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"Thracian Treasures from Bulgaria" by Ivan Venedikov.
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DESCRIPTION: Softcover. Publisher: British Museum (1976). Pages: 96. Size: 9¼ x 8¼ inches; 1 pound. Summary: Around the fifteenth century B.C., brave warriors of an equestrian people called Thracians proudly rode the great range (Thrace) to be found in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, in what is present-day Bulgaria. Epics of Homer and Greek myths made them somewhat known, but by and large their life and travail had been shrouded in mystery. After World War II, archaeological finds made it clear what an exceptionally high degree of civilization was attained by these ancient Thracians, who had early formed their own unique tribal society and made contacts with Scythians, Greeks, Persians and other neighboring nations. Thus it was that the Thracians made their colorful debut, moving out from mythology into the pages of human history.
We are extremely pleased and privileged to be able to hold this Exhibition of Thracian Treasures from Bulgaria at a time when this Thracian antiquity is gradually being more and more brought to light. At the same time the event is also of great academic significance. This exhibition brings together approximately 560 objects from some 25 National Museums in Bulgaria. Many of them are wrought in gold and reflect craftsmanship of great value, both artistic and archaeological. Dating from the Pre-Thracian prehistoric times (sixth millennium B.C.) up to the reign of the Roman Empire (the third century A.D.), the exhibition items offer a chronological view of civilizations in this district, Thrace.
CONDITION: VERY GOOD. Lightly read oversized softcover. British Museum (1976) 96 pages. Book appears to have been flipped through a few times, perhaps read once albeit by someone with a very "light" hand. However the original owner did write their name, neatly but in ink, along the bottom edge of the first page within the book (the first title page). Except for that the inside of the book is pristine; the pages are clean, crisp, (otherwise) unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, and seemingly perhaps "unread" in the sense that though the condition of the book does suggest it was flipped through a few times, there's little evidence that the book was actually ever "read through". I'd guess that the original owner flipped through it a few times looking at the color plates, then put it away on the shelf never to be taken down and actually read through. From the outside the book is clean and unsoiled however the closed page edges do show faint age- tanning (visible of course only when book is closed, not to individual pages, only to the mass of closed page edges, sometimes referred to as the "page block"). Also, if you inspect the book very intently you might also just notice that there is a ("skin deep") surface crack in the paper covering of the spine, about half way down the spine. This is typically caused by the book being slightly "tweaked" or stressed as it is being shelved between other books, and if the book is twisted as it is being inserted between two other books, sometimes the paper covering of the spine might crack as a result of the book being flexed as it is tightly inserted between two other books. It's merely a superficial cosmetic blemish, almost unnoticed (unless called out), and we touched it up with an ink based sharpie to even further diminish the "discernability" of the cosmetic blemish. Otherwise the outside of the book is very presentable, the covers evidencing only very mild edge and corner shelfwear, principally in the form of very mild "crinkles" to the cover spine head and heel and the "tips" of the back cover (the top and bottom open corners of the back cover). Given the slight age-tanning to the closed page edges and the superficial cosmetic blemishes the book possesses, it might lack the "sex appeal" of a "shelf trophy". Nonetheless for those not concerned with whether the book will or will not enhance their social status or intellectual reputation, it is an only lightly read (or perhaps merely flipped through) copy with "lots of miles left under the hood". Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING! Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-print ancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for any reason within 30 days! #7721c.
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PUBLISHER REVIEWS:
REVIEW: "Thracian Treasures from Bulgaria" is a major exhibition of archaeological treasures from the People's Republic of Bulgaria. The superb works of art in the exhibition -- many of them finely wrought in gold or silver -- present a picture of the ancient Thracian culture from its beginnings before 3000 B.C. to its decline under the Romans. The exhibition includes gold jewelry and plaques from about 3200 B.C., which are among the oldest found in Europe, a hoard of gold ritual objects weighing over 27 pounds, which were perhaps used by a Thracian chieftain around the time of the Trojan Wars, and a lavishly decorated gold drinking set, probably made in Asia Minor around 300 B.C.
Thrace was one of the crossroads of the Greek and Persian civilizations, and Thracian art reflects a variety of influences. The exhibition includes vessels and jewelry of exquisite refinement made by Greek and Persian craftsmen, Greek and Persian forms adapted by Thracian artisans, and purely Thracian works of great originality and vitality. All of the artifacts in Thracian Treasures from Bulgaria have been found in the past fifty or sixty years, and many of them are quite recent discoveries, still little-known even to experts. The ancient Thracian tribes lived in a territory that is now shared by Bulgaria, Greece, Yugoslavia, Rumania and European Turkey. The region has been inhabited by man for at least 40,000 years.
Sometime after 4000 B.C. the inhabitants discovered rich deposits of copper and other minerals and they turned to mining and metalwork. Before 3000 B.C. the precocious Thracian smiths were working in gold, probably panned from the local rivers. A large number of gold objects from this period have been excavated since 1972 from a necropolis near Varna, and they are shown in this exhibition for the first time. Sometime around 1500 B.C. the country was overrun by the warriors whom Homer called Thracians, and whom he described in the Iliad as allies of the Trojans. These Thracian kings arrived at Troy in chariots richly decorated with gold and silver, drawn by magnificent horses, and they bore dazzling golden arms. The taste for war, for gold and silver, and for fine horses, which Homer noted were to remain characteristic of the Thracian aristocracy down through the centuries.
Some fifty years ago a farmer at Vulchitrun in northern Bulgaria unearthed a hoard that must have belonged to a Thracian chieftain of this period. The so-called Vulchitrun Treasure is a masterpiece of the Thracian goldsmith's art. The 13 large, solid gold objects from this find, in their simplicity of form and sparing use of ornament, exhibit a sense of proportion never again seen in Thracian works of art. Between the period of the Homeric epics, (1600- 1200 B.C.) and the 6th century B.C. very little is known of life in Thrace. Then, with the founding of Greek trading colonies along the Thracian coasts of the Aegean and Black Seas after 700 B.C. Thrace entered recorded history.
The Greeks regarded the rough and warlike Thracians as barbarians. Instead of living in cities, the Thracians maintained their age-old tribal organization, living in hamlets and subsisting on meager farming, herding and brigandage. The Greek traveller Herodotus visited the Thracians around 425 B.C., and he left the earliest description of their customs and beliefs. Unlike the Greeks, the Thracians believed in a glorious afterlife and celebrated a warrior's death with rejoicing, The man's several widows -- for the Thracians, again unlike the Greeks, were polygamous -- competed for the honor of having been his favorite, and then the favorite was killed to join her husband in the other world.
The man and his sacrificed wife were then buried in a tomb richly furnished with precious objects. It is from such tombs that most of the material in the exhibition has been excavated. Thracian men regarded fighting and brigandage as the only respectable means of livelihood, according to Herodotus, and many found regular employment as mercenary soldiers in the Greek armies. Herodotus also mentions the Thracian habit of selling their children into slavery abroad. As a result, tall, fair-haired Thracian men and women were a common sight in Greek households.
Late in the fifth century B.C. a Thracian king named Sitalkes subjugated all of Thrace, even including the Greek cities along the coasts. Sitalkes and his powerful successors grew rich on tribute, eventually surpassing even Athens in revenue. Thracian culture in this period reached a high level of development. The rich burial mounds have yielded superb jewelry, armor and other objects, many of them imported from Greece or showing Persian influence. Though the Thracians imported Greek goods and employed Greek craftsmen and even Greek mercenaries, they maintained their old primitive habits and beliefs. The Greek historian, Xenophon, who passed through Thrace in 400 B.C., described a number of the customs and entertainments of the Thracian court.
