Historical Continuity

Long live our proletarian and international solidarity!

Ali Nassar Mohamed, General Secretary of

the Central Committee of the Yemen Socialist Party, President of the Presidium

of the Supreme National Assembly and Prime Minister of the People’s Democratic

Republic of Yemen.

TO

HIS EXCELLENCY TODOR ZHIVKOV, PRESIDENT OF

THE STATE COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

Dear Mr. President,

The celebration of the 1300th Anniversary

from the foundation of the Bulgarian state is an eulogy of values that as a

result of a process of historical continuity and an unique cultural identity,

maintained through the centuries, have created the Bulgarian nation. Therefore,

such a celebration is greatly important in the field of the international

coexistence.

In the course of these thirteen centuries,

the distinctive features and the internationalistic vocation that characterized

the Bulgarian state have been formed, and those are typical for its past, as

well as for its new and fruitful stage of social development.

Our nations that are similar in a number of

aspects, among other things in their original mixing of cultures, have their

roots from a long history of assimilation of nations and civilizations that

make the basis of identity, including the features of the East and the West.

Convulsive international system

The decisive necessity for reconstruction

of a convulsive international system finds its support in the historical strive

of nations like the Bulgarian and Mexican to define their participation in the

international life.

Mexico shares the joy of your people from

the celebration of the anniversary.

I am asking you, Mr. President, to accept

and convey to the government and the noble Bulgarian people the warmest

congratulations that I am entitled to express for the people and the government

of Mexico.

TO

HIS EXCELLENCY MR. TODOR ZHIVKOV, PRESIDENT

OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

On the occasion of the celebrations for the

1300th anniversary from the foundation of the Bulgarian state I extend to you

and the Bulgarian people most sincere congratulations and wishes for a peaceful

and happy future.

Karl Carstens, President of the Federal Republic of

Germany.

Relations between the Republic of Austria

and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria are inspired by mutual trust, filled with

friendly spirit and directed to a peacuful future.

Bulgarians documented idea

This is a wonderfully documented idea of the Bulgarians themselves of their ships, in which they sailed and traded across seas and rivers.

The reconstruction of the Bulgarian state after its temporary dependence on Byzantium by the brothers Tsar Petar (1185 1197) and Tsar Assen (1186 1195/6). And its stabilization under the rule of Tsar Kaloyan (1196 1207) reach their peak at the time of Tsar Yoan Assen II (1218 1241) when Bulgaria was bordered by three seas   the Black, the Aegean and the Adriatic.

A French historian wrote about Yoan Assen II:

“…Assen built 25 (twenty five) galleys… war ships, which appeared in the Black Sea on the Bulgarian side…”

The reason of above was the participation of the Bulgarian fleet, together with the Greek one, in the battle of Constantinople in 1235. These and other ships were made at a big yard at the estuary of Kamchya River, i.e. near the east part of the Balkan Range, which is extremely rich in timber (oak wood) for shipbuilding.

Independent Bulgarian ruler

In the second half of the 14th century, the independent Bulgarian ruler in the northeast, Despot Dobrotitsa, whose name has been given to the region (called Dobrudzha even today), carried out a very active maritime policy. His capital was Kaliakra   an excellent base and an “admiralty” fortress harbor.

In 1367, the Black Sea fortress harbors of Kavama, Karvuna (Balchik), Kastritsi (north of Kranevo), Varna, Galata, Rosito, Vicha, Kozyak (near Obzor) and Emona were within the borders of his state. He was declared a Despot by Tsar Yoan Alexandar (1331 1371) in 1369 and obtained the Danube fort of Drustar. Dobrotitsa undertook a sea campaign to Trapezund (present Trabzon in Turkey) on the Black Sea with me the intention of enthroning his son in law there.

He minted his own coins on which the name of the capital, Kaliakra, was written. This powerful ruler was allied to the Venetians and carried out pirate attacks against the Genovese ships in the Black Sea. The Genoa archives are full of information on the pirate attacks of Dobrotitsa’s ships. As late as 1387 his son beneficial peace treaty for trade with Genoa. The Ottoman invasion, however, hampered the fast development of that powerful Bulgarian sea state.

There were more than twenty Bulgarian ports along Lower Danube in the 12th – 14th centuries   stretching from Florentin (near Vidin) down to the river delta. In that period, the most important were Bdin, Oryahovo, Nicopol and Holavnik on the opposite bank, Svishtov, Novgrad and Pirgos, Ruse, and Gyurgevo on the north bank, Tutrakan, Drustar and Ostrova.

Source: https://bulgaria.tourhints.info/bulgarians-documented-idea/

The People’s Republic of Kampuchea

The People’s Republic of Kampuchea will

advance decisively along the road of independence, peace, democracy and

nonaligne ment along the road of socialism, actively contributing in this way

to the preservation of the peace and stability in SouthEast Asia.

The Kampuchean people will continue to

develop their traditional solidarity with all fraternal socialist countries and

in particular with Viet Nam, the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of

Bulgaria.

Our people are delighted that the relations

of friendship, fraternal solidarity and cooperation between Kampuchea and

Bulgaria develop incessantly in the interest of both nations, to the benefit of

social progress, thus affirming the position of the two nations in the world.

