Perperikon
Perperikon ( Bulgarian Перперикон ) is an archaeological complex in Bulgaria , which was a rock sanctuary as early as the Stone Age , the remains of which have been partially preserved. With the Thracians , the striking landscape became a sacred rock city, capital in the Orpheus cult and fortress with a royal palace. Later the Romans , Goths , Byzantines and Bulgarians settled in the area .
location
Perperikon is located in southern Bulgaria, in the east of the Rhodope Mountains , 15 km northeast of Kardzhali .
The Thracian sanctuary is 470 m above sea level, on a rock that is on top of a hill.
The rock mountain, on which Perperikon was built, lies in a 10 km long and 3–4 km wide valley (approx. 300–370 m above sea level) through which the gold-bearing river Perperischka (Bulgarian Перперишката река) flows.
Archaeological objects from different eras lie along the river, all of which are grouped around Perperikon as the center. The rock city cannot be seen from below in the valley.
The formerly populated area of Perperikon, which extended to the rocks ( megalithic hills) and its surroundings, took up an area of approx. 12 km². The megalithic complex, the largest on the Balkan Peninsula, covers an area of 5 km². Perperikon is located on the right bank of the Perperek River, above the village of Gorna Krepost .
meaning
The Thracian temple is probably of greatest importance to archaeologists. Perperikon was the most important place of the Thracians in the Eastern Rhodopes. The rocks housed a cult complex and an ancient rock city with a temple , especially at that time . The temple was probably the sanctuary of the Thracian god Zagreus (Bulgarian Сабазий / Sabasij or Загрей / Zagrej). Perperikon was one of the northernmost outposts of the Bronze Age culture in the Mediterranean.
Perpericon was associated with many Greek myths in ancient times and the Dionysus Temple located here was well known from written sources ( see Historical Sources ). The location was unclear until the rock city was discovered, which is why archaeologists had been looking for it for over 100 years.
In ancient Greece and Rome, the sanctuary was known as an oracle, as was that of Apollo in Delphi . And it is believed that the famous sanctuaries and oracle shrines were located here, which the Thracian tribe of the Bessen dedicated to the god Dionysus. The place was still venerated in Christian times.
The finds from the Thracian period help to reconstruct the life of an era from which historians have little data, as it dates from the 13th to 12th centuries BC. There is no written record and there are no historical reports of the Thracians from later times either.
Perperikon was the oldest Thracian center that is known to this day. The Perperikon Rock Palace is 1,000 years older than the Thracian settlements that were found in the Valley of the Thracian Kings near Kazanlak .
Perperikon is important for archeology as well as the largest settlement of the Stone Age in the Balkans .
history
The rocks of Perperikon were already in the late Neolithic and in the Copper Stone Age (Chalcolithic, Eneolithic), late 6th to early 5th millennium BC. Holy. The hill was until the 14th century BC. Settled.
Historical sources
The sources tell of a priestess who made prophecies similar to the oracle in Delphi. However, the location of the Dionysus oracle was kept secret. Today the researchers only conclude from evidence that the main temple of the Dionysian cult was in Perperikon, but absolute proof of this is not yet available. Another possible place where the Dionysus oracle could have been is the rock Belantsch (Bulgarian Беланташ; international transliteration: Belintaš), also in the Eastern Rhodopes. Many Thracian megalithic sanctuaries have also been discovered here.
Macrobius (around 400 AD) reported a sanctuary in the shape of an oval hall.
Euripides is astonished in his tragedy “ Hecabe ” (424 BC) that “... some say that the Dionysus oracle is in the Pangaion Mountains , while others say that it is in the Hemus ( Balkan Mountains ).” According to reports later Roman historians, however, the Dionysus oracle in the Rhodope Mountains was the most important sanctuary.
Other Greek and Roman historians write that Alexander the Great , Marcus Crassus and Xerxes I independently knew an oracle in the Rhodope Mountains.
Stone Age - Bronze Age - Iron Age
Traces can be found in Perperikon as early as the late Neolithic . The origins of the place of worship are probably even further back. The finds show that it is not a settlement, but a rock that was worshiped as part of the stone cult .
Perperikon was the center of the Stone Age megalithic culture in the Rhodope Mountains. Human activities in the region go back to the 6th millennium BC. BC back. However, there are no surviving buildings from this period.
Perperikon was the center of a vanished civilization, which archaeologists provisionally describe as the "civilization of the rock people".
From the Copper Age , late 6th, early 5th millennium BC In BC rock pits were found, roughly carved depressions in the rock, which were filled with roughly broken cult pottery.
One of the symbols of the Rock People was a circle with five rays, a sun. In the early Stone Age of Perperikon, people adored the bare rock and worshiped the sun goddess. There is a fragment of a ceramic vessel depicting the five-pointed sun, whose rays end in a corona of flames. The fragment was discovered along with other ceramic fragments in a sewer of a building and is dated to the late Bronze Age, 15th - 12th centuries BC. Dated. This proved that the erection of the monumental buildings began 1,000 years earlier than previously assumed. Until then, it was assumed that construction began around the 5th to 4th century BC. Chr. Lay.
