plan of this building, with three long, narrow rooms and a stone waste-
water channel (perhaps associated with industrial processes), resembles a
well-protected storage block. Finds of storageamphoraeand non-local
coins (latefifth-centurybctetradrachms of Ainos and a pot hoard,
containing silver coins of Thasos, Kyzikos, and Aegean Neapolis; issues
of Apollonia and Mesambria), likewise indicate strong external commer-
cial relations. The quality of the moveablefinds, including metal orna-
ments and imported Atticfine ware, reinforce this impression. Yet none
of these features prepares us for what was constructed on the hill above
(Fig. 5.6). A limestone stylobate of almost square form, made up of well-
finished ashlars, supported a stone colonnade, carved from cylindrical
drums. The excavator, Mitko Madjarov, interprets this as the foundation
for a sanctuary. It evidently had two phases, with a granite foundation of
large masonry blocks in its refashioning. This does look like a temple, or
temple-like structure. Although there are carved columns inside funerary
monuments in various parts of the region, nothing in pre-Roman Thrace
resembles this highly ambitious plan, which is hard to reach even now.
Why such a monument was built high up in the hills above the Thracian
Plain is one of the questions that future research at this site will grapple
with.
Fig. 5.6.Krastevich, near Strelcha, Bulgaria, plan of the upland sanctuary.
236 Regionalism and regional economies