Express our deep gratitude to Comrade

Finally I would like to express our deep

gratitude to Comrade Todor Zhivkov, for the invitation to take part in the

celebration of this festive jubilee. I would like to extend to him personally,

to the leaders of the Party and the State, to the entire Bulgarian people my

best wishes for health, fiery energy and full success in the further

construction of developed socialism in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria,

carrying into effect the decisions of the Twelfth Congress of the Bulgarian

Communist Party.

The People’s Republic of Kampuchea and the

People’s Republic of Bulgaria will march always together along the road of the

victorious MarxismLeninism.

Long live the friendship, the militant

solidarity and the cooperation between the parties, the governments and the

peoples of Kampuchea and Bulgaria.

Pen Sovan, Secretary General of the

People’s Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea and Chairman of the Council of

Ministers.

TO

TODOR ZHIVKOV, SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE BULGARIAN COMMUNIST PARTY AND CHAIRMAN OF THE STATE

COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA, GRISHA FILIPOV, CHAIRMAN OF THE

COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA, STANKO TODOROV

CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

On the occasion of the celebrations for the

1300th Anniversary from the foundation of the Bulgarian State, we are sending

you comrade, and through you to all the brotherly Bulgarian people affectionate

greetings and good wishes.

13 centuries the Bulgarian people

For the past 13 centuries the Bulgarian

people overcame a road filled with abstacles and different hardships, a road of

heroic and continuous battles gave countless cherished victims for the

strengthening and progress of its fatherland. Thanks to the continuous work and

selfdenying the Bulgarian people reached a considerable succes in its economic

and cultural developement, contributing in the history of the Balkans and

Europe.

The Outcasts of Poker Flat

The road to Sandy Bar a camp that, not having as yet experienced the regenerating influences of Poker Flat, consequently seemed to offer some invitation to the emigrants lay over a steep mountain range. It was distant a day’s severe travel. In that advanced season the party soon passed out of the moist, temperate regions of the foothills into the dry, cold, bracing air of the Sierras. The trail was narrow and difficult. At nodn the Duchess, rolling out of her saddle upon the ground, declared her intention of going no farther, and the party halted.

Mr Oakhurst

The spot was singularly wild and impressive. A wooded amphitheater surrounded on three sides by precipitous cliffs of naked granite, sloped gently toward the crest of another precipice that overlooked the valley. It was, undoubtedly, the most suitable spot for a camp, had camping been advisable. But Mr. Oakhurst knew that scarcely half the journey to Sandy Bar was accomplished, and the party were not equipped or provisioned for delay.

This fact he pointed out to his companions curtly, with a philosophic commentary on the folly of “throwing up their hand before the game was played out.” But they were furnished with liquor, which in this emergency stood them in place of food, fuel, rest and prescience. In spite of his remonstrances, it was not long before they were more or less under its influence. Uncle Billy passed rapidly from a bellicose state into one of stupor, the Duchess became maudlin, and Mother Shipton snored. Mr. Oakhurst alone remained erect, leaning against a rock, calmly surveying’ them.

Mr. Oakhurst did not drink. It interfered with a profession which required coolness, impassiveness, and presence of mind, and, in his own language, he “couldn’t afford it.” As he gazed at his recumbent fellow exiles, the loneliness begotten of his pariah trade, his habits of life, his very vices, for the first time seriously oppressed him. He bestirred him-self in dusting his black clothes, washing his hands and face, and other acts characteristic of his studiously neat habits, and for a moment forgot his annoyance.

The thought of deserting his weaker and more pitiable companions never perhaps occurred to him. Yet he could not help feeling the want of that excitement which, singularly enough, was most conducive to that calm equanimity for which he was notorious. He looked at the gloomy walls that rose a thousand feet sheer above the circling pines around him, at the sky ominously clouded, at the valley below, already deepening into shadow; and, doing so, suddenly he heard his own name called.

Source: https://sofia.istanbulgaria.info/the-outcasts-of-poker-flat-part-3/

Land of Civilizations

Bulgaria is not a big country on land. But

definitely it is a big country on culture history and culture.

Bulgaria occupies a territory of 111,000

square kilometres, has a population of 9 million and is situated in the heart

of the Balkan Peninsula. It is a country of roses, staunch revolutionaries,

famous singers and dancers. Its people are famous for their industriousness and

hospitality.

A land of Ancient Civilizations

The Bulgarian state was founded in the year

681. Bulgaria is not only one of the oldest European states, but also a land in

which man has appeared very early – some 150,000 years ago. Not far from the

city of Stara Zagora (beginning of the rose valley only 35 km away from

Kazanlak with the rose

festival), Central Bulgaria, the world’s oldest and biggest copper mines

have been discovered. They were exploited in the late 5th and early 4th

millennium B. C. Metal tools ensured a labor productivity which was 30 times

higher than that of stone tools, and their appearance brought about a veritable

revolution in the development of human society. Besides, favorable climatic

conditions made possible the comparatively early appearance of animal husbandry

and plant-growing, which enriched the diet and made surer the existence of

primitive man. Wheat was grown in the Balkans as early as the end of the 7th millennium

B. C. and it was from here that it was spread to the rest of Europe.

The good climatic and material conditions

determined the appearance on the territory of present-day Bulgaria of some of

the earliest civilizations in history. Recently a gold trove was unearthed near

the city of Varna, dating from the end of the 5th and early 4th millennium B.