The Stone Age people were not yet able to cut sculptures, so only the big rock was worshiped. The people of that time worshiped great mountains and rocks, and the sun as a goddess.
The Stone Age people had chosen Perperikon as the stone abode of their gods. That is why they gradually built an oracle here for the pilgrims . The temple was added later.
It was not until the Bronze Age that people knew how to cut large masses of stone from the rock massif. The well-preserved remains of buildings that were carved into the rock date from this period. In the course of the centuries, the processed stone surface became larger and larger.
The following cultures and inhabitants have largely blurred the older stone traces of their predecessors. These older traces of stone work can only be found in places that are further away and hidden.
Gradually the rock was transformed into a fortress wall, the stones of which were simply stacked artfully on top of one another. The joints were not mortared.
The first traces of civilization on the mountain date from the Bronze Age , while the ceramic finds date from the early Iron Age , as well as the impressive round altar, almost two meters in diameter, which was carved out of the rock. During the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, the cult facilities on the mountain expanded significantly.
The development of the rock complex continues in the Bronze Age. In the late Bronze Age, 18th to 12th centuries BC BC, Perperikon experienced its first great heyday. This is the epoch of the Cretan - Mycenaean culture , the heyday of Troy and Mycenae .
The oldest layers of the find date from the Iron Age.
Metal processing
In 2006, archaeologists found molds for axes, bellows used for smelting, arrows, crucibles and metal hinges, among other things. These finds prove that Perperikon was in the 13th century BC. Was a center of metal processing.
These finds date from the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. At this time, the end of the Bronze Age, with the exception of the Thracians, the eastern Mediterranean civilizations suddenly fell. Probably because of one or more natural disasters and / or enemy invasions, such as the Sea Peoples Storm . Then began the so-called dark age , from which very few finds and data are available. However, the civilization of the Thracian tribes continued to develop and flourish during this period.
Thracian
The holy Thracian city of Perperikon was founded around 1,500 BC. Built. Perperikon was an urban center of the Thracians and their religious center. In Perperikon was the residence of the Thracian kings, who lived around the 6th to 5th centuries BC. Was built. Excavations suggest that important members of the royal family were buried in the area. Apparently the palace shrine was the fortified capital of the Thracian rulers in the Rhodope Mountains.
Orphism
Perperikon was a place of worship of the Thracian religion of the Orphics . This philosophical system is now called Orphism ( also Orphicism) because of its co-founder Orpheus . Orphism had its origins in the teachings and chants of Orpheus, as well as in Thrace at the beginning of the 9th century BC. And then spreads over ancient Greece and the Mediterranean area.
Orphism was based on a decidedly aristocratic concept. It was a cult around the ancestral kings, the source of fertility, the high priests and anthropodemones (dead people whose bodies do not decay, a kind of "undead"). Orphism was based on the Dionysus cult.
Orphism as a belief and as a philosophy was around 900-800 BC. Widespread. Many Roman emperors, among others, adhered to this belief. Only unmarried, consecrated men were allowed to participate in the festivals in honor of Orpheus, which took place in secret locations, including Perperikon, while “normal mortals” were not allowed.
The archaeologist Nikolai Ovtscharow assumes with other authors that the mythical Orpheus not only lived here, but was a local ruler in the Rhodope Mountains.
In this sacred place the Thracians sought the balance between the five elements, the chaotic mixture of which the world according to their imagination consisted of. Besides earth - fire - water - air, the horse, as a fifth element, was sacred and worshiped.
The rites of the Dionysus cult were performed in hidden places in the mountains or in caves. Such caves have been found in the Rhodope Mountains, the Strandscha Mountains and the Sakar Mountains, among others .
The participants performed pantomime pieces and a choir sang the story. The climax of the ritual was the depiction of the death of the king-priest, an allusion to the myth according to which the titans dismembered and eaten the son of Zeus, Zagreus, who then rose again as Dionysus. The blood sacrifice of a bull, a horse, a goat and sometimes even a human was used to represent it. The subsequent mass copulation, to represent the conception by the mother-deity, caused the ancient historian Herodotus to denounce the Thracians for their sexual self-indulgence.
According to Orphic mythology, Zagreus, the male god of nature, was related to the female mother deity. Copulation symbolized their union.
Roman Empire
The Romans , who conquered the Balkans in the 1st century AD, expanded and urbanized the old Thracian settlement.
The era of the Roman Empire had a significant impact on Perperikon. A large three to four story fortress was built into the hollowed out rock. A large fortress wall was built around the hill, the walls of which were 2.80 m thick. The fortress wall surrounded temples and entire residential areas. Most of these buildings have not yet been found. However, some streets carved into the rock were found.
After the Roman conquest, new fortifications were built and after the introduction of Christianity in the 4th century AD, the pagan temples were converted to Christian ones and new churches were built.
During the Roman period, a strong fortress with a garrison guarded the city. There were three city gates, which were spaced one behind the other and blocked the way of the conquerors. Square holes in the rock can still be seen from the anchoring of the inner city gate. The Roman governor had a castle on the Acropolis (a fortress on the highest part of a city). A few meters from the castle, the oldest church in the Rhodope Mountains was discovered, which was built at the end of the 4th century.
