Between March 20 and March 24, 2023, Dr. Kalin Dimitrov visited the Hemmenhofen Research Center of the State Office for Cultural Heritage of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Federal Republic of Germany, where he presented an overview report titled “Ropotamo and Sozopol: Submerged Prehistoric Sites and Ancient Harbors on the West Black Sea Coast.”
The report was co-authored by Palev Georgiev from the Center for Underwater Archaeology, with contributions to the presented research made by Associate Professor Dr. Margarit Damyanov, Associate Professor Dr. Maria Gyurova, and Hristina Vasileva from the National Institute of Archaeology with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), as well as Dr. Nadezhda Karastoyanova from the National Museum of Natural History at BAS.
The Hemmenhofen Research Center (Hemmenhofen branch of the Cultural Heritage Department Baden-Württemberg) is a specialized institution responsible for the study and preservation of prehistoric pile-dwelling settlements in Lake Constance and Lake Bodensee, 15 of which are part of the serial transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site “Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps,” inscribed under the 1971 UNESCO Convention.
Dr. Dimitrov also held meetings related to future collaboration in the study of pollen and archaeobotanical remains from the submerged settlements of Ropotamo and Sozopol.