Cultural model of the Bulgarian lands and the followed from it architecture

For the nations from the central European territories the lands, situated in the southeast parts of the continent, have always been hiding something not fully understandable. Expressed by the Romans with the name “Orient”, which they give to the Balkan Peninsula and the part they knew from Asia Minor, this name seems to be saved in the minds of “the Europeans” as a meaning of unknown for them territory which development is ruled by other, different than the European, laws and standards. This, made two millenniums ago, archetype still provoke intuitive distrust to the quality of “Balkan” cultures, despite that the nowadays theories consider the world civilization as a mega-system from cultural continuums, in which every element contribute to the total evolution. In the course of millenniums the Balkan Peninsula has been settled, conquered, crossed and ruined by different nations, tribes and ethnical groups, which determines the speed of historical-cultural processes in it and which is different than Europe’s central parts. The mixture of blood, standard and culture has formed the look of the inhabitants, their character, the plasticity of their understandings and the fast adaptability towards the changes, which determine the incredible vitality of the Balkan cultures. Despite the unstoppable changes, forced by the complicated historical existence the total cultural model of the area as well as different nationalities’ keep elements which remain unchangeable despite the political and military disasters followed by violently having to enter one or another state structure. Settling the Balkan lands is long, unequal passing process, because they always attract conquers for their key position, connecting the two continents. That is why the population of the villages during all epochs and historical periods consist of different ethnical groups, each one bringing its own believes and life, but building together their villages. The beginning of the architecture process in nowadays Bulgarian lands, covering the central parts of the Peninsula, we can approximately determine by the time when appears the prehistoric civilization of the gold – between the eight and sixth millennium B.C. The formation of villages is the first certain sign of existing organized community on high enough residential culture and construction which can be determined as architecture. The mound of Karanovo and the necropolis to Varna are indirect proves of existing the buildings of better type and well-arranged villages. During the sixth millennium B.C. in the Sofia’s field appears a huge for its time farm-village with house buildings and well preserved two-sided building build-up over 117 sq. m. The place coincides with today’s neighbourhood Slatina. From the middle of the fifth millennium there is also a village which is situated in nowaday’s neighbourhood Poduiane. In the period between twelfth and sixth century B.C. the population of today’s Bulgarian lands already bears the name “Thracians”, a mixed term for various numbers of tribes of Indo-European origin, about which Herodot writes that they are one of the most numerous nations in the world he knows. Divided on numerous tribes they create amazingly rich, even though literatureless, which architectural monuments show all the time in front of the modern researchers new and new pages of the skills and artistic techniques of the antiquity, prospered in Bulgarian lands. The architectural monuments made by the Thracians exist from XIII century B.C. to VII century from the first millennium. They can be divided mainly in:
Villages:
Sevtopolis – Thracian fortified city and a capital of Sevt III. During the time of Lizimah, strategist of Alexander the Great, Sevt III unites the tribes in one country. The city is established probably during IV B.C., and it had pentagonal shape because of the configuration of the terrain. The palace of the ruler, situated in one of the corners of the castle walls and surrounded with an extra wall, was at the same time a temple. The plan of the streets is orthogonal, but different than “the system of Hipodam” that the ancient Greeks used to use, despite the terrain. Between the buildings there are houses of common type. In the city there was a temple of the great gods, agora and a sanctuary of Dionis (according to a memorial note from IV century B.C. which treads the contract between Sevtopolis and Kabile). Kabile – ancient Thracian city near Yambol, build amphitheatricaly on a slope to Tundzha (Tonzos). On the top of the hill there was an acropolis with a big shrine of Hekata-Artemida. The village existed until IV century.
Mounds:
Kazanlak, Sveshtary, Mezek, Strelcha, The Big Mound near Duvanliy, Staro Novo selo and others.
Knolls:
They marked the main roads – roadside, visible on a day horse ride.
Temple equipments:
The monuments in best shape are dating between VI and III century B.C. Temple complex in Starosel from the time of the Odris’ kingdom. (The Odrises used to live around Hebros and they have their own capital Sevtopolis.) Unlike most of the Thracian tombs this concerns a temple equipment, build outside, not in a mound. It is built of same-shaped squares and it has details of the type of the dorian architecture. It is supposed that there was buried tzar Sitalk (probable dating V century B.C. or IV). The last in time knoll, under which was hidden temple complex (or mound) is so called “Tomb of Pomorie” from IV century A.C. During the period between eighth and sixth century B.C. the ancient Greeks settle in different places on the Black Sea’s shore, where they build cities – colonies and live peacefully with the Thracian population. From the necropolis of Apolonia we can say about the high level of artistic skills they had. Settlers from central Greece, where during VII and VI century B.C. city-countries (polises) form, they bring the main characteristics of the social moulds, culture and architecture.In Asia Minor, as well as Black Sea’s shore, is rising a culture, new characteristics appear in. One of the first places holds the Greek colony Milet. Development of the building technique and the skill to use the stone gave birth to the architecture orders (we can find them not earlier than VII century’s buildings).The order’s composition is based on repeating dividing on three parts (stilobat, colonade, fronton; base, body and capital; and so on). The most antique order is the Dorian, followed by the Yonian and Korintian. The temple complex in Starosel is an example for Dorian order with decorative plastic art, inherent in Yonian temples, which disprove the opinion that there is a limited cultural exchange between the Thracian and Greek colonies and also that the order systems are build just in central Greece.