Temples and residential buildings were also erected within the walls. The rock city had its greatest expansion and cultural climax during the time of the Roman Empire.
The Bessen were 72 BC. Subdued by the troops of the proconsul of Macedonia Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus .
The Thracian people of the Bessen had always been enemies with the Thracian people of the Odrysen until then . The Bessen were the keepers of the main sanctuary of their god Zagreus in Perperikon. After the subjugation of the Bessen by the Romans, however, the Bessen handed over the sanctuary in Perperikon (Dionysus Temple) to the Odrysen in order to forge an anti-Roman alliance between the two Thracian peoples.
The Romans conquered in 29 BC The sanctuary and handed it over to the Odrysen, who lived further east and were the enemy of the Bessen. The Romans thus provoked a revolt of the Bessen against the Romans in 15 BC. A second war between the two Thracian tribes took place in 11 BC. In both wars, the Bessen were led into battle by their king Vologaises (Bulgarian Вологес), who was also their high priest of the Dionysus cult. After both tribes suffered heavy losses and were weakened in this second war, the Romans succeeded in taking all of Thrace. The Bessen were almost completely destroyed. Some of the remaining Bessen were relocated to the Dobruja .
According to more recent sources, the border between the Kingdom of the Bessen and the Kingdom of the Odrysen ran in the Eastern Rhodopes, east of today's Kardzhali . Cassius Dio thinks that the holy city of Perperikon with its temple of Dionysus was exactly on the border between the two kingdoms.
In 46 AD the Romans finally conquered the Rhodope Mountains. A mixed Thracian-Roman period began, which lasted until the Slavs invaded this region. Octavius later made the region the Roman prefecture of Bessica .
During the rule of the Romans, Roman officers and nobles came to the region around Perperikon to relax. An example of this is the well-preserved Villa Armira in Ivaylovgrad and the ancient city of Perperikon.
When the Roman Empire fell, the Thracians were probably Hellenized , at least the Bessen people. This probably also means the Christianization of the Bessen. The Goths moved through the Rhodope Mountains in the 3rd century AD and devastated the region.
During the rule of the Roman Empire, Perperikon reached a heyday, which ended with the invasion of the Goths. These destroyed the cities and villages of the region in the 2nd half of the 4th century AD. In Perperikon, too, the archaeologists found indications that the city had been captured and burned down. However, already in the 5th / 6th Century AD it emerged again.
Byzantine Empire
After the division of the Roman Empire, Perperikon became part of the Byzantine Empire . During this time the built-up area extended to the slopes and the foot of the hill and existed for several hundred years. The fortress walls of Perperikon were restored, in some cases new ones were built to strengthen the protection for the Acropolis - especially from the vulnerable west side.
With the stabilization of the Byzantine Empire in the 9th century AD, Perperikon became the administrative center of the Eastern Rhodopes. Life in the city at the foot of the hill flourished again, but no longer reached the same splendor as in ancient times. A new church was built on the remains of the late antiquity temple on the Acropolis. The building material was hewn stones that were mortared. A very large necropolis was created nearby, which gave archaeologists an idea of the size of the city. Residential areas were created, the houses of which were partly built into the earth ( pit house ) and partly the old streets were reused.
In the 13./14. In the 17th century AD, the fortress in Perperikon was the administrative center of the region and the seat of a bishopric. Later, a common administrative unit was created from the Perperikon region and the Achridos region, and the fortress regained importance. In 1339, the previously existing bishopric Achridos was divided and Perperikon became an independent bishopric.
Among the ceramics, coins and utensils discovered in Perperikon, the silver coins of Tsar Ivan Alexander , which are extremely rare for this area, are of particular interest. Such coins have so far been found extremely rarely in this region. These coins document Alexander's brief period of reign over Perperikon in 1343.
During a civil war from 1341 to 1346, the fortresses in the Eastern Rhodopes were destroyed and not rebuilt. Apparently the fortress of Perperikon suffered the same fate.
Christianity, which had been consolidated since the 5th century, also left its mark on Perperikon. The basilica on the Acropolis was converted into a church by adding a required apse on the east side . At the same time, other churches were built in the area around Perperikon. In Perperikon there was also a relic from the 9th to 10th centuries AD - a cross relic, a cross containing a piece of wood from the cross of Christ.
Bulgarians
Slavs and Arabs invaded the region from the north and south-east, followed by the Bulgarians later . The territory of the Byzantine Empire shrank so much that even the continued existence of the empire was endangered. There was decay and depopulation everywhere. At the beginning of the 7th century AD, many fortresses were abandoned, although they were not built long ago. This fate also happened to Perperikon. Life in Perperikon did not disappear completely, but it could no longer be compared with the splendor of earlier times.
After the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681 AD, the Rhodope region became a contested borderland between the Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantine Empire. During the frequent wars and sieges of the fortresses in the Rhodope Mountains, many of the fortresses were destroyed: Perperikon, Ustra , Efrem and Wischegrad . At times the Rhodope region was fought over between the Eastern Roman Empire (= Byzantine Empire) and the Western Roman Empire.
