Thracian pit sanctuary of Roman date at Snyagovo, south Dobruja
In: Arheologiâ, Jg. 48 (2007), Heft 1-4, S. 46-56
Online
academicJournal
- print; 11; 1 p.1/4
Zugriff:
In 2000, a pit sanctuary of Roman date was discovered in the course of rescue excavations at Snyagovo, General Toshevo municipality, Dobrich District, following trenching for a gas pipeline construction. The partially excavated site is located on a terrain slightly sloping to the south, ca. 300 m from the village of Snyagovo, at the southeastern periphery of a large settlement of Roman date. Its northeastern and southwestern limits could be recorded, at about 75 m distance from each other. Its area in the other directions remains rus. A total of five ritual pits and two cult fireplaces were excavated. Archaeological evidence suggests that the pits were simultaneous in spite of their variety in shape and depth. The pit sanctuary at Snyagovo dates from the latter half of the second to early third century AD and is the latest ritual complex of the kind in Thrace. Although it is undoubtedly similar to the parallels dating from earlier centuries regarding the pits' general shape, their backfilling sequence and the material that was deposited in them, the newly excavated five pits reveal a number of specific features pointing to a very sophisticated ritual practice, obviously developed in detail and strictly followed, and probably institutionalized. Above all it should be noted that most of the pits recall the shape of pots common for the traditional Thracian pottery wares and metal works. In three of the pits (Nos. I, III, and IV), a smaller pit had been deliberately dug into the bottom. In Pits III and IV this smaller pit had a homogenous fill of brown color, probably remnants of vegetable food and libations. Another specific feature is the sequence of thin, more or less regular layers of ash and charcoal, at various depths in Pit V, and on the very bottom of Pits I and II. In the backfill of the pits, except for Pit I, approximately in the middle, a large slab has been recorded, placed horizontally or vertically. The stone sealing of the pits' openings could also have been a surface marker; only Pit IV is lacking one. It is particularly instructive that in spite of the abundance of ash and charcoal as well as pieces of fired plaster and burnt soil in the backfill, no fire had been lit in any of the pits. This is a common feature of ritual pits in the Thracian lands to the north of the Danube. Archaeological evidence suggests a drastic population decline and migration of the autochthonous population from Inner Dobruja to the Thracian ethnic territory to the north of the Danube in the Late Hellenistic period. It seems that the unprecedented development of settlement pattern and the surprising revival of the Thracian culture in Dobruja in the first centuries of the Roman conquest were the result of successive massive deportations of Thracians from across the Danube to the waste lands south of the river, in the latter half of first century AD. Written sources and archaeological evidence have confirmed these events. It was these new settlers who evidently gave new life to the ancient autochthonous tradition of the pit sanctuaries that had been preserved and further developed among the free Thracians; the site at Snyagovo could be considered a kind of a culmination of the same tradition.
Titel: |
Thracian pit sanctuary of Roman date at Snyagovo, south Dobruja
|
---|---|
Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | TORBATOV, Sergey |
Link: | |
Zeitschrift: | Arheologiâ, Jg. 48 (2007), Heft 1-4, S. 46-56 |
Veröffentlichung: | Sofiâ: Izdatel'stvo na Blgarska akademiâ na naukite, 2007 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
Umfang: | print; 11; 1 p.1/4 |
ISSN: | 0324-1203 (print) |
Schlagwort: |
|
Sonstiges: |
|