C. It is a proof not only of a high level of development of the crafts but also

of an advanced stage of social stratification. The clay tablets with written

signs on them found near the town of Vratsa, North-western Bulgaria, date back to

approximately the same period.

The Thracians

The Thracians were the first population

inhabiting the territory of present-day Bulgaria, known to science. In the

works of the ancient Greek authors they are described as a numerous people, and

Thrace – as a land of abundance and merriment. Thrace was the native land of

the mythical musician Orpheus and of Spartacus, the leader of the slaves’

uprising which shook the Roman Empire early in our era. During the past few

decades Bulgarian archaeologists have unearthed imposing tombs with magnificent

frescoes, impregnable strongholds, workshops and exquisite gold jewels and

vessels.

After the 7th century B. C. a considerable

number of colonies of the Greek poleis (city-states) were founded along the

Thracian Black Sea coast. They started an animated trade and cultural exchange

with the hinterland, thus creating a second cultural layer on the present-day

Bulgarian territory – of another brilliant ancient civilization – that of the

Greeks.

The Disabled Soldier 5

“The boatswain found me, as he said, an obstinate fellow: he swore he knew that I understood my business well, but that I shammed Abraham, to be idle; but God knows, I knew nothing of sea-business, and he beat me without considering what he was about. I had still, however, my forty pounds, and that was some comfort to me under every beating; and the money I might have had to this day, but that our ship was taken by the French, and so I lost all.

“Our crew was carried into Brest, and many of them died, because they were not used to live in a jail; but for my part, it was nothing to me, for I was seasoned.One night, as I was asleep on the bed of boards, with a warm blanket about me, for I always loved to lie well, I was awakened by the boatswain, who had a dark lantern in his hand. ‘Jack,’ says he to me, ‘will you knock out the French sentry’s brains?’ ‘I don’t care,’ says I, striving to keep myself awake, ‘if I lend a hand.’ ‘Then, follow me,’ says he, ‘and I hope we shall do usiness.’ So up I got, and tied my blanket, which was all the clothes I had, about my middle, and went with him to fight the Frenchman. I hate the French, because they are all slaves, and wear wooden shoes.

“Though we had no arms, one Englishman is able to beat five French at any time; so we went down to the door where both the sentries were posted, and rushing upon them, seized their arms in a moment, and knocked them down. From thence nine of us ran together to the quay, and seizing the first boat we met, got out of the harbor and put to sea. We had not been here three days before we were taken up by the Dorset privateer, who were glad of so many good hands; and we consented to run our chance.

Pompadour privateer

However, we had not as much luck as we expected. In three days we fell in with the Pompadour privateer of forty guns, while we had but twenty-three, so to it we went, yard-arm and yard-arm. The fight lasted three hours, and I verily believe we should have taken the Frenchman, had we but had some more men left behind; but unfortunately we lost all our men just as we were going to get the victory. 

 “I was once more in the power of the French, and I believe it would have gone hard with me had I been brought back to Brest;
but by good fortune we were retaken by the Viper, I had almost forgotten to tell you that in that engagement I was wounded in two places; I lost four fingers off the left hand, and my leg was shot off.

If I had had the good fortune to have lost my leg and use of my hand on board a king s ship, and not aboard a privateer, I should have been entitled to clothing and maintenance during the rest of my life; but that was not my chance: one man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and another with a wooden ladle. However, blessed be God, I enjoy good health, and will forever love liberty and old England. Liberty, property, and old England, forever, huzza!”.

Thus saying, he limped off, leaving me in admiration at his intrepidity and content; nor could I avoid acknowledging that an habitual acquaintance with misery serves better than philosophy to teach us to despise it.

Source: https://bulgarian.marietaminkova.com/the-disabled-soldier-part-5/

Hellenic Intellect

The Phanariotes, gifted with the supple Hellenic intellect, offered themselves as middle-men between the Turks and the subject Rayah populations. Then, as now, the Turks, when their fanaticism was not ablaze, disliked the trouble of administration, and were content to let their Giaour subjects alone as long as they paid tribute to the Ottoman Treasury, provided soldiers for the Ottoman armies, and contributed to the private wants of the Pashas and their harems.

A sort of tacit understanding was established, by which the Greeks of the Phanar farmed the revenues of the Christian provinces of Turkey, and notably of Bulgaria. Probably the Phanariotes were not altogether so corrupt and so degraded as they were considered by their co-religionists. But they unquestionably displayed all the vices which, from the days of Juvenal, have characterized the Hellenic race, when in subjection to races of weaker intellect, but stronger will than their own.

They were content to do the dirty work, which the Turks required doing, and were too indolent and too proud to do for themselves. One of the many sources of revenue, out of which the Phanariotes filled the Turkish Treasury, while at the same time levying toll for their own use, consisted in the sale of all the lucrative posts in the Bulgarian Church. For nearly five hundred years every piece of important preferment amidst the Bulgarian clergy, from the Patriarchate downwards, was put up to auction.

As soon as the successful purchaser had enjoyed what the vendors considered a reasonable time in which to recoup himself for his purchase money, he was deposed by the Porte at the instance of the Phanar; and his place was again put up for auction. In the course of four centuries there are said to have been one hundred and forty Patriarchs of Bulgaria, so that the average tenure of the Patriarchal office did not amount to three years in duration.