In the 7th century AD, on the instructions of the Byzantine emperor, the proto-Bulgarians under their leader Khan Kuber were settled in the area around Thessaloniki . Similar to the religion of the Thracians, the worship of rocks also played an important role in their religion. The Bulgarian tribe under Kuber left behind some of the graffiti drawings found by archaeologists on the southern slopes of the Rhodope Mountains, including in Perperikon. These drawings are very similar to the proto-Bulgarian drawings found in north-east Bulgaria. All of these drawings have cult status - a symbolic checkers game and ritual depictions of the female sexual organs. The latter probably have something to do with the cult of the goddess Umay (Bulgarian Умай). Umay was a fertility goddess among the Turkic peoples . The drawings were scratched with a sharp object on the highest point in the rock of Perperikon.
Between the 7th and 14th centuries AD, the Bulgarians fought against the Byzantine Empire for control of this area. In 1343 the Bulgarians lost here for good.
middle Ages
The Bulgarians fought under Tsar Kalojan in 1205 against the Latin Emperor Baldwin I in the Battle of Adrianople .
In 1339 Perperikon was already known as a rich diocese.
Until 1999, the archaeologists considered Perperikon to be part of a medieval fortress system. The partially preserved and restored fortress tower of the medieval fortress of Perperikon still stands on the rock. He was born around the 12th-14th Century built. At this time, the newly created province of Achridos (bulg. Ахридос), which included the entire Eastern Rhodopes, experienced its heyday. There was also an Archdiocese of Achridos.
Ottoman Empire
Perperikon was a strong Byzantine military fortress. After Didymoticho fell into Ottoman hands in November 1361 , the Eastern Rhodopes were conquered and defeated. However, only the mighty Perperikon stood in the way. The city was captured in 1362 and burned down with all the monasteries and completely destroyed.
During a rescue excavation on the planned area for the construction of the visitor center, the remains of a church from the 11th century AD were found. 20 graves were found in which people dressed in Christian clothing were buried. Some were simply buried in the ground, others in stone chambers. These included the graves of six decapitated men who may have been executed by the Ottomans in 1362. With this, the Ottomans tried to break the defenders of Perperikon during the long siege of Perperikon in 1362.
The human remains in a further 19 graves with men, women and children next to the church obviously come from peaceful times and from even older centuries. The church and the necropolis with a total of 25 graves were discovered by the team of Chitko Watschew (Bulgarian Хитко Вачев) from the Historical Museum in Veliko Tarnovo .
Because the skulls were found to the side of the graves, it is concluded that the decapitated corpses were first buried without the head, which was then buried later. Another skull without a body was found in a grave of a decapitated man.
At that time it was customary to execute the men and to take the women and children as slaves to the Ottoman Empire.
During excavations next to the citadel on the summit, the archaeologists found large amounts of broken weapons, improvised graves, 70 destroyed Christian altar crosses made of bronze and silver. These traces indicate fierce fighting. These battles most likely took place when the Ottomans took the city under Orhan I in 1362 . The crosses were probably brought into the fortress by the fleeing residents of the area in order to save them from being desecrated by the advancing Ottomans.
This is supported by the fact that 30 silver coins from Orhan I were found here. That is a relatively large amount of an otherwise rather rare coin.
After taking the fortress and the city of Perperikon, the Ottomans stationed a garrison there . However, this only existed for about 20 years, until the final conquest of the Rhodope region by the Ottomans and was abandoned in 1385 because the borders of the empire had shifted much further north.
A Christian population probably continued to settle at the foot of the mountain, where the suburb with the residential areas used to be. The only written record for this is an entry from the Ottoman tax register from 1628/29, in which the two Derwendschi villages Karalar (Bulgarian Каралар) and Dere Machala (Bulgarian Дере махала) are mentioned.
During the rescue excavations at the future visitor center, another very small, later church from the 16th century was discovered within the ruins of the church from the 11th century. A necropolis was also found next to this small church. Obviously, even after the Ottoman conquest in 1362, Perperikon was still a spiritual center of Christians, albeit a small one and only for the surrounding villages. This is also supported by the discovery of the bronze mount of an icon from the 16th century, on which the inscription Charitonos (Bulgarian Харитонос) can be deciphered. The veneration of this saint was especially in the 15./16. Century. Possibly he was the patron saint of the chapel . The last graves around the chapel date back to the 17th century, when Alians were resettled from Iran to this region. The further fate of the local Christian population is not known.
The increased settlement of Muslims in the 18th century fundamentally changed the ethnic composition in the region.
The Perperek Knoll has been named after the facility since 2005 , a mountain on Livingston Island in Antarctica.
Name and location
The Byzantines called the city Perperikon. The pre-Byzantine name of the site is unknown. The identification with Perperikon is still very speculative in some cases, as there have been no finds since the beginning of the excavation in 2000.
Pergamon
The religious center of Perperikon was supposedly once called Pergamon . Nikolaj Ovtscharow advocates this thesis in his book after six years as head of the excavations in Perperikon.
