page_title: Sofia Province
section_title: Prehistory and antiquity
hierarchical_section_title: Sofia Province / History / Prehistory and antiquity
caption_attribution_description: English: Bulgaria 6200BC neolithic Chavdar culture
context_page_description: Sofia Province is a province of Bulgaria. The province does not include Sofia in its territories, but Sofia remains its administrative center. The province borders on the provinces of Pernik, Kyustendil, Blagoevgrad, Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Lovech, Vratsa, Montana and "Sofia City Province", to the northwest there is border with Serbia.
context_section_description: Archaeological excavations near Chavdar suggest that the region has been settled by humans as early as 7,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of a mass settlement dates back to Thracian times, including tumuli (burial mounds) which remain poorly studied. According to Thucydides, the areas north of Vitosha were inhabited by the Tilataei and the Treri. The Triballi were also known to have inhabited the region around Serdica. The Serdi, a Celtic tribe that appeared in place of the vanished Treri and Tilataei, were first mentioned in 29 BC. Roman General Marcus Licinius Crassus began his campaign against the Triballi in that year, and in 27 BC his troops captured Serdica.
  Felix Philipp Kanitz, the first person to study the Iskar Gorge area thoroughly, identified eight Roman castella, which he considered proof of the great strategic importance the Romans placed on the gorge. The road passing through it connected Roman lands from Thessaloniki all the way to Dacia. However, up until modern times, the gorge was poorly accessible because of its rugged terrain. As a result, the inhabitants were partially isolated from the rest of the world, self-reliant, but also safe from wars and invasions. Some of the population of Moesia thus found the Iskar river area an appealing safe haven later in the 5th century, when the province was threatened by Hunnic and Gothic raids.
caption: Neolithic pottery discovered near Chavdar
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