Stone-cutting workshops at the Getic capital Helis (NE Bulgaria): tools and techniques

The Early Hellenistic Caryatids Tomb, discovered in NE Bulgaria, is a product of highly trained architects and masons, experienced in all the stages of stone processing. Newly-discovered tombs and masoned graves in the necropoleis of the Getic capital confirm the idea of the workshops' potential, provoking a search for the stone quarries, the location of which was later established by geological surveys. Archaeological investigations of the city revealed new evidence of stonecutting and masonry techniques both in the capital and the tombs. Ruins of huge fortification walls, monumental gates and additional fortifications, as well elements of buildings inside the city were unearthed, which indicate that the building of the city involved the mobilization of considerable material, human and technical resources