Priests of low character

The Church was thus served by priests of low character, men of disreputable if not infamous lives, who were at once servile and venal, and who—the worst offence of all in Bulgarian eyes—were, as a rule, of foreign race, I cannot learn that this scandalous state of things materially affected the attachment of the Bulgarians to their national creed Here, as in all Sclav countries, religion is a matter rather of ritual than of dogma ; and so long as a priest is competent to administer the sacraments and perform the required services, the personal respect or disrespect in which he may be held in his individual capacity hardly counts for anything in regard to his spiritual authority.

The popular objection to the Phanariote clergy was not so much that they were wine-bibbers, loose livers, and a disgrace to their cloth, as that they were foreigners, the nominees and representatives of an alien and detested rule. The intensity of this dislike to a foreign priesthood was accelerated by the revival of the sentiment of nationality, which in Bulgaria, as elsewhere in Turkey, coincided with the decline of the Ottoman power. The earlier portion of the present century witnessed the birth of a national Bulgarian party; and the first efforts of this party were directed to removing the patronage of the Bulgarian Church from the hands of the Patriarch of Constantinople, who, up to that , time, had been a mere creature of the Porte.

Appointed by Bulgarian Government

The judges are functionaries of the State. They are appointed by the Government, paid by the Government, and may be removed by the Government. In every commune, however small, there is a judge who forms an ex officio member of the Communal Council, elected by the in-habitants. These communal judges have very limited juris-diction. They have no power to inflict personal punishment in criminal cases; all they can do is to impose a fine, not exceeding sixteen shillings in amount, for a breach of the law; and in civil cases they only possess the right of summary jurisdiction when the amount at issue does not exceed £2. Their sentences have to be submitted to the approval of the district judges of the district in which the commune is situated.

These district judges hold office on the same tenure as the communal judges, but their jurisdiction is more extensive. They can impose fines to the extent of £2, and can decide suits concerning sums not exceeding £4; they may also try charges of theft, not aggravated by violence. Next in the legal hierarchy come the judges of First Instance, who hold courts in the chef lieux of every province. They have authority to adjudicate in all civil and criminal cases, but their decision may be referred to the Courts of Appeal, of which there are four in Bulgaria; and from these courts there lies a reference to the Supreme Court of Appeal at Sofia.

Opinion of the Government

Trial by jury is still amidst the reforms of the future. In the opinion of the Government, the country is not yet ripe for its institution. The present generation of adult peasants have had little or no education; and their ideas of justice are formed on what may be called the Cadi principle. When a new generation comes to the front, which has been educated at the national schools, and which has learned discipline in the national army, the peasants, it is thought, may become fit to act as jurymen ; but as things are, the estimation in which a Bulgarian prisoner might hold, whether for good or bad, in the opinion of his fellowtownsmen, would have much more to do with his conviction or acquittal, than the strength of the evidence connecting him with the perpetration of the particular crime of which he stood accused.

In the Courts of First Instance, however, a system has been of late years introduced, which possesses some of the advantages of trial by jury. In all criminal cases of a serious character, a certain number of towns-peoplemen, as a rule, of some education and local standingare appointed to sit with the judges and to hear the evidence adduced for or against the prisoner.

When the case is concluded, the verdict is given by the judges and assessors in conjunction, the vote of the majority deciding the question of guilt or innocence. With the giving of the verdict of “ Guilty ” or ” Not guilty,” the functions of the assessors are at an end; and the question of the punishment to be inflicted, in the event of conviction, is left to the sole arbitrament of the judges. Thus, in cases where political bias may be supposed to enter, the prisoner has the advantage of being tried before a tribunal composed of private citizens as well as of functionaries of the Government townsmen, would have much more to do with his conviction or acquittal, than the strength of the evidence connecting him with the perpetration of the particular crime of which he stood accused. In the Courts of First Instance, however, a system has been of late years introduced, which possesses some of the advantages of trial by jury. In all criminal cases of a serious character, a certain number of towns-people—men, as a rule, of some education and local standing—are appointed to sit with the judges and to hear the evidence adduced for or against the prisoner.

When the case is concluded, the verdict is given by the judges and assessors in conjunction, the vote of the majority deciding the question of guilt or innocence. With the giving of the verdict of “ Guilty ” or ” Not guilty,” the functions of the assessors are at an end; and the question of the punishment to be inflicted, in the event of conviction, is left to the sole arbitrament of the judges. Thus, in cases where political bias may be supposed to enter, the prisoner has the advantage of being tried before a tribunal composed of private citizens as well as of functionaries of the Government

Bulgarian conquered Philipi

Kan Presian confirmed reaching the Aegean Sea to the south. In 837, the Bulgarian ruler conquered Philipi, which lay above the sea. Simeon the Great (893 927) maintained deliberately the actions in the southeast Black Sea direction. Right after his enthronement, in 894, during the First War against Byzantium, he took the Black Sea towns to the south of the Balkan Range. In 904, the border with the

Byzantines was marked by the Black Sea fortress port of Midia (the ancient Salmidesos) on the south slopes of Mount Strandzha, which was then taken by the Bulgarian Tsar. In fact, it is worth mentioning that it was the last strong fortress and the last safe port for ships along the whole Black Sea coastal line to the south all the 1 way to the Bosporus.

