a guide to thracian bulgaria extract
Post on 08-Jul-2018
246 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
1/23
Dimana Trankova
THRACIA
Front cover: Sunrise over Harmankaya rock shrine, in the Rhodope, 1st Millennium BC
Title page: Phiale from the Panagyurishte Treasure, 4th Century BC
ISBN: 978-619-90319-2-6
Всички права запазени.Без ограничения на правата, под които е установено авторското
право,нито една част от това произведение не може да бъде възпроизвеждана,
съхранявана или въвеждана в система за циркулация, или препредавана под каквато и да
била форма (електронна,м еханична,фотокопиране или друга) без писмено съгласие на
издателя.
All rights reserved.Without limiting the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication
may be reproduced,stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system,or transmitted in any form
or by any means (electronic, mechanical,photocopying or otherwise), without the prior written
consent of the publisher.
Homer's The Iliad quoted from the English translation of A. T. Murray, Cambridge,
MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
The Histories by Herodotus are quoted from the English translation of A. D. Godley,
Harvard University Press, 1920.
The publication of this book is supported by the America for BulgariaFoundation. The statements and opinions expressed herein are thoseof the authors and do not necessarily reect the opinion of the America for Bulgaria Foundation and its partners.
A GUIDE TO THRACIAN BULGARIA
by Dimana Trankova, Miglena Vasileva, Anthony Georgieff
© Dimana Trankova (text)
© Miglena Vasileva (text)
© Anthony Georgieff (photography)
Subedit ed by Vassil Yovchev
Edited by Anthony Georgieff
Graphic design by Gergana Shkodrova
Printed by Janet-45 Print & Publishing, Plovdiv
© FSI Foundation, 2015
First published in July, 2015
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
2/23
CO
W
W
Sh
M
M
T
A
Pe
M
C
Sb
B
T
Begliktash megalithic sanctuary, near Primorsko
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
3/23
6
About 4,000 years ago the lands of modern
Bulgaria were inhabited by people who built
fortications and cities, buried their dead
in monumental tombs, drank wine from
gold and silver cups , and warred, traded and
did politics with the ancient Greeks and
Romans, with the Persians, the Scythians and
the ancient Macedonians.
These people were the Thracians.
Today their name is barely known to
anyone outside southeastern E urope. The
Thracians built for eternity – especially tombs
and shrines – but they lived in the moment
and, underestimating the importance of
writing down their deeds, they left next to
nothing about their history, faith and beliefs.
And so, bar the fascinating sites and treasuresthey created, the life of the Thracians remains
more or less a mystery.
What we know for sure is that the
Thracians are Indo-Europeans and began to
emerge as a singular ethnic group around
the middle of the 2nd Millennium BC.
Did these people form gradually, over
millennia, from the oldest, Neolithic inhabitants
of southeastern Europe? Or descended from
newcomers who changed the population in
the region during the transition between the
Chalcolithic and the Bronze ages, in the rst
half of the 4th Millennium BC? These questions
so far h ave no denitive answer.
The ancient Greeks, who produced the
most extensive historical source about their
neighbours the Thracians, called Thraike or
Thrake the lands to the northeast of their
own territories. The people who lived there
were respectively called Thracians.
There are several theories about what
the name Thracian means. It could be the
Greek form of a local ethnonym, possibly
connected with ancient Troy and the Trojans.
We know from Homer, who created therst written source of Thracians' existence,
that the Thracians sided with Troy during the
infamous 10-year war. Their kings Rhesus,
Peiros and Acamas fought with the Greeks,
and Rhesus was famed for his beautiful
white horses.
Another theory claims that o riginally
Thracian meant "brave" or "courageous", but
later switched to mean "wild" and "s avage."
According to an ancient story, Thrace, the
land of the Thracians, bore the name of a
nymph called Thrake, a powerful s orceress
who would use her knowledge of herbs to
heal and harm, at her whim.
