Medieval Bulgaria

ICONS  DEPICTING  ST  CYRIL  AND  ST  METHODIUS  FROM  THE  STRANDZHA MOUNTAINS (SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY).

During the time of the Bulgarians’struggle  for ecclesiastical  emancipation  from the Constantinople patriarchy  in  the  1850s – 1870s, the cult of theSlavic enlighteners St Cyril and St Methodius spread widely across the northern slopes of the Strandzha Mountains,whose population was predominantly Bulgarian.  This could explain why even  prior to the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War, icons of the two saints began to appear in the vicinity of the towns of Sredets and Malko Tarnovo.These were painted by Socrates Georgiou, a Greek icon painter from Sozopol who skillfully exploited the patrioticsentiments of the local Bulgarian church communities. A similar approach was adopted by the less gifted Greek iconpainter Stavros from Lozengrad, who was particularly active in the area around Malko Tarnovo, which remainedunder Turkish control between 1878 and 1912. During the early decades after the 1878, on the northern side of theBulgarian –  Turkish  border,  in  the  region of  Sredets and  the adjacent  villages belonging  to  the  municipalities ofSozopol and Primorsko, there were several icon painters from Tryavna (Dimitar Minev, his son Hristo Dimitrov,and others) who were working tirelessly in the local churches, painting icons of the Slavic enlighteners in the besttraditions of the Tryavna Art School. In some of the Strandzha churches a clear manifestation of the veneration of StCyril and St Methodius was the placement of their icon on the  bishop’s throne, an curious novel practice, alsoevident in a number  of  other places  across  Bulgaria, the reason for  which  was the conviction  shared by thecontemporaries that the contribution of the Thessaloniki brothers provided a solid spiritual and cultural basis for theautocephaly of the Bulgarian Church, which was restored on May 11th, 1872.

Historical ecology in Bulgaria is quite a new scientific discipline
which suggests it will undergo future development. In contrast to Western Europe where there are sufficient data about fishing and utilization of the marine resources in the Middle Ages, in the Black Sea region the information is most often casual, fragmented and unsystematic.
Therefore, the data obtained as a result of regular archaeological excavations are extremely valuable, and very often the only source of any information related to the importance of marine resources to the local population over the centuries. In this paper are presented the results obtained from the investigation of bone material from two sites from the region of Medieval Varna – the medieval fortresses Kastritsi and Petrich Kale. The material is obtained from occupation levels from the 11th – 12th c. until the end of the 14th c.

In his critical edition of Liutprand's Antapodosis, Paolo Chiesa rejected a hypothesis advanced by Michele Bandini regarding the spelling and meaning of the nickname reportedly given by the Byzantines to Symeon of Bulgaria (Antapodosis III.29). The present paper discusses Chiesa's objections to Bandini's conjecture and interpretation of this passage. In conclusion, it turns out that Bandini's correction of emiargon into emiergon has to be taken into due consideration.

Most scholars consider an eleventh-century Greek Gospel book in Paris
(Bibiothèque nationale de France, MS Grec 74) the direct model for the illustrations in a Slavonic Gospel book (London, British Library, Add. MS 39627) copied for the Bulgarian tsar John (Ivan) Alexander (r. 1331–1371). In a recent monograph (2005), the philologist Iliya Talev argues that some narrative miniatures in the Paris manuscript reverse the sequence of the illustrated events, while the corresponding miniatures of the London Gospel place these events in their correct order. This shows, in Talev’s view, that the Bulgarian illustrations do not directly copy the eleventh-century Byzantine ones. Talev assumes faithful copying by means of anthivola (stencils), which could be accidentally flipped over, thus reversing the sequence of some scenes. My analysis of the miniatures shows that the painters were very sensitive to the text-image correspondence and that reversed sequence was a way to better link pictures and words. In some cases, the artists used a boustrophedon pattern, so that text lines and pictorial content could be jointly read as a continuous, non-interrupted narrative.

Tengrism, Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, these are the three most popular areas of religious research in Bulgarian scholarship regarding the pre-Christian beliefs in Danube Bulgaria prior to AD 864. This paper tries to shed light to both the strong and weak sides of these hypotheses.

