Strange Church Burial Ritual, Archaeologists in Sozopol Found . At the beginning of the old city, where a new bus station is to be built, a medieval temple was discovered on the site of a thousand-year-old necropolis. Why a church was buried in the 13th century - BNT tells in the series "News from the past".
In a place with so much history, every inch of land bears the traces of a past life. And the construction of a new bus station in Sozopol, quite expectedly, revealed a multi-layered past. And another temple of his.
Medieval church in Sozopolis. Here in the XIII century, someone took special care to bury this church. Obviously, something extremely unusual happened to mark the end of this spiritual place in this way. The temple was built later. In a place that was already fenced off as sacred in Antiquity. Archaeologists are currently uncovering a necropolis from the 2nd century BC. In the hope that the dead will be able to tell about life at that time.
Dr. Yavor Ivanov – head of the archaeological survey: "In any case, the 2nd century BC is outside the city. We currently have no definite data on settlements from this period. In the city itself, there are data on individual residential structures, but for now we cannot categorically order such a clear picture – here is the village, here is the necropolis, here is the temple.
Apparently the Hellenistic necropolis lost its function for some reason. Has he moved to another place or simply the nearby settlement has become depopulated. Because the next graves - 800 years later affected the earlier ones.
Dr. Yavor Ivanov – "These are the two late Hellenistic graves from the 2nd century BC, the upper parts of which were destroyed by this cist tomb. For these skeletons from this cist to be destroyed means - these burials are not or marked on the field. Here, since we're talking about covering cysts, here's what a cyst looks like when it's about to be examined. I.e. here are the two pages, the short pages, and that's the cover. The most interesting thing about these cyst tombs is that quite often there are two or three or more individuals. I.e. they were used as family tombs."
But in addition, scientists come across traces of a rare ritual. Enclosing the dead with stones arranged in a circle, it is called "peribus".
Dr. Yavor Ivanov – "Here at the moment we are studying these very large diameter peribuses of mine. Well, it makes no functional sense, according to your terminology. For me, it rather separates the world of the dead from the world of the living, because it neither supports an embankment nor has any connection with the tomb structure itself."
It is not very clear whether this is a Christian tradition. Although the graves appear in a Christian context.
Dr. Yavor Ivanov – "With their head to the west, it can be assumed that they are Christians. But we have no definite data – first of all, there should be a cross, there should be some inscription Christ or something similar, which would give us definite evidence if they are Christians. Here we see a child's skeleton.
Maria Cherneva, BNT: - Is this a tiny child's grave?
– Yes, to a child. Baby, one, two. So here we have three individuals."
In fact, there are a lot of children's graves. At least half are small. Common childhood mortality back in the days when there were no antibiotics and advanced medicine. But against the background of the usual infant mortality, another unusual trend stands out here.
Dr. Borislava Galabova – anthropologist - "Perhaps 80 percent of the bones of infant individuals are of newborn children. But apparently, mothers survived because they were not buried with babies. This individual, who was found in a grave dated to the 2nd-3rd century, was not reborn. He was unfortunately premature and was born prematurely, but unfortunately he did not survive, because at this stage the children, the organs are not yet developed enough to continue their independent development. These 2 children were found in the same grave. They have absolutely identical bone structure and size, and we have a low probability of calling them twins, which will, however, be proven with DNA expertise.
And this one, which is also from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. In fact, one such disease was registered with him, which is called "porotic hysteros", it expresses here a change in the bone structure of the skull, and most often this disease is associated with the so-called iron deficiency anemia, which in ancient societies is considered that it was a form of a type of malnutrition. There are already many new theories that say that, in addition to malnutrition, it may also be related to this anemia, that it may be the result of some inflammatory process. We know that iron levels change when a person is fighting an infection."
In fact, DNA analysis can now tell us what infection the child died from, if it was bacterial. Although single, bones and teeth leave traces that modern technology can pick up. In the battle with epidemics, it was most difficult for women who lived between 20 and 40 years, men were longer-lived – up to 40-50 years.
