. It is believed that it was built in the 6th-7th millennium B.C. and continued to be inhabited during the Copper-Stone, Bronze and Early Iron Age. In the early Byzantine period a small fortified settlement emerged surrounded by a fortress wall with turrets. Excavations revealed a large medieval Bulgarian town with a necropolis and a small church.
The Dyadovo mound is of great significance for archaeologists because of the finds in the Bronze Age layers (3rd-2nd millennium B.C.). They throw light on the ancient cultures on what are today Bulgarian territories, especially the Thracian civilization and its relatedness to Europe and Asia. The Dyadovo mound is a major pre-historic monument in Bulgaria attesting to the urbanization processes in Thrace in the 3rd-2nd millennium B.C. Worth special mention is a unique system of moats dating from the Middle Bronze Age (early 2nd millennium B.C.) The innermost moat faced with stone surrounded an inner city or a citadel. The moats are elements of the power of the king-priests in the early Thracian society.
The moat in the southeastern section of the mound, 2m deep, is faced with unhewn stones, and presents a unique example of urban planning from that remote period. In the centre of the area it encircles is a ritual pit. The layout of the settlement from the 2nd millennium B.C. is very similar to that of ancient Troy. It bears witness to the influence of Thrace on legendary Ilium. The Thracians were its loyal allies.
The permanent museum exhibition contains virtual reproductions of historic and pre-historic layers; finds from the Copper-Stone Age (pottery, tools, unique pre-historic figurines); the Bronze Age (pottery, tools made of stone and bone, agricultural implements, e.g. an ancient plough, moulds, clay cult figurines, bone ornaments, shells, gold); Early Iron Age (unique clay vessels, jewelry); the Middle Ages (pottery, tools, agricultural implements, jewelry from the medieval necropolis).
There is a replica of a pre-historic dwelling with an authentic ceramic furnace inside.