Does the hoard from Velestino in Thessaly belong to the Pagan-Slavic or Christian-Byzantine culture? Discussion on the occasion of the book by F. Curta and B. S. Szmoniewski, The Velestino Hoard. Casting Light on the Byzantine ‘Dark Ages’ (palgrave macmillan, 2019. pp. 237) (original) (raw)
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The Cross-Cultural Heritage of a Byzantine Reliquary
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A unique artifact from the late XIIth or XIIIth century, the staurotheke of the Cathedral Treasury of Esztergom has frequently been discussed in the context of Byzantine art during the Komnenian period. Being one of the highlights of later Byzantine cloisonne enamel work, its centerpiece, containing a relic of the True Cross, can justly be regarded as a classical example of its kind. However, it features other aspects through which the Byzantine makers of the staurotheke endeavored cross-cultural communication, and these aspects, which might reflect the shock of the Seljuq conquest of Anatolia, as well as the more recent Latin conquest of Constantinople, have not yet been sufficiently explored. Moreover, the object should not be regarded as a one-layered piece of art because it includes, on the one hand, an elaborate frame which has often but perhaps incorrectly been identified as a later addition by Balkan metalworkers, and, on the other hand, it also features a precious silk cover...
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The rural town of Tavşanlı in north-western Phrygia does not appear to have ancient roots, the area may once have belonged to the Roman city of Aezani, and finds from Tavşanlı have long been discredited as originally belonging to Aezani. However, this article presents new finds from Tavşanlı and its vicinity that are undoubtedly of local origin and attest to considerable ancient settlement activity. The finds include a dozen Roman votives and gravestones as well as two dozen early Byzantine stone carvings, most or all of which belonged to churches. Overall, the find spectrum is similar to other parts of rural Phrygia, Tavşanlı appears to have produced its fair share of antiquities, and the area should not be considered an anomaly anymore.
On the 'sharaptash' sacrificial altars and their rolein the religious practices of proto-Bulgarianpaganism . сп.Археология 1-4 2008, 2008
The article presents two newly-found and sofar unknown proto-Bulgarian sacrificial altars,also known as wine-presses, the Turkish wordfor which is 'sharaptash'. One of them has beenhanded over to the Regional Museum of Historyin Varna and the other is being kept in the lap-idarium of the museum in Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky(in Ukrainian, Akkerman or BelgorodPridnestrovski - in respectively Turkish andBulgarian). Both finds are similar to thoseknown so far in size and design, but also havecertain specific features. The sharaptash fromVarna is the second known so far to have later-al grooves; they might have been used for fix-ing it upon a wooden or stone base. The twonew artefacts further widen the spread of thiskind of proto-Bulgarian sacrificial altars, whichhave been found east of Varna and as far northas Akkerman.The special features of this type of artefacts,which make of them a unique group related tothe rituals of proto-Bulgarian paganism, arepresented concisely. They were found in the socalled 'zone of the initial settlement' ofAsparuh's Bulgarians and should, therefore, beassociated with precisely these settlers. Theabove zone largely overlaps with the zone ofspread of proto-Bulgarian pagan temples thatfeature a ground-plan of squares or rectanglesinscribed into one another.All sacrificial altars are similar to one anoth-er in size and structure, the only differencebeing the direction of the hewn grooves - theymay join together or separately reach either theindispensable spout or a small quadrangularpool. Normally, the grooves will uniformly sur-round a small-sized central square. The abovecharacteristics may serve as grounds for theassumption that liquids were poured onto thesacrificial altars. On spilling at the surface theywould outline one or several squares, inscribedinto one another. This peculiarity leads to theconclusion that the altars, like the protoBulgarian heathen shrines with ground plans ofinscribed squares or quadrangles, were symbolsof the world as well as the harmony of materi-al and non-material realities.Some important sources for proto Bulgarianheathenism along with the pagan ritual practicesof Turki, Huns, Persians, and Scythians havealso been analyzed in the article. It is tradition-ally accepted that sacrificial animals wereslaughtered upon the altars from the LowerDanube, their blood flowing into the pool or onthe ground through the spout, with the groundbeing used in the religious cult thereafter. Acritical view has been proposed concerning theopinion that dogs were the most important sac-rificial animals, as there is no single source totestify to such a ritual with Bulgarians. It is alsoa matter of dispute whether the slaying of dogs,described by Theophanes Continuatus, refers toBulgarians or is rather an interpolation of sub-sequent events. In view of the fact that the sac-rificial altars, found so far, are far too numer-ous, it is doubtful that dogs were regularly slainthere. In accordance with various data, includ-ing written sources, the dog was recognized asa sacred animal with Bulgarians and should,therefore, have only been sacrificed on veryspecial occasions such as the peace treatybetween Bulgaria and Byzantium, described byTheophanes Continuatus and other sources.Taking into account the bone compositionfrom the finds in the thoroughly examinedshrine in Zlatna Niva locality near Pliska, theconclusion has been made that the sacrificialanimals were predominantly cattle, sheep andgoats along with horses and birds, rather thandogs. The meat of the former was probablyOn the 'sharaptash' sacrificial altars and their rolein the religious practices of proto-Bulgarianpaganism (Summary)Todor Chobanov 170solemnly eaten, as implied in the work ofTheophylactus of Ochrida, dedicated to themartyr Cinamon of Byzantium.A new hypothesis has been put forwardregarding the rituals that were performed uponthe sacrificial altars. It has been assumed thatwater was the substance used in the rituals ongrounds of the water pools, found in some ofthe shrines, as well as on grounds of the infor-mation of Scriptor incertusabout the rituals per-formed by khan Krum near Constantinople, andthe water-related conjuring formula from theChatalar inscription. It was water, or other liq-uids such as wine, 'kumis' (fermented maremilk), and milk, that were poured upon thestone altars as part of the pagan rituals. Similarpractices are known to have been performed inZoroastrian ceremonies; in addition, protoBulgarian 'kapishte' shrines bear a close resem-blance to the Zoroastrian fire shrines in shapeand design. Slaughtering the sacrificial animalsprobably took place at a more or less distantlocation and it is rather unverifiable that theirblood was poured onto the altars.
Palaeobalkan-Westanatolian Community – Explanation and Territorial Scope
ÉTUDES BALKANIQUES LV/3, À l’occasion du XIIe Congrès d’études du Sud-Est européen, Bucarest 2019; n hommage à la mémoire de Vassilka Tăpkova-Zaïmova, Professeure d’histoire byzantine et balkanique, 2019
In this text the term Palaeobalkan-Westanatolian community is proposed to replace the other terms used: Thracian-Phrygian ethno-cultural community, the Pelasgo-Thracian circumaegean community, Mycenaean Thrace, Circumpontic macro-zone and others. Adopting the existence of the Palaeobalkan-Westanatolian community makes it possible to avoid long introductions explaining why parallels between the Balkans and Western Anatolia are made. The scholars can compare political models, functions of the kings, religious doctrines, and interpretations of archaeological complexes, especially cult objects. Besides, information from the Greek literary tradition could be referred to surrounding, non-literary societies with a great deal of confidence. Using the spiral retrospection method, information about later historical periods could also be referred to earlier periods. Keywords: Ancient Anatolia, Phrygia, Lydia, Ancient Thrace, Palaeobalcan Cultures