One was a game of skill with dire possibilities A man clutching a Thracian short sword would stand on a stone and put his head in a hangman's noose. Someone would kick the stone away, and the trick was to slash the cord before it was too late. Those not fast enough drew a big laugh from the crowd for their unfortunate lack of skill. The most spectacular group of objects in the exhibition dates from the end of this period, around 300 B.C. These elaborately decorated drinking vessels, called the Panagyurishte Treasure, were probably made at Lampsakos on the Asiatic shore of the Dardanelles. Several of the vessels are shaped like the heads of women, and others are ornamented with scenes from the repertory of Greek legends.
The conquests of Alexander the Great in the later 4th century B.C. strongly affected the civilized world of the eastern Mediterranean, but the Thracians in the interior lived on much as before. In the 2nd century B.C. Rome entered the region. At first the Romans were content merely to recruit soldiers and gladiators from among the Thracians. In the middle of the first century A.D., however, the constant warfare of the Thracian tribes threatened the Roman order, so the emperors subdued and Romanized the country. Despite the thoroughness of the Romans, the Thracian religion and language persisted in remote mountain regions until the sixth century, when the Slavs migrated into the region and took over the land.
Up to the Slavic conquest traditional burial customs were practiced, with landowners being buried under prominent mounds with funerary chariots and rich grave goods. The peasants continued to worship the traditional deities, especially the so-called Thracian Horseman, who is always represented on horseback charging with a spear at some wild animal. When Christianity penetrated these remote areas, the people simply shifted their allegiance to Saint George. "Thracian Treasures from Bulgaria", a 96-page picture book will be published by the Museum in conjunction with the exhibition. It will contain 41 color plates along with texts by Professor Ivan Venedikov of the National Archaeological Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia.
REVIEW: Long ago, in the vast steppes stretching away into the heart of the Eurasian continent, there were once many tribes or the federations of the tribes of an equestrian people chiefly engaged in stock-raising. Their oppression of the civilized areas to the south is recounted in the annals of both East and West, and in the West they were known as the Scythians and Thracians. In his History, Herodotus made mention of these brave equestrian peoples, and the Thracians had earlier been cited in the Epic of Homer. However, while the Scythians and their distinctive equestrian culture had caught the interest of the West, thanks to archaeological finds, the Thracians were all but unknown up to World War II.
The recent and rapid wave of archaeological research being conducted in the People's Republic of Bulgaria on Thracian sites is said to be gradually bringing its history and culture to light. A good portion of the many golden artifacts, which form the cultural inheritance dating from the early agrarian period up to the classical age of the Thracians, has been exhibited in Paris, London, and New York. These exhibitions brought rave notices for the exquisite aesthetic and scientific value evidenced by the objects displayed. Through the kind auspices of the government of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, some 560 of these treasures of Thracian antiquity have been loaned for display.
It is no exaggeration to call this an event of immense cultural significance, for this is the first time that we have ever found on display, not individual works, but a full-scale exhibition which gives us an overall understanding of the cultural aspects of this equestrian people of ancient Thrace. Thus, "The Exhibition of Thracian Treasures from Bulgaria" is an event of overwhelming importance, for it gives a panoramic view of the entire sweep of Thracian culture, since the time before it emerged until it disappeared, a culture that along with that of the Scythians represents the equestrian peoples of antiquity.
REVIEW: Knowledge is a heritage, contemporaneity is a continuation of the ancient world. Hence cultures and civilizations do not disappear leaving no trace. Their supreme achievements are entangled in the new evolutionary phenomena of the progress of humanity. Being a cradle of ancient civilizations, a crossroad and a meeting point between the Occident and the Orient, Bulgaria is the historical inheritor and successor of the Thracian, Hellenic-Roman, Slavonic, Proto-Bulgarian and Byzantine Cultures.
Therefore our country, lead by the noble desire to accomplish in our times the eternal ideal of an allround and harmoniously developed personality, which is the devine right of Man, is greatly concerned for the discovery, thorough research and propagation of its cultural past. We consider it our duty to share these treasures with the other people, to associate with them making use of the mutual and most accessible language of art. Thus national self-consciousness can achieve its real height and develop its utmost criterion.
Thus our sincere efforts to achieve understanding, friendship and lasting peace amongst the people inhabiting our planet are incarnated according to the laws of beauty. We do hope that the people of the world will discover in the character, the biography, in the expressive refinement and symbolics of Thracian Art one of the roads towards the spirituality and the strength of the Bulgarian.
REVIEW: Around the fifteenth century B.C., brave warriors of an equestrian people called Thracians proudly rode the great range (Thrace) to be found in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, in what is present-day Bulgaria. Epics of Homer and Greek myths made them somewhat known, but by and large their life and travail had been shrouded in mystery. After World War II, archaeological finds made it clear what an exceptionally high degree of civilization was attained by these ancient Thracians, who had early formed their own unique tribal society and made contacts with Scythians, Greeks, Persians and other neighboring nations. Thus it was that the Thracians made their colorful debut, moving out from mythology into the pages of human history.
We are extremely pleased and privileged to be able to hold this Exhibition of Thracian Treasures from Bulgaria at a time when this Thracian antiquity is gradually being more and more brought to light. At the same time the event is also of great academic significance. This exhibition brings together approximately 560 objects from some 25 National Museums in Bulgaria. Many of them are wrought in gold and reflect craftsmanship of great value, both artistic and archaeological. Dating from the Pre-Thracian prehistoric times (sixth millennium B.C.) up to the reign of the Roman Empire (the third century A.D.), the exhibition items offer a chronological view of civilizations in this district, Thrace.
REVIEW: This exhibition has had an unusual fate. The idea of forming it was first advanced by Ivan Venedikov in 1972, and he was responsible for arranging it. Somewhat later more articles, found by Bulgarian archaeologists in the course of excavations in the following years, were added to it. The exhibition thus continued its life, supplemented and enriched, in many exhibition rooms all over the world. The collection is still growing: The Thracological interdisciplinary researches are centd in Bulgaria, at the Institute of Thracology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. This institute was also first founded in 1972.
The exhibition illustrates a considerable part of this co-ordinating research center and even to a certain extent, the development of the science concerned with Thrace and the Thracians. It has passed two Congresses on Thracology (Sofia, 1972 and Bucharest, 1976), and will probably also be in existence for the Third Cong- ress which will be held in Vienna in 1980, under the patronage of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. For millions of people Thracian art has become an intermediary between them and Bulgaria. There became well-known that this country which has had only one century of free life behind it (Bulgaria's Liberation from Ottoman Domination was a result of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878), is fully aware of the importance of its historical heritage.
The Bulgarian people, who laid the foundations of the socialist period in their history through an armed anti-fascist uprising on September 9, 1944, have proved to be as greatly concerned with building up a modern socialist state, as they are in preserving the heritage. In the consciousness of the Bulgarians, the past is inseparable from the present and the future. The 1300th Anniversary of the foundation of the Bulgarian State is to be marked in 1981 with the same consciousness, and preparations for the celebration of this outstanding event have already been put in hand.
The Thracians formed a comparatively united ethno-cultural tribal community, which inhabited a territory in the Carpathians (nowadays it is the Socialist Republic of Romania) and from the Carpathians to the South, as far as the Aegean Sea, including several of the islands in this sea, at least, Samothraki, Thasos, Lemnos, Imbros, Naxos and Delos, as well as certain regions of European Hellas (today Greece). This tribal community was bounded on the West by the Iilyrians: the boundary ran approximately between the rivers Timok and Morava, and the rivers Vardar and Strouma, from the basin of the Danube to the Bay of Thessaloniki.