Pergamon is a Thracian word and means something like "fortress on the summit". The name Pergamon attests to the existence of a fortress. Maps from the Middle Ages show a large city called Pergamon near the Arda River . The researchers assume that the names Pergamon and Perperikon denote the same city. But they can only say with certainty that there was also a Pergamon somewhere in the area in which Perperikon is located.
Hyperperacion
The Byzantine name for Perperikon was Hyperpyrakion, which was soon shortened to Perperakion by contemporaries. Documents from the 13th and 14th centuries AD still mention the place Hyperpyrakion. The name Perperikon did not appear until the late Middle Ages.
Hyperpyros
Another explanation derives the name Hyperperakion from the Greek words Hyperperos or Hyperpyros, which means "above the fire". The name thus represents an association with the wine-fire ritual of the Dionysus cult. The word first existed in the Middle Greek language , which was common at the time of the Byzantine Empire, but not in the ancient Greek language .
Perpera
Other researchers derive the name from the Byzantine coin Hyperpyron or Perpera. The currency Perper was still in use in Montenegro from 1906 to 1918. The Byzantine Emperor Alexios I carried out a currency reform in 1082 to strengthen the empire's gold standard. Since large amounts of gold were mined in the gold mines in the immediate vicinity of Perperikon, in his domain, the Byzantine emperor could have named the city after the new currency.
"Perper", "Perpera" or "Perperek" means "golden money" in an old non-Slavic language and is certainly related to the gold mining in the area of Perperik.
Perperik
There is a disagreement between archaeologists and thracologists as to whether the city should be named Perperik or Perperikon. “Per” was the god of rocks. "Per" was the "stone" or "rock" among the Thracians. Accordingly, “Perper” means “rock on rock”. The ending "-on" in Perperikon is just the Graecized form. The root word "Per", with the same meaning, also occurs in other Bulgarian toponyms:
- Goliam Per elik (bulg. Голям Перелик = Big Perelik , the highest peak of the Rhodopes, 2191 m)
- Goliam Per perpendicular (bulg. Голям Персенк = Big Persenk Mountain m in the Rhodope Mountains in 2091,)
- Per lowska reka (Bulgarian Перловска река, = Perlowska reka, a very small river that flows through Sofia, among other places).
With the Greek prefix “Hyper-”, Hyperpericon (or Hyperperekon) would then mean “highest rock”.
Description and archeology
Archaeological investigations and excavations have been going on since 2000 under the direction of Nikolai Ovcharov.
Perperikon consists of the fortress on the hill, a temple (= palace) just below the fortress, in a south-easterly direction, and two outer cities on the northern and southern slopes.
Important parts of Perperikon are:
- the megalithic temple, which was later surrounded by the temple of Dionysus
- the Temple of Dionysus (a sacred temple-palace)
- Carved into the rock, area approx. 10,000 m²
- an antique round altar of the Temple of Dionysus (Dionysus Altar),
- the great fortress walls,
- the Acropolis, which was built from huge blocks of stone and stands on the highest point of the mountain, including the colonnade of the Acropolis,
- the northern and southern suburbs, which consist of small alleys and streets in the rock, as well as houses and temples
- the rock breakthrough to the castle,
- the crypt with the discovered sarcophagi,
- a very large water reservoir,
- several rock carvings of the Ur-Bulgarians
- the monastery complex.
mountain
The mountain in the center of Perperikon protrudes over the surrounding hills. Its upper part is mostly made of rock. Water rose from the highest point. The rock is of volcanic origin. This “soft stone” is relatively easy to work with. The builders were able to chisel rooms, halls, stairs and passages with almost vertical walls (70 °).
Rock city / Acropolis
The first structures carved into the rock were built in Perperikon during the Late Bronze Age, in the 18th-11th centuries. Century BC They were niches facing south, facing the sun. Offering tables were carved into the rocks, on which stood stone altars and vessels for stamping wine and for making the holy wine. The wine was grown on the slopes of the hill. Fragments of Neolithic pottery were found by archaeologists in crevices in the rock, where they were placed by the Stone Age people as offerings to the gods.
Over the centuries, temples and palaces were added all around, and finally an entire city, whose streets and squares were carved into the rock. The rock city is multi-storey, like an amphitheater. The courtyards were often surrounded by colonnades. The rock city is criss-crossed by a well-planned system of drainage channels effectively laid out in the rock. With the Acropolis, the residential quarters, courtyards and colonnades, Perperikon was in no way behind a Greek polis at its heyday .
Dionysus Temple
Archaeologists have uncovered the outline of the well-preserved Temple of Dionysus, it is located in the northwest part of Perperikon and was carved into the rock during the late Bronze Age. Around the rock temple, the Bessen have carved an entire city into the rock.
The outer shape was a hall without a roof, with an approximately oval base, which was carved into the rock. The large stone round altar with a diameter of almost two meters stands in the north corner of the temple, slightly raised above the ground. Traces of fires that were kindled for the religious ceremonies were found. Next to the altar is a rectangular platform on which the priests presumably performed their religious rituals.