The Thracians inhabited a vast area
between the Carpathian mountains, the Black
Sea and the Aegean Sea with the islands of
Thassos and Samothrace, and the courses of
the Struma and Morava rivers. Today these
lands are divided between Bulgaria, northern
Greece, European Turkey, southern Romania
and parts of Serbia and Macedonia. The core
of the Thracian lands is in Bulgaria.
The Th racians were famously disunited
politically. They lived in numerous tribes –the accounts vary between 22 and 80 – and
each of these groups had its own nobility
and rulers. Among this multitude, the tribes
of the Odrysians, the Bessi, the Tribali and
the Getae have left the most signicant
historical and archaeological record.
The lands of the Thracians were rich in
natural resources. The dense woods gave
Who Were the Thracians?
them timber and game; copper, iron, gold
and silver mines dotted the mountains.
Healing mineral water springs lured the
Thracians to settle around, and the fertile
soil nurtured the famed local wheat, horses
and vines from which the Thracians made
strong wine.
On the verge of the 2nd and the 1st
millennia BC, the Thracians went through
a crucial change of technolog y. Bronze was
replaced by iron as the metal for tools and
weapons. The new material made ploughing
the land and cutting wood easier, faster
and more productive, and the generally
self-sufcient Thracian society found itself
with more to sell on the market. The new
weapons were better for killing people aswell, and as the Thracian aristocrats saw
hunting, war and plundering to be the s ole
activities worthy of men like themselves,
they became richer.
Iron changed culture too, spearheading
the building of megaliths. In this period, the
Thracians created a signicant number of
dolmens, rock tombs and rock niches, and
started
their ol
The eve
pottery
and pra
Unt
BC, the
but this
centuri
their co
Sea coa
Thracia
islands.
Persian
a signi
The
the end5th cen
Derron
minting
and pol
signica
is the o
modern
silver co
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
4/23
8
of Thracian sites: megaliths, monumental
tombs, cities, fortresses. These lands were
also closer to the Greek ones, and would be
inuenced by the ancient Greek civilisation.
At the end of the 6th and during the early
5th centuries BC, this territory became the
cradle of the rst and the biggest political
entity the Thracians ever created.
It was the Odrysian kingdom of King
Teres I, a man who according to some
sources lived to 92 years of age, led
aggressive foreign policy, yet boasted that
when he wasn't on a hunt or at war, he
would be indistinguishable in appearance
from his own stablemen.
The history of the Odrysian kingdom
is better known, thanks to Thucydides, thegreat historian of the 5th Century BC.
In the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the
Odrysian kingdom was a prominent actor
in international politics, signing treaties and
waging wars with Athens and the Kingdom
of Macedonia. The Odrysian kingdom
experienced its heyday in the 4th Century
BC, under the kings Sitalces and Seuthes I,
and spread far to the s outheast, southwest
and northeast of the Balkans. It was so
strong that even the Greek colonies on the
Aegean coast paid it tributes.
The game changed, however, in the
mid-4th Century BC. Both King Philip II of
Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great,
invaded Thrace. Their power didn't last
long, but had strong effects on the local
economy, urban planning and culture. A
number of cities, for example, were founded
on the s ites of earlier Thracian settlements,
the most famous of them is Philippopolis
(modern Plovdiv), named after Philip II.
The death of Alexander the Great, in 323
BC, brought about the end of his empire,
which fell apart in several chunks. Thracewas given to Lysimachus, one of Alexander's
generals, but the change was seen by the
Thracians as an opportunity for independence.
Lysimachus tried, in vain, to secure his position
in the eastern Balkans. In this period Thrace
also drifted into the cosmopolitan Hellenistic
world, where, just like today, people, goods,
fashions and ideas moved freely.
In Thrace, a number of independent
kingdoms sprang, and urbanisation was on
the rise. The graves became richer, lled with
luxurious and imported everyday objects,
weapons and jewellery, signalling the increased
wealth of the elite. Seuthes, the king of the
Odrysians, even built himself a capital in line
with the latest Hellenistic urban fashion – and
gave it his name, just like Alexander the Great
did with the cities he had founded.
