A map of the five Pan-European Transport Corridors going through Bulgarian territory, including the new road to Greece through the Makaza mountain pass. Map by industrial-zones.com

A bulldozer has destroyed a prehistoric settlement and a medieval church near the town of Momchilgrad in southern Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian National Television, BNT, reports that the case is under police investigation with the most likely culprit being a construction company building the new road to Greece through the Makaza mountain pass. A special commission from the Culture Ministry is checking the premises.

8 000 years ago, at the same location, there had been a prehistoric settlement with unique for Europe architecture – it was a craftsman center for making various tools.

"We still don't know what happened, but the bulldozer had flattened the entire settlement mount and the west wall of the church," archeologist Milen Kamarev is quoted saying.

The destroyed mount had been discovered by Zharin Velichkov, the person in charge of preservation of archeological monuments in the area.

The builders had very precise maps of the road and nearby archeological sites were marked in detail. The mount and the church are about 100 meters away from the route of the future thoroughfare. Archeologists are at a loss as to why the destruction of the unique site occurred, but say they are launching immediately rescue excavations.