With the Christianization in the 5th century, this pagan temple was given up and filled with earth.
Despite all the sources and scientific conclusions, there is no absolute evidence that the Dionysus Altar stood in Perperikon. Most of the ancient authors who speak of the sanctuary, however, describe the peculiar round shape of the altar. The oval outlines of the discovered altar are therefore a strong indication.
Thracian palace
The Thracian Palace is the most important architectural building in Perperikon. It is also known as the palace sanctuary or the royal palace (Thracian royal palace) or the royal palace. It lay on a large, uneven plateau that was surrounded by a strong fortress wall.
During the construction of the Thracian palace, the much older Dionysus Temple was integrated, and in fact also rebuilt. The smaller Dionysus Temple, which previously stood here, was integrated into the north-west corner of the Thracian Palace during the construction of the palace, so that the entire architectural ensemble is arranged in a staircase on several floors.
In contrast to the other rooms, the oval hall in the Thracian palace had no roof. This can be seen from the fact that there are no holes for fastening the roof beams in the rock all around. In the middle of the oval hall is a large, 3 m high, stone-carved altar with a diameter of 2 m. Next to the narrow, steep stone footbridge that leads up to the altar are 4 round ones, which were probably used for setting up torches.
The Thracian kings were also the high priests of their tribe. Therefore, the main temple of their god was in their residence.
From this, the researchers conclude that Perperikon was the capital, and that the temple with the Dionysus oracle, which rivaled the oracle of Delphi, must also have been here.
The Thracian palace was likely built in the late Bronze Age and was in use until the late Roman period. It was the royal palace of the Thracians, the seat and the fortress of their king, who was also their high priest.
The Thracian Royal Palace and its fortress were the capital of the Kingdom of the Odrysens , the strongest Thracian state.
The previously unknown Thracian palace was discovered in 2005 by archaeologists on the Acropolis of Perikon. Ceramic, silver and other gold jewelry were also found.
The floor plan of the Thracian palace was 10,000 m² and comprised 50 individual rooms, corridors, halls and internal stairs. The large, 30 m long reception hall is partly cut into the rock, as are the two underground mausoleums with graves on the west and east sides.
The palace is built in the style of a Mediterranean fortress, especially the layout of the great hall ( megaron ), which has its origins in the island of Crete and is typical of the Minoan culture .
In the palace there were throne rooms, oracle sites and utility rooms. Members of the royal family were also buried here.
More palaces
The remains of a second and third palace lie at the southern foot of the mountain, surrounded by thick forests. The remains of many other buildings have been found in the vicinity, as well as reservoirs and stone passages.
The Thracian Palace and the two other palaces nearby are part of a whole previously undiscovered complex.
So far, 100 sacrificial altars have been found in the area.
Water basin
The largest ancient water basin carved into the rock in the Balkan Peninsula was found in Perperikon. The water basin is 6 m deep at the deepest point, 12 m long and 6 m wide and has a capacity of 270 m². The water basin became Perperikon in its flowering period in the 3rd and 4th centuries BC. Supplied with water.
The outlines of two other water basins have been exposed, but they have not yet been fully exposed. The city had about 1 million liters of water in the water basins, which should have been enough for a population well over 10,000.
church
The foundations of a church were discovered, which was built in the middle of the 5th century AD, the time of the Christianization of the Rhodope Mountains. From here Christianity was spread among the Thracian tribes. The bishopric of the region was also here.
The church is 16.5 m long, a single-nave hall church with an apse. Parts of the huge capital have been preserved.
In the crypt there are sarcophagi carved from stone .
It is believed that the church existed until the 12th century, when it was destroyed by the invading barbarians, and afterwards it was forgotten.
Ambo
An ambo (pulpit) was also found in the church in 2005 . The ambo was probably made at the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD, during the reign of Emperor Honorius . This time coincides with the Christianization of the Thracians and the inhabitants of the Rhodope Mountains. This is the first find of its kind in Bulgaria.
Inscriptions are carved in the ambo, the meaning of which has not yet been unraveled. The ambo is decorated with reliefs carved in stone. An eagle with outstretched wings can be clearly seen on the stone. Furthermore, the pulpit bears five inscriptions in Greek, which probably served liturgical purposes, but cannot yet be precisely interpreted.
Fortress and tower
A 40 m high watchtower and 40 m wall have been preserved from the upper fortress of Perperikon. The tower was completely destroyed by the beginning of the excavations and was then partly rebuilt quite unprofessionally (with the use of cement!). The fortress is located on a wide and not very high rocky hill, on the top of which a citadel was built. The fortress is just below the citadel.
Warehouse
The archaeologists have discovered traces of an ancient warehouse. Four completely preserved vessels with stone lids and a capacity between 160 and 200 liters were found. The vessels were found in the culture layer that dates back to the 4th century BC. Is assigned. Wine was probably kept in the vessels.
gold treasure
In 2003 Nikolaiy Ovtscharow discovered a 4,000-year-old gold treasure in Perperikon, which has been compared to Schliemann's treasure of Priam in terms of its importance .