At the beginning of the 3rd Century BC,
Celts arrived in Thrace and even created a
kingdom there. They had their capital at Tyle,
but its location remains unidentied. The
new settlers changed local culture, bringing
in elements typical for Central Europe, like
new fashions in jewellery and weaponry,mainly brooches, shields and swords.
After the mid-3rd Century BC, Thrace
fell spiralled into gradual decline, a trend
which continued until the 1st Century BC.
The Thracian tribes waged war against one
another, and fought with the Greek colonies
on the Black Sea coast. Thrace was also the
scene of brutal ghts between the heirs of
Alexander the Great, and although it was part
of the bigger Hellenistic civilisation, it was
still in its periphery and far from the glorious
centres of culture and trade in Egypt, the
Near East and the Mediterranean islands.
As a result, most of the Thracian cities
were abandoned and destroyed, and fewer
aristocrats could afford expensive graves and
tombs. The commoners had grown poorer.
The 1st Century BC became the time of
gradual subjugation by the Romans, who used
the tools of politics to achieve their goal –
from war to buying off local rulers, and from
diplomacy to pitting local efdoms against one
another. By 45 AD the whole of Thrace was
already under the Romans, divided into the
provinces of Macedonia, Moesia, Thrace andDacia. The Thracians lost their independence
and became the subjects of the great empire.
Some of the Thracians decided that
enough was enough, and ed to the
mountains, where they became itinerant
herdsmen and stuck to their traditions and
language. Others remained in the cities and
the villages in the plain, making the most of
life in a
soldiers
Thracia
Karano
and Lat
After th
them fe
In th
manage
which t
Greeks
Macedo
simple –
by a kin
who ma
crafts. S
scale ofGreece
were m
treated
Thr
their G
women
the wal
enjoyed
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
5/23
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
6/23
12
Helmet and complete set of armour found in the grave of
a Thracian aristocrat from the mid-4th Century near the
Malomirovo and Zlatinitsa villages. The deceased died at
the age of 18-20 years a nd was 1.84 m high. He was b uried
with the classical bowed Thracian sword called mahaira ,
177 bronze arrows, seven spears, a knitted breastplate
made of iron and a bronze helmet decorated with a three-
headed snake. A silver grieve with gilt and decoration of a
human face was also buried with him
The man from Malomirovo and Zlatinitsa was buried not
only with weapons but also with expensive objects like this
beautiful gold wreath, a gold ring picturing himself receiving
immortality from the Great Goddess, and a set of silver and
gilt drinking vessels. Dogs and horses were sacriced over
the grave of the man, a nd for several yea rs afterw ards, the
tumulus was the centr e of ritual activ ities
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
7/23
14
Bronze situla , or bucket, decorated with heads of Sylen, and
a pair of silver bowls from the 4th Century BC were found
in the Malkata Mogila, or Small Mound, near Kazanlak.
The tomb where the deceased was buried was crude in
construction, but his personal belongings were nely made,
and included a gold ring and two sceptres with the form
of a double axe, a symbol of royal power for the ancient
Thracians
Inset : Bronze mirror from the second half of the 5th
Century BC from Kasabova Mogila, near Kazanlak. The
mound was a curious nd – instead of a single grave, four
groups of cremated human bones were discovered there.
Whether they belo nged to the same indi vidual, or to
different people, remains unsolved. During the 1877-1878
Russo-Turkish war, ve Russian soldiers who fell in the
defence of the nearby Shipka Pass, were buried in the
mound
Lavish gold decorations for horse harnesses found in
Golyama Kosmatka Tomb, near Kazanlak, from the
beginning of the 3rd Century BC
© I
s k r a M u s e u m
o f H i s t o r y ,
K a z a n l a k
© I
s k r a M u s e u m
o f H i s t o r y ,
K a z a n l a k
© I
s k r a M u s e u m
o f H i s t o r y ,
K a z a n l a k
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
8/23
24
Shrines and Deities
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
9/23
26
Harmankaya
King Ivan Shishman (1371-1393) and Ivan Asen; a miniature
from the Ivan
rocks found in these shrines – vulva-shaped
caves and rocks resembling erect phalluses.