The Black Sea, the ancient Pontus, bounded the Thracian lands to the East, but to the north-east Thracian groups were found in the territory between the rivers Dnieper and Dniester, and in the Bosporian Kingdom (today the Crimean Peninsula in the USSR), and to the south-east in North- Western Anatolia, in Bythinia. The Thracian people were according to Herodotus the most numerous known to him after the Indian people. They were also due to interaction with neighboring ethno-cultural communities, and to the frequent movements of tribes, or related tribes from the north-east to the south-west, and from the south-west to the north-east of the Thracian world.
The multiconstituency of the Thracian ethno-cultural community, its interaction with other communities and its migrations are phenomena of an ethnogenetic character, as long as ethnogenesis is considered as a process, and not as a single act. The stratification of settlements (village mounds), the type of archaeological material and ornamentation form the material unity of culture in the Thracian lands during the whole period of the use of bronze alloy, i.e. from the end of the fourth to the end of the second millennium B.C. The transition to the Iron Age, i.e. towards the end of the second millennium B.C. was not an accident.
The toponymy, the anthroponymy in part, and the theonomy of the Thracian linguistic traces, preserved in and after Homer in Hellenic expression and in certain epigraphic monuments of the Thracian in Hellenic letters, also convince us that in these extensive periods of time the culture of the population was in an evolutionary unity. Therefore, for the moment, the beginning of the ethnogenetic phenomena can be juxtaposed with the beginning of the Bronze Age. However, their pre-history lies at the end of a brilliant Neolithic and Chalcolithic culture, the synthesis of which was found in the necropolis near Varna.
This synthesis contains ethno-cultural elements from Anatolia, from the steppes in the south-western regions of the European part of the USSR and Romania, and from the Southeastern European (Carpathian-Balkan) zone. In other terms, elements of the Anatolian culture (sixth to fourth millennium B.C.), of the Kurgan culture and of the culture of Goumelnitsa-Karanovo are interwoven in the final, supreme phase of the development of the Neolithic-Chalcolithic population. The Thracian ethno-cultural community was formed on this foundation.
REVIEW: Ivan Yordanov Venedikov archaeologist, historian, thracologist and philologist who studied Thracian and medieval history, archaeology, art and culture; Bulgarian cultural and artistic heritage. Ivan Venedikov was born in Sofia in 1916. Between 1934 and 1939 he studied classical phylology in the Sofia University. Among his lectors were Aleksandar Balabanov, Dimitar Dechev, Gavril Katsarov, Veselin Beshevliev, Bogdan Filov, Petar Mutafchiev.
His first work was Phonetics of the Latin Inscriptions from the Bulgarian Lands, published in 1942. Between 1941 and 1944 he worked in the Museum in Skopje and made his first excavations discovering the large antique and medieval town Bargala and the medieval Kozyak. Venedikov worked in the Department of Antiquity in the National Archaeological Museum between 1945 and 1973 and later worked in the Department of Antique Archaeology in the National Historical Museum. In 1981 he became a Professor. He was also a lecturer on Thracian history in the Sofia University.
Venedikov had more than 150 publications on Thracian history, culture, art and language based on many studied archaeological sites and monuments. He made a periodization of the Thracian art; researched and restored the outlook of the Thracian chariots. In 1982 he organized an exhibition of Thracian art which included the finest objects from all over Bulgaria which travelled in many cities around the world. He also studied the old Bulgar inscriptions and concluded that the Bulgar language was still spoken in the beginning of the 9th century.
Venedikov also proved that Preslav, which would become capital of the Bulgarian Empire in 893, already existed as a significant settlement in the beginning of the 9th century. In 1979 he made monography on the military and administrative organization of the Bulgarian Empire and made research on many titles and offices of the Bulgarian rulers and nobility.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface by Lord Trevelyan, Chairman of the Trustees of the British Museum.
List of Lending Institutions.
Introduction.
Thrace by Ivan Venekidov.
The Archaeological Wealth of Ancient Thrace by Ivan Venedikov.
Catalogue.
Abbreviations.
READER REVIEWS:
REVIEW: Five stars! Very interesting catalog.
REVIEW: Wonderful photography and interesting, fact-filled text in this vintage exhibition catalog of incredible Thracian treasures.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:
REVIEW: The indigenous population of ancient Thrace were Indo-Europeans who spoke their own language who archaeologists believe originated in the area of the Black Sea around 5,000 B.C. Thrace included areas of present day Bulgaria, Northeastern Greece, Eastern Serbia, portions of Macedonia, and portions of NorthWest Turkey. Divided into separate tribes, the Tracians did not form a lasting political kingdom until the Odrysian and Dacian States were founded in the early 4th century B.C. At its greatest it extended beyond the Danube to the North (Ancient Dacia and Pannonia, present day Moldova and Romania) and to Southern Russia and the Ukraine to the East. The Thracians were capable of wielding an army of 150,000, and threatened even regional powerhouse Macedonia until both were conquered by the Persians under Darius the Great.
The Thracians were to fall under the cultural influence of the ancient Greeks, though as non-Greek speakers, they were viewed by the Greeks (and subsequently the Romans) as barbarians. The Greeks founded Thracian colonies as early as the sixth century B.C. Homer’s Iliad records that the Thracians had agreed to fight on the side of the Mycenaean Greeks in the Trojan War. However according to the account the Thracians did not fulfill this promise. In the Odyssey, Odysseus and his men raided Thrace on their way back home from the war. This was to punish them for their "cowardice", as the Odyssey puts it. Many mythical figures, such as the god Dionysus, princess Europa, and the hero Orpheus were borrowed by the Greeks from their Thracian neighbors. The Thracians were described by Roman Historian Herodotus as the second most numerous of peoples, after the Indians, and potentially the most powerful, and he suggested that the extent of the lands they inhabited and controlled would have made them a vast empire, if they were united.
Thrace was to fall to the great Persian armies of Darius the Great in the late sixth century B.C., and subsequently to Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. Thereafter Thrace was ruled by the Macedonians until Macedonia was stripped of its territories after losing its third war with the Romans. After the conclusion of the “Third Macedonian War, Thrace was ruled directly by Rome as a client state. The successor of the Roman empire on the Balkans, the Byzantine (or Eastern roman) Empire retained control over Thrace until the beginning of the 9th century, after which time control of Thrace alternated between the Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria. However ultimately the Ottoman Turks conquered the region and held it for five centuries until the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire after the conclusion of World War I. Recently Bulgarian archaeologists have made monumental discoveries of Royal Thracian burials dating back to the fifth through third centuries B.C. in what has become known as Thracian Valley of the Kings.
REVIEW: Thrace is a geographical and historical area in southeast Europe, now split between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south and the Black Sea to the east. It comprises southeastern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northeastern Greece (Western Thrace) and the European part of Turkey (Eastern Thrace). In antiquity, it was also referred to as "Europe", prior to the extension of the term to describe the whole continent. The name Thrace comes from the Thracians, an ancient Indo-European people inhabiting Southeastern Europe.
The region took the name of the principal river there, Hebros, probably from the Indo-European arg "white river" (the opposite of Vardar, meaning "black river"). According to an alternative theory, Hebros means "goat" in Thracian. In Turkey, it is commonly referred to as Rumeli, Land of the Romans, owing to this region being the last part of the Eastern Roman Empire that was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The name appears to derive from an ancient heroine and sorceress Thrace, who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, and sister of Europa.
The historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. The ancient Greeks employed the term "Thrace" to refer to all of the territory which lay north of Thessaly inhabited by the Thracians, a region which "had no definite boundaries" and to which other regions (like Macedonia and even Scythia) were added. In one ancient Greek source, the very Earth is divided into "Asia, Libya, Europa and Thracia". As the Greeks gained knowledge of world geography, "Thrace" came to designate the area bordered by the Danube on the north, by the Euxine Sea (Black Sea) on the east, by northern Macedonia in the south and by Illyria to the west. This largely coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, whose borders varied over time.
After the Macedonian conquest, this region's former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River. This usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, (classical) Thrace referred only to the tract of land largely covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region. In its early period, the Roman province of Thrace was of this extent, but after the administrative reforms of the late 3rd century, Thracia's much reduced territory became the six small provinces which constituted the Diocese of Thrace. The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is Eastern Thrace.
Ancient Greek mythology provides the Thracians with a mythical ancestor Thrax, the son of the war-god Ares, who was said to reside in Thrace. The Thracians appear in Homer's Iliad as Trojan allies, led by Acamas and Peiros. Later in the Iliad, Rhesus, another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus, father-in-law to the Trojan elder Antenor, is also given as a Thracian king. Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, and stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont and Black Sea in the east.
The Catalogue of Ships mentions three separate contingents from Thrace: Thracians led by Acamas and Peiros, from Aenus; Cicones led by Euphemus, from southern Thrace, near Ismaros; and from the city of Sestus, on the Thracian (northern) side of the Hellespont, which formed part of the contingent led by Asius. Ancient Thrace was home to numerous other tribes, such as the Edones, Bisaltae, Cicones, and Bistones in addition to the tribe that Homer specifically calls the “Thracians”.
Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes, Tereus, Lycurgus, Phineus, Tegyrius, Eumolpus, Polymnestor, Poltys, and Oeagrus (father of Orpheus). Thrace is mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses, in the episode of Philomela, Procne, and Tereus: Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela. He kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, and cuts out her tongue. Philomela manages to get free, however. She and her sister, Procne, plot to get revenge, by killing her son Itys (by Tereus) and serving him to his father for dinner. At the end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne into a swallow, Philomela into a nightingale, and Tereus into a hoopoe.
The indigenous population of Thrace was a people called the Thracians, divided into numerous tribal groups. The region was controlled by the Persian Empire at its greatest extent, and Thracian soldiers were known to be used in the Persian armies. Later on, Thracian troops were known to accompany neighboring ruler Alexander the Great when he crossed the Hellespont which abuts Thrace, during the invasion of the Persian Empire itself. The Thracians did not describe themselves by name; terms such as Thrace and Thracians are simply the names given them by the Greeks.
Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not form any lasting political organizations until the founding of the Odrysian state in the 4th century B.C. Like Illyrians, the locally ruled Thracian tribes of the mountainous regions maintained a warrior tradition, while the tribes based in the plains were purportedly more peaceable. Recently discovered funeral mounds in Bulgaria suggest that Thracian kings did rule regions of Thrace with distinct Thracian national identity. During this period, a subculture of celibate ascetics called the Ctistae lived in Thrace, where they served as philosophers, priests and prophets.
Sections of Thrace particularly in the south started to become hellenized before the Peloponnesian War as a significant amount of Athenian and Ionian colonies were set up in Thrace before the war and Spartan and other Doric colonists followed suit after the war. The special interest of Athens to Thrace is underlined by the numerous finds of Athenian silverware in Thracian tombs. In 168 B.C., after the Third Macedonian war and the subjugation of Macedonia to the Romans, Thrace also lost its independence and became tributary to Rome. Towards the end of the 1st century BC Thrace lost its status as a client kingdom as the Romans began to directly appoint their kings. This situation lasted until 46 A.D., when the Romans finally turned Thrace into a Roman province (Romana provincia Thracia).
During the Roman domination, within the geographical borders of ancient Thrace, there were two separate Roman provinces, namely Thrace ("provincia Thracia") and Lower Moesia ("Moesia inferior"). Later, in the times of Diocletian, the two provinces were joined and formed the so-called "Dioecesis Thracia". The establishment of Roman colonies and mostly several Greek cities, as was Nicopolis, Topeiros, Traianoupolis, Plotinoupolis and Hadrianoupolis resulted from the Roman Empire's urbanization. It is noteworthy that the Roman provincial policy in Thrace favored mainly not the Romanization but the Hellenization of the country, which had started as early as the Archaic period through the Greek colonisation and was completed by the end of Roman Antiquity.
As regards the competition between the Greek and Latin language, the very high rate of Greek inscriptions in Thrace extending south of Haemus mountains proves the complete language Hellenization of this region. The boundaries between the Greek and Latin speaking Thrace are placed just above the northern foothills of Haemus mountains. During the imperial period many Thracians – particularly members of the local aristocracy of the cities – had been granted the right of the Roman citizenship (civitas Romana) with all his privileges. Epigraphic evidence show a large increase in such naturalizations in the times of Trajan and Hadrian, while in 212 A.D. the emperor Caracalla granted, with his well-known decree (constitutio Antoniniana), the Roman citizenship to all the free habitants of the Roman Empire.
During the same period (in the 1st-2nd century A.D.), a remarkable presence of Thracians is testified by the inscriptions outside the borders (extra fines) both in the Greek territory and in all the Roman provinces, especially in the provinces of Eastern Roman Empire. By the mid 5th century, as the Western Roman Empire began to crumble, Thracia fell from the authority of Rome and into the hands of Germanic tribal rulers. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Thracia turned into a battleground territory for the better part of the next 1,000 years. The surviving eastern portion of the Roman Empire in the Balkans, later known as the Byzantine Empire, retained control over Thrace until the 8th century when the northern half of the entire region was incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire and the remainder was reorganized in the Thracian theme.
The Empire regained the lost regions in the late 10th century until the Bulgarians regained control of the northern half at the end of the 12th century. Throughout the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, the region was changing in the hands of the Bulgarian and the Byzantine Empire (excluding Constantinople). In 1265 the area suffered a Mongol raid from the Golden Horde, led by Nogai Khan, and between 1305 and 1307 was raided by the Catalan company. In 1352, the Ottoman Turks conducted their first incursion into the region subduing it completely within a matter of two decades and occupying it for five centuries. In 1821, several parts of Thrace, such as Lavara, Maroneia, Sozopolis, Aenos, Callipolis and Samothraki rebelled during the Greek War of Independence.
With the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Northern Thrace was incorporated into the semi-autonomous Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia, which united with Bulgaria in 1885. The rest of Thrace was divided among Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey at the beginning of the 20th century, following the Balkan Wars, World War I and the Greco-Turkish War. In Summer 1934, up to 10.000 Jews were maltreated, bereaved and then forced to quit the region). Today, Thracian is a geographical term used in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria. The largest cities of Thrace are: Plovdiv, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Yambol, Komotini, Alexandroupoli, Xanthi, Edirne, Çorlu and Tekirdağ. Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Christians, while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Muslims.
