Bulgaria's historical and cultural heritage is invaluable. Discover in particular the mysterious civilization of the Thracians.
Modern Bulgaria is passionate about a distant past, that of the Thracians of which its citizens feel they are the heirs.
The ancient civilization of the Thracians is one of the oldest in the world and has left a legacy of priceless treasures and monuments scattered throughout Bulgaria.
This people, the oldest whose name is known in south-eastern Europe, left numerous vestiges of their language (which belonged to the same Indo-European branch as Latin and Greek) in inscriptions and in names. places, mountains or rivers.
The Thracian people also occupied a large place in the literature of their close neighbors.
In the classical period, from the 6th century BC, the Greeks often noted Thracian influences on their mythology, their religion, their arts, particularly music.
Today, the general public has met the Thracians thanks to the fabulous exhibition of jewelry, vases and golden weapons which has traveled to several countries.
From ancient villages to funerary monuments and ritual objects, during your stay in Bulgaria you can discover the exceptional wealth of this mysterious and still little-known Thracian civilization.
Name and location
Thrace was the region of Central Europe, divided today between Northeast Greece (Western Thrace), European Turkey (Eastern Thrace) and Southern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace or Upper Thrace).
The geographical borders of Thrace were three seas – The Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
The kingdom's historical borders included present-day Bulgaria, European Turkey, Greece and the northeastern regions of eastern Serbia and the eastern Republic of Macedonia.
Its borders were between the Danube in the north and the Aegean Sea in the south, in the east the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara and in the west towards the Vardar and the great rivers of Morava.
Origins and History
It is assumed that the Thracians belonged to the first waves of Indo-European immigrants from the steppes of the Northeast.
It would be one of the oldest Indo-European peoples and the region was inhabited by numerous tribes.
Most of the inhabitants simply lived in small villages traditionally built on peaks.
These small “kingdoms” were led by dynastic families, where “Priest-Kings” (Polistes) who relied on an aristocracy, a people of horsemen (Tarabostes), a mercenary infantry (Peltaste) and free peasant warriors (Comates), living in local authorities.
The reputation of Thracian fighters continued until the Roman era, where the term Thracian designated one of the types of gladiators (Spartacus would have been a Thracian).
The capital of the kingdom was where the King resided, often fortified residences and the main cities were Abdera Amphipolis (or Abdera), Nicopolis, Salmydesse and Seuthopolis.
These were built following the Greek town planning tradition, but retaining the royal palace in the Mycenaean style.
For the Greeks, the region was considered the homeland of the poet Museum and one of the chosen lands of the gods Ares and Dionysus.
During the Mycenaean period, Thracian society was organized around the King (or King-Priests).
The Thracians are mentioned as allies of the Trojans in the Iliad, led by Acamas and Peiros.
The social organization of this part of south-eastern Europe had reached a degree of complexity unusual at such a high time.
This enigma is probably explained by the copper deposits then exploited in this region and which must have given rise to fairly intense exchanges with several countries in nearby Asia.
About 200 km from Sofia, archaeological excavations have uncovered a real royal necropolis, including the tomb of King Seuthès III.
Numerous objects of goldwork and abundant tableware were found in this necropolis, including rhytons (elongated vases used for drinking) in gold and silver with animal representations.
Men have also left to posterity another prestigious site – the Chalcolithic necropolis of Varna, on the Black Sea coast.
Archaeologists have unearthed a large number of tombs from the end of the 4th millennium BC, which yielded hundreds of gold objects, ranging from tiny beads to bracelets weighing 200 to 300 grams.
This find is all the more exciting as two of the tombs contained golden scepters, symbols of legitimate power, clear signs of an already established tradition.
Trade would therefore be the basis of the prosperity of the miners who buried wonders of gold, with their dead and in whom scholars today agree to recognize the ancestors of the Thracians.
Ancient Greek mythology indeed provides the Thracians with a mythical ancestor, called Thrax, son of the God Ares.
This mythology is filled with Thracian Kings like Diomedes, Lycurgus, Tegyrius, Polymnestor, Poltys and Œagrus (Father of Orpheus).
The Greeks were very early attracted by the riches of the country (gold, silver).
From the 7th century, they established coastal colonies there with the founding of Apollonia (or Sozopol), Dionysiopolis, Histria (or Istros), Mesembria (or Nessebar) and Odessos (or Varna).
From the 6th century the Thracian aristocracy exchanged a lot with the Greeks and even used the Greek alphabet for their writings, which, despite this, have not yet been deciphered.
Throughout the 6th century, the Thracians were heavily recruited for their infantry by the various Greek states and large deposits of gold and silver were extracted from their mines. The region was occupied by the Persians at the end of the 6th century and beginning of the 5th century.
Darius I led an expedition there in 513.
Thrace was then divided into three regions (East, Central and South, and West).
Southern Thrace (or Lower Thrace) was under the economic domination of Athens from the end of the Persian Wars. The city founded the city of Amphipolis there.
At the end of the 5th century, according to the historians Herodotus (Greek historian, v.425) and Thucydides (Athenian politician and historian, v.395), a dynasty among the Odrysses attempted to unify Thrace for its own benefit.
From central Thrace, they united all the tribes under the same banner and established a prosperous kingdom on the shores of the Black Sea, with Seuthopolis as its capital.
The first ruler of whom we have trace is Tires I who reigned around 450 BCE and who is best known for his military skills and his numerous campaigns during his reign where he spent a lot of time on the battlefields.
He unified several Thracian tribes to found the first kingdom.
Then many Thracian Kings followed one another – Sitalces, Seuthes I, Cotys I, Cersobleptes I, Seuthes III, Lysimachus…
And numerous vestiges left by this civilization can be visited throughout the territory of Bulgaria, the ancient land of the Thracians.
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