Thracian tomb of Alexandrovo
The Thracian Tomb of Alexandrovo is a tumulus with wall paintings near the village of Alexandrovo in southeastern Bulgaria in the Haskovo district . It dates from the beginning of the 4th century BC. And was discovered by chance during earthworks in December 2000 .
location
The village of Alexandrovo (former name Korudzhievo) is located 19 km northeast of Haskovo , Bulgaria . It is located in a hilly area, 4 km south of the Maritsa River . In the parish corridor of Alexandrovo there are many archaeological monuments from different periods.
The hill “Hasara” (“the fortress of Korudzhievo”) rises 1.25 km south of the village edge, its highest point is 312.7 m above sea level. The remains of an ancient and medieval fortress can be seen here. The ceramics that can be discovered in the excavations of the treasure graves date from the 2nd – 4th centuries. and 9-14 Century. The holdings of the Chaskow Museum include a bronze coin from Emperor Johannes Tzimiskes (969–976) and an undeciphered lead stamp. The discovered walls are made of broken stones and are joined together by red and white mortar. There are also individual ceramic fragments from the Late Iron Age to be discovered.
A widespread legend, based on "authentic notes", which tells about the treasure of the leader Emin Agha hidden on the hill, made the hill the object of numerous treasure trove raids from the end of the 14th century until today. In the 1960s, the remains of the fortress were almost completely destroyed with a bulldozer. Everywhere the area around "Hasara" is covered with Thracian burial mounds. Their total number is currently given as 21. Most of them have been damaged to varying degrees by the treasure trove raids, some have even been destroyed.
1.9 km southeast of “Hasara”, in the “Sadlazha” area - in the parish corridor of the village of Poljanowo, four burial mounds have been preserved. In the spring of 2001, the treasure hunters destroyed a Thracian grave in one of them. The burial mound, called "Sadlazhka Chuka" by the local population, has a diameter of 35 m and is 6 m high. The crypt was built from limestone blocks with a dry joint. The burial chamber has a rectangular outline with dimensions 2.11 × 2.60 m and a height of 2 m. The roof structure is a false triangular vault, which has been built up from trapezoidal blocks. The grave has no plastic or pictorial decoration. The ceramic fragments discovered in the earth excavated by the treasure tombs and the character of the tomb construction testify that the tomb dates from the 4th century BC. BC.
In autumn 2000, a team of scientists led by archaeologist Georgi Kitow (1943–2008) explored a burial mound about 700 m southeast of “Hasara”, which consists of three burial mounds that will be on the route of the future “Maritsa” motorway. Graves from the Early Iron Age (8th – 6th centuries BC) have been discovered in them. In the Middle Ages (12th - 14th centuries) 15 burials were carried out in a burial mound, most of which were destroyed while plowing. In them, bracelets made of glass and bronze and parts of other grave goods were discovered.
In 1926 Ivan Welkow published some objects that had been discovered by treasure graves in the area "Sosludscha" in the parish corridor of the village Ferdinandowo (today: Poljanowo ) in the burial mound and which date from the 4th century. The above place name has been erased from the memories of the population, but since the author mentions that it is "near the area" Hasara "", this fact gives reason to assume that the objects were discovered in one of the burial mounds listed above have been. According to the author, there is a second burial mound nearby, walls can be seen in the embankment.
About 90 m east of this burial mound, in the forest on the slope, there is a second, much smaller burial mound on which several treasure grave excavations took place. At the location of the future museum center, about 300 m north of "Roschavata chuka" (The disheveled peak rock), Georgi Kitov's team encountered a grave from the Late Iron Age, in which the burial was carried out in a ceramic sarcophagus.
discovery
On December 17, 2000, the archaeological team, led by Georgi Kitow, saw freshly shoveled earth on the grave mound "Roschawata Tschuka" near the village of Alexandrovo. The archaeologists immediately responded professionally and after the tour, the team made one of the greatest discoveries in Bulgarian archeology. The scientists ended up in a Thracian tomb with well-preserved wall paintings after entering through the treasure tomb opening. Already after the first examination it became clear that the painterly ornamentation is unique and cannot be compared with previous similar discoveries.
The architecture of the tomb is also impressive, the size of which can be compared with the largest tombs in this region. "Roschawata chuka" is located near the western edge of the village, at the eastern foot of the "Assara" massif. The burial mound is about 15 m high and has a diameter of 70 m.
construction
The corridor of the tomb is about 15 m long and runs in an east-west direction. The entrance, the facade of which was destroyed in ancient times, is to the east, about 10 m from the periphery of the burial mound. It is built from stone blocks of various sizes, with no connection between them. The height at the entrance to the east is 2.25 m, and at the end to the west - 1.8 m. The width of the corridor is also different - from 1.17 m to 1.25 m. The surface is flat and made of roughly worked stone slabs.
