Archaeologists in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, have unearthed the marble head of a statue believed to depict the Greek goddess Tyche in the Bishop’s Basilica—the largest late-antique, early Christian church discovered in Bulgaria and one of the largest from that period in the Balkans.
This discovery offers a rare glimpse into the Hellenistic past of Philippopolis, the ancient city that once stood on the site of modern-day Plovdiv.
According to the Bulgarian News Agency, Lyubomir Merdzhanov, the lead archaeologist overseeing the excavation, described the find as a “phenomenal” and “extremely rare artifact” that scholars had hoped to uncover for decades. Tyche, the goddess of fortune and city protection, was a prominent figure in Philippopolis, and her image has previously been found on coins dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD.
The marble head, crafted with remarkable precision, features a corona muralis—a crown symbolizing a city wall. The design includes a stylized city gate with turrets, representing the city of Philippopolis. Notably, Tyche’s irises are heart-shaped. Merdzhanov estimates that the statue to which the head belonged was approximately 2.5 meters tall.
According to Merdzhanov, the head, found near the pulpit of the basilica, may have been used as building material or may have held symbolic meaning.
The artifact is believed to be connected to an older, largely unexplored sanctuary situated beneath the basilica. Merdzhanov speculates that the rest of the statue may still lie buried underneath the basilica. He hopes that, by carefully lifting the basilica’s mosaics to allow deeper excavations, further study of the sanctuary may yield significant discoveries, including the rest of the statue.
Photo of statue head of Greek goddess Tyche discovered in Bulgaria / Credit: TV BG News/Youtube