Dr. Yavor Ivanov – "What is interesting is that the burial facilities that were built were taken and reused from older structures. For example here - we have a threshold of, let's say, an old Roman building, we have four inscriptions in the ancient Greek language that have nothing to do with burials."
The small area that the archaeologists are studying does not preserve any traces of any temple, around which the ancient burials are concentrated. But they are lucky to register the Christian temple, which by the standards of Sozopol in the 12th century is one of the largest.
Dr. Yavor Ivanov - "We are here in the actual part of the church. Over there are the pylons of the apse, its arc continuing beyond the boundaries of the site, under the pavement."
The church is more than 14 meters long, a serious construction of large worked stones. The frescoes also give a sense of momentum and great attention to the temple.
Dr. Yavor Ivanov - "The quality of the murals speaks of a school, why not from Constantinople, we have exceptional colors, difficult colors to make. In the narthex, in the vestibule of the church, we have an inscription in ancient Greek with black letters, which are generally rare finds, maybe it is about some kind of prayer or something else. These are the only frescoes preserved in place, the other frescoes were simply found in a repaired form, because of the later Christian necropolis that developed in the church when the temple ceased to exist.
Some service buildings are clearly visible near the church, which gives reason to think of a monastery complex. A pretty bold guess given the venue. But the written sources speak of monasteries in Sozopol. And this will not be the first case in which Sozopol jumps over the limitations of traditional architectural solutions. Like the church, on the other side of the isthmus, which, contrary to all logic, was built in front of the entrance to the fortress wall.
Dimitar Nedev – director of the Archaeological Museum of Sozopol - "This is contrary to the requirements of the defense strategy. The area must be free so that they can defend themselves, because it is easier to overcome the fortress walls on top of a tall building."
For its scale, Sozopol is dotted with numerous churches, in this case it is probably even a monastery. Obviously, life here was not easy, people often faced various disasters. This may explain both the number of churches and the strong religious tradition. Which in this case ignores safety rules. Because the temple was built on top of another cult building since Antiquity, with unfading sanctity due to the built-in relics.
Dimitar Nedev – "The relics were discovered in this place, below the level of the present church. The necropolis provides information about the cult, how they lived. They usually lived a short, natural life, with a very direct connection to the sea - they were merchants, craftsmen. They died like this, on average, at around 30-35 years of age as a result of malarial diseases, some intestinal diseases such as typhus, cholera."
And the newly opened church presents another surprise. On top of its ruins, archaeologists found a layer of stones. And so far it looks like an attempt to seal it.
Dr. Yavor Ivanov – "A seal of medium and small lozenge stones. When the temple has ceased to exist, it is a desacralization of the place and the temple."
Another find leads to this probable ritual of desacralization. In the vestibule of the church, a pit lined with tiles was dug, in which parts of the church were buried.
Dr. Yavor Ivanov - "When the temple for some reason ceases to exist, individual architectural details, such as part of a column and other parts of the church's architecture are deliberately buried, so to speak, in the church, in the vestibule. After which, this whole complex was sealed."
Why did the church cease to exist soon after it was built, why was it not rebuilt after the fire, why did it have to be abandoned – the answer is not an easy one.
Dr. Yavor Ivanov – "Basically, so generally accepted theories, when a temple ceases to exist, it is related to natural cataclysms, wars, or a change of place unsuitable for living, let's say – the sea is rising and people are moving out, they are building another church there."
The church no longer functions, but continues to be that sacred center around which the living choose to lay the dead. The Christian necropolis has three levels. Some of the graves have already been removed, but the profile also shows other remains.
Dr. Yavor Ivanov – "You can see how the idea of the head, how a part of tile fragments or half a tile is placed under the head, under the skull in burials in order to honor the head, as the most important part of the body."
More than 6 meters deep, the necropolis from the Roman era is revealed – in the case of the 2nd century AD. Here you can already expect gifts that are about to tell more about their owners.