You go through the corridor into a rectangular chamber - 1.92 × 1.5 m in size, elongated in a north-south direction. The roof structure is trapezoidal. The passage between the corridor and the vestibule is rectangular, 1.20 m high and 0.70 m wide.
Through the entrance, which is almost the same size, you go into the round chamber. Its diameter in the lower part is 3.30 m and the height is 3.40 m. The vault is bell-shaped, the narrowing begins right from the ground. On the southern periphery there is a ritual bed made of stone blocks. When the grave was discovered, it had already been destroyed and the parts were spread out on the chamber floor. On the narrow sides to the east and west there were "stone pillows", similar to those in Mesek's grave. The remaining plaster marks on some stones suggest a picturesque bed decoration that was destroyed by the treasure hunters.
The passage between the round and the rectangular chamber was closed by a two-wing stone door that was destroyed by one of the numerous burglaries of the treasure tombs. One wing was discovered preserved on Dromosgrund and the other - broken - in the corridor and in the round chamber. Traces of red plaster can be seen on the wings. The door had an intricate key mechanism from which a bronze ring has been preserved.
The round and rectangular chambers are built from well-carved stone blocks without connection, with rusticated fronts that have been plastered and painted. That speaks for at least two periods in which the work was used. This is also supported by the two steps in the round chamber - the first made of stone blocks and the second made of tamped clay.
The coarse corridor construction, as well as the partial painting only in the western part - in front of the anteroom, contrasts with the precise construction technique that was used in the two chambers. Even the plaster, on which the painterly layer was applied in the dromos, is not made vertically straight in the western part, but beveled in a wave shape, giving the impression that the construction workers and the painter had to hurry.
Murals
The grave in Alexandrowo is one of the largest finds of its kind. However, it is unique because of its wall paintings, which are incomparable to this day. The painting includes the rectangular and round chambers and a small part of the corridor. Hunting and fighting themes, as well as scenes from a meal after a funeral alternate with monochrome stripes and those with ornamentation.
The round chamber is most splendidly decorated. Here the wall paintings are distributed in six horizontal strips of different widths, one on top of the other.
The first frieze, which is at the very bottom, was badly damaged by the treasure trove raids. Nevertheless, three seated figures can be identified opposite the entrance. The left shows a bearded man who turns his head to one side and looks at the servant who is serving him a horn with wine. A sword hangs on the back of his chair. To his right sit a man and a woman, their hands on each other. Obviously the painter depicted the ruler and his wife - the subject and gesture are reminiscent of the meal after the burial in the Thracian tomb of Kazanlak . Further to the right is a standing figure of a second servant who presents the ruler with a golden rithon. A table with gold and silver vessels can be seen in front of the diners. The frieze to the right of the scene has been destroyed, but a large preserved fragment shows images of various vessels that probably belonged to the interior of the festival room.
There is a monochrome stripe decorated in red above the funeral frieze. It was here that one of the most interesting and mysterious finds in the grave was made. Again opposite the entrance, in the chamber above the funeral scene, a portrait of a young man in profile is cut through a pointed object. Above the portrait there is an inscription in Greek letters, deciphered by Prof. Gerasimova as KODZIMASES HRESTOS. In their opinion, the first word is a first name of Thracian origin, and the second word is an epithet and means "talented", "skillful", "capable". Hence this inscription can be interpreted as KODZIMASES THE MASTERS. According to Georgi Kitow, the graffito represents a self-portrait and an autograph of the painter who painted the grave.
Above the red stripe is a geometric frieze made of connected black and white swastikas . At the bottom it ends with an Ionic kima and at the top with a white field with red dots in it.
Directly above him is the best-preserved figural frieze depicting scenes of the king's hunt. It is not very high, only 38 cm.
The hunt is one of the most famous themes in Thracian art. It can be seen on dozens of tombs, jewelry and vessels, among other things. In the minds of the Thracians, world order can be built through victory over the forces of chaos. By defeating the heir, embodiment of chaos, the ruler builds the world order and acquires a new higher status.
Four horsemen are depicted on a white background, flanked by foot soldiers attacking boars and deer. They ride horses of different colors: gray, yellow, white and red. The first three gallop to the left and only the rider with the red horse to the right. The last is depicted above the stone bed, and although the frieze is circular, the central part is precisely where the viewer enters.
The frieze is painted with no beginning or end along the round dome. He is interpreted as the life cycle of the king, first as a youth and foot soldier, later as a rider and then as the resurrected demigod Zalmoxis with the royal double ax. Then the circle closes again and he begins again as a youth.
