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The Rock As a Topos of Faith. the Interactive Zone of the Rock-Cut Monuments

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Geoarchaeology and Archaeomineralogy (Eds. R. I. Kostov, B. Gaydarska, M. Gurova). 2008. Proceedings of the International Conference, 29-30 October 2008 Sofia, Publishing House “St. Ivan Rilski”, Sofia, 153-162. THE ROCK AS A TOPOS * OF FAITH THE INTERACTIVE ZONE OF THE ROCK-CUT MONUMENTS – FROM URARTU TO THRACE Valeria Fol Centre of Thracology “Prof. Alexander Fol”, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1000 Sofia; [email protected] ABSTRACT. The article discusses the rock topoi of faith as places for profession of a mysterial faith and ritualism, which should not be ethnically defined, because in its core lies the honoring of the stone/rock as a location for divine advent. Initial observations of natural and rock-cut topoi of faith in a like constructions in greater detail, as well as archaeological mountain environment have been done in the Eastern sites (mainly fortresses) and finds related to them in Strandzha Mediterranean as early as the second half of the XIX c., Mountain, Sakar Mountain, the Rhodopes and Eastern Stara however it is only recently that their cultural-historical role and Planina (Haemus). The interpretation of the megaliths is being their regional interactions began to be researched without the inserted in the widely accepted thesis for their functions as ritual faith and the cults professed in them to be charged with tombs of the population of the coastal hinterland. Some of the ethnic definitions. There are a series of examples from the dolmens had been used a lot from the middle of the II until the Southeastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor where the middle of the I mill. BC, but the problem of whether they are stone/rock is identified as a sacred symbol, a place of divine aristocratic tombs or they document a mass practice rests advent and of getting in touch with the divine inception. In the open (cf. Thracian…, 1976; 1982; Triantaphyllos, 1983; 1985; Mediterranean world and in Southeastern Europe in particular, 1992; Delev, 1984; Mo υτσορουλουσ , ∆ηµητροκσλλι , 1988; the aniconic period of the thought images – uncultivated or Moutsopoulos, 1989; Fol, V., 1993b, 13-14; 1998; 2000, 11-16; fairly uncultivated stones – is very well represented in the Beksac, 2003). The recent observations on the megalithism in written and the material sources. The idea that a divine Europe don’t take account of the stone monuments in the essence can be manifested in a rock is preserved in many South-East (cf. Guilaine, 1998; 1999), but the archaeological places during the Roman Era too. landscape in this part of the continent remains exciting. The burials in the dolmens dated at the end of the II – beginning of The researches of rock-cut and megalithic monuments, as the I mill. BC indicate only their last use, but the concept of the well as of the sacred locations where they are built or where building up of the megaliths could be archaeologically removed they are formed – most frequently in mountain massifs – are back to the end of the Chalcolithic (Fol, V., 1993a; 1993b, 9- done in Southeast Europe since the 60s. From the beginning 76, 147-168; 1997; 1998; 2000; 2001a; 2001b; 2002; 2003a; of the 7th decade of the XX c. the rock-cut and megalithic 2003b; 2004b; 2004c; Fol, V. in Fol et al., 2000, 171-192). monuments in the Bulgarian part of Ancient Thrace are being actively researched by interdisciplinary teams, organized The progress in the study of Thracian antiquity, and more mainly by the Institute of Thracology, affiliated with the specifically on Thracian rites and rituals, allows the re- Bulgarian Academy of Sciences ( Thracian…, 1976; 1982). interpretation of certain types and groups of monuments. This These teams have researched the dolmens and the dolmen- is particularly important for the studies on the oral orphism . The _____ classificational term for this faith is does reveal the hope in the *In this research the term topos is used in the sens of a "place (even a death and the new birth of the main male God and, location of a grave), a deposit, a geographical location", completely respectively, in a life beyond of the ones, who believe in him. separated from oikos (and its derivatives). The direct and the Because this faith after the Mycenaean epoch is continued to metaphorical meaning of locus communis, put into the term before be exercised in Ancient Thrace, where it becomes a state Aristotle's' definition (Arist. Rhet. 2. 23. 1-38 Ross) is most appropriate ideology of the most powerful royal dynasties, and mainly of for the research, especially because it assumes the clarification regarding the space outside the profane. The terrain-rite-like the Odrysae, the clarified classificational term Thracian expansion of the term, which I am introducing as a working Orphism had been introduced. During the Mycenaean epoch methodical instrument of the research, is conditioned from the this faith is identified in rock-cut, mountains’ and caves’ permanent interpretation and re-interpretation of the written sources sanctuaries (the studies on Thracian oral Orphism started with and the sample selection of objects and finds – see detailed analysis Fol, 1986; cf. Fol in: Fol et al., 2000, 171-220 and the in Fol, V., 2007. references; Fol, 2002; Fol, V., 2003a) (Fig. 1). 153 Fig. 1. The “Stone” is a rock-cut sanctuary in Strandja Mountain (Malko Turnovo region), with solar disks and sacrificial pits; archaeoastronomical research shows that from the mid II mill. BC on this sacred place the Sun was observed during the summer solstice The analysis of the linguistic data concerning the name of the reason to suggest that they were built as memorials of the Thracian Hero Peiroos on the basis of Hittite-Anatolian- aristocratic élite, rather than for kings only. All the more, the Thracian arguments has come to the conclusion that traces of the funeral rite are very faint and, at least for the Pirva/Peiroos was a rock-deity or deity/rock-solar deity in present, they evidence just the generally known practice of Thrace at the time of the Trojan War (Gindin, 1978; breaking vessels at the entrance. Tsimburskii, 1984). The Slavonicization of the Balkan Peninsula resulted in the superposition of the characteristics of the Thracian deity onto Slavic thunder-god Per-/Pir- in Slav. Perun/Pirin, conserved in oronyms as Perelik, Persenk, Perperek and others. According to A. Fol, the Balkan – Asia Minor ethnic and cultural unity for the time between the beginning of the II mill. BC until the Trojan War was manifested in cultural and historical realia in the Hittite-Anatolian-Thracian zone. A rock solar deity Pirva/Peiroos was worshipped in that zone (Fol, 1986, 15-16). V. Tzymburskiy localized the cult of that deity also in Troad, in the Zéleia locality, in which the Median kings hunted traditionally, and it later became a cult centre of Apollo. According to Strabo, Lydian kings also hunted there (Fol, 1986, 128). The Per-/Pir- first component of the theonym could be discerned in the toponym Perke , the other name of Thrace – “Rocky Mountain”. So, a very probable semantic sequence rock (mountain) – rocky (mountainous) god – god-Son of the Great Mother-Goddess for the region of Thrace/South-Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, Crete, Southern Italy and Sicily is already proposed (Fol, 1986, 17; Fol et al., 2000, 76). If the name Perke of Ancient Thrace represents a naming of rock-cut and Fig. 2. Rock-cut throne in the sanctuary king’s residence “Perperek”, megalithic religiousness, the classic toponym Thrake is related Eastern Rhodopes to the mysterial magic contacts with the gods (Fig. 2). The dolmens are the most abundant megalithic monuments in Thrace. Up to now, their registered number is c. 850 for the territory of Southeastern Bulgaria, the European part of Turkey and Northern Greece. However, this number is far from the real one. They are built up on the low ridges, alone or in a group, but always turned to face one of the solar directions (Fig. 3). The dolmens are covered with a mound embankment. Sometimes their façade is of slabs and very often they are supplied with a supporting frame along the circle. The dolmens may have one or two chambers, with or without an entrance corridor. The construction may vary. Even in the cases when the dolmens are double, i.e. adjoined, they do not have the Fig. 3. Dolmen with two chambers and crepis-facade near the village of same building technique or a similar layout. All these facts give Hlyabovo, Sakar Mountain 154 Such one-sided explanations have been offered until quite inaccessible niches, which can be reached only if a person recently for the other megalithic monuments as well. It is not hangs suspended on a rope from the top of the rock, and that possible to make hypotheses about the rituals accompanying complicated burial rites and cults where practiced. Many of the the erecting of menhirs or which reflected their worshipping. niches are shallow, or as some of the researchers describe them – unfinished. At the same time, it can be seen that niches However, the stone circles, and especially those forming a were hewn one over the other, without following the line of the complex with stone constructions and having a (sacrificial?) older one. This situation was typical of monuments both in stone in the middle, can be perceived as an early form of an Thrace and in Phrygia (cf. the summary of the functions of the open-air temple. The circle with designated centre is also a niches in Berndt-Ersöz, 1998, 89-92, 95 with the references; cf. familiar plan in the main written evidence about the for the functionя of niches-doors – Roller, 1999, 54; in Urartu – mountainous sanctuary of Dionysus (Fol, 1993, 135-154, N26).
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  • Orphic Thrace and Achaemenid Persia