Notable Thracians include Orpheus, who was in Ancient Greek mythology, the chief representative of the art of song and playing the lyre. Protagoras was a Greek philosopher from Abdera, Thrace (circa 490–420 B.C.). An expert in rhetorics and subjects connected to virtue and political life, often regarded as the first sophist. He is known primarily for three claims: (1) that man is the measure of all things, often interpreted as a sort of moral relativism, (2) that he could make the "worse (or weaker) argument appear the better (or stronger)" (see Sophism), and (3) that one could not tell if the gods existed or not (see Agnosticism). Herodicus was a Greek physician of the fifth century B.C. who is considered the founder of sports medicine. He is believed to have been one of Hippocrates' tutors.
Democritus was a Greek philosopher and mathematician from Abdera, Thrace (circa 460–370 B.C.) His main contribution is the atomic theory, the belief that all matter is made up of various imperishable indivisible elements which he called atoms. Spartacus was a Thracian who led a large slave uprising in what is now Italy in 73–71 B.C. His army of escaped gladiators and slaves defeated several Roman legions in what is known as the Third Servile War. A number of Roman emperors of the 3rd–5th century were of Thraco-Roman backgrounds (Maximinus Thrax, Licinius, Galerius, Aureolus, Leo the Thracian, etc.). These emperors were elevated via a military career, from the condition of common soldiers in one of the Roman legions to the foremost positions of political power.
Two main gods of the Bessi Thracians were Dionysus (worshiped as Zagreus) and Bendis. Zagreus was worshipped by followers of Orphism (the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus), whose late Orphic hymns invoke his name. Actually Zagreus was a Thracian god prototype later known as Dionysus – the god of joy, wine and ecstasy in the Greek and Bacchus in the Roman mythology.
Holidays (mysteries) dedicated to Dionysus in Greece were called Dionysii; in Rome they were known as Bacchanalia and in Thrace as Rozalii. Orphic mysteries held in honor of Dionysus-Zagreus were performed only by devoted unmarried men. They were called a-bii, which means "not alive" because they did not lead an ordinary life. The mysteries were held in secret places far from the eyes of the ordinary people and were accompanied by choral songs and mimic games. The culmination of the mysteries was the symbolic death of the king-priest, identified with Zagreus who according to myth was torn apart by the Titans. Following the "death", the mother goddess was also symbolically born.
The first part was carried out through a sacrifice of a bull, horse, goat or even people and the latter through a sexual orgy. Later on, Orphic mysteries became a part of the Bacchanalia. Wine and fire were essential to the cult of Dionysus. The act of wine producing itself was recognized as a tale of the life and sorrow of the god. Picking and smashing the vines represent the way that the Titans tore Dionysus apart. That is why vinification was a mystery that was accompanied by sad songs.
Bendis was a goddess worshiped in Southwestern Thrace. She was typically presented as a hunter, wrapped with leather with boots and a fox fur hat. She holds a spear, a bow or a net and she is often accompanied by a hunting dog. In Greek mythology boots are a symbol of speed. Bendis is different from her Greek analogies in that she wears a fox hat. Vine and Haberlea rhodopensis (Orpheus' flower) were objects of cult for the Bessi. Wine and flame were believed to cause euphoria. Svetonii Tranquil and Herodotus described rituals in which worshippers would divine by pouring wine on the altar and observing the height of the blaze. Other tribes would also burn a sacrificial animal on the altar. They believed that if the flames were vigorous, the year would be fruitful. [Wikipedia].
REVIEW: The Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting a large area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family. The study of Thracians and Thracian culture is known as Thracology. The first historical record about the Thracians is found in the Iliad, where they are described as allies of the Trojans in the Trojan War against the Greeks. In Greek mythology, Thrax (by his name simply the quintessential Thracian) was regarded as one of the reputed sons of the god Ares. In the Alcestis, Euripides mentions that one of the names of Ares himself was "Thrax" since he was regarded as the patron of Thrace (his golden or gilded shield was kept in his temple at Bistonia in Thrace). The origins of the Thracians remain obscure, in the absence of written historical records. Evidence of proto-Thracians in the prehistoric period depends on artifacts of material culture.
Historian Leo Klejn identifies proto-Thracians with the multi-cordoned ware culture that was pushed away from Ukraine by the advancing timber grave culture or Srubna. It is generally proposed that a proto-Thracian people developed from a mixture of indigenous peoples and Indo-Europeans from the time of Proto-Indo-European expansion in the Early Bronze Age when the latter, around 1500 B.C. mixed with indigenous peoples. During the Iron Age (about 1000 B.C.) Dacians and Thracians began developing from proto-Thracians. Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not manage to form a lasting political organization until the Odrysian state was founded in the fifth century B.C. A strong Dacian state appeared in the first century B.C. during the reign of King Burebista. Including the Illyrians, the mountainous regions were home to various peoples regarded as warlike and ferocious Thracian tribes, while the plains peoples were apparently regarded as more peaceable.
Thracians inhabited parts of the ancient provinces of Thrace, Moesia, Macedonia, Dacia, Scythia Minor, Sarmatia, Bithynia, Mysia, Pannonia, and other regions of the Balkans and Anatolia. This area extended over most of the Balkans region, and the Getae north of the Danube as far as beyond the Bug and including Panonia in the west. There were about 200 Thracian tribes. These Indo-European peoples, while considered barbaric and rural by their urbanized Greek neighbors, had developed advanced forms of music, poetry, industry, and artistic crafts. Aligning themselves in kingdoms and tribes, they never displayed any form of national unity beyond short, dynastic rules at the height of the Greek classical period. Similar to the Celtic (e.g., Gauls) and Slavic tribes, most people are thought to have lived simply in small fortified villages, usually on hilltops.
Although the concept of an urban center was not developed until the Roman period, various larger fortifications which also served as regional market centers were numerous. Yet, in general, despite Greek colonization in such areas as Byzantium, Apollonia and other cities, the Thracians avoided urban life. The first Greek colonies in Thrace were founded in the eighth century B.C. Thrace south of the Danube (except for the land of the Bessi) was ruled for nearly half a century by the Persians under Darius the Great, who conducted an expedition into the region from 513 to 512 B.C. The Persians called Thrace "Skudra".
The Odrysian kingdom in its maximum extent under Sitalces (431-424 B.C.). In the first decade of the sixth century B.C. the Persians invaded Thrace and made it part of their satrapy Skudra. Thracians were forced to join the invasions of European Scythia and Greece. According to Herodotus, the Bithynian Thracians also had to contribute a large contingent to Xerxes' invasion of Greece in 480 B.C. Subjugation of Macedonia was part of Persian military operations initiated by Darius the Great (521–486 B.C.) in 513 B.C., after immense preparations, a huge Achaemenid army invaded the Balkans and tried to defeat the European Scythians roaming to the north of the Danube River. Darius' army subjugated several Thracian peoples at the same time, and virtually all other regions that touch the European part of the Black Sea, including parts of present-day Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Russia, before it returned to Asia Minor.
Darius left in Europe one of his commanders, named Megabazus, whose task was to accomplish conquests in the Balkans. The Persian troops subjugated gold-rich Thrace, the coastal Greek cities, as well as defeating and conquering the powerful Paeonians. Finally, Megabazus sent envoys to Amyntas, King of Macedon demanding acceptance of Persian domination, which the Macedonian accepted. At this time, many if not most Thracians fell under Persian rule. By the fifth century B.C. the Thracian presence was pervasive enough that Herodotus called them the second-most numerous people in the part of the world known by him (after the Indians), and potentially the most powerful, if not for their lack of unity.
