Badzhalia

The site was studied by the Bulgarian archaeologists Diana Gergova and Georgi Atanasov in 2004, but had been documented in earlier field surveys. It belongs to a sacral complex of five rock sanctuaries, in the dry valley of Kanagyol, where traces of human activity such as a stone throne and a rock platform with a channel have been found. A large mound necropolis stands on the high rock plateau and, together with the sanctuaries in the valley, forms a cult and funerary ensemble.

The investigation included a geodetic survey and astronomical measurements. Some of the rock pits on the high plateau were studied; they are connected with each other by caves situated 13 m above the valley and open to the west. A section of a cultural layer about 2,50 m thick, formed by ritual activity, was examined at the foot of the caves.

The team recorded a large looters' pit, connected with information about a hoard of Hellenistic coins found there. In cleaning the cave, traces of a heavily destroyed, charred clay plaster were found. No stratigraphy could be established in the trench because of the severe damage by looters.

The archaeological material, mainly pottery, indicates long use of the sanctuary from the early Iron Age to Late Antiquity. It includes fragments of Basarabi-type pottery, hand-made pottery of the early and late Iron Age, grey Thracian pottery and imported Greek ware (kantharoi, red-slip pottery and amphora fragments). Metal finds include a bronze fibula of Thracian type, a bronze coin, and bronze and iron fibulae of the Late Hellenistic and Roman periods. The cult place was used by the Thracian tribe of the Getae, who inhabited the Silistra region in antiquity.