The ancient authors have preserved, in
their stories, the existence of a major and
widely respected Thracian sanctuary. The
Oracle of Dionysus resided in the lands of
the Bessi, and its priestesses predicted the
future with great accuracy, including the rise
to power of men like Alexander the Great
and the Roman emperor Augustus. The
whereabouts of the oracle, however, remain
a mystery.
The deities worshipped in Thracian
shrines are also difcult to identify. We know
from Greek sources the names of some of
the Thracian gods and goddesses – Zalmoxis,
Cotyto, Bendis – and are told that theThracians also venerated Dionysos, Artemis,
Apollo and Hermes. The anonymous
Thracian God Rider Ppopular is also popular,
mainly in votive tablets. But it is still unclear
whether these deities weren't in fact just
the multiple manifestations of the Great
Goddess and the Great God. If you explore
Thracian art, you will discover the recurring
Another obstacle for deciphering
Thracian history and religion is the
notorious disunity of this people – the
Thracian tribes were too numerous and
too independent, and there was hardly a
consistent religious system among them. In
all probability, each of the tribes had its own
set of beliefs, rituals and even deities.
Yet, the Thracians have left something
related to their religion which modern
historians could try to "read": their shrines
and the artefacts found in them. But doingso poses another danger. Enchanted by the
beauty of the Thracian shrines, historians
with hyperactive imagination often forget
to exercise healthy scientic scepticism
and start to "see" non-existent faces
of imaginary deities, "nuptial beds" and
"devil's throats" everywhere. The Thracian
religious sites that have suffered from such
overinterpretation are a legion, including
Tatul and Perperikon in the Rhodope, and
Begliktash in the Strandzha. Even natural
phenomena like the rocks at Buzovgrad are
now promoted in the media as the deeds of
the ancient Thracians. Any oddly shaped rock
all over the Rhodope may get advertised as
an actual, larger-than-life, sacred sculpture of
turtles, snakes and even sharks.
But the lack of written sources and the
difculties with dealing with actual sites does
not mean that historians are co mpletely ata loss as to the Thracian religious heritage.
In fact, Bulgaria is rich in marvellous and
interesting Thracian shrines, which are at
once a feat and a delight to see and explore.
The most signicant Thracian shrines
appeared in the Late Bronze Age (16th to
12th centuries BC), sometimes at places
with strong traces of previous religious
activity, like Belintash and Perperikon in the
Rhodope. These sanctuaries thrived through
the 1st Millennium BC, and many were
abandoned only when Christianity slowly
prevailed between the 4th and 6th centuries.
As a rule, these early shrines were built
on naked, precipitous rocks, mainly in the
Strandzha, the Sakar and the Rhodope
mountains. Even today, one can see why.
They stand out against the landscape,
imposing a sense of incredibility, and are
clearly visible from afar. The list of the
most signicant sanctuaries of this type
includes Perperikon, Tatul, Gluhite Kamani,
Harmankaya, Belintash, Madzharovo and
Orlovi Skali, all in the Rhodope.
Many of these rock shrines are coveredwith countless canals, basins, pads, stairs
and niches. They all represent the Thracian
idea that the universe was created in the
stone uterus of the Great Goddess when
she was impregnated by the Great God,
her son and lover, who also symbolises the
sun. This hypothesis is backed by the almost
anatomically correct features of natural
Previous spread : Belintash shrine, near Asenovgrad, in the
Rhodope
This gold earring with the Goddess Nike in a chariot
was buried together with her owner, possibly a Thracian
priestess, in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC in a mound near
modern Sinemorets, on the southern Black Sea coast. It
was discovered in 2006 and is now in the National Museum
of History in Soa
Asara rock shrine occupies a rocky, overgrown height
over Angel Voyvoda village, near Haskovo, and boasts
several rock tombs. It was well preserved until the early
1990s, but treasure-hunters have taken over, destroying a
signicant portion of the site
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
10/23
28
or disgured, as if they, too, should be killed
to please the gods.
