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 , η ητροκσλλι , 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). Vasileva, 2005, 88 89). Such a disregard of a “grave” would A reconstruction of the priestly rites would consequently have been impossible at the time when these monuments were include an open air sacrifice on the central altar, aimed at made. In my opinion, the digging of a niche in a cliff facing the reproducing the Sun fire link that had already been fixed Sun was a one time ritual act connected with a cosmogonic through the circle, or a nocturnal sacred act with ritual fire. In and/or initiation rite. It is possible that a sacred object (a both cases, soothsaying and oracle giving by the priest is to be “mediator” or votive offering) was placed in them (Francovich, assumed. As in other megalithic areas, it is possible to situate 1990, vol. I, 28 29, 37 40, 102 107 with observations on the isolated rocks, stones or meteorites in Thrace in the vision different regions in Asia Minor, Mainland Greece, Capitol Hill in of the gods’ presence, marked at open air sacred places or in Rome, Cyprus, Lemnos, Thasos; s. Fossey, 1988, 345 for sanctuaries 1 (Fig. 4). rock cut niches in the territory of Lebadea and Bucholz, 1981, 65, 91 and n. 23 for rock cut niches at the Acropolis’ rock Bearing in mind these interpretative possibilities, in 1993 I under the Erechteum) (Fig. 6 8). proposed revised descriptions of some rock cut sites and monuments which are traditionally referred to as tombs, and of others which are called sanctuaries, as well as a new interpretation of their ritual functioning.
The conclusions which I reached in my study as briefly the following. Most widespread among the holes are those (predominantly round) hewn into flat rocks. They can be seen in a megalithic and rock cut environment everywhere in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Caucasian Black Sea Basin, including Anatolia. Their function has been extensively discussed. It is hard to believe that thousands of people dug holes in rocks just in order to practice the solar chthonic cult. It seems that some of them were hewn into a rock to serve as foundations over which wooden structures were erected. It appears more probable that they were used for placing sacred objects and votive offerings in them, in a system of rites with many doctrinal elements. The exact type of these votive offerings will become gradually clearer as a result of mountain hill excavations. The sacred object could also be a visual notion about the deity, a divine attribute, a mediator between the worshipper and the deity, and it could be depicted through Fig. 4. Stone stelae from the circular sanctuary on open air, Mycenaean an anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, ornamental or formal code. period (region of the town of Razlog, South-West Bulgaria); one of them In Old Phrygian inscriptions the sacred object bore the name of is decorated with solar ship and ithyphallic figure iman (Francovich, 1990, I, 37; Fol, V., 1993b, 62 64, 152; Vasileva, 2005, 89), i.e. mediator. Some of the so called “Orphic toys” probably played that role (Fol, 1994, 162 163) (Fig. 5).
The so called rock cut niches, hewn into vertical rocks, represented a higher manifestation of ritualism. Their traditional explanation by some Bulgarian archaeologists is not acceptable because of the unprovable idea that they have been necropolises for the urns with ashes of the deceased. It is difficult to believe that urns were placed in these almost
1Cf. Paus. 9. 38. 1 Rocha Pereira for the celebrating of natural stones and “stones from heaven” by the inhabitants of Orchomenus; cf. Paus. 9. 24. 3 Rocha Pereira for the cult to a natural stone as image of Fig. 5. The round holes hewn into flat rocks, village of Iliisko, Eastern Heracles; cf. Paus. 9. 27. 1 2 Rocha Pereira for a stone celebrated as Rhodopes an orphic Eros.
155 sacred objects were left. It could be assumed that the hewing of the solar disc was in itself a ritual act to fix the worshipping of the Sun in a definite point, considered to be its benign presence. The appearance of the disc on a rock was undoubtedly the materialization of a solar chthonic link (Fol, V., 1993b, 59 60) (Fig. 9).
