The Historical museum of Tutrakan organizes archaeological investigations in the areas of Tutrakan and Glavinitsa municipalities. Over 150 officially registered archaeological sites are situated in the bounds of the Tutrakan municipality. The most important sites from the prehistoric age are the mound settlement from the Late Halkolithic culture Karanovo VI – Kodjadermen – Gumelnitsa and the complex of settlements from the the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Ages, represented by the cultures Glina VI, Tei I, III and Coslodjeni. The Iron Age is presented in 12 settlements and one wide mounded necropolis near the village of Brenitsa.
The foundation of the ancient town of Transmarisca is associated with the establishment of the Roman domination in the territories of the Lower Danube. In the I-st century Roman settlers founded the Transmarisca place – an important military station in the defense system of the Lower Danube boundaries.
Lamps of clau, 5th-6th A.D.There are 20 villages, 4 castles and 1 Roman villa from the Late Roman and Early Byzantine period in the area of the Tutrakan municipality. The main center of this area was Transmarisca, which accepted the status of “town” in this period. During the III-rd century emperor Diocletian visited the town and included it in his extensive building program. An evidence for this was found – an imperial inscription from 298-299 AD. At this time Transmarisca was one of the four biggest military and administrative centers in the bounds of province Lower Moesia. In the V-VI-th centuries the town was a center of bishopric.
Transmarisca is one of the most thoroughly investigated Roman castles in Bulgaria situated under modern towns. Four turrets and a big part of the castle walls were discovered. The archaeological excavations prove that the Roman castle existed till the beginning of the VII-th century.
The ancient fortress “Transmariska”, 3 ht A.D.The Bulgarian settlement Tutrakan was set up with the establishment of the Bulgarian state. The name of the new town comes from the prebulgarian military and administrative title “tamantarkan” and can be translated from Arabian-Turkic language as “Town of the tarkan, who defends.” At that time in the bounds of the present municipality there were 15 settlements which were part of the most sophisticated defensive earthy fortification in the early-medieval Bulgaria. It included embankment with ditch and four earthy mounds.
From the end of VII-th till the beginning of IX-th century Tutrakan was the center of one of the military and administrative provinces of Bulgaria. At the time of the political crisis in the VIII-th century a representative of the local dynasty of Tarkans was elected for king of Bulgaria. His family crest, which displays an eagle over the river Danube in the form of a stamp, is kept in England. Here Tsar Simeon was besieged by the Magyar cavalry and the Byzantine fleet during the Bulgarian-Magyar-Byzantine wars in 894-895. As result of the sequent parleys the Bulgarian tsar achieved a great diplomatic victory.
Later the town was object of devastating nomad attacks. In the XII-th century the Arabian geographer Idrisi described the castle as a prosperous economic centre. In the end of XIV-th century Tutrakan was in the bounds of the kingdom of Turnovo. It is mentioned under the name “Tutrakan” in written sources from the XV-th century, while other source materials prove the existence of the castle during the Turkish domination.