Dimana Trankova Miglena Vasileva Anthony Georgieff A GUIDE TO THRACIAN BULGARIA CONTENTS Who Are the Thracians? Hlyabovo Where Did the Thracians Live? Gluhite Kamani Shrines and Deities The Valley of Thracian Kings Megaliths Harmankaya Monumental Tombs Starosel Thracian Treasures Belintash Aleksandrovo Tomb Madzharovo Perperikon Buzovgrad Mezek Tomb Orlovi Skali Circles of Stone Karanovo Sboryanovo Mishkova Niva Begliktash Nonmaterial Heritage Tatul Timeline Who Were the Thracians? thracian kings' valley About 4,000 years ago the lands of modern of southeastern Europe? Or descended from later switched to mean "wild" and "savage." them timber and game; copper, iron, gold started hewing canals and ritual basins on Soon afterwards, Herodotus, in his Bulgaria were inhabited by people who built newcomers who changed the population in According to an ancient story, Thrace, the and silver mines dotted the mountains. their old shrines, situated on rocky peaks. History, gave an astonishing piece of fortifications and cities, buried their dead the region during the transition between the land of the Thracians, bore the name of a Healing mineral water springs lured the The everyday objects also changed. Jewellery, information about the Thracians. He wrote in monumental tombs, drank wine from Chalcolithic and the Bronze ages, in the first nymph called Thrake, a powerful sorceress Thracians to settle around, and the fertile pottery and tools all became more refined that they had been the most numerous gold and silver cups, and warred, traded and half of the 4th Millennium BC? These questions who would use her knowledge of herbs to soil nurtured the famed local wheat, horses and practical. nation in the world, second only to the did politics with the ancient Greeks and so far have no definitive answer. heal and harm, at her whim. and vines from which the Thracians made Until the middle of the 1st Millennium Indians. In modern Bulgaria, you will see Romans, with the Persians, the Scythians and The ancient Greeks, who produced the The Thracians inhabited a vast area strong wine. BC, the Thracians stood out of the limelight, this proudly repeated all over in tourist the ancient Macedonians. most extensive historical source about their between the Carpathian mountains, the Black On the verge of the 2nd and the 1st but this changed between the 7th and 5th literature. Historians, however, have long These people were the Thracians. neighbours the Thracians, called Thraike or Sea and the Aegean Sea with the islands of millennia BC, the Thracians went through centuries BC. The Greeks started building disputed the accuracy of Herodotus's Today their name is barely known to Thrake the lands to the northeast of their Thassos and Samothrace, and the courses of a crucial change of technology. Bronze was their colonies on the Aegean and the Black account. The Thracians were indeed more anyone outside southeastern Europe. The own territories. The people who lived there the Struma and Morava rivers. Today these replaced by iron as the metal for tools and Sea coasts, and gradually replaced the numerous than the ancient Greeks, but Thracians built for eternity – especially tombs were respectively called Thracians. lands are divided between Bulgaria, northern weapons. The new material made ploughing Thracians on the Samothrace and Thassos they themselves were outnumbered by the and shrines – but they lived in the moment There are several theories about what Greece, European Turkey, southern Romania the land and cutting wood easier, faster islands. Before his campaign to Greece, the ancient Scythians and the Celts. and, underestimating the importance of the name Thracian means. It could be the and parts of Serbia and Macedonia. The core and more productive, and the generally Persian king Darius I (550–486 BC) invaded Estimates see the population of ancient writing down their deeds, they left next to Greek form of a local ethnonym, possibly of the Thracian lands is in Bulgaria. self-sufficient Thracian society found itself a significant part of Southern Thrace. Thrace between 800,000 and 1 million, but nothing about their history, faith and beliefs. connected with ancient Troy and the Trojans. The Thracians were famously disunited with more to sell on the market. The new The turmoil changed the Thracians. At this number may turn out to be higher. And so, bar the fascinating sites and treasures We know from Homer, who created the politically. They lived in numerous tribes – weapons were better for killing people as the end of the 6th and the beginning of the The population was not distributed they created, the life of the Thracians remains first written source of Thracians' existence, the accounts vary between 22 and 80 – and well, and as the Thracian aristocrats saw 5th centuries BC, the Thracian tribes of the evenly. The lands north of the Stara Planina more or less a mystery. that the Thracians