Abstract: This study discusses the considerable efforts carried out by Volga Bulgaria in its endeavour to
establish resolute relations with Baghdad nnder the Abbasid Caliphate. The study employs a historical
approach that involves systematic organization and assessment of data from past writings such as records from
Ibn Fadlan. Data collection involved the qualitative method including library research while data were analysed
through text and docwnent analysis comparison as well as induction and deduction. The objective of this study
is to effectuate an Islamic state. The study fmmd that the relations between Baghdad and Volga Bulgaria had
a positive impact on the development of Volga Bulgaria as an Islamic state and propelled a momentlllll for it to
attain its zenith in the history of Islam in Central Asia. However, this high point did not last as a result of a
series of attacks by the Mongols in the early 1230 A. C. which ultimately led to its conquest by former in 1236.

The identification of deviant burials as those of ‘vampires’ is a feature of excavated skeletons from sites across Eastern, Central and Southern Europe as well as the Balkans. Based on a close reading of historic and folkloric sources researchers have sought to match features of excavated sites with narrative descriptions drawn from vampire legend and myth. This study critically reviews the recent claims based on sites in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Poland and Slovakia. Whilst it is found that there was a widespread belief in vampires across Europe, it is argued that it is difficult to make absolute claims for ‘vampire’ burials on archaeological grounds as in most cases there are alternate and equally compelling interpretations of the data.

KEYWORDS
ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY, SIXTEENTH CENTURY, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, VAMPIRE, DEVIANT BURIAL, PLAGUE, BLACK DEATH, FOLKLORE, PAGAN, BURIAL, WITCH, BALKANS, EASTERN EUROPE, CENTRAL EUROPE, SOUTHERN EUROPE, BULGARIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, POLAND, GREECE, ITALY, SLOVAKIA, LESBOS, VENICE, APOTROPAIC, VAMPIRIDZHIJA, PERPERIKON, SOZOPOL, PROSTEJOV, CELAKOVICE, DRAWSKO, GLIWICI, SOUTHWELL, KILTEASHEEN, LAZZARETTO NUOVO, NACHTZEHRER, KAMIEN POMORSKI

Two lavish, illustrated histories confronted and contested the Byzantine model of empire. The Madrid Skylitzes was created at the court of Roger II of Sicily in the mid-twelfth century. The Vatican Manasses was produced for Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria in the mid-fourteenth century. Through close analysis of how each chronicle was methodically manipulated, this study argues that Byzantine history was selectively re-imagined to suit the interests of outsiders. The Madrid Skylitzes foregrounds regicides, rebellions, and palace intrigue in order to subvert the divinely ordained image of order that Byzantine rulers preferred to project. The Vatican Manasses presents Byzantium as a platform for the accession of Ivan Alexander to the throne of the Third Rome, the last and final world-empire. Imagining the Byzantine Past demonstrates how distinct visions of empire generated diverging versions of Byzantium's past in the aftermath of the Crusades.

This paper focuses on the Old Testament Book of Daniel, its earliest translations in Old Church Slavonic and reveals several differences among them and tries to suppose the period when these translations were made. Each version contains various translation techniques according to the character of work and for what purpose it was translated. All versions of the book are examined no matter how scattered or fragmentary they are. Special attention is given to the fragments in the First Miscellany of Tsar Simeon (Izbornik of 1073) and their translation and connection with the other Old Bulgarian versions of the Book of Daniel.