The Thracians in classical times were broken up into a large number of groups and tribes, though a number of powerful Thracian states were organized, such as the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace and the Dacian kingdom of Burebista. The peltast, a type of soldier of this period, probably originated in Thrace. During this period, a subculture of celibate ascetics called the "ctistae" lived in Thrace, where they served as philosophers, priests and prophets. In that period, contacts between the Thracians and Classical Greece intensified. Before the expansion of the Kingdom of Macedon, Thrace was divided into three camps (east, central, and west) after the withdrawal of the Persians from Europe. A notable ruler of the East Thracians was Cersobleptes, who attempted to expand his authority over many of the Thracian tribes. He was eventually defeated by the Macedonians.
Thracian civilization was not urban, and the largest Thracian cities might have been in fact large villages. The Thracians were typically not city-builders and their only polis was Seuthopolis. The conquest of the southern part of Thrace by Philip II of Macedon in the fourth century B.C. made the Odrysian kingdom extinct for several years. After the kingdom had been reestablished, it was a vassal state of Macedon for several decades under generals such as Lysimachus of the Diadochi. In 279 B.C. Celtic Gauls advanced into Macedonia, southern Greece and Thrace. They were soon forced out of Macedonia and southern Greece, but they remained in Thrace until the end of the third century B.C. From Thrace, three Celtic tribes advanced into Anatolia and formed a the kingdom of Galatia.
In parts of Moesia (northeast Serbia), Celtic Scordisci and Thracians lived beside each other, evident in the archaeological findings of pits and treasures, spanning from the third century BC to the first century B.C. During the Macedonian Wars, conflict between Rome and Thracia was unavoidable. The ruling parties in Macedonia weakened and Thracian tribal authority resurged. But after the Battle of Pydna in 168 B.C. Roman authority over Macedonia seemed inevitable, and the governing of Thracia passed to Rome. Initially, Thracians and Macedonians revolted against Roman rule. For example, the revolt of Andriscus, in 149 B.C. drew the bulk of its support from Thracia. Several incursions by local tribes into Macedonia continued for many years, though a few tribes, such as the Deneletae and the Bessi, willingly allied with Rome.
After the Third Macedonian War, Thracia acknowledged Roman authority. The client state of Thracia comprised several tribes. The next century and a half saw the slow development of Thracia into a permanent Roman client state. The Sapaei tribe came to the forefront initially under the rule of Rhascuporis. He was known to have granted assistance to both Pompey and Caesar, and later supported the Republican armies against Antonius and Octavian in the final days of the Republic. The familiar heirs of Rhascuporis were then as deeply tied into political scandal and murder as were their Roman masters. A series of royal assassinations altered the ruling landscape for several years in the early Roman imperial period. Various factions took control, with the support of the Roman Emperor. The turmoil would eventually stop with one final assassination.
After Rhoemetalces III of the Thracian Kingdom of Sapes was murdered in 46 A.D.by his wife, Thracia was incorporated as an official Roman province to be governed by Procurators, and later Praetorian prefects. The central governing authority of Rome was based in Perinthus, but regions within the province were uniquely under the command of military subordinates to the governor. The lack of large urban centers made Thracia a difficult place to manage, but eventually the province flourished under Roman rule. However, Romanization was not attempted in the province of Thracia. The Balkan Sprachbund does not support hellenization.
Roman authority of Thracia rested mainly with the legions stationed in Moesia. The rural nature of Thracia's populations, and distance from Roman authority, certainly inspired the presence of local troops to support Moesia's legions. Over the next few centuries, the province was periodically and increasingly attacked by migrating Germanic tribes. The reign of Justinian saw the construction of over 100 legionary fortresses to supplement the defense. Thracians in Moesia were Romanized while those in Thrace and surrounding areas would come to be known as the Bessi. In the 6th century AD the Bessian (i.e. Thracian) language was reportedly still in use by monks in a Mount Sinai monastery.
Thracians were regarded by other people as warlike, ferocious, and bloodthirsty. They were seen as "barbarians" by ancient Greeks and Romans. Plato in his Republic considers them, along with the Scythians, extravagant and high spirited and his Laws considers them war-like nations grouping them with Celts, Persians, Scythians, Iberians and Carthaginians. Polybius wrote of Cotys's sober and gentle character being unlike that of most Thracians. Tacitus in his Annals writes of them being wild, savage and impatient, disobedient even to their own kings. Polyaenus and Strabo write how the Thracians broke their pacts of truce with trickery. The Thracians struck their weapons against each other before battle, in the Thracian manner, as Polyaneus testifies. Diegylis was considered one of the most bloodthirsty chieftains by Diodorus Siculus. An Athenian club for lawless youths was named after the Triballi.
According to ancient Roman sources, the Diiwere responsible for the worst atrocities of the Peloponnesian War killing every living thing, including children and the dogs in Tanagra and Mycalessos. Thracians would impale Roman heads on their spears and rhomphaias such as in the Kallinikos skirmish at 171 B.C. Herodotus writes that "they sell their children and let their maidens commerce with whatever men they please". The ancient languages of these people and their cultural influence were highly reduced due to the repeated invasions of the Balkans by Celts, Huns, Goths, Scythians, Sarmatians and Slavs, accompanied by, romanization and later slavicisation. However, the Thracians as a group did not entirely disappear, with the Bessi surviving at least until the late 4th century. Towards the end of the 4th century, Nicetas the Bishop of Remesiana brought the gospel to "those mountain wolves", the Bessi.
Reportedly his mission was successful, and the worship of Dionysus and other Thracian gods was eventually replaced by Christianity. In 570, Antoninus Placentius said that in the valleys of Mount Sinai there was a monastery in which the monks spoke Greek, Latin, Syriac, Egyptian and Bessian. The origin of the monasteries is explained in a mediaeval hagiography written by Simeon Metaphrastes, in Vita Sancti Theodosii Coenobiarchae in which he wrote that Theodosius the Cenobiarch founded on the shore of the Dead Sea a monastery with four churches, in each being spoken a different language, among which Bessian was found. The place where the monasteries were founded was called "Cutila", which may be a Thracian name.
The further fate of the Thracians is a matter of dispute. Some authors like Schramm derived the Albanians from the Christian Bessi, or Bessians, an early Thracian people who were pushed westwards into Albania, while more mainstream historians support Illyrian-Albanian continuity or a possible Thraco-Illyrian creole. The rest of the Thracians were assimilated as one of the primary ancestral groups of modern Bulgarians. Withregard to religion, one notable cult that is attested from Thrace to Moesia and Scythia Minor is that of the "Thracian horseman", also known as the "Thracian Heros", at Odessos (Varna) attested by a Thracian name as Heros Karabazmos, a god of the underworld usually depicted on funeral statues as a horseman slaying a beast with a spear. Dacians had a monotheistic religion based on the god Zalmoxis. The supreme Baltic thunder god Perkon was part of the Thracian pantheon, although cults to Orpheus and Zalmoxis likely surpassed him. Some think that the Greek god Dionysus evolved from the Thracian god Sabazios.
The Thracians were a warrior people, known as both horsemen and lightly armed skirmishers with javelins. Thracian peltasts had a notable influence in Ancient Greece. The history of Thracian warfare spans from circa 10th century B.C. up to the 1st century A.D. in the region defined by Ancient Greek and Latin historians as Thrace. It concerns the armed conflicts of the Thracian tribes and their kingdoms in the Balkans and in the Dacian territories. Emperor Traianus conquered Dacia after two wars in the 2nd century A.D. The wars finished with the occupation of the fortress of Sarmisegetusa and the death of the king Decebalus. Apart from conflicts between Thracians and neighboring nations and tribes, numerous wars were recorded among Thracian tribes too.
