Ivan Wenedikov

Ivan Wenedikov

Iwan Jordanow Wenedikow (common transliteration: Ivan Jordanov Venedikov , Bulgarian Иван Йорданов Венедиков ; born  January 10, 1916 in Sofia , † August 19, 1997 in Sofia) was a Bulgarian archaeologist , historian and thracologist . He dealt with Thracian and medieval history, archeology, art and culture, as well as the Bulgarian cultural and historical heritage.

Life

family

His father, Major General Jordan Wenedikow , was the author of numerous works on Bulgarian military history. His mother, Ekaterina Genadiewa, was the sister of the Bulgarian politician Nikola Genadiew . Both parents came from well-known families in Macedonia (→ Macedonian Bulgarians ) who had contributed to the church-national struggle and to the building of Bulgaria after the liberation from the Ottomans. In 1942 Ivan Wenedikow married his wife Vera Dimitrova from Skopje , a folklorist . He lived with her until the end of his life. You have two children.

biography

Wenedikow studied from 1934 to 1939 Classical Philology at the University of Sofia . His professors were Aleksandar Balabanow , Dimitar Detschew, Gavril Kazarow , Wesselin Beschewliew , Bogdan Filow and Petar Mutaftschiew . In 1942 he was with the dissertation The phonetics of the Latin inscriptions in the Bulgarian lands ( Bulgarian Фонетика на латинските надписи от българските земи. ) PhD . From 1941 to 1944 he made his first excavations as curator for the antiquities department in the museum in Skopje and explored the ancient and medieval city of Bargala - Bregalnica and the medieval (9th – 10th centuries) Kozjak .

From 1945 to 1957 he was head of the antiquities department of the National Archaeological Institute and Museum of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia. In 1957 he became a "junior" research assistant (bulg. Младши научен сътрудник) and in 1962 a "senior" research assistant (bulg. Старши научен сътрудник) at the National Archaeological Institute and Museum of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. From 1973 to 1978 he worked at the newly created Institute of Thracology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, from 1978 to 1986 he was head of the Department of Ancient Archeology at the National Archaeological Institute and Museum in Sofia. From 1981 he was a professor at the University of Sofia, where he gave lectures on the history of Thrace for many years .

Scientific activity

Works

In over 150 works on Thracian history, culture, art and language, Wenedikov examined the place of the Thracians in the development of culture in Southeastern Europe. He found that the Phrygians and Thracians developed under the influence of even older Eastern cultures. Wenikov divided Thracian art into periods. He dealt with the finds and sources that were typical of the Thracian horsemen. He wrote the hitherto only monograph on Thracian horse-drawn carriages (Bulgarian "Тракийската колесница"; 1960), he reconstructed the appearance of these wagons. In 1972 he put together an exhibition on Thracian art that included the most beautiful finds from all over Bulgaria. This exhibition was shown in numerous capitals around the world, increasing Bulgaria's reputation abroad.

Through his studies of pre-Bulgarian inscriptions, he came to the conclusion, new for the time, that the Bolgarian language was still spoken up to the first half of the 9th century and that even attempts had been made to write in it.

Wenedikow also found that Preslav was a large Bulgarian site in the first half of the 9th century. He was also able to determine the significance of many titles and ranks of the Bulgarian rulers and Boljars and to classify their concrete historical content and significance. In 1979 he wrote a monograph on the military and administrative structure of the Bulgarian Empire.

Investigations and excavations

Wenedikow carried out numerous excavations and investigations, which he published in Bulgarian and other languages. From 1945 to 1949 he directed excavations in Sozopol . He was the scientific director of archaeological investigations (including underwater archeology) in Nessebar for 25 years (1949 to 1974). In 1971 he organized an expedition that examined the rock tombs of the Odryses in the Rhodope for the first time . In 1975 he took part in the investigation of the dolmens in the Strandscha Mountains and Sakar Mountains . In addition to these major investigations, he also carried out smaller investigations: the Thracian sanctuary near the village of Liljatsche , the nymphaeum near the village of Kasnakowo, the graves near the village of Wetren and in the city of Wraza , the Thracian horse-drawn cart in Kyustendil and many others. Scientists, students and interns take part in most of these expeditions.

Membership in scientific institutions

• Scientific Council at the National Archaeological Institute and Museum
• Institute of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
• Institute of Art Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
• Corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute
• Member of the Association Internationale d'Épigraphie Grecque et Latine
• Member of the Macedonian Scientific Institute
• Member of the Bulgarian Numismatic Society

Awards

• Marin Drinow anniversary medal - on the occasion of the centenary of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
• Order "13 Centuries Bulgaria"
• Order "Cyrillos and Methodios" 1st level
• Anniversary medal 100 years of unification
• Honorary badge "Distinguished in the Committee for Culture" (today's Ministry of Culture)
• Honorary citizen of Nessebar

Publications

Wenedikow is the author of around 250 scientific papers, including around 20 monographs . His work deals with the following areas:

• Thracology (151)
• Archeology (43)
• Proto-Bulgarians (28)
• Epigraphy (11)
• Folklore (10)
• Prehistory and Early Iron Age (9)
• Linguistics (8)
• Numismatics and Sphragistics (6)
• Ethnography (3)

Individual publications deal with the Scythians , ancient Persia, ancient geography, Thracian toponyms , the development of agriculture in the Bulgarian areas, problems of the Bulgarian rebirth and the present. He also made and wrote the scripts for some television and documentaries about Bulgarian antiquity and medieval times. Over 30 of his scientific papers have been published abroad and translated into numerous foreign languages. His book "Thracian Art", which he wrote with Todor Gerasimow, has been translated into eight languages.

literature

• Vassil Nikolov (ed.): National Archaeological Museum. 100 years from the opening of the first exhibition. Borina, Sofia 2006, ISBN 954-500-145-3 , p. 133.
• Ivan Venedikov. In: Alexander Fol u. a. (Ed.): In honor of 30th anniversary of the Institute of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences . Thracia Vol. 14. Institute of Thracology, Sofia 2002, pp. 63-72.