Temples are an important part of
any shrine, but if you don't count theones found in the Greek colonies on
the Black Sea coast, few such buildings
have been positively identied in the
Thracian heartland. Thracian temples
have been disco vered on Nebet Tepe Hill,
in Plovdiv; the sunken city of Seuthopolis,
near Kazanlak; Cabyle , near Yambol; and
elsewhere. According to an inscription
at Seut
Dionysu
and in C
Artemimanifes
Thracia
But
temples
across i
propos
of recta
and dec
gure of a female deity. This was probably
the Thracian Great Goddess, the one who
created the universe and ruled it. Her
presence can be seen everywhere: in the
jugs and bowls of the Rogozen Treasure, in
the frescoes and sculptures of the Sveshtari
Tomb, on the paintings of the Kazanlak
Tomb, on gold rings and elsewhere.
The Great Goddess was also the one
who sanctioned the political power of
Thracian kings. In the Thracian society, themonarch or the chief of the tribe was also
its main priest. He was seen as the earthly
incarnation of the Great God, and would
perform rituals of symbolical marriage to
the Great Goddess.
The ancient Greeks believed that after
death all people were doomed to a gloomy
existence as shadows in the sad kingdom
of Hades. But the Thracians believed in life
after death, and according to Herodotus,
some tribes would rejoice so much when
a person died that his wives would begin
to quarrel for the honour to be killed and
buried with him.
Noble Thracians, supposedly the
followers of the mystic teachings of
Orpheus, were even deied after their
death. This is why many shrines feature
some sort of a grave or a tomb: dolmens,rock tombs, monumental tombs. These were
more than sepulchres: they were also places
for worship to the deied people buried in
them.
Sometimes, monumental tombs were
also used as shrines, and there are numerous
signs pointing to this interpretation. The
monumental tombs all have corridors,
implying frequent visitations, and sometimes
had elaborate façades, as if they were built
to be eye feast for the living, who would
perform mysterious rites at the chambers.
The stone thresholds of such tombs are
found much worn out by the feet of
countless visitors. In and around the tombs
are preserved the remains of regular
sacrices.
In spite of centuries of worship, the
barren, hard terrain of rock sanctuaries –
combined with yet more centuries of
treasure hunting – has left few artefacts
for the archaeologists to study. The most
common nds from Thracian shrines
include pottery (whole or in shards), tools
and weapons, animal bones, burned clayfrom the light buildings for the priests and
the pilgrims. Some of these were made
especially for the rituals: amulets and scaled
models of tools, idols and tokens for ritual
games. Yet more were objects for daily use:
sickles and knives, pins and loom weights,
millstones and coins, jewellery and weapons.
Some of these offerings were ritually broken
Remains of a man with severed legs, buried in a sacricial
pit from the 4th Century BC in the sanctuary at Yabalkovo,
southeastеrn Bulgaria. Human sacrice was quite common in
ancient Thrace – the bodies of men, women and babies have
been found, some of them were buried alive
Right : A double rock tomb takes the highest place at the
Tatul rock shrine, a symbolic representation of the idea that
whoever is buried inside the man-made womb of the Great
Goddess will be close to the sun, the element of the Great
God
© A
s s o c i a t e P r o f e s s o r M i l e n
a T o n k o v a ,
P h D
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
11/23
30
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
12/23
32
when reservoirs and dams were being built.
These include the sites at Bratsigovo and
Ognyanovo, near Pazardzhik. Scant Thracian
artefacts are preserved in later, Roman
shrines by sacred springs – for example,
the temple of the nymphs at Kasnakovo,
near Dimitrovgrad. The only consistently
researched Thracian shrine by a s acred
spring is the one under the Ottoman Demir
Baba tekke, in Sboryanovo.
The Thracian gods and their shrines
started to fade from memory and life when
Christianity took over the Balkans. But
they never quite disappeared. Churches
rose on the remains of a number of pagan
shrines – for example, in Pliska, Madara
and Montana – and many Thracian shrines
are now venerated by Christians and
Muslims alike (Perperikon, Gluhite Kamani,
Demir Baba tekke, the Eski Mosque in Stara
Zagora, which now houses a museum of
religions). The ancient deities trans formed,
too, entering local folklore and even
inuencing the pantheon of Christian
saints.