Coins
A gold coin from the first half of the 11th century AD was found in Perperikon, from the time of Michael IV (1010-1041). This coin, weighing 4.45 g, was never in circulation and was kept together with a precision balance. It bears the image of the emperor on the front and Jesus Christ on the back.
Iron crosses
From the time up to 1362 iron crosses were found which were attached to Christian relics. The iron crosses and 60 other religious objects were found in the citadel, the main fortress of Perperikon, where the inhabitants locked themselves in for defense.
Almost all the crosses found were desecrated because they were bent, broken or cut off.
These finds are exhibited in the Historical Museum in Kardzhali .
Scorpionfish - snakehead
In Perperikon two clay figures from the 3rd – 1st centuries were made. Century BC Found. They represent a snake's head - a cobra - with a mouth open and ready to attack, and a dragon's head with a mouth that is also open, a mane and decorations on the sides. The find is unique and significant for archaeologists, as the figures have a cultic meaning. The cobra was seen as the guardian of the underworld and was part of the Dionysus cult. However, only a fragment of the cobra has survived. Both figures are probably attributed to the Zepina culture ( Zepina ). Furthermore, two vessels were found depicting cult scenes.
Ceramic finds
In 2002 ceramics from the late Bronze Age were found. There are many fragments and some preserved vessels - small cups, as well as vessels with high and winding handles, as they were typical of this period.
Some parts were made of very coarse clay with the addition of stones, while very fine clay was used for other luxury ceramics. This luxury ceramic has a high-gloss, black surface.
Also unique is an imported ceramic vessel from the coast of the Marmara Sea from the 18th century BC. BC It documents the first trade relations. On the outside of the almost completely preserved vessel, a drawing is engraved into the ceramic and filled with white paint. The drawing shows 6 figures that are grouped around a centrally located sun. These are unknown ancient gods.
font
During the inventory of the archaeological collection of the Kardschali Historical Museum, the curators rediscovered a stone tray that was found in 1982 during the first excavations in Perperikon. It bore an indecipherable inscription. This is a fragment of a longer inscription. Experts identified the inscription as linear a . Linear A was written around 1850 to 1400 BC. Used in Crete.
The tray was dated to the 15th to 14th centuries BC. And is the first of its kind to be found among the Thracians.
Gold mines
There were large gold deposits in Perperikon. One of the largest gold mines of antiquity and the Middle Ages was only 3 km away, near the present-day village of Stremzi (bulg. Стремци). The gold mine in Stremzi was set up in the last centuries before the new era. They were later abandoned, but reopened in the 11th to 13th centuries AD.
You can still find dozens of entrances and over 500 m of galleries from these ancient mines. The whole hill near Stremzi is criss-crossed by a network of tunnels and caverns.
Many of the small rivers at the foot of Perperikon are gold-bearing themselves.
There was an underground gold-bearing river here during the Pleistocene . In the subsequent geological periods, the rocky river bed collapsed, the river dried up and the alluvial debris solidified.
monastery
The remains of a medieval monastery that was part of Perperikon from the 10th to 14th centuries AD were discovered by Prof. Ovcharow and his excavation team.
The ruins of a basilica have been preserved 1.5 m below the ground. Your floor is made of Opus sectile . The mosaic shows different scenes that represent part of a life cycle.
The main basilica was surrounded by other rooms, including a burial chamber-like church with a sarcophagus. The archaeologists found the bones of a Byzantine bishop in the sarcophagus. Since there were no inscriptions on the sarcophagus, the name is not known. The archaeologists also found various seal stamps from well-known dignitaries from the 10th and 12th centuries AD. One of the seal stamps from the basilica is made of black onyx and bears the image of the Archangel Michael .
Find and excavation history
The fortress was mentioned early on by Georgios Akropolites . At the end of the 19th century, the Czech historian Konstantin Jireček reported about the medieval fortress Hyperperakion (Perperikon) in the Achridos region, even if he did not visit the site personally. An interesting moment in his description is the fact that after almost 500 years of Ottoman rule over this region, under the predominantly Turkish toponyms of the region, the memory of Perperikon was only preserved in the name of the river that flows in the valley below the fortress. The river was called Perperek-dere in Turkish (Turkish: der'e = river) and thus indicated the old name Perperikon.
The local population referred to the mountain as the "peak of spirits".
The first targeted archaeological excavations in Perperikon were carried out from 1979 to 1982 and then resumed in 2000. The archaeologist Nikolai Ovcharow is in charge of the excavation . The excavations are currently continuing. It was not until 2000 that the archaeologists were aware of the very large area of the archaeological site. So far, however, only small parts of the huge area have been well researched archaeologically.
During the archaeologists' annual excavations in summer, 100 to 150 everyday objects from the former residents were discovered daily in the early years.
In 2002, sacred pieces of wood from the Jesus cross were discovered in the temple and are currently on display in the historical museum of the city of Kardzhali.
Six scientists and 160 workers from the neighboring villages were involved in the excavations in summer 2007. In the previous years there were over a hundred workers.