However, to the south    west, Simeon carried out a focused policy me of dominating important ports, starting in 896 and continuing for a number of years. He captured over 30 towns and forts on the Adriatic coast. Thus, Bulgaria obtained a new sea opening to the west on the Adriatic. In 904, Simeon could not take Salonika (Thessaloniki). The border with Byzantium was only 20 kilometers to the north of the town.

According to experts on ships and shipbuilding, the Bulgarians built special transport and military vessels with oars and sails, which were capable of sailing in both rivers and seas. They did not run very deep but had good seaworthiness. The ships were reinforced with boards. This fact indicates that the Bulgarian masters were very familiar with the method of shipbuilding by making a skeleton and covering it with boards, typical of the epoch.

Yoan Exarch Bulgarian

The great translator and writer of the 10th century, Yoan Exarch Bulgarian, describes the Bulgarians’ knowledge and skills in shipbuilding excellently in his Hexaemeron:

“The sea unites all that is distant, which sails in it; it comes and even if it is not so close it takes it away in the distance. For those who have nothing, it makes it possible for everything to be common. What is grown in foreign lands, be it wheat or fruits, or gold, or silver, or clothes, or something else, it can, by navigating, take it to the ones in need…

Without wood [it is out of the question], we bake bread, boil cereals and make ships of it; with them we sail the rivers and the great sea space. We buy what we need and we give it to those who need it at a flat price.”

Source: https://www.doholiday.com/bulgarian-conquered-philipi/

PUBLIC EDUCATION BULGARIA

The desire for education amidst the Bulgarian peasantry amounts almost to a passion. That this should be so seems strange in a country where the great mass of the population are extremely ignorant, very much set on their own ways, and averse to innovations of any kind. The Boers, who in many respects so closely resemble the Bulgarians, are completely free from this craze for booklearning. What was good enough for their fathers is, in their opinion, good enough for themselves, and will be good enough for their children after them. But in this respect the Bulgarians are completely different I cannot make out that any educational census has ever been taken in the country.

The common opinion, however, is that in the rural districts, at all events, the proportion of the adult population who have even an elementary knowledge of writing or reading is extremely small. In the Turkish days the village priests never took any trouble to impart to their parishioners the scanty stock of education they themselves possessed; and in as far as they had any opinion at all on the matter, that opinion was unfavourable rather than otherwise to the diffusion of book-learning amidst the laity. Yet ever since the liberation of Bulgaria, the peasants have been almost morbidly eager to have their children taught at school; and the system of Free Education, which has been introduced throughout the State, is warmly supported by popular sentiment.

This is the more curious as the peasant farmers till their own lands themselves, not by paid labourers; and the services of every member of the family are required to supply the requisite amount of field labour. The children of the house are set to work early, and the loss of their assistance during school hours must be a serious matter to their parents.

The only explanation

 The only explanation I can offer for this general thirst for education amongst a people, who have apparently very little taste for booklearning in itself, is the following. The Bulgarians, as I have already remarked, have an intense belief in the past glories of their country, and have also an equally intense faith in the future which lies before it Whether rightly or wrongly, they have got it into their heads that popular education is an essential condition of Bulgaria’s taking, what they deem, her proper place in the world ; and when once an idea of any kind has got into Bulgarian heads, its dislodgment is a matter of excessive difficulty.

Then, too, there prevails throughout the community an equally general but more practical belief that education opens the door to the public service, the only form of employment, other than that of agriculture, to be found in a country with few and small industries, little trade and less capital. There is hardly a man in the service of the State who was not born a peasant of peasant parents ; and the spectacle of the success achieved by the ministers and public officials, who owe their position almost entirely to the fact that they had received an education somewhat above their fellows, renders every Bulgarian parent desirous to obtain like advantages for his own children.

Bulgarians first contact Balkan

The Bulgarians’ first contact with the Balkan Peninsula is dated to the end of the fifth and the beginning of the 6th centuries. They settled gradually in the regions of the former Roman provinces of Moesia, Dacia and Macedonia. The territories had suffered invasions of the Barbarians in the 3rd—5th centuries but the Bulgarians revived them, bringing economic, political and cultural prosperity. The following expressive statement refers to such a prospering country:

“They say that the land of Alexandaros Ogal Sosmanoz [Tsar Yoan Shishman (1371—1395)], son of Alexandar [Tsar Yoan Alexandar (1331—1371)], is on the bank of the river Tuna [Danube] and belongs to the region of Edirne [Odrin]…

It [the land of the Bulgarians] was a very fertile region. It exported honey, butter and sheep across the world. In general, there were all kinds of goods in it, more than in other regions.”

From Book of Description of the World by Mehmed Neshri. Translated by I. Tataria. Kitab-i Gihannuma, Mehmed Nesri, Ankara, 1949.

Medieval Bulgarian state

The medieval Bulgarian state in Southeastern Europe occupied the lands to the south of the Balkan Mountains in the direction of Constantinople. The dream of conquering the Byzantine metropolis was alive until the death of Tsar Simeon the Great (893 927). The policy of inhabiting the lands in the south-southwest turned out however to be more productive.

The territories south of the Rhodope Mountains to the Aegean Sea and in the west to Morava River, present day Macedonia and parts of Northern Thessaly, Albania, Kosovo were joined at the time of Kan Presian (836 852). These regions and the whole of Moesia and Thrace formed the historical ethnic cultural space of the Bulgarians in Southeastern Europe in the middle Ages.