The stone sacrificial altars described so far in Southeastern Thrace are single not very large rocks, whose surface on top has been processed: one or more round basins with grooves for draining have been hewn into them. This type of stone altars are ubiquitous in the Mediterranean and in Anatolia, and apart from being used for sacrifices on certain concrete days, they apparently also marked the territory conquered and sacralized by a certain social unit or community (Fig. 10)
Fig. 6. Rock-cut niches “Orlova Skala” near the town of Ardino, Eastern Rhodopes
Fig. 8. Unfinished rock-cut niche in the rock sanctuary, village of Samodiva, Eastern Rhodopes
Fig. 9. Solar disks in the rock-cut sanctuary “Vujevski Kamen”, region Kumanovo, East Macedonia
Fig. 7. Rock-cut niches in the rock sanctuary “Harman Kaya”, Eastern Rhodopes (www.rock-cut.thracians.org)
The rocky places with solar discs hewn into them (concave and convex) are most often combined with holes (with or without grooves) and stone altars dug into the horizontal rocks. They are convincingly defined as sanctuaries. Most probably, they were not places for mysterial cults, but for (mass) practicing of a solar cult, and places where libations were Fig. 10. Rock-cut altar in the rock-cut sanctuary “Vujevski Kamen”, performed before the stone image of the Sun, and where region Kumanovo, East Macedonia
156 The cave as the rock womb of the Great Mother Goddess is calendar. The mystes had observed the penetration of a solar a Mediterranean idea attested in the sources and already ray in the rock womb as a cosmogonic metaphor of the repeatedly interpreted from the standpoint of Thracian religious hierogamic relation of the paredroi Great Mother Goddess – thinking. The mysterial rites performed on the island of Son Sun. The archaeo astronomical measurements of a Samothrace are connected with the Zerynthia cave (Fol, 1990, natural cave in the Eastern Rhodopes, additionally formed as a 121), the mysterial rites connected with Zalmoxis were also cave womb, showed that between 2000 and 1000 BC at noon performed in a cave (Popov, 1989, sources and analysis; cf. at the day of the winter solstice the solar ray which had been Fol, 1993, 143 145 for the name of Zalmoxis associated with entering through the entrance had been reaching a stone altar the Great Mother Goddess; cf. Fol, V., 2004b). In the region of (Stoev et al., 2001). the Eastern Rhodopes until now around 40 rock cut caves had been documented. Some of them are in sacred mega complexes (Fig. 11).
Seven from these rock cut caves are also with well shaped openings on the roof, which have been covered with a stone slab. In the rock of the caves and around them sacrificial altars with and without furrows have been hewn. I took the liberty of interpreting those with an opening on the roof as rock cut cave womb sanctuaries (Fol, V., 1993b, 18 28; 2003a) (Fig. 12). Five of them have a quadrangular chamber, two – almost round, and one – “tongue shaped”. The remoteness of the constructions from one another is yet another eloquent proof that they were rock cut sanctuaries and that they were hewn into solitary monolithic rocks towering over the surroundings. Fig. 11. Mega complex – temenos with sacral springs, rock-cut cave- womb sanctuaries, sacrificial rock altars, niches in the region of the town This observation is very important, because of the close of Zlatograd, Central Rhodopes parallel to a monument from the Hellenistic Age – the so called stone sarcophagus was found in the Ostrousha mound near the town of Kazanluk in 1993 (Fig. 13). The sarcophagus is made of a single stone block (Kitov, 1993, 18 25).
The third chamber in the sub mound heroon discovered in 2004 in “Golyamata Kosmatka” is also made of a single stone block as sarcophagus. Arranged gifts were discovered inside this sarcophagus, which was placed on a stone bench, usually interpreted as a burial bed (Kitov, 2005, 67 96, cf. also fig. 101 and 115) (Fig. 14). The interpretation of these “sarcophagus” with cult buildings around (or part of them) is that they ware a variant of an old rock cut tradition. Fig. 12. Rock-cut cave-womb sanctuary with opening on the roof, which have been covered with a stone slab. In the rock of the cave and around it sacrificial altars with and without furrows have been hewn, region of The mysterial initiational ritualism in these rock cut caves the village of Benkovski, Eastern Rhodopes has been performed on specific days according to the solar
Fig. 13. Ostrusha sub-mound heroon with a single stone block as sarcophagus; “Ostrusha Mogila” in the region of the town of Shipka, Central South Bulgaria