Because of the large area of the excavation area, the archaeologists have a problem with the "overburden", which actually has to be removed far in order not to fill in the neighboring, not yet exposed historical cultural layers again with the excavated earth.
Grave robbers
The Bulgarian state television showed in its news program “Po sweta iu nas” (German: In the world and with us) in 2006 a report about a probable theft in Perperikon in autumn 1982. Two uninvolved eyewitnesses were also shown.
In the royal palace in Perperikon, a crypt had already been discovered during archaeological explorations 1979–1982, which contained 12 preserved stone graves of Thracian nobles. The most important find was a marble sarcophagus belonging to a Thracian nobleman. This sarcophagus disappeared in an unknown manner from Perperikon in autumn 1982.
At the beginning of the archaeological excavations in Perperikon in 2000, the graves in question were opened and found completely empty. Until recently, archaeologists believed that the empty graves had been tracked down and robbed in antiquity, as nothing was known of their first discovery (around 1979–1982).
Archaeologists usually document all finds and take photos. However, there are no documents from the coffins in the crypt in the responsible Historical Museum in Kardzhali, so that deliberate destruction of the documents is suspected.
Only a single photo from this period was found during a search in the archive of the Kardzhali Historical Museum. The photo clearly shows that in the autumn of 1982 the twelve graves were closed with large stone slabs and therefore very likely not been robbed. In the northwest corner of the crypt there was a marble sarcophagus three meters long. The sarcophagus is also clearly visible in the photo. However, due to the lack of documentation, it is no longer known what was in the sarcophagus. In the Kardzhali Historical Museum there are no more traces of the sarcophagus and its contents. The sarcophagus is said to have been removed with the help of a helicopter (according to an excavation worker).
The sarcophagus in question is extremely important and valuable in itself. Today the archaeologists can only puzzle whether and what was then contained in the obviously still unopened sarcophagus. According to the state of knowledge of the archaeologists about Thracian burials of nobles, there must also have been gold in the sarcophagus. After all, the largest gold mine in Southeast Europe was only three kilometers away.
tourism
Perperikon is open to visitors from spring to autumn (end of October). The ascent from the parking lot is steep, slippery in places, strenuous and takes about half an hour.
There are no tourist facilities on the mountain yet. Only at the foot of the hill is there a water source, a parking lot and a sales kiosk for site plans and postcards. Admission costs one lev (the equivalent of just under 0.50 euros), the parking fee also costs one lev. Guided tours can be booked in advance through the Historical Museum in Kardzhali, which also exhibits the most valuable finds from Perperikon.
At the top of the hill the ascent leads over stone steps along a two-meter-wide path that has been carved into the rock. You enter the palace (= temple) through the stone gate.
In addition to the foundation walls of the palace and the church, the entire ground floor of which was carved three to four meters deep into the rock, the large water basin carved into the rock is one of the most interesting objects for tourists. In 2005, the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture approved 100,000 leva for the construction of a road to the historic Perperikon complex.
For Perperikon, the expansion as an archaeological open-air museum is planned in the medium term. This is also intended to promote tourism in the otherwise economically very weak region around Kardzhali . There are other archaeological sites in the region, such as the Thracian sanctuary of Tatul .
As part of the expansion of Perperikon as an archaeological open-air museum, the construction of the fortress wall up to a height of 4 m is planned. It will then be visible from the foot of the mountain. A visitor center is also planned at the foot of the mountain, for which a rescue excavation was carried out in 2007.
In 2007, within the framework of the EU's PHARE program, 2.8 million euros were approved for the development of cultural tourism in and around Perperikon. An information center is to be built in Perperikon, as well as a museum in which some of the finds can be shown. An amphitheater for cultural events is also to be built. The rock should be preserved, otherwise it will be worn out and removed by the steadily increasing stream of tourists and the effects of the weather. Paths and wooden bridges are to be built for the stream of tourists so that they do not step directly on the rocks.
The entire restoration and conservation of the object will cost 3.1 million euros and will be financed by the EU.
literature
- Nikolaj Ovtscharow, Daniela Dodschamanowo, Milen Kamarew: Светилището на Дионис на Перперикон (The Dionysus Shrine in Perperikon). Popgeorgiewi, Sofia 2000. ISBN 954-9750-12-4 .
- Nikolaj Owtscharow: Perperikon - a Civilization of the Rock People . Borina, Sofia 2005. ISBN 954-500-140-2 .
- Nikolaj Owtscharow: Chronicle of the holy city of Perperikon. Bulgarian Bestsellers, Sofia 2005. ISBN 954-9308-89-8 .
- Ronald Sprafke: Thrace beats Troy. In: Bild der Wissenschaft issue 10/2008, pp. 68–74 full text online .
Web links
- Website about Perperikon (English)
- Perperikon in the multimedia catalog of tourist objects and online marketing of the destination Bulgaria , funded by the EU
- Images from Perperikon
Remarks
Individual evidence
- ^ Cassius Dio 51, 25, 5.
- ^ Ovcharov, 2000.
- ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: theft in Perperikon )
Coordinates: 41 ° 42 ′ 55 " N , 25 ° 27 ′ 53" E