Most European states

The territories of most European states, including Bulgaria, took shape in the early Middle Age Period. Only the lands of modem Italy and Germany are an exception; they became state territories in the second half of the 19th century.

In most cases, the causes of wars were the defense of territories already possessed, rather than the taking control of new ones with a foreign population. Medieval Bulgarians lived under the impression of occupying vast territories, which they usually referred to as “Upper Land” (Moesia with the lower flows of the rivers Timok and Bulgarian Morava, as well as the plains up to the Carpathian Mountains) and “Lower Land” (Thrace, the Aegean coast and present-day Macedonia). In the period 7- 14th centuries, the Bulgarians who were the most numerous people in the Balkan Peninsula, settled permanently in their ethnic lands.

Source: https://www.doholiday.com/bulgarians-first-contact-balkan/

Accomplishments

With the exception of music, accomplishments

form no part of the feminine course of study. The teachers were of the ordinary

schoolmistress type, but looked intelligent, patient, and painstaking. I

noticed, both among boys and girls, the curious indifference with which the

presence of strangers was regarded. In any English school, the sudden entry of

a group of foreigners, who were treated as visitors of distinction, would have

caused any amount of whispering and nudging amongst the boys, and of giggling

and glancing amidst the girls. But here the scholars of both sexes appeared to

pay no attention to the interruption of their lessons, and went on quietly and

stolidly with their tasks, just as if nothing exceptional had happened. The

oldest girls class I visited consisted of pupils between fifteen and seventeen,

who were going through an examination in the history of the Crusades. There

were some fifty girls in this classroom, and at the age of sweet seventeen it

is difficult for any girl not to have some charm of look or manner. I was told

by one of the teachers that the girls were very anxious to get on at school, as

the successful pupils were in great demand as wives for the officers of the

Bulgarian army. If so, I trust I may say, without lack of courtesy, that the

Bulgarian officers display a preference for intellectual as compared with

physical charms, which is not common amongst military men in other countries.

Altogether, the system of instruction

imparted at the public schools seem to me very sound and very efficient.

Extremely insubordinate

The only complaint I heard from the

professors was that the boys were at times extremely insubordinate and

difficult to manage, and that if they did not like a teacher, they would pay no

attention to his teaching. Only two or three years ago there was a barring out

at the boys school in Philippopolis. The masters were forcibly excluded from

the building, and, on trying to force their way in, were driven back by their

pupils, armed with sticks and knives. Order was not restored until the services

of the troops had been called into requisition. The masters attributed these

acts of insubordination partly to want of tact in some of the then professors,

and still more to the bad influence of the local newspapers, which had filled

the boys heads with all sorts of crude, Socialist, and Nihilist ideas.

INDUSTRIES AND TRADES

SKETCH OF THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE

PRINCIPALITY

BULGARIA is an agricultural country. The

prosperity of the inhabitants depends almost entirely on the harvests, which in

consequence serve as a criterion for judging the economic state of the country.

The consequences of a good or bad harvest are felt not only in agricultural

circles but in commerce, trades, and industries, and this to such an extent

that to judge whether the harvest of any year was good or bad one has only to

look at the statistics of trade with other countries. The extent of foreign trade

is in direct proportion with the crops : a good harvest is followed by a great

increase of trade with foreign countries, which a bad harvest almost

immediately paralyses.

It is easy to see the truth of this

statement from the following table, where the figures for grain export are

compared with the figures for the general foreign trade (both import and

export) for a period of ten years.

Yew.      Imports.

Francs. Exports.

Francs. Total.

Francs. Export

of cereals. Francs.

Z894 ..  99,229,193          72,850,675          172,079,868        55,871,305

1895 ..  69,020,295          77,685,546          146,705,841        60,473,405

1896 ..  76,530,278          108,739,977        185,270,255        94,089,072

1897 ..  83,994,236          59,790,511          143,784,747        46,418,601

I898 ..   72,730,250          66,537,007          139,267,257        48,491,343

Year.     Imports.

Franca. Exports.

Francs. Total.

Francs. Export

of cereals. Francs.

1899 ..  60,178,079          53,467,099          113,645,178        32,801,247

1900 . . 46,342,100          53,982,629          100,324,729        27,128,280

I9OI . .   70,044,073          82,769,759          152,813,832        51,717,228

1902 ..  71,246,492          103,684,530        174,931,022        63,699,691

1903 ..  81,802,281          108,073,639        189,876,220        74,215,803

Importance of our foreign trade

On the other hand the importance of our foreign trade may be estimated by the operations of the Bulgarian National Bank, which is chiefly occupied with exchange and current accounts operations. It has been established during the last ten years that the exchange operations and the amount of current accounts which correspond to years with good harvests differ considerably from those of years with poor crops. This may be seen from the following table :   

Whatever may be the importance of the

agricultural exports—and the progress made in the development of this branch

gives confident hope for the future—Bulgaria cannot be called a rich country.

As in all agricultural countries, our sole source of national wealth is the

land. Industries are only beginning; agriculture itself is carried on by the

expansive system, whereas it is the intensive system which is generally a

characteristic of rich agricultural countries and advanced cultivation.

