Gold fever is consuming the Ovce Pole plateau, as construction teams found an old basilica while working on the new Stip – Kocani road.

The discovery was duly reported as historically significant, but local media are going a step further and insist that, besides the early Christian artifacts, workers also found gold bullion.

Some say it was half a ton, others say they found a ton of gold, villagers from the area tell local media.

Reports spread like wildfire to the point that the Stip museum issued a formal denial

We found treasure, but in archaeological artifacts dating to the 5th century A.D. We believe it is a Christian basilica from the 5th or the 6th century, which is yet to be explored in full, said Mitko Sterjov from the Stip museum.

According to Sterjov, similar work a decade ago led to the discovery of the skeleton of a pre-historic man, dated 7.000 years ago. He absolutely denies that a huge quantity of gold was uncovered in this region, which has been populated early in history with well developed urban life.