The painted ceiling of the chamber of Kazanlik depicts the tomb's most famous image: a couple surrounded by servants, musicians, and a chariot at a banquet. SOURCE: AGE FOTOSTOCK
撰文:JULIUS PURCELL; ANGEL CARLOS AGUAYO PEREZ
During World War II, amazing archaeological remains were discovered near the Bulgarian city of Kazanlik. In World War II, Bulgaria and Nazi Germany were on the same side, and towards the end of the war, the threat of Allied bombing from the west and Soviet attacks looming from the east. To protect their land, the Bulgarian army built anti-aircraft fortifications near the central city of Kazanlik. The excavation of these fortifications led to a remarkable series of archaeological discoveries that greatly expanded knowledge about the ancient peoples who lived in the area for thousands of years before World War II. Their kingdom was called Thrace.
Between East and West, the Black Sea and the Aegean world, Bulgaria is located in the heart of the ancient Thracian region. Thrace was ruled by several tribal kingdoms, with a degree of unification achieved in the 4th century BC under the rule of the Kingdom of Odrissia, whose base of power was located near the modern city of Kazanlek.
BMW and gold
The territory of ancient Thrace included present-day Bulgaria, northwestern Turkey, southern Romania and southeastern Serbia. Unlike Bulgaria in the 40s of the 20th century, Thrace was at a geopolitical crossroads, surrounded by formidable rivals: Persia, Athens and later Macedonia - with which the Kingdom of Thrace formed a series of changing alliances.
Much of what was known about Thrace came from Greek sources written by settlers living on the Black Sea coast of Thrace, who both admired and feared these seemingly barbaric people living in the rugged interior. Homer portrays the Thracians in the Iliad and Odyssey as allies of the Trojans—warrior nobles who show off gold and good horses.
The Bulgarian Kazanlak Historical Museum houses the gold mask of King Teres I of Thrace. CREDIT: EVGENI IVANOV/ALAMY
Thracian culture bears the imprint of Eastern and Western influences. Their elite wine vessels are inspired by Persian and Greek styles and motifs and are made of precious metals. The Greeks considered the Thracians to be barbarians, but their association with the Greeks led them to associate their gods with Apollo and Hermes. Greek writings on the Thracians often refer to their warlike nature, as well as their "comforting" disunity—"If they had a ruler, they would be the most powerful people in the world," writes the Greek historian Herodotus, "but such a union was impossible for them and could not be achieved." ”
Nevertheless, in 479 BC, the retreat of the Persians after being defeated by the Greeks created a power vacuum in Thrace, bringing with it the opportunity for unification. Teris I of the Thracian became the first king of the kingdom of Odrisia, and 40 Thracian tribes were united under this kingdom.
Although Odrisia was conquered by Alexander the Great's father Philip in 342-340 BC, the co-rulers of Odrisia retained a degree of independence. Despite tensions with Macedonia, monument architecture in Odrisia did flourish under King Seuthes III. His base of power was concentrated in what is now Kazanlek, Bulgaria, where Bulgarian soldiers discovered the first of many Thracian tombs in 1944.
Ruler of the Thracians
This bronze bust of Cethus III was found in a tomb under the Golyamata Kosmat tomb complex. SOURCE: ALAMY/ACEI
As the most powerful king of the Thracian kingdom of Odrisian in the 4th century BC, Seth III (reigned 324-312 BC) seemed to have a tense relationship with his neighboring Macedonian monarch (heir to Alexander the Great). There are few contemporary references to him, but the fact that he built his capital, Sutopoli, and maintained an impressive level of monumental architecture there, testifies to his strength. In 2004, what may have been his grave was found under the grave of Golyamata Kosmatka. The tomb of Kazanlek may contain his son Roygos, his successor.
Mysterious paintings
In April 1944, the first major discoveries about the Thracians were made in Kazanlek. While digging a trench, soldiers stumbled upon a tomb with colorful frescoes. Archaeologists later learned that this place, the Tomb of Kazanlek, was not a stand-alone monument: it belonged to a royal necropolis that stretched for kilometers and surrounded a Thracian city that disappeared in the 4th century BC.