157 Fig. 14. Plans of the sub-mound heroon and of the finds in the single stone block as sarcophagus in the “Golyama Kosmatka”, region of the town of Shipka, Central South Bulgaria
This cave, in which the time had been measured, had served executed. In the sacred space of the cult place altars and also for initiation in the mystery of the cosmic act. This sacrificial pits, basins for purifications, sanctuary and its idols, statement was confirmed after the discovery of the sub mound sacred objects, gifts, jewels, votives have been found. Thracian temple “Shushmanez” nearby the town of Shipka, in Unfortunately none of these sites archaeologically investigated the “Valley of the Thracian Kings”, Southern Bulgaria, existed (s. Thracian…, 1976, and the reinterpretation of the sites by for a shorter period of time but from an earlier date, before the Fol, 1993; 2000). The consensus terminology, which is being IV c. BC (Kitov, 1997, 114 116). The building is a pure replica used for defining the different out of settlements types cult of a megalithic rock cut cave womb sanctuary with an open places conforms with the investigations in insular and Mainland roof. There the sun ray is materialized in Dorian column Greece and in the Middle East (Rutkowski, 1986, XV XIX). grouted with sparklingly white plaster. The column connects the top of the vault with the altar, also white, in the center of Ancient Greek texts are the main source for the functioning the floor of the beehive chamber. It would be logical to assume of the rock cut monuments as topoi of faith and ritualism in that in view of such a strong presence of a rock uranian deity, South Eastern Europe. Pausanias’ testimonies for the cult the Son of the Great Mother Goddess, the cave was to be a places petroma of the Pheneates, mentioned above, for that of place for the mysterial practicing of the oral Orphic doctrine. In Trophonius nearby Lebadia in Boiotia and the one of Helios at the description of Paus. 8. 15. 1 4 Rocha Pereira of the the top of Acrocorinthos (Fol, V., 2001b; 2004b) and Greek and Demeter Eleusinia’s celebration from the Pheneates in Latin texts for Pangaion mountain in Aegean Thrace Arcadia, the sacred writings and the priest’s mask are being (Μιχαλοπουλου, 2004) possess great importance for the guarded in pštrwma. Pétroma is a stone construction of the clarification of the spiritual continuum in the rock topoi of oral rock cut caves wombs type with an opening on the roof (a faith and ritualism. “Pherekydes of Syros speaks of recesses detailed analysis in Fol, V., 2001b). and hollows and caves and doors and gates and he intimates that through these are the births and departures of the souls”. 2 Around some caves wombs in the Eastern Rhodopes rock The testimony of Pherekydes (VI c. BC) quoted by Porphyry (III cut mega complexes have developed with settlements around c. AD) is the earliest possible religious rationalization written in them. The most impressive are those nearby the villages of ancient Greek of the rock cut sites and monuments. Tatul and Shterna, Momchilgrad district, Harman Kaya, nearby the village of Bivoljane, Kurdzhali District, Gluhite Kamuni The historical religious approach creates a new interpretative (“The Deaf Stones”), Ivailovgrad District, Perperek, Kurdzhali strategy for the rock cut mega complexes, for parts of them District and Belintash, Assenovgrad District. The mega and for isolated monuments, because it situates the sites in the complexes are formed on high rock plateaus, which are turned cultural historical context of one specific faith ritualism. The to one of the solar shined on sides. Usually springs and a river traditional opinions, that a cult towards the sun, combined with are found nearby. Rock caves wombs or natural caves formed chthonic elements, is being maintained on the rock, are not like that are being cut in the rocks. Numerous sacrificial pits sufficient. The rock topoi of faith and their functioning from the with furrows, altars and niches on the vertical rocks second half of the II mill. BC until the beginning of the Christian supplement the monumental archaeological landscape. Hewn era, reveal a mysterial, initiational, funeral and doctrinal rites. out beam beds for wooden constructions have been preserved They compile each other and constitute the kernel of an oral on the flat rocks, just as walls from different epochs on the hill faith, formed on a Cretan base with Egyptian borrowings during slopes. The cult place should be connected with the belief in a god, an anthropo daemon, or a heros and ritual activities (purifications, sacrifices, processions, initiations) should be 2Porph. De antro nympharum 31, Seminar Classics 609; State University of New York, translation by Schibli, 1990.