Several Thracian graves or tombstones have the name Rufus inscribed on them, meaning "redhead" – a common name given to people with red hair. Ancient Greek artwork often depicts Thracians as redheads. Rhesus of Thrace, a mythological Thracian King, derived his name because of his red hair and is depicted on Greek pottery as having red hair and beard. Ancient Greek writers also described the Thracians as red haired. A fragment by the Greek poet Xenophanes describes the Thracians as blue-eyed and red haired: "...Men make gods in their own image; those of the Ethiopians are black and snub-nosed, those of the Thracians have blue eyes and red hair." Bacchylides described Theseus as wearing a hat with red hair, which classicists believe was Thracian in origin. Other ancient writers who described the hair of the Thracians as red include Hecataeus of Miletus, Galen, Clement of Alexandria, and Julius Firmicus Maternus.
Nevertheless, academic studies have concluded that peoples had different physical features than the described by primary sources. Ancient authors described as red-haired varieties of peoples, they claimed that all Slavs had red-hair, likewise described the Scythians, which is diminished as incorrect. According to Dr. Beth Cohen, Thracians had "the same dark hair and the same facial features as the Ancient Greeks." Recent genetic analysis comparing mtDNA samples of ancient Thracian fossil material from southeastern Romania with individuals from modern ethnicities place Italian (7.9%), the Albanian (6.3%) and the Greek (5.8%) have shown a bias of closer genetic kinship with the Thracian individuals than the Romanian and Bulgarian individuals (4.2%), but it was noted that more mtDNA sequences from Thracian individuals are needed in order to perform a complex objective statistical analysis. On the other hand, Dr. Aris N. Poulianos states that Thracians, like modern Bulgarians, belong mainly to the Aegean anthropological type.
A list of historically important personalities being entirely or partly of Thracian ancestry would include: Orpheus, mythological figure considered chief among poets and musicians; king of the Thracian tribe of Cicones. Spartacus, Thracian gladiator who led a large slave uprising in Southern Italy in 73–71 B.C. and defeated several Roman legions in what is known as the Third Servile War. Amadocus, Thracian King, the Amadok Point was named after him. Teres I, Thracian King who united the many tribes of Thrace under the banner of the Odrysian state. Sitalces, King of the Odrysian state; an ally of the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War. Burebista, King of Dacia. Decebalus, King of Dacia. Maximinus Thrax, Roman Emperor from 235 to 238 A.D. Aureolus, Roman military commander.
Galerius, Roman Emperor from 305 to 311 A.D., born to a Thracian father and Dacian mother. Licinius, Roman Emperor from 308 to 324 A.D. Maximinus Daia or Maximinus Daza, Roman Emperor from 308 to 313 A.D. Justin I, Eastern Roman Emperor and founder of the Justinian dynasty. Justinian the Great, Eastern Roman Emperor; either Illyrian or Thracian, born in Dardania. Belisarius, Eastern Roman general of reputed Illyrian or Thracian origin. Marcian, Eastern Roman Emperor from 450 to 457; either Illyrian or Thracian. Leo I the Thracian, Eastern Roman Emperor from 457 to 474. Bouzes or Buzes, Eastern Roman general active in the reign of Justinian the Great (reigned 527–565 A.D.). Coutzes or Cutzes, general of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I.
The branch of science that studies the ancient Thracians and Thrace is called Thracology. The archaeological research of the Thracian culture started in the 20th century and especially after World War II, mainly on the territory of southern Bulgaria. As a result of intensive excavation works in the 1960s and 1970s a number of Thracian tombs and sanctuaries were discovered. More significant among them are: the Tomb of Sveshtari, the Tomb of Kazanlak, Tatul, Seuthopolis, Perperikon, the Tomb of Aleksandrovo, Sarmizegetusa in Romania and others.
Also a large number of elaborately crafted gold and silver treasure sets from the 5th and 4th century BC were unearthed. In the following decades, those were exposed in museums around the world, thus gaining popularity and becoming an emblem of the ancient Thracian culture. Since the year 2000, Bulgarian archaeologist Georgi Kitov has made discoveries in Central Bulgaria which were summarized as "The Valley of the Thracian Kings". The residence of the Odrysian kings was found in Starosel in the Sredna Gora mountains. A 1922 Bulgarian study claimed that there were at least 6,269 necropolises in Bulgaria. [Wikipedia].
REVIEW: Who were the Thracians? Among the peoples of the Mediterranean, they have usually been numbered among fringe cultures, shadowy folk on the periphery of the bright world of Greeks and Romans. Emerging as a distinctive culture during the third millennium B.C., they lived in tribal groups in an area bordered on the south by the Aegean, on the east and west by the Black Sea and the Vardar River, and on the north by the Carpathians. Although loosely linked by culture and, apparently, by language, they never achieved political unity, living in small towns and villages. Cities did not appear until late in their history, and their most monumental buildings were tombs.
The Thracians left no written account of their customs and history, and their language is known only from place names and a small number of inscriptions written in Greek characters. The Greeks, however, were well aware of their northern neighbors, with whom they came into contact, and conflict, in the course of colonizing the northern Aegean shore. To the Greeks, Thrace was a wild and woolly place: the birthplace of the violent war god, Ares, the home of the man-eating mares of Diomedes, and the land where demented women tore the singer Orpheus limb from limb. Homer's Iliad provides a striking portrait of the Thracian hero Rhesos, an ally of the Trojans and a fearsome warrior, remarkable for his large and beautiful horses, his ornate chariot, and his golden armor.
The historian Herodotus describes the Thracians in some detail, commenting on their large numbers, their lack of political unity, and various customs such as polygamy and branding of slaves that, from a Greek perspective, struck him as very odd (Histories, 5.3-8). Greeks settled in Thrace and Thracians lived in Greek cities, and there was significant interaction between the two cultures, but any portrait that emerges from surviving written sources is fundamentally biased--the Greeks regarded the Thracians as barbarians. It is only by turning to archaeology that we can gain a better understanding of these people.
"Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians, Treasures from the Republic of Bulgaria" now at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, makes a small but spectacular part of that archaeological heritage available to American museumgoers. Thracian lands lie within the borders of many modern nations; some of the most remarkable discoveries have been made in Bulgaria. The show, which presents some 200 gold and silver objects, opened in St. Louis in February, and it has now embarked on an extensive tour of the United States.
The exhibition draws on the riches of the following Bulgarian museums--the Archaeological Institute and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia; the Archaeological Museum, Varna; the Archaeological Museum, Plovdiv; the History Museum, Burgas; the History Museum, Kazanluk; the History Museum, Kiustendil; the History Museum, Lovech; the History Museum, Montana; the History Museum, Pleven; the History Museum, Razgrad; the History Museum, Russe; the History Museum, Stara Zagora; the History Museum, Targovishte; the History Museum, Pazardjik; the History Museum, Veliko Turnovo; and the National History Museum in Sofia. [Archaeological Institute of America].
REVIEW: On a soft, gray fall afternoon, a crowd of several hundred waited patiently outside the Iskra History Museum in Kazanluk, the unprepossessing main town in central Bulgaria's rose-growing region. The blank concrete facade of the museum, like that of most Communist-era cultural institutions, created a notably joyless impression. But inside, the 15 visitors allowed at a time into the small exhibition hall were awed by fantastic Thracian gold, silver, bronze, and ceramic objects, 28 in all, recently discovered only eight miles away and on public display for the first time. An ancient amphora housed on a wobbly metal stand rocked ominously as a woman brushed by. The excitement of the visitors washed over the tiny provincial museum as they carefully studied the objects that have been heralded across the world.
