Khan Boris {or Bars} ascended the throne in 852, he was Presiyan’s son. Boris I was not an outstanding military commander. He often suffered defeat but the state’s borders remained unchanged. Boris I was a skillful diplomat. But his greatest act of diplomacy was a domestic one. Boris was surrounded by Christians, Christians everywhere! To the west of him, the Pope, to the east – the Byzantine Patriarch. Bulgaria was a pagan island in an ocean of Christianity.
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When Boris inherited the throne from his father, Bulgaria’s territorial, military, and political potential had made it one of the largest states in Europe. Bulgaria’s approximate frontiers were the Dnieper River in the northeast, the Carpathian Mountains in the north, the Tisa {Tisza} River in the northwest, the Adriatic Sea in the west, and the Tomorr {Tomor}, Belasica, Pirin, Rhodope, and Strandzha mountains in the south. Many Slavic tribes lived within the boundaries of the state, together with the Thracians {Vlachs}, and the Bulgars. All of them had different religions, ethnicities, and languages.
Continue reading Tsar Boris the ruler who Christianised Bulgaria and enlarged it greatly
Khan Malamir was the youngest son of Omurtag and ruled between 831 and 836. He maintained the peace with Byzantine and continued the persecution of Christians. Khan Presiyan succeeded his uncle Malamir to the throne, his right-hand man was the old Kav-Khan Isbul who had been the indispensable aide of his grandfather Omurtag. Perssian put an end to the peace with the Roman empire. The Slavic tribes within the empire were rebelling and their chiefs were looking north to Bulgaria where they could find protection together with other Slavs. Now that tells you how successful the policy of the Bulgar ruling elite was and how good relations were between the Slavs and Bulgars, even Slavs outside Bulgaria rebelled just to get to join Bulgaria!
As soon an he ascended the throne in 837, Presiyan sent his army under the command of Kav-Khan Isbul to the Aegean coast of Macedonia. There, they aided the Smolyans, whose revolt had shaken Byzantine rule in the Western Rhodopes and Aegean Thrace. When the emperor sent an army against the rebels, his forces were met by the Kav-Khan-led Bulgarian army. Inscriptions on stone plates tell of fierce battles at Philippi and Siar, the elation of the victories reflected in the engraved words: “Presiyan, through the will of God ruler of many Bulgarians…
Continue reading Khan Presiyan the successor of Khan Malamir
The Roman figurine confirms the hypothesis that this was the ancient singer’s sanctuary i have talked you about in my previous post ( Tatul – the possible tomb of Orpheus ). A unique Roman bronze statuette of Orpheus was discovered during archaeological excavations near the village of Tatul, Momchilgrad region. The figurine dates back to the end of 1-2 century AD. “We are talking about a wonderful figurine of a man with a specific hairdo and excellent proportions of the body. His left hand rests on a lyre and he holds a plectrum in his right hand,” explained for Standart daily Prof. Nikolay Ovcharov from the Museum of Archaeology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) who heads the team of experts working near Tatul.
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Continue reading Bronze Statuette of Orpheus Discovered in Bulgaria
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A bulgarian expedition of archaeologists, lead by
Nikolai Ovcharov, is studying a unique tomb that belongs to the ancient people of
Thrace (what is today Greece and southern Bulgaria). But could the tomb belong to the well known musician
Orpheus.
Continue reading Tatul – the possible tomb of Orpheus
In Greek legend, Orpheus was the chief representative of the arts of song and the lyre, and of great importance in the religious history of Greece. The mythical figure of Orpheus was borrowed by the Greeks from their Thracian neighbors; the Thracian “Orphic Mysteries”, rituals of unknown content, were named after him.
The name Orpheus itself belongs to the oldest level of Greek names: those ending in -eus (for example, Atreus). Such names are pre-Homeric, thus Orpheus does not occur in Homer or Hesiod, but he was known in the time of Ibycus (c. 530 BC). Pindar (522—442 BC) speaks of him as “the father of songsâ€.
From the 6th century BC onwards, Orpheus was considered one of the chief poets and musicians of antiquity, and the inventor or perfector of the lyre. By dint of his music and singing, he could charm the wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance, even arrest the course of rivers. As one of the pioneers of civilization, he is said to have taught mankind the arts of medicine, writing and agriculture. Closely connected with religious life, Orpheus was an augur and seer; practiced magical arts, especially astrology; founded or rendered accessible many important cults, such as those of Apollo and the Thracian god Dionysus; instituted mystic rites both public and private; and prescribed initiatory and purificatory rituals.
Continue reading Orpheus The Poet of Rhodope Mountains
The latest archaeological excavations at Perperikon revealed a site almost literally described by the ancient authors as the Temple of Dionysus in Mount Rhodope The School of Rock release . A huge hall was carved into the rock and apparently left roofless, judging by the absence of holes for any roof beams in the surrounding rock walls. At the very centre of this open space, a magnificent round altar was sculpted from the rock, almost 6 ft in diameter and rising approximately 9 ft above the floor. 
The top of the alter revealed a multitude of oval cavities filled with fragments of late Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery. Northeast of the altar, an almost square platform must have served some ceremonial purpose. Fragments of smaller, clay alters were found at the foot of the central one. Perperikon and the rocks all around it are scarred by thousands of troughs, basins and spillways, which are difficult to study because most of them lie under centuries of earth. Excavations in 1983 unearthed a considerable portion of the northern slope but one can only imagine the sight that met the eye of the ancient beholder: the mammoth rock with thousands of alters cut in its side and the magnificent shrine perched on its top.
Continue reading Great Ancient Altars of Perperikon