An interesting detail of the architectural plan suggests that the southern part of the round chamber and its interior should be perceived as central. The vertical sides of the entrance frame are not cut rectangular as usual, but sloping so that they direct the viewer's gaze to the south, to the bed and the mural above. Here again there is a harmonious connection between architecture and painting, planned in detail, which is reminiscent of the grave of Kazanlak.
The illustrations of the other tabs are also interesting. They are dressed in different colored clothes, attack the animals with spears and swords hang from their belts. The foot soldiers are also dressed and attack the animals with various weapons, some of which are still unknown. About ten dogs also take part in the hunt: black, yellow, white.
If the rider on the red horse is to be the ruler, who are the other three depicted on the frieze in the round chamber? Logically and visually one can differentiate between four separate scenes that are independent of each other. It is very likely that the painter only depicted the ruler in different moments of his existence. A second, more elementary and amateur interpretation is also possible: The king is depicted during the hunt, accompanied by his fellow combatants, representatives of the Thracian nobility.
The painter's style is exceptionally realistic, the very small details of the clothing are detailed, as are the weapons and the horses. He went into detail and even illustrated the seams of the clothes.
Above the hunting frieze is a strip of kima that separates the frieze from the upper part of the dome. It was originally yellow, but now it's almost gray as a result of natural aging. At the top of the dome, the keystone formed a field with the shape of a flat disk, also colored. When painting, the symbolism typical of the Thracian religious ideas is hidden. The disk is divided into four sectors that are not of the same size. The southern and western ones are larger and colored - correspondingly in red and black. The red color, to the east, symbolizes the sunrise, the day, the sun and life and the black, to the west, the sunset, the night, death and the underworld. The two narrower sectors in between form the shape of a double ax, a royal symbol that shows the importance of the building.
The scenes from the round chamber show the path of the deceased ruler and the trials and afflictions that he must overcome in order to acquire his status "Heroi" (demigod). The first thing the entering viewer saw were some fighting scenes at the end of the corridor and the rectangular chamber. The painter wanted to depict the warlike exploits of the deceased as a further justification of his status.
Unfortunately, these sections of the mural are badly damaged. The details cannot be seen, but the images are clear enough that they can be interpreted as a subject. It is actually the same subject in the north and south paintings in the corridor as well as in the anteroom: the ruler is riding in a fight against a foot soldier. Only on the southern side of the drom does he fight two foot soldiers. One is standing upright in full combat gear, reaching out with a sword in his right hand. The second kneels and humbly hands his sword to the attacking rider.
The courage and martial virtues of the ruler are also made clear by the wall painting on the north wall of the corridor. Here, armed with a spear and a large round shield, he attacks a naked foot soldier who is running away in panic with his head turned back.
The wall paintings in the rectangular chamber are also badly damaged. In the lower area the walls were painted black. Horizontal stripes with a floral ornament, separated above and below by rows of kima, separate the black fields from the red vault of the chamber. In the trapezoidal fields of the two entrances there were images, only one of which has been partially preserved: the one facing west, to the round chamber. The upper part is destroyed. Here you can see a duel between a rider and a foot soldier.
The wall paintings in the tomb of Alexandrovo are the work of a talented painter who mastered the painting technique wonderfully and who knew the Thracian reality in detail. These wall paintings differ greatly from the wall paintings in the Thracian tomb of Kazanlak known to us , which are characterized by the style typical of Hellenism, in which the gods were depicted as people and people were perfect and glorious as gods.
The characters in Alexandrovo are different. Next to the riders we see a clumsy giant attacking a red deer, armed only with a crooked Thracian knife. A naked fat man knocks down a boar. Dogs greedily slurp blood from the injured animals. These are images of real beings from the real world.
The tomb painting is an extremely valuable source for the reconstruction of Thracian reality. It carries extensive information about the clothing, equipment and armament of the Thracians, about the use of individual weapons, both in combat and during the hunt. The restoration of the wall painting, which has begun, has brought to light new, previously unknown details of the images that will supplement the previous information.
See also
literature
- Georgi Kitow: A newly found thracian tomb with frescoes. In: Archaeologia Bulgarica 5, 2 (2001) pp. 15-29
- Georgi Kitow: New Thracian Frescoes from Bulgaria. In: Minerva 13, 3 (2002) pp. 42-44.
- Georgi Kitow: New discoveries in the Thracian tomb with frescoes by Alexandrovo . In: Archaeologia Bulgarica 9, 1 (2005) pp. 15-28
Individual evidence
- ↑ home.exetel.com.au: The Alexandrovo Tomb . Retrieved September 17, 2009.
Web links
- haskovo.bg (Bulgarian)
- The Thracian Tomb on bulgariatravel.org
Coordinates: 41 ° 58 ′ 47 " N , 25 ° 44 ′ 17" E