Left : Begliktash megalithic shrine, near Primorsko
The Great Goddess is depicted on this silver and gold
greave from the 4th Century BC. It was discovered buried
alongside its owner in a mound in Vratsa, northwestern
Bulgaria. The fact that only one greave was in the grave of
a young woman suggests it has it was a part of some ritual.
The stripes on the goddess's face are interpreted as ritual
tattoos. Accordi ng to Herodotus, the Th racians did tatt oo
themselves
pears, beehives and casks. Most often 1-2
metres deep, they were lled with broken
pottery, animal bones, ashes and embers. In
about 1-2 percent of these , parts and even
full human skeletons have been found. Some
of the people in the pits were alive when
they were thrown in, which gives credibility
to the suggestion that they were sacriced
to the Thracian gods.
Again Herodotus sheds light on the
archaeological nds. By his accou nt, when
some Thracian tribes felt that their prayers
needed more attention from the God
Zalmoxis, they would stick spears in the
ground, choose the best man among them,
and throw him on the blades. While he was
dying, they would sent their messages to the
deities.
Most researchers believe that the pit
shrines were devoted to the cult of the
Great Goddess. The holes symbolised her
womb and provided connection with the
spirits of the underworld and fecundity.
The Thracians also venerated running
waters and springs. Unfortunately, most
of the shrines they erected near water
have been lost mainly in the 20th Century
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
13/23
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
14/23
46
Monumental Tombs
The sheer size of the massive mound, the
claustrophobic space, the cold, the smell of
times past: entering a Thracian tomb is one
of the must-do experiences in Bulgaria.
More than 200 monumental Thracian
tombs have been discovered so far, and
they have proved to be more than imposing
burial structures. Besides the awe they
inspire, they are also an important source
of information about the funeral rites and
religious beliefs of the people who built
them.
How the Thracians fell for monumental
tombs is a question historians have yet to
answer. Initially, the researchers thought that
the Thracians were inspired by the much
bigger and older tombs of the Mycenaean
civilisation, which ourished in southern
Greece between 1600 BC and 1200 BC.
Other possible predecessors could be the
dolmens and rock tombs in Thrace itself.
But the relatively short period between the
5th and the 3rd centuries BC, when the
Thracians built monumental tombs, has led
to the conclusion that the idea was probably
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
15/23
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
16/23
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
17/23
52
Thracian tombs were furnished with stone
funerary beds, sometimes with pillows sculpted
on them, and with a bunch of other furniture:
stone and wooden benches, seats, altars.
Expensive and time-consuming, tombs
were used continuously by later generations,
sometimes for centuries. Still, some tombs
seem to have been destroyed deliberately or
left unnished.
In most cases, ancient and modern-day
treasure-hunters hit upon the tombs before
the archaeologists, emptying the monuments
and breaking them. The examples of tombs
untouched by intruders are too few, most
notably the ones in the Mezek, Sashova
Mogila and Golyama Kosmatka mounds.
But the nds from the tombs still speak
volumes about the life and death of the
ancient Thracians. Expensive ceramic and
metal vessels, made locally or imported from
Greece, were buried along with weapons
and lavish jewellery of silver and gold, to
serve their owners in the afterlife. These
objects were often ritually broken, as if they
should "die" too.
The remains of the deceased present
another enigma. Complete skeletons are
Left : The main scene of the murals of the Aleksandrovo
Tomb from the end of the 4th and the beginning of the
3rd centuries BC, near Haskovo, depicts sacred hunt
Below right : Ostrusha Tomb from the 4th Century BC,
near Kazanlak, is in a monolithic block which was hewn to
resemble a small temple
practically nonexistent, archaeologists
usually discover only parts of them – for
example, the skull, the femurs or odd bones.
These often belong to different people.