The book outlines the sources, content and evolution of the Bulgarian political thought between the adoption of the Christian faith (864) and the conquest of Eastern Bulgaria by Emperor John Tzimisces (971), when the Bulgarian Khanate is transformed into a Christian empire (“tsarstvo”) with a church organization virtually independent of Constantinople and Rome and with liturgy and literature in the vernacular Slavic (Old-Bulgarian) language. In the decades after the arrival of the disciples of the Slavic apostles Constantine-Cyril the Philosopher and Methodius in 886, active literary and educational work is being done in the capitals Pliska and Preslav, in Ohrid and in some of the larger monastic centers which is being patronized and supervised in person by Prince Boris I – Michael (852-889; + 907), Tsar Symeon I (893-927) and Tsar Peter (927-969). Thus Bulgaria becomes the only recently Christianized country to organize and conduct an extensive long-term cultural policy which becomes an embodiment of the ideas of the sovereignty, greatness, piety and wisdom of the Bulgarian rulers.
The comprehensive analysis of the corpus of Old-Bulgarian original, compilative and above all translated texts (1) reveals the lively interest of the scholars close to the ruler’s court in such issues as the theory of power and rule, the image of the ideal ruler and it’s biblical, Roman and Byzantine paradigms, the idea of the eschatological mission of the Roman Empire as an end link in the chain of successive world empires and (2) allows us an insight into the real essence of the complex process of transformation of the original model of the pagan Bulgarian state following the Christianization which was characterized by the selective adoption, adaptation and rejection of certain political ideas and concepts mainly in the framework of the country’s relations with Byzantium.
It should be emphasized that the Bulgarian political elite, involved in unrelenting confrontation and rivalry with the Empire, displays extraordinary sensitivity to any alteration in the tone of the diplomatic relations of Byzantium with the Bulgarians as well as to the subtle nuances of the ruling propaganda tendencies in Constantinople. Special significance for the development of the Bulgarian political thought has the ‘dynastic ideology’ promoted by Basil I, which becomes a structural pattern for Boris I – Michael and especially for his son Symeon who received excellent education in Constantinople exactly during the final years of the rule of this emperor. There are substantial grounds to claim that after his ascension to the throne Symeon I suits his personal and political behavior to the same ideas which are to be found in the imperial propaganda during the reign of Leo VI the Wise (e. g. Arethas from Caesarea praises him as an emanation of Plato’s ideal of emperor – philosopher who excels all previous rulers of the empire and gives to these under him more wisdom than a library of books).
It is in the context of this spirit of learned ‘encyclopedic’ (and at the same time strictly Orthodox) piety, permeating the court of Symeon I and embodied in the literary and translating work systematically patronized by the state, that the view of this ruler of himself, which took final shape c. 912-913, can be outlined, i.e. that he - as a new Adam (a notion implicitly contained in the dedicated to him by John Exarch Hexameron), a new Moses (as he openly calls himself in one of his letters to Patriarch Nicholas Mysticus), a new Ptolemy (according to the famous Eulogy from the Symeon’s miscellany), emperor-philosopher (who rose to power from the monastery) and a new Justinian (the oldest translation of Agapetus’ Expositio capitum admonitorium was designed to create a suitable image for the newly-proclaimed Bulgarian tsar) – is elected by God to ascend the Byzantine throne in order to revive and renew the former magnificence and might of the Christian Roman Empire.
It deserves mention that in the ages to follow the Russian ideologists, including the authors of the concept Moscow – Third Rome, look on Byzanium and its ideological legacy primarily through the eyes of the Old-Bulgarian writers and translators. So, it can be claimed that the foundations of the ideological model of the Muscovite tsardom are laid in Bulgaria, which establishes itself as the first empire in the Slavic world and bequeaths to the future generations of Slavic scholars its model of selective ‘reading’ and ‘translation’ of the Byzantine tradition. In this respect, the political relations and cultural communication between Byzantium and Bulgaria in 9-10 c. have a really far-reaching significance, i.e. due to them that some lasting features of the Orthodox Slavic world evolve which in turn influence the development of European history up until the present day.

HIDALGOS Nº 560, Madrid 2019
Se explica la formación del Kanato Búlgaro y su conversión en Imperio por Simeón I en el año 893 y la restauración imperial por Kaloyan en 1185. La dominación otomana y la independencia lograda en 1978. La formación y vicisitudes del Reino de Bulgaria, hasta nuestros días. Se analiza la estructura tribal de la sociedad búlgara y su nobleza guerrera. Su caballería.. Terminándose con su heráldica

Коя е севастократорица Десислава?: Опит за идентификация на енигматичната благородна ктиторица на Боянската църква

