Seven metres below the hills near Valandovo in North Macedonia, archaeologists have reached the public bath of an ancient city.
The 2026 season at Isar-Marvinci uncovered a pool more than 4.5 metres long and 1.5 metres deep. Its builders sealed it with waterproof mortar and lined it with more than eight kinds of marble. Beneath the floor the heating system survives almost intact, with its own furnace and channels that carried hot air under the water. The bath was fed by the city cistern.
The same trenches gave up a silver coin of the Ichnaeans struck around 500 to 480 BC, a marble bust of a military commander and a blue marble inscription that may name the donor.
Many scholars identify the site as Idomenae, the town Thucydides records in the Thracian invasion of 429 BC. Excavation continues in 2027.