The passage of the tomb of Kazanle Thrace, through which the burial chamber can be seen. Above the colored panelling is a frieze on which face-to-face cavalry and infantry are depicted. CREDIT: HERVÉ HUGHES/GTRES
In 1948, a team of archaeologists led by Dimitar P. Dimitrov, director of the Archaeological Museum of Sofia, was able to conduct a scientific survey of the site. The Thracian tombs of Kazanleg consist of vestibules, connecting passages and circular burial chambers and are richly decorated. Although plundered in the past, the ornaments on the walls are well preserved.
The walls of the entrance passage are all painted with colorful murals. The black-painted base and the white pilasters marking the roof rise give the illusion of slate. Above these mouldings are friezes with stylized botanical motifs. The frieze depicts two scenes of battle, with infantry and cavalry facing each other, one dressed in Thracian costume and the other in Macedonian style.
From the burial chamber to the womb
The cross-section of the Kazanlak mausoleum, from right to left, is the vestibule, passage and burial chamber.
The Kazanlak tomb is a "royal" mausoleum consisting of an antechamber connected by a passage to a beehive-shaped burial chamber covered with large piles of earth and stone. Such tombs were built between the fifth and third centuries BC and have been found from Europe to Siberia. Some anthropologists believe that the shape of the burial chamber may be reminiscent of the womb.
The burial chamber itself is a beehive-shaped domed building. Archaeologists found fragments of a crown, a thin-necked bottle of both ears and, more importantly, the bones of two people, a man and a woman, who were confirmed to have lived in the early third century BC. Many believe that the male remains are Prince Roygos, son of Seth III, and the female remains are the wife of Roygos.
The ceiling of the burial chamber has the most famous image of the tomb: a couple sitting at a banquet table. The frescoes are arranged in three concentric bands. The frieze is decorated with rosettes and sacrificial ox skulls. In the first circle, the couple clasp their wrists in front of a table full of delicious food. Servants offered food around them, brought furniture, and played wind instruments. Behind them, two grooms and a soldier tended a chariot and two horses. In the center, three tanks are racing.
Scholars have been debating the interpretation of this scenario. The couple may have been the owners of the tomb, or the gods of the underworld - Hades and Persephone, because the picture shows a plate of pomegranates, a food associated with Persephone.
The vault height of the Kazanlak tomb is just over 3 meters. This photograph shows a modern reconstructed burial chamber open to visitors. SOURCE: AGE FOTOSTOCK
The frescoes also show a chariot race, probably referring to a funeral race held after the death of a nobleman. Together with other frescoes, it is considered the best-preserved work of art from the Hellenistic period in Bulgaria. The tomb was recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979.
Thracian landscape
Archaeologists know that there are other Thracian monuments in the area. After the Second World War, the time to excavate these lands near Kazanlak became shorter and shorter. The Bulgarian communist regime planned to flood the surrounding countryside to build what is now the Koplka Dam. It becomes more urgent to examine these structures before they are flooded.
In the late 40s of the 20th century, the government gave archaeologists several years to find and document what they could find, and archaeologists identified the ancient Odrisian-Thracian capital of Sutopolis, built at the end of the 4th century BC
In the following decades, it was gradually realized that the area around Kazanlak was a great monumental sight of ancient Thrace. The ruling class built painted tombs for themselves, and the tomb of Kazanlik is a prominent example.
The tomb was ransacked, and only a few items remained, such as this ceramic amphora. But the frescoes in the burial chamber are well preserved. CREDIT: CHRISTIAN KOBER AWL IMAGES
Beginning in the 90s of the 20th century, excavations led by Georgi Kitov studied more than 300 graves and 15 main tombs. Many of them were looted in ancient times, but in 2004 a well-preserved tomb was discovered under the Golyamata Kosmatka tomb containing a gold crown, a Kirix pottery cup, a sword, a shin guard, and a shield. A cup was engraved with the name of Seth in Greek, leading Kitov to believe that the tomb belonged to the great ruler himself.
The size and grandeur of the cemetery have led some historians to refer to it as the "Valley of the Kings of Thrace". It is one of the largest Iron Age noble burial sites in Europe, and there are still over a thousand structures waiting to be excavated, revealing Bulgaria's rich and ancient culture.
Lights illuminate a tomb discovered in 2004 under the grave of Golyamata Kosmatka, north of Kazanleg, illuminating the hall leading to the central burial chamber. This was probably the resting place of King Seth III of Thrace. CREDIT: MICHAEL RUNKEL/AGE FOTOSTOCK
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