Over the years, her team has discovered there the ruins of a religious temple of multiple ancient deities, an inn with a tavern, richly decorated public and residential buildings, and what appears to have been a brothel. The earliest buildings in the residential quarters in question were constructed long before the Roman conquest of Ancient Thrace, as early as the 4 th β 3 rd century AD, the early Hellenistic Age.
They were inhabited uninterruptedly for almost an entire millennium. The most notable building in the quarters on the southern slopes of the three hills is said to be its Antiquity temple, which seems to have served the cults for a number of deities, and was not dedicated to a single ancient god as was usually the case. The archaeologists have found there a wide range of marble, clay, and terracotta figures and figurines depicting numerous deities worshipped by the Thracians, Romans, and Greeks as well other ancient peoples such as the Phrygians and the Persians β including the Mother Goddess, Attis, and Mithra.
Today the ruins of the Roman luxury quarters are found outside the road tunnel beneath the Theater. The Roman luxury quarters excavated by the Plovdiv archaeologists are located on the left side of the street on the right if one is exiting the tunnel. The archaeologists found there nearly a dozen large pithoi, big ceramic vessels used as storage containers, for grain as well as cooking and eating vessels, pottery amphorae for olive oil and wine, and hearths.
The inn also had a boudoir, a private room for women, the archeologists hypothesize judging by artifacts discovered there such as bone hair needles, and a bronze statuette depicting a female bust. We could refer to it as a resting place, after taking a bath. Such an arrangement we know only from Pompeii: During excavations in , the Plovdiv archaeologist also discovered a clay phallus figurine dating back to the 2 nd β 3 rd century AD.
The exact purpose of the figurine, however, remains unclear, with hypotheses including a ritual symbol of fertility. However, the latest excavations of the Ancient Thracian and Roman Nebet Tepe Fortress have revealed issues with earlier archaeological research casting doubt on whether Plovdiv indeed was the oldest city in Europe, while not denying the exquisite historical, archaeological, and cultural value of the site.