Actually, the Thracians had been
doing this since the beginning of the 1st
Millennium BC. The explanation for this
strange ritual could be the Thracian Orphic
rites of immortalisation and deication of
priests, kings and distinguished persons.
In order to achieve divinity, they were
dismembered just like Orpheus, the
supposed founder of this religion, was torn
to pieces by the mad maenads.
Ritually slain horses and dogs are
often found at the Thracian tombs, buried
separately or along with the deceased. Animal
skeletons are usually found in anatomical
order, but this has not always been the case –
the horses and dogs found in the tombs of
Sveshtari, for example, were decapitated.
The people buried in these tombs with
such pomp and ceremony were obviously
men and women of high rank, including
kings an
has bee
Gonima
buried
near th
northea
the ent
name. T
royal on
been id
The sam
of Seuth
Mound.
Som
believe
only bu
to deie
where m
local ru
is not e
true, it
some to
the sign
rebuild
E
T
c
d
f
w
r
t
c
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
18/23
80
Circles of Stone
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
19/23
82
Previous spread: The cromlech at Dolni Glavanak, in
the Rhodope
After years of neglect, restoration of the stone circle
near Golyamo Zhelezare is now in progress
Glavanak. Situated on a low ridge overgrown
with thick oak forest, the stone circle consists
of 15 rocks about 1.5 m high. Its diameter
is about 10 m. Archaeological research has
shown that the complex was built between
the 8th and 6th centuries BC, and was in use
until the end of Antiquity.
Nearby, two smaller circles of boulders
have been found.
Why the megalith was built remains
unclear. The usual explanation given to tourists
is that it was a sort of observation post for
watching the sunrise to calculate sacred dates
in the Thracian calendar.
The stone circle at Staro Zhelezare was
discovered in 2002, under a pretty insignicant
mound by the village's dump yard.
It was a surprising discovery: 24 erect
stones forming a circle with a diameter of 7 m.
The slabs in the northern part of the circle rose
up to 1.8 m; with one exception, the stones on
the south were less than a metre high.
According to Dr Kitov, the scientist who
discovered them, the cromlech was erected
in the 6th Century BC and was used for
astronomical observations. Other researchers
think that the circle was built around the 10th
Century BC, and the tumulus was erected
later to hide the stones, for a reason that's as
yet unknown.
Regardless of its scientic signicance,
until recently the Staro Zhelezare stone
circle seemed doomed to disappear. After
the excavations ended, the dug-up cromlech
was abandoned, his sole protection from the
elements coming from a imsy cover. Soon, the
roof collapsed and wind and rainwater started
eating into what had remained of the mound.
Several years after the discovery, all the slabs
had fallen down and the undergrowth had
taken over, hiding everything in tall grass and
thorns.
A structure which had survived for
millennia was about to disappear.
But in the past few years an NGO took
interest in the site, and didn't spare effort for
its preservation, conservation and further
research with the main goal of restoring the
slabs to their original places and building
sufcient infrastructure to protect the site.
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
20/23
84
Sboryanovo
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
21/23
86
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
22/23
88
the Thracian world. Its three rooms have
unusual barrel-vaulted ceilings. The burial
chamber is decorated with a fresco of an
imposing woman crowning a rider with a
wreath. Sculptures of 10 caryatids line the
walls of the room.
Sculpted of limestone, the women have
disproportionate bodies, intricately carved
dresses and sturdy faces with wide-opened
eyes, which captivate the visitor in the
claustrophobically narrow chamber.
Historians believe that the Sveshtari
caryatids represent the all-mighty Great
Goddess of the Thracians. She is also the
tall woman in the fresco, depicted at the
moment she brings immortality to the
deied owner of the tomb. Relying on
circumstantial evidence, some scientistsgo as far as to claim to know who the
deceased was: King Dromichaetes, who
ruled over the Getae between the end
of the 4th and the rst decade of the 3rd
Century BC.
In 1985 UNESCO listed the Sveshtari
Tomb as a World Heritage Monument. Due
to preservation issues, visiting time in the
tomb is strictly limited, and the site is closed
in winter.