"We are filled with history from the land to the sky," remarked Albena Mileva, who is 24 and unemployed. She hitchhiked 20 miles from the neighboring city of Stara Zagora with two friends to see the exhibit. "So long ago the Thracians were so developed in so many ways. You can touch their spirit and their way of life." "I have no words," sighed Nadka Nenkova, a 66-year-old retired economist who had just seen the exhibit. "All this time it's been underground, and we didn't even know it was there." The sensational finds from a 2,500-year-old necropolis dubbed the "Valley of the Thracian Kings" have fired the imagination of the Bulgarian public and the world beyond. [Archaeological Institute of America].
REVIEW: "The Thracians are the most powerful people in the world, except, of course, for the Indians,” wrote the fifth-century B.C. Greek historian Herodotus. In citing the Thracians, he was referring to the group of tribes who inhabited a large part of the Balkans and parts of Western Anatolia—from the Aegean to the Carpathian Mountains, and as far as the Caucasus—from approximately the twelfth century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. Despite their fearsome reputation, relatively little is known about them. Few examples of their writing survive, and what other information we have comes from Greek literary sources and Thracian burial mounds. Many of these mounds have been excavated since the end of the Cold War, when their former lands, Bulgaria and Romania in particular, became accessible to well-trained archaeologists and modern methodology.
This past November, archaeologist Diana Gergova of the National Institute of Archaeology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences entered the burial chamber of an almost 60-foot-tall mound in the Sveshtari necropolis, some 250 miles northeast of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. There she discovered a wooden chest filled with hundreds of gold artifacts. Gergova believes that the burial belonged to a ruler of the Getae, one of the most powerful of the Thracian tribes, who, around 2,400 years ago, were “at their absolute height, politically, culturally, and militarily.”
According to Gergova, the finely crafted gold treasures from Sveshtari help confirm the ancient writers’ accounts of Thracian culture. The craftsmanship also reveals previously unknown stylistic connections to other tribes in the northern and western regions of the Black Sea, providing evidence for a wide cultural ring across Thracian lands. The site could also provide new insight into the Thracian religion, including their belief in the immortal nature of the human soul, which may have influenced early Christianity, says Gergova. “These finds have given us an incredible amount of information about the burial and post-burial practices of the northern Thracians.” [Archaeological Institute of America].
REVIEW: A pair of gold-plated silver cups depicting Eros, the god of love, and a rare snail-shaped glass drinking vessel are among new discoveries made by Veselin Ignatov of the Nova Zagora Museum in a first-century A.D. Thracian burial mound in east-central Bulgaria. The brick tomb from which these artifacts were excavated belongs to the same person whose richly decorated chariot, horses, and favorite dog were found by Ignatov just a few feet away in 2008. It is the earliest intact grave ever found associated with a chariot burial.
"This grave shows the Thracian aristocracy's exceptional wealth when Thrace became a province of the Roman Empire [in A.D. 46]," says Ignatov. He suggests the tomb belonged to a family member or associate of King Rhoemetalces III (A.D. 38-44), the last sovereign of the Odrysian Kingdom, who was murdered in a coup led by his wife. While more than 200 Thracian chariot burial complexes have been found in Bulgaria over the last two decades, most have been uncovered and destroyed by looters. "You can count on your fingers the number discovered and studied by archaeologists," says Ignatov, who estimates the total number of Thracian burial sites in Bulgaria to be about 12,000. [Archaeological Institute of America].
REVIEW: The recent find of a magnificent 2,300-year-old solid-gold mask is helping to liberate the Thracians from the "barbarian" reputation given to them by their ancient Greek neighbors, according to archaeologist Georgi Kitov of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Kitov made the discovery during the excavation of a burial mound in a region of central Bulgaria considered the "Valley of the Thracian Kings" because of the number and wealth of royal tombs so far discovered there.
The mask is believed to be a likeness of Seutus III, a Thracian king who ruled in the late fourth century B.C. Weighing about one and a half pounds, it is the first solid-gold mask found in the country. Only partial remains of an adult male were found in the tomb, which contained objects necessary for a kingly afterlife: a sword, a double ax, huge amphorae that were most likely once filled with wine, and bronze and silver vessels.
Along with the mask, which was positioned where the head would have been (the skull is believed to be interred elsewhere), an elegant gold ring depicting an athlete was also found on the body. The mask would have been worn during royal drinking ceremonies that were described by ancient Greek authors, says Kitov. After a Thracian leader consumed wine from a golden vessel emblazoned with his likeness, he would place the mask on his face, impressing his company with his power.
The Thracians were a nonliterate tribe often depicted by their southern neighbors as wild savages. "Archaeology is helping us understand that the Thracians were much more developed culturally and politically than the Greek authors portray them to be," says Kitov. [Archaeological Institute of America].
REVIEW: Archaeology in Bulgaria reports that a team has unearthed three Late Roman graves beneath the 20-foot-tall Otrusha burial mound in the Valley of Thracian Kings. Located in central Bulgaria, the mound was built to hold the remains of Thracian aristocrats who had integrated into Roman society. A landslide at the site last fall led to rescue excavations led by Diana Dimitrova of the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology. Her team found two tombs containing skeletal remains, and one containing a cremated individual who had been buried with several artifacts, including a ceramic wine jug and Roman bronze coins minted between A.D. 335 and 378, which were probably buried near the remains in a leather purse. Dimitrova believes there could still be more tombs to be discovered at the Otrusha mound. [Archaeological Institute of America].
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ABOUT US: Prior to our retirement we used to travel to Eastern Europe and Central Asia several times a year seeking antique gemstones and jewelry from the globe’s most prolific gemstone producing and cutting centers. Most of the items we offer came from acquisitions we made in Eastern Europe, India, and from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean/Near East) during these years from various institutions and dealers. Much of what we generate on Etsy, Amazon and Ebay goes to support worthy institutions in Europe and Asia connected with Anthropology and Archaeology. Though we have a collection of ancient coins numbering in the tens of thousands, our primary interests are ancient/antique jewelry and gemstones, a reflection of our academic backgrounds.
Though perhaps difficult to find in the USA, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia antique gemstones are commonly dismounted from old, broken settings – the gold reused – the gemstones recut and reset. Before these gorgeous antique gemstones are recut, we try to acquire the best of them in their original, antique, hand-finished state – most of them originally crafted a century or more ago. We believe that the work created by these long-gone master artisans is worth protecting and preserving rather than destroying this heritage of antique gemstones by recutting the original work out of existence. That by preserving their work, in a sense, we are preserving their lives and the legacy they left for modern times. Far better to appreciate their craft than to destroy it with modern cutting.
Not everyone agrees – fully 95% or more of the antique gemstones which come into these marketplaces are recut, and the heritage of the past lost. But if you agree with us that the past is worth protecting, and that past lives and the produce of those lives still matters today, consider buying an antique, hand cut, natural gemstone rather than one of the mass-produced machine cut (often synthetic or “lab produced”) gemstones which dominate the market today. We can set most any antique gemstone you purchase from us in your choice of styles and metals ranging from rings to pendants to earrings and bracelets; in sterling silver, 14kt solid gold, and 14kt gold fill. When you purchase from us, you can count on quick shipping and careful, secure packaging. We would be happy to provide you with a certificate/guarantee of authenticity for any item you purchase from us. There is a $3 fee for mailing under separate cover. I will always respond to every inquiry whether via email or eBay message, so please feel free to write.