    Orphic Thrace and Achaemenid Persia

    Orphic Thrace and Achaemenid Persia Diana Gergova The issues concerning the areas in which the Achaemenid presence in the Balkans influenced the culture of ancient Thrace naturally arouse interest amongst researchers. Abundant archaeological material and, even more, the examples of toreutics discovered south of the River Danube, as well as various written sources enlighten the issues (Marazov 1977; Kalojanov 1988; Board- man 2000; Tacheva 2000; Jordanov 2002; Megaw & Ruth 2002; Jordanov 2003; Valeva 2006; Valeva 2008, etc.). The period of Achaemenid presence, influence, diplomatic and commercial exchange in Thrace began in 520 BC with Dareios I leading his forces over the Bosporus and up the Danube, and continued to around 400 BC (Megaw [& Riith?] 2002, 488). Dareios’ intention to enlarge his possessions in Europe (i.e. in Thrace, Macedonia and Greece) involved the incorporation of territories abounding in natural resources, including in particular the gold and silver mines of Thrace. When, in the middle of the fourth century BC, Philip II took control of the mines, he was able to obtain an annual income of 1,000 talents. Where the Thracian logos intertwines with the Scythian one in his discourse, Herodotos narrates the story of Dareios’ route through European lands and details the relations between the Achaemenids and the Thracian tribes, both along the north Aegean coast and along the west Pontic. Naturally, not every aspect was related by him, and, accordingly, reconstructions of Thraco-Persian relation- ships have been accompanied by various hypotheses (Tacheva 2006). Paying particular attention to the lack of resistance on the part of the Thracian Odrysae and the Hellenic poleis along the west Pontic coast, inves- tigators have identified a preliminary diplomatic and strategic organization of Dareios’ march that was not mentioned by Herodotos.