Bulgarian archaeologists have found a very well-preserved two-meter-high statue with a head In the ancient city of Heraclea Sintica. It was made by an artist who used a whole marble block to make the statue in the 2nd century AD when this practice was already archaic. The statue is of god Hermes and there are very few such statues in the world. The sculpture is the first of its kind found in Bulgaria. It was discovered during the cleaning of the Cloaca Maxima, the city's large canal under the forum.

"I suppose that the inhabitants of the city laid it in the dirt in this place after the great earthquake in the 4th century, in order to preserve for better times one of their old deities, when Christianity was already the official religion," the long-time head of the research, Prof. Dr. Lyudmil Vagalinski says. The statue will be moved to the Museum of Petrich and after conservation it will be exhibited there.