д-р Калин ЙОРДАНОВ

Почти цяло столетие загадъчният произход на ктиторите на Боянската църква продължава да занимава изследователите и въпреки многото просопографски опити и някои приноси за осветяването му, въпросът остава все така неизяснен и открит. И докато на базата на оскъдната информация от ктиторския надпис от 1258/1259 г., за произхода на севастократор Калоян все пак бяха изведени някои резонни хипотези, то за потеклото на съпругата му севастократорица Десислава до момента са изказани само някои бегли догадки и предположения, които я свързват най-вече със сръбската владетелска династия на Неманичите. Съзнавайки, че без откриването и привличането на нови извори всеки опит за осветяване на потеклото на енигматичната знатна ктиторица на Боянската църква е обречен да остане до голяма степен в полето на спекулацията като поредна страница от корпуса на боянските легенди, авторът на настоящия опит за идентификация на севастократорица Десислава си поставя за цел да хвърли повече светлина върху проблема като даде нова и изненадваща посока на досегашните търсения, предлагайки хипотеза, която може да бъде ключ към разгадаването на енигмата на благородната ктиторица на Боянската църква.

Who is Sebastokratorissa Desislava?: An Attempt for the Identification of the Enigmatic Noble Patroness of the Boyana Church

Dr. Kalin YORDANOV
               
For almost a century the mysterious origins of the patrons of the Boyana Church continue to intrigue the scholars, and despite the many prosopographical attempts and some contributions to its illumination, the issue still remains unclear and open. And while the scarce information from the patron’s inscription from 1258/1259 gives the researchers a chance to develop some reasonable hypotheses about the origin of Sebastoktor Kaloyan, the ancestry of his wife Sebastokratorissa Desislava remains quite enigmatic. So far only few vague attempts have been made at its disclosure and they all rely on slight guesses and assumptions that connect her generally with the Nemanja ruling dynasty in Serbia. Realizing that without discovering and attracting new sources, any attempt to illuminate the origins of the enigmatic noble patroness of the Boyana Church is doomed to remain largely in the field of speculation as another page of the corpus of the Boyana legends, the author of the present study aims to shed more light on the problem by giving a new and surprising direction to past searches, offering a hypothesis that may be the key to unraveling the mystery of the Boyana Church’s noble patroness.

The second volume of this specialized continued collection of research papers “Glazed Pottery of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea Region, 10th – 18th Centuries” contains studies of mass archaeological materials — glazed pottery — from a vast region encompassing countries from the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Far East and Eurasian steppes, dated by the High and Late Middle Ages. The goal of this continued edition is to attract the attention of the medievalists to glazed pottery and, particularly, to introduce earlier unknown archaeological complexes with glazed pottery and results of various physical-chemical studies of ceramic clays and glazes for scientific discussion. The volume includes contributions from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, USA, Uzbekistan and is meant for specialists in history, archaeology, ceramic studies, ethnography, museum studies, history students and all those interested in medieval material culture.

Второй том специализированного продолжающегося сборника научных статей «Поливная керамика Средиземноморья и Причерноморья X—XVIII вв.» посвящён вопросам, связанным с изучением массового археологического материала — поливной керамики обширного региона, включающего страны Средиземноморья, Причерноморья, Восточной Европы, Средней Азии, Дальнего Востока и зону евразийских степей периода зрелого и позднего средневековья. Главная задача продолжающегося издания «Поливная керамика Средиземноморья и Причерноморья X—XVIII вв.» — привлечение внимания медиевистов к вопросам изучения глазурованной посуды, и в частности, введение в научный оборот как можно большего числа не известных ранее археологических комплексов, содержащих поливную керамику, а также результатов, полученных при применении различных методик физико-химического изучения керамических глин и глазурей. В сборнике приняли участие учёные из Азербайджана, Белоруссии, Болгарии, Греции, Испании, Италии, Ливана, России, Румынии, Сербии, США, Турции, Узбекистана, Украины и Франции.
Издание рассчитано на специалистов в области истории, археологии, керамологии, этнографии, музееведения, студентов исторических специальностей и всех тех, кто интересуется средневековой материальной культурой.

Selected pages from 100 icons analyzed in the book, which traces the development of the icon painting in Bulgaria from the 9th to the 19th centuries. Some of the icons included in the book are published here for the first time, others for the first time in their authentic appearance after many years of restoration, many of the icons are for the first time authored, originating, dating, or have a new scientific interpretation. The edition is distinguished by its exceptional printing quality, using an innovative printing method. The book has many scientific contributions, but it is intended for professionals as well as a wide range of readers, Byzantine art lovers and bibliophiles. The book consist of. 272 pp.