For their part, the burial mounds
in Sboryanovo hold more promises of
interaction with the dead Thracians and
their way of life. So far, more than 100
tumuli have been identied h ere, giving
some explanation why until recently the
locals used to call the area The Land of the
Hundred Mounds. Most of the tumuli are
divided into two main necropoli. According
to a hypothesis, their positions were chosen
deliberately, making them a giant map of
some of the constellations in the sky.
In one of these groups, interpreted as an
earthly copy of the Orion constellation, rises
the 19-metre-high Great Sveshtari Tumulus.It was excavated in the 1990s and again in
2004. The excavations led to the discovery
of a monumental tomb with Doric columns.
Built at the end of the 4th and the early the
3rd centuries BC, the tomb was destroyed
by an earthquake in the mid-3rd Century
BC. In 2013, the Great Sveshtari Tumulus
revealed other secrets: a buried wooden
box containing exquisite gold objects
weighing more than 1.5 kg, among them
women's jewellery and harness decorations.
According to some researchers, the
tumulus and the tomb b elonged to Cothelas,
the Gaetic king in the last decades of the 4th
century BC who played an important role
in the local politics and who got married,
in 339 BC, his daughter, Meda, to the most
powerful man in the world, King Philip II of
Macedon. Other historians, however, believe
that the gold objects have connection with
King Dromichaetes.
Sboryanovo was not only a place for
the dead but also one for the living. On a
narrow and conveniently defensible plateau
by the Krapinets River, a walled city thrivedbetween the last quarter of the 4th and the
middle of the 3rd centuries BC. Back in the
day it was called either Dausdava or Helis
(historians disagree on the exact name) and
spread on over 25 acres. The city was the
home of craftsmen making goods from iron,
silver, gold and bone, and of people who
The fresco in the burial chamber depicts the Great
Goddess giving immortality to the owner of the tomb,
on horseback. Riders had a key position in Thracian
religious beliefs. A mounted man was often depicted
in votive tablets, funeral art and expensive harnesses.
Sometimes he personied the Thracian God Rider, and
sometimes, as is the case with the Sveshtari Tomb, he
represented a deied king or an aristocrat. The idea of
the Thracian Ride r was so strong tha t it survived until
the end of Antiqui ty and blended w ith the image of St
George and the folklore hero Krali Marko
-
8/19/2019 A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria Extract
23/23
90
The 16th Century shrine of the Muslim sage Demir Baba
was built over the remains of one of the major Thracian
shrines in the area. The ancient boulders are still clearly
visible
Right: Mounds of all sizes abound in Sboryanovo
reserve – until recently, locals called the area the Land of
Hundred Mounds. Erecting a mound was a tiresome and
time-consuming e nterprise . The ones higher than 15 m
needed between two and six months to take shape. In the
background stands the Great Sveshtari Tumulus
enjoyed Greek wine and olive oil to such an
extent that they left us the mos t extensive
collection of imported amphorae ever found
in ancient Thrace. The city gained additional
importance by its position on an ancient salt
trade road.
The end of the Thracian city at
Sboryanovo came with a bang. It was
destroyed for good by a strong earthquake,
about 250 BC.
Today archaeological research of the
remains continues, but the trenches and low
stone walls are n ot particularly spectacular.
The south city wall can be seen passing
through the main road from the Sveshtari
Tomb to the village of Malak Porovets.
Another piece of the fortications, from the
3rd to 1st centuries BC, is in the Polyanataarea, west of the Thracian city.
Several shrines of the Getae have been
identied in Sboryanovo. One of them,
currently called Demir Baba Tekke, is a good
example of how one set of beliefs has built
on another, ensuring continuity of religions
and superstitions.
It all started with the Thracians who,
between the end of the 4th and the early
1st Century BC, created a shrine with rock
altars and strong walls by the cold waters
of a spring, now called the Five-Fingers
Spring. When Christianity replaced paganism
in the 5
abando
Centur
Muslim
was bui
what ha
top related