158 the III mill. BC, which penetrates north, in South Eastern (lastly Fol, V., 2000). It is not impossible that images, like the Europe, mainly in Hellas and Thrace (cf. Fol, 1986; “man from Paleokastro”, a rock sculpture from Thrace, were consideration on the base of the data in Verbruggen, 1981; put in them (Fol, V., 1993a, 69, 157 158). Rutkowski, 1986; 1994; Watrous, 1995; 1996; Blomberg Henriksson, 1996; Rutkowski Nowicki, 1996; Fol, 1999a; The classification of the cult places in Urartu (I ik, 1995, 5 1999b). Its solar and chtonic components are being identified 50) corresponds to the classification in Thrace (Fol, V., 1993a; in the Gods Paredroi – Great Mother Goddess and her Son 1993b, 9 76): (Fol, 1997). ▪ Kultplätze mit Felsnischen (Cult places with rocky niches); ▪ Kultplätze mit “Felscella” (Cult places with rocky cella); In the meantime the research of Hittitian, Phrygian and ▪ Kultplätze mit Offenem Felstor (Cult places with an open rock Urartian sacred places advanced a lot. This research is done in door); the inner Anatolian cultural historical space, in a region ▪ Kultplätze mit Felskammer (Cult places with a rocky spreading to the West coast of Asia Minor, including the chamber); monuments on the territory of Ancient Greek Ionian cities like ▪ Kultplätze mit Stufenaltar (Cult places with stair like altar); Ephesus (I ik, 1995, 69 70). ▪ Kultplätze mit Felsschalen (Cult places with rocky “plates”/circles); The problem related with the name of the Phrygian king ▪ Kultplätze mit Felsgruben (Cult places with rocky pits); Midas is always current. The reason is that the name of this legendary king designates an interactive zone between the Balkan peninsula and the central Phrygian plateau. This problematic area is connected with Herodotus’ point of view about the Phrygian’s migration from the Balkan Peninsula to Asia Minor – a circumstance which creates the premise to think that the practice of forming of rock cut sacred places on Phrygian soil was brought from Southeastern Europe (s. Vasileva, 2005, with literature) (Fig. 15).
Among the many functionally sites, which can serve to illustrate the closeness of faith structure from Urartu to Thrace, one can hear point out the cult niches from the Tushpa region and appropriate Thracian parallels. My supposition that these sacred places indicate the appearance of the honored deity is Fig. 15. Single sacred rock with niches and opening for sun- confirmed thanks to the inscriptions of the Urartian doors observations, village of Strezotze, region of Kumanovo, East Macedonia niches. The ritual expression of this appearance is the votive gifts and the sacrifices. The doors niches, according to my view, represent a believed entrance to Beyond, i.e. a passage leading to a contact with the divine force (Fol, V., 2005) (Fig. 16).
The ancient Greek folklore tradition 3 has retained the vision of a non personification, of a demonological character of the movement towards Beyond in the form of a “soul”, the notion of which occurs as a general term during the literary era of the Hellenic culture. In contrast to this term, the Urartian inscriptions name gods. They are at least 78 in the Urartian pantheon, and according to this indication this pantheon comes close to the Hittitian one. The Hittites are called “the people of the thousand gods” (I ik, 1995, 66).
The personifications, which are definitely related to images, may be posing the questions about the so called Holes of Pools in flat rocks in a different way. This holes or pools in Thrace are considered nests for wooden constructions. According to my hypothesis in these “nests” in flat rocks people put sacred objects during lunch, a fire was lit in them, or they were full with a sacred fluid. According to the example of the Urartian monuments from this type, one can assume that some of these flat rocks holes are locations for putting votive stelae with or without inscriptions – one assumption which I expressed in relation with the context of each separate site Fig. 16. The sacred megalithic door to “Beyond” with panoramic view to the “Valley of the Thracian Kings”; the door is essential part of the mega 3Cf. Porph. De antro nympharum 31, Seminar Classics 609; State megalithic and rock-cut complex, region of the town of Buzovgrad, Central South Bulgaria University of New York, translation by Schibli 1990.
159 ▪ Kultplätze mit Felsrinnen (Cult places with rocky furrows); frequently multi religious topoi of the sacrosanct. The worship ▪ Kultplätze mit Stelen (Cult places with stelae); and ritualism in them follows the ancient tradition regardless of ▪ Felsheiligtümer und Felsgräber als “Totentempel” (rocky the change of ethnicities and religions (cf. for example the sanctuaries and rocky tombs like “a temple of the dead”) (I ik, articles in Fol, V., 2001a; for ritual functioning in South Eastern 1995, 65 68) (Fig. 17). European folklore relics s. Vol, V., 1996, 42 50, 79 83, 112 114, 130 131).
