Ancient Civilizations in the Rhodopes

[Sergius]

Ancient Civilizations in the Rhodopes
A research team of Bulgarian archaelogists has been working intensively for quite some time on the spot at certain historic sites on the territory of the Eastern Rhodopes, where unique pieces of evidence testifying to the existence of an unstudied civilization to this date have been uncovered.

They are dated to the new Stone Age, when pre-historic man roamed this part of the Old Continent – the end of the 7th – the end of the 4th millennium BC. During the excavations the Bulgarian archaelogists came upon pre-historic stone-made sanctuaries with coded information, part of which has already been “deciphered”. The participants in the excavations staged a special photo exhibition with the most interesting finds.

A round table was also organized, with the participation of a wide range of experts, who hotly debated certain issues. The excavations on the spot in the Eastern Rhodopes will continue this year, too, and here is more on the matter from professor Ana Raduncheva, who has been devotedly exploring the past of the Bulgarian lands for 25 years.
“The sacred rock monuments on the territory of Bulgaria are generally not very well known in Europe. These are the oldest pieces of evidence about the existence of an ancient culture and religion, which dominated the whole Mediterranean region. At the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th millennium BC the then pre-historic inhabitants actively used these sanctuaries for various purposes. The latest archaeological excavations at Perperikon, for example, revealed a site almost literally described by the ancient authors as the Temple of Dionysus in the Rhodopes. 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, professor Raduncheva says further. An ancient Thracian pantheon has also been discovered, which is 2 500 years older than the other such places uncovered elsewhere in Europe so far. The research focuses on the spatial-temporal organization of the sanctuary’s interior of a rock-cut monument from the Bronze Age. The morphometric peculiarities of this cult monument and its adjacent sacred territory, as well as the excellent view to the line of the local horizon have carefully been considered. Along the lines of the evidence, supporting the defined archaeo-astronomical hypothesis, geometric centers of the observational lines are sought, which connect extreme points of sunsets with characteristic structures of the autochthonic rock relief. This relief was modeled suitably for the purposes of astronomical observations during Antiquity. Based on the measurements made so far, we propose observational vectors directed to characteristic points on the horizon and connected with the daily and yearly solar cycle, as well as with their calendar meaning. The findings of the study show the elements of the spatial orientation of the monument and the monument’s relations with specific elements of the environment. Curiously enough, the rock sanctuaries discovered in Bulgaria precede the construction of the Egypt Pyramids with at least 1 000 years,” professor Ana Raduncheva says and adds:
“The ceramic artifacts found are quite indicative of their most early origin – maybe the end of the 7th millennium BC. The investigated sacred spaces are formed from megalithic monuments, the wall surrounding them, the rock sacrificial altars and pits, as well as their relation to the surrounding landscape. The research of this space shows that it was created by a society with a well-formed system of values. The cosmic ideas and the faith of the society, which created, developed and maintained the cult complexes and megaliths near Perperikon, Tatul, Uch Kale, Djebel, etc, obviously possessed a well-defined view of space and time, and were pretty well able to rationalize them on different social levels. They firmly believed in reincarnation and life in the hereafter, as well as the return of the soul of the dead person to his holy ancestors. We will do our best to revive and make public the incredible history of these holy lands not only in Bulgaria, but in Europe, too, as well as the truth about their past and destination,” professor Ana Raduncheva says in conclusion in an exclusive interview she gave for Radio Bulgaria.

Written by Yana Konstantinova
English version: Ivan Videnov

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Related:

More on the material and spiritual world of the pre-historic men in the present-day Bulgarian lands
Archaeologists from a joint Bulgarian-French expedition are trying to rearrange and put together the puzzle of facts and figures they have so far compiled in their effort to throw more light on the history of pre-historic man. Excavations are being carried out in this connection on spot of some caves near the town of Belogradchik, northwestern Bulgaria.

