Tatul
Tatul ( Bulgarian Татул ) is a village in southern Bulgaria, Kardzhali in the oblast, municipality Momchilgrad. Tatul located 20 south-east from Kardzhali and 15 kilometers east of Momchilgrad, in the foothills of the Eastern Rhodopes. The area is overgrown with not very dense deciduous forest. Most houses in the village are built of hewn stone blocks.
The village of Tatul is the mayor of the neighboring village rawen (370 inhabitants) managed, located four kilometers to the west.
History
One kilometer from the village there is a Thracian rock grave, which is held for the supposed grave of the Thracian singer Orpheus. However, it is not even clear beyond doubt, whether it is at all is a real person or just a mythical figure in Orpheus.
The Orpheus Sanctuary is only part of the much larger megalithic complex at Tatul with ritual significance. To the north of the sanctuary, there are other rock-cut tombs and rock niches with ritual significance. Here pagan and later Christian rites were performed.
Nearby stone sculptures and tombs were discovered from different eras, as well as ancient and medieval inscriptions.
With its size, the complex is at Tatul in the Eastern Rhodopes in second place - according to the rock sanctuary of Perperikon, located about 40 miles further north.
Excavation history
Bulgarian archaeologists discovered in 2000 near the village of a Thracian surface grave and a shrine. The archaeologist and excavation director Nikolaj Owtscharow identified the sanctuary as a religious center, which had a significance for the entire region. The first settlement has been dated to 4000 BC More recent archaeological finds. In the opinion of Owtscharow the place was the sanctuary and the grave of an influential Thracian ruler who was deified after his death here. Owtscharow also provides a connection to the Orpheus cult.
Unlike a burial in a grave mound ancient sources describe the extremely rare aboveground burial ritual on a mountaintop. There are only two leaders described that were so buried: Orpheus and the Thracian king Rhesus, who is fighting in the Iliad on the side of the Trojans.
The archaeologists have about 30 Lehmaltare that have been dated to the 19th to 18th century BC exposed, as an idol representing a nude male figure from the Iron Age. These findings are an indication of the archaeologists that the sanctuary was used at this time without interruption. In the rock grave a root of a vine was found in 2004, whose age was determined to be 3000 years.
Between the 4th and the 1st century BC, a stone wall was built, surrounded the hill. Shortly thereafter, a temple was built. Thus, the religious complex expanded gradually and the religious activities, the worship of here buried in Tatul ruler, shifted in the temple.
In the 2nd and 4th century AD, various other buildings were constructed. The Christianization of the Rhodope Mountains in the late 4th and early 5th century, led to the conversion of the complex into the possession of a local ruler who was here to build a defensive tower. Two earthquakes in the 12th and in the 14th century, damaged the complex.
Tourism
Shortly after the start of excavation was also started with the conservation of the sites and the development as a tourist object. The infrastructure was renewed it.
- Place in the oblast Kardzhali
- Archaeological sites in Bulgaria