In the Bulgarian historiography on Ancient Thrace the term “interactive zone” was introduced to refer to the relationships in the religious and the spiritual sphere. This term comes from the definition of the Thraco Phrygian ethno cultural contact zone (Fol, 1994, 105, 179, 208; cf. Vasileva, 2005), but it seems that it can adopt a far wider reach in the Southeast European – Asia Minor part of Eurasia. A culturally historical unity of a type of religiousness begins to be delineated. This religiousness is not typical for the polis organization of Ancient Greece, but is characteristic for the monarchic organized societies from the II I mill. BC. The complete parity of the rock cut sacred places in Thrace and in Southeast Europe with the Anatolian ones refutes the idea of “influence” or “borrowings” from one side to Fig. 17. Rock-cut sanctuary with furrows hewn in the flat rock near the village of Fotinovo, Eastern Rhodopes the other. If such type of interaction were indeed to occur, separate, most important monuments of religious reality would The interpretation of some “rocky tombs” or “tomb niches” have been borrowed and adapted to a new environment. (I ik, 1995, Abb. 167 and others) as a temple of the dead (I ik, Therefore, it concerns typologically and culturally historical 1995, 65 67) is an assumption which can lead to the close evolutional process. interpretation of rocky open sanctuaries with temples or temple complexes (Altıntepe) as heroons, i.e. places where people honor legendary or historical patrons (cf. Fol, V., 2005). References Beksac, E. 2003. Voices of Mysia: the three rock cut The established and described Urartian rocky sanctuaries (s. sanctuaries of Bigadiç in the province of Balikesir. – Belli, 2001a; 2001b) put this mountain culture in a direct Thracia, 15, 149 160. relationship with the Hittitian and especially with the current Belli, O. 2001a. Monumental rock niches with cuneiform sanctuary near Yazılıkaya by Hattusha, where the big chamber inscriptions of the Urartian Kingdom in the Van region. – In: A is designed for celebrating a spring holiday, while the small Istanbul University’s Contributions to Archaeology in chamber B served as a temple of dead according to Hittitian Turkey (1932 2000) (Ed. O. Belli). 2001. Istanbul University written sources (I ik, 1995, 69 71, thinks that these traditions Rectorate Research Fund. Project N YP 53/07032000; of the rocky lay ascend to the “agrarian Neolithic” of the Asia Istanbul University Rectorate Publication N4285, Istanbul, Minor cultures). 352 357. Belli, O. 2001b. Surveys on monumental Urartian rock signs in During the Early Iron Age a nation appears together with the East Anatolia. – In: Istanbul University’s Contributions to Phrygians, who retains its religious notions, but was influenced Archaeology in Turkey (1932 2000) (Ed. O. Belli). 2001. by the Urartian. Thus occurs the zone where Paphlagonia with Istanbul University Rectorate Research Fund. Project N its rocky monuments, Lycia known with them as well as with its P:53/07032000; Istanbul University Rectorate Publication rocky graves, as well as Pisidia and Pamphylia pertain to. N4285, Istanbul, 365 369. Such monuments are observed also west in Anatolia nearby Berndt Ersöz, S. 1998. Phrygian rock cut cult façades: a study the cities of Phocaea and Ephesus, as well as in the mountains of the function of the so called shaft monuments. – West from Pergamum. In Pergamum was confirmed a rocky Anatolian Studies, 48 , 87 112. sanctuary from an East Anatolian type. Blomberg, M., G. Henriksson. 1993. Minos Enneoros: archaeo astronomical light on the priestly role of the king in Crete. According to the author, the worship of these sacred places In: Religion and Power in the Ancient Greek World (Eds. P. is preserved even today. For example, the memory of the Hellstrom, B. Althoth). 1996. Proc. Uppsala Symposium rocky sanctuary in Avnik on the Silk road is preserved. The 1993 . Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis , Uppsala (= Boreas. little rocky niche is honored until today by the women who kiss Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near it with reverence every Friday – a sacred day for Islam. From Eastern Civilizations, 24 ), 27 39. these kisses the “bowl/plate” fills itself by a miracle with spring Bucholz, H. G. 1981. Schalensteine in Griechenland, Anatolien water. According to the author the example shows a synthesis und Zipern. – In: Studien zur Bronzezeit. Festschrift für of the Anatolian cultures during the eras. In this way he Wilhelm Albert v. Brunn . Mainz, 63 94. interprets the worship towards the rocky grave of Köseoğlu and Delev, P. 1984. Megalithic Thracian tombs in South Eastern towards the altar in the niche in the ancient city of Antalya (I ik, Bulgaria. – Anatolica, 11 , 1 45. 1995, Abb. 30, 167 168). Fol, А. 1990. Politics and Culture in Ancient Thrace . Nauka i Izkustvo, Sofia, 171 p. (in Bulgarian) In my studies I also pay attention to the continuity of the rock Fol, А. 1993. Der thrakische Dionysos. Erstes Buch: Zagreus. cut sanctuaries in Thrace. These sanctuaries are most Universitätsverlag “St. Kl. Ochridski”, Sofia, 242 p.
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