Some important archaeological finds have been made in the course of recent excavations in Thrace, throwing a completely new light on its relations with Greece. Among the most important are the tholos-tombs or bee-hive tombs (Kuppelgräber) of Mezek.

Mezek is a village in southern Bulgaria, quite near the Greek frontier ; it lies at the foot of the easternmost outlier of the Rhodope range, about 6 km. southwest of the railway station of Svilengrad, from which it can easily be reached in a car. Several tumuli can be seen near the village, chief among them being the hill called Mal-Tepe (the ‘ hill of the treasure ’), 14 m. high and about 90 m. in diameter. As far back as 1903, when Mezek was still in Turkish hands, the bronze statue of a boar was discovered near the hill, and four years later was placed in the museum at C~nstantinople. This find led the museum authorities to make excavations there, but with no result of any note, and it was not until 1931 that some of the local residents were able to penetrate to the burial-place beneath the hill. All their finds are carefully preserved in the national museum at Sofia. At the same time, the Bulgarian Archaeological Institute has undertaken a complete investigation on the actual site, with the result that a number of important details have been ascertained.