sided with Troy during the each of these groups had its own nobility hunting, war and plundering to be the sole Derrones, the Oreski and the Lei began mountain were less populated, as they were What we know for sure is that the infamous 10-year war. Their kings Rhesus, and rulers. Among this multitude, the tribes activities worthy of men like themselves, minting their own coins, a sign for economic more vulnerable to attacks from across the Thracians are Indo-Europeans and began to Peiros and Acamas fought with the Greeks, of the Odrysians, the Bessi, the Tribali and they became richer. and political emancipation. One of the most Danube and had harsher climate. Interestingly, emerge as a singular ethnic group around and Rhesus was famed for his beautiful the Getae have left the most significant Iron changed culture too, spearheading significant treasures of ancient Thracian coins the majority of Thracian gold and silver the middle of the 2nd Millennium BC. white horses. historical and archaeological record. the building of megaliths. In this period, the is the one found at the Velichkovo village, near treasures have been found in this territory. Did these people form gradually, over Another theory claims that originally The lands of the Thracians were rich in Thracians created a significant number of modern-day Pazardzhik, which numbers nine The population south of the Stara Planina millennia, from the oldest, Neolithic inhabitants Thracian meant "brave" or "courageous", but natural resources. The dense woods gave dolmens, rock tombs and rock niches, and silver coins each weighing about 40 gr. was denser, leading to a greater number 6 7 of Thracian sites: megaliths, monumental and spread far to the southeast, southwest In Thrace, a number of independent Alexander the Great, and although it was part life in an empire. They became merchants, married. Polygamy was common among the tombs, cities, fortresses. These lands were and northeast of the Balkans. It was so kingdoms sprang, and urbanisation was on of the bigger Hellenistic civilisation, it was soldiers and administrators like the rich Thracian elite. also closer to the Greek ones, and would be strong that even the Greek colonies on the the rise. The graves became richer, filled with still in its periphery and far from the glorious Thracian buried in the Eastern Mound at The life of aristocracy was understandably influenced by the ancient Greek civilisation. Aegean coast paid it tributes. luxurious and imported everyday objects, centres of culture and trade in Egypt, the Karanovo. These people also learnt Greek more pleasant than that of commoners. A At the end of the 6th and during the early The game changed, however, in the weapons and jewellery, signalling the increased Near East and the Mediterranean islands. and Latin, and prayed to new and old gods. significant portion of time was devoted to 5th centuries BC, this territory became the mid-4th Century BC. Both King Philip II of wealth of the elite. Seuthes, the king of the As a result, most of the Thracian cities After the 4th Century, a rising number of hunting and feasting, or to war. The Thracians cradle of the first and the biggest political Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great, Odrysians, even built himself a capital in line were abandoned and destroyed, and fewer them fell for Christianity. had a reputation of fierce warriors, and entity the Thracians ever created. invaded Thrace. Their power didn't last with the latest Hellenistic urban fashion – and aristocrats could afford expensive graves and In their long history, the Thracians never throughout the Antiquity their lands were the It was the Odrysian kingdom of King long, but had strong effects on the local gave it his name, just like Alexander the Great tombs. The commoners had grown poorer. managed to create vigorous city-states, source of a steady flow of mercenaries. The Teres I, a man who according to some economy, urban planning and culture. A did with the cities he had founded. The 1st Century BC became the time of which thrived on trade and war, like the most bellicose tribes were the Bessi and the sources lived to 92 years of age, led number of cities, for example, were founded At the beginning of the 3rd Century BC, gradual subjugation by the Romans, who used Greeks, or a stable kingdom like the ancient Tribali, and Spartacus, who shed fear across aggressive foreign policy, yet boasted that on the sites of earlier Thracian settlements, Celts arrived in Thrace and even created a the tools of politics to achieve their goal – Macedonians. The Thracian society was pretty the Roman Empire with the rebellion of the when he wasn't on a hunt or at war, he the most famous of them is Philippopolis kingdom there. They had their capital at Tyle, from war to buying off local rulers, and from simple – it was divided into a noble elite led gladiators in 74-71 BC, was a Thracian.