MANUFACTURES of BULGARIA

It is a question of great importance for

the future of Bulgaria to know whether she will remain an agricultural country

or turn to industrial occupations. For the last seven or eight years this

question has been under consideration, and Bulgarian economists have not yet

been able to solve it. Many of them are of opinion that Bulgaria does not

possess the qualities requisite for the development of national industries, and

will always remain an agricultural country. But even they must recognise that

the invincible force of universal progress will oblige Bulgaria to develop her

industries as she modernises her methods of farming, just as other countries,

among them France, Germany, and Italy, have done.

The oldest Bulgarian manufacture is

weaving, which from ancient times has been widely spread in the country as a

house industry. The wool of the district was worked up into cloths, carpets,

braids, serges, etc., which were in request throughout the Ottoman Empire. The

most important weaving centres are Pirdop, PanaguiourichtS, Karlovo, Sopot,

Koprivchtitza, Klissoura, Kalofer, Gabrovo, Trevna, Sliven, Kotel and Samokov.

Under Turkish rule, these towns supplied cloth to the Imperial army. Bulgarian

cloths were held in the greatest esteem, and there was a constant demand for

them in Greece, in Asia Minor, at Pirot and Nisch, in Bosnia and Herzegovina,

etc.

Owing to this success, in 1880 some private

individuals decided to start modem workshops. The example was given by the

towns of Gabrovo and Sliven, where there are now large factories, organised on

the most modem principles. There are as many as twentysix factories in other

towns, among them, at Samokov and Kazanlik. Bulgaria, therefore, holds the

first place for weaving in the Balkan peninsula. The following table gives

interesting statistics regarding the Bulgarian weaving industry.

Town.   Number

of factories.      Number of spindles.      Hydraulic horse power. Horsepower of steam.  Power looms.                Hand

looms.

Gabrovo             

7             6,400     385         370         92           —

Sliven                   14           8,016     200         24O        85           121

Samokov            

2             1,020     65           l6            15           —

Karlovo               

1             1,244     40           80           12           .—

Kazanlik              

1             850         —           IOO        8             —

Kotel                    

1             300         10           —           —           6

Total                     26           17,830   7°°          806         212         127

Weaving sheds

The total value of the weaving sheds and

factories is about 5,500,0 francs. The capital is exclusively Bulgarian, the

result of years of industry and thrift. Had foreign capital been invested in

the industry, it might have had a far greater development. We hope that

capitalists will interest themselves in our textiles, the more so as the new

protectionist tariff guarantees the future of the national industries.

Three thousand workpeople, men, women, and

children, are employed. The country owns about 7,000,000 sheep, which yield

120,000 kilograms of wool yearly. For the last ten years this has not sufficed

for the manufacture, which has been obliged to supplement the supply from

foreign markets. The importation of wool increases every year, as may be seen

from the following table:

Natural Wool.   Washed Wool.  Carded Wool.

Year.     Kilograms.           Fra.        Kilograms.          Fn.         Kilograms.           Frm.

I904       468,676                561,295                8,881     23,042   1,322     2,540

1903      299,082                359,082                11,613   39,414   4,088     17,869

1902      311,128                369,578                21,626   62,164   20,994   54,491

1901      237,447                279,83a                92,376   258,421                2,056     7,193

1900      52,337   55,134   22,362   79,510   22           79

1899      37,042   42,607   15,139   43,6l6    105         425

1898      54,621   52,112   79,455   225,379                14           45

1897      138,875                155,029                17,174   52,574   7,154     21,640

1896      107,861                123,641                11,728   37,219   40           335

1895      313,216                351,428                37,633   110,835                9             45

1894      540,063                605,317                38,615   60,636   5,164     17,643

1893      328,162                295,804                9,216     9,297     1,128     2,599

1890      313,395                311,127                no separate ac  x8           135

Most of the natural wool imported comes

from Romania, the washed wool from Austria, Germany, France and Belgium.

As a matter of course, the export of

Bulgarian cloths grows considerably each year, as is shown by the following

statistics:

Year.     Coarse

cloths. Kilogr. Frs.             Kilogr.   Sergei.

Frs.

1904      51,319   121,843                264,870                1,130,528

1903      57,015   133,999                329,510                1,631,860

1902      81,475   161,266                397,661                1,601,639

1901      62,149   173,324                391,705                1,577,497

1900      57,793   143,309                335,778                1,376,896

1899      70,733   172,815                277,716                1,187,425

1898      75,805   300,503                297,126                1,330,127

1897      62,165   209,498                260,047                1,049,816

1896      59,128   180,925                210,213                800,009

1895      86,875   307,892                244,531                982,746

1894      104,770                408,903                267,070                1,126,454

1893      127,230                514,235                223,754                971,051

Year.     Cloth

and dyed stuffs. Kilogr. Frs.             Kilogr.   Braids.

Frs.

1904      7,270     47,811   126,532                615,038

I903       6,925     48,506   147,583                701,023

1902      13,243   78,671   188,568                933,268

1901      i3,m       77,163   179,602                830,810

1900      8,744     50,644   148,885                680,358

1899      8,248     48/490  165,866                757,854

1898      12,361   67,415   I9i»867 847,244

1897      9,531     55/435  137,573                646,548

1896      6,967     40,804   135,250                635/402

1895      7,910     52,504   165,791                773,290

1894      5,795     32,363   186,799                884,823

1893      8,108     49,807   184,141                868,982

Romania Clayton

Thomas J. Clayton who visited many

countries passed through Bulgaria also. Going from Varna to Ruse and then on to

Romania

Clayton was “surprised” to discover that both Bulgaria and

Romania were “such fertile countries.” He wrote that he “never saw better

pasture lands or wheat fields” anywhere else in the world. These lands reminded

him of the prairie lands of Illinois. He was also surprised to find that there

were no farm houses like in America. The lands, he stated, were “tilled by

peasants who live in miserable little huts, or in villagesOur route lay through

a spur of the Balkan Mountains and was very picturesque very beautiful and

entertainingThe scenery of these mountains is soft and has a soothing rather

than a stirring influence upon the beholder.” The author believed that if peace

prevailed in these parts of the world, Bulgaria and Romania “will soon become

rich and prosperous.”

There are few more accounts by Americans on

Bulgaria. However, they are not much more different than those presented. Many

a time what Americans said about the Bulgarians or for that matter about other

peoples, reflected on their own personal character or how they valued American

culture and way of life. The descriptions presented by these travelers on a

variety of topics, like national character and even the history of Bulgaria are

hardly scientific or correct accounts.

Bulgarian personality

Almost all of these travelers present

nothing but clichés. They did not have the necessary expertise to carefully

analyze the Bulgarian

personality, their ethnic typicalness in terms of common

national cultural values. The frame of reference these travelers used was

founded on their perspective of American history and culture as the

repositories of values of liberty, freedom, democracy, justice, religion,

discipline, industry and progress.

Almost all of the authors sympathized with

the plight of the Bulgarian people under Ottoman domination. They all condemned

the alien system of despotism and many a time showed their preference for

republicanism. The Ottoman system did not permit the development of the

individual, the arts and crafts as well as agriculture and industry. The

authors were aware that the Ottoman state was in its stages of disintegration.

Those who visited Bulgaria before 1878 believed that the Bulgarians would

become free and those who travelled after the liberation of the country praised

the attempts of the Bulgarians to preserve their independence.

Process Mesopotamia

We must now consider more closely the

manner in which these artificial hills come to be created. Any of the mounds

which we have mentioned in the preceding paragraphs would probably serve to

illustrate the broad lines of this process: but those in Mesopotamia will

perhaps serve our purpose best, since they are uncomplicated by the presence of

large stone buildings and at the same time provide examples of some anatomical

eccentricities seldom found elsewhere. This process, then, by which in

antiquity the repeated rebuilding’s of human habitations on a single site

created a perpetually increasing elevation, is by no means difficult to

understand.

The average life of a mud brick building

today seldom exceeds the span of a single generation: and in earlier times,

military conquest or localized raiding on a smaller scale would certainly have

accounted for demolitions that are more frequent. Roofs would be burnt or

collapse and the upper parts of the walls subside, filling the rooms to about a

third of their height with brick debris. Before rebuilding, the site would

usually be systematically levelled, the stumps of the old walls being used as

foundations for the new.

Prehistoric fortresses at Mersin

Thus, after a time, the town or village

would find itself occupying the summit of a rising eminence; a situation, which

had the double advantage of being easily defensible and of affording an

expansive view of the surrounding countryside. One remembers in a connection

how the walls of the little prehistoric fortresses at Mersin in Cilicia were

lined with identical small dwellings for the garrison; and each was provided

with a pair of slit openings from which a watch could be kept on the approaches

to the mound.

What, then, an excavator is concerned with

is the stratified accumulation of archaeological remains, unconsciously created

by the activities of these early builders. By reversing the process and

examining each successive phase of occupation, from the latest (and therefore

uppermost) downwards, he obtains a chronological cross section of the mound’s history,

and can, if circumstances are favorable, reconstruct a remarkably clear picture

of the cultural and political vicissitudes through which its occupants have

passed.

However, it must be remembered that the

procedure, which he adopts, itself involves a new form of demolition. For as

the architectural remains associated with each phase of occupation are cleared,

examined and recorded, they must in turn be removed in order to attend to the

phase beneath. In a Near Eastern mound, the product of an operation of this

sort is often a deep hole in the ground and very little else that could

interest a subsequent visitor to the site of the excavation.

Museum of Pennsylvania

This road of course prolonged itself

through the Taurus passes, where the mounds are rare. However, once the

Anatolian plateau is reached, they start again and increase in size at the

approach to the great cities of Phrygia. The crossing of the Sangarius River is

marked by a colossal mound representing the remains of the old Phrygian

capital, Gordion, and a wide area around it is studded with tumuli covering the

graves of the Phrygian kings.

Excavations by the University Museum of

Pennsylvania in the side of the hill have revealed a gigantic stone gateway,

from which travelers on the Royal Road must have set out on their journey

northward. Half a mile further on, a stretch of the road itself is exposed,

where it passes between the tumuli; and its fifteen foot width of stone

pavement is still perfectly preserved.

(1) A. H. Layard, Nineveh and its Remains.

(2) Published in “Iraq”,

(3) Happening to visit the excavations when

this section of the road had just been located. I found the pavement newly

cleared and, standing in the center of it, the American director, a volume of

Herodotus in his hand, from which he was declaiming the passage in praise of

the Persian couriers who carried the royal dispatches from Sardis to Susa.

Anatolia or Kurdistan