Unique finds have been unearthed in the biggest of these caves – the so-called Kozarnika, where man-made objects and various artifacts testifying to the presence of pre-historic man considerably enriched the early paleolithic, ENLARGE TO VIEWarchaelogical collection gathered in Bulgaria to this end. The first occupation of the cave is dated to 780 000 years ago, which probably makes it the oldest in Europe. The lower part of the Middle Palaeolithic layers can be assigned to typical or denticulate Mousterian. This layer is topped by archaic Upper Palaeolithic material, showing relationship neither with the Middle Palaeolithic industry from below nor with the Gravettian from above. It should also be noted that there are six successive Gravettian beds among which the oldest is dated from 38.700 ± 1400 BP (which is roughly 8.000 years older than in western Europe).
The stratigraphy ends with lithic artifacts and pottery, which are typical of the Balkan Eneolithic. The objects found are dated to 1.6 million years ago, when Homo Erectus and Homo Ergaster species obviously inhabited this part of the Old Continent. Experts thus have been equipped with more knowledge about the route of Homo Sapiens from Africa to the Old Continent in those pre-historic times. This route was probably established some 600-800 thousand years ago. During the excavations the scientists and archaelogists came upon most amazing finds.

Here is more from Dr Nikolay Sirakov about the inferences and conclusions drawn in the course of the excavations, and the expectations about what would be changed in the concepts about pre-historic man.
“We have a programme, which has certain directions and priorities, and we are now digging into the inner section of the cave, where daylight penetrated as deep as 20-30 metres. Since 1984, archaeologists have been excavating this cave and have discovered numerous artifacts dating from the Early Paleolithic (1.4 million years B.P.) through the Late Paleolithic (11,500 years B.P.), evidencing human presence in Southeastern Europe that arguably include the earliest traces of Homo Erectus ever found on the European sub-continent. Findings include stone tools and bone remains of prehistoric game in the lowest sequences, up to the more finely crafted flint assemblages, bone tools and ornaments of Homo Sapiens. Although information is tentative at this point, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has led a team of scholars, students and volunteers to continue the work. The field school program includes courses in the documentation of flint and bone artifacts, an introduction to the South East European Paleolithic period, guided visits to museums, caves, and fortresses and eco-trails in both Sofia and the North West region of Bulgaria. The minimum length of stay for volunteers is 2 weeks, with a minimum age requirement of 18. The Project staff prefers that participants have previous experience with prehistoric excavations.
It looks as if pre-historic men were very well tuned in the environment they inhabited, maybe because of the need they had to defend themselves against wild beasts and enemies, they had good level of space thinking and knew well the lunar cycles. We are able to conclude this on the basis of certain grooves made into the bones. Pre-historic men were extremely watchful as regards the behaviour of animals, they had very good orientation skills, knew how to make and use fire. We discovered traces of pre-historic man as deep as 70 metres below the surface, which is a big challenge for us. I should note here that in very few cases such traces have been found so far as deep as that in any other cave in Europe. Bone remains of hyenas, cave bears and other beasts have been discovered, too. I guess men in that time used lit torches when entering the cave, and these also served as weapons to protect women and children from possible onslaughts. I suppose men were also in search for warmth, not only heat, because it is a well known fact that the temperature at such depths is some 10 degrees Celsius higher than outside, and they are inhabited by colonies of bats,” Dr Sirakov says and adds:
“We are making concerted effort to restore the cycle of activity and organization of the group of people of the same population we discovered and learn more about their behaviour in various time situations – in summer, winter, while hunting or fishing, how exactly they compiled the groups which performed such kind of tasks, how exactly they accustomed to climatic conditions, etc. We will carry out our own research into the remnants of outside camps they pitched – these are situated some 20-30 km away from the Danube river, but curiously enough, we came upon bone material of a Danube species. We sincerely hope we will find enough evidence from the remnants we discover, and thus make this evidence conclusive enough to draw the respective scientific inference. We have in our possession certain bone-made decorations and ornamentations, dated some 40 000 years ago. Some of these are of Mediterranean fish species, but not of Black Sea ones, which proves that en-mass migration practices occurred at the time. The sea species uncovered are of the fossil type, which means that they had been buried under a pile of minerals, limestone, etc. We hope that this year’s excavation season, which will be unveiled in early July and will be closed in late August, will give us more valuable pieces of evidence about the life of pre-historic man,” Dr Nikolay Sirakov, archaelogist from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences says in conclusion.

Interviewer: Yana Konstantinova
Translation: Ivan Videnov

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[Truth-Finder]

Well, I've got a doubt about this one; we should be sure of what kind of rock is it because that kind of break occur naturally in rocks such as granits (and other endogenous igneous rocks) basalts and limestones...


Same for above;
I can hardly conceive that such marks could have been carved in such a hard rocky surface with Palaeolitic and even meso or neolithic tools.
It looks IMo more than erossion marks or traces of water strems on petrified sands or earth (yet i should laern also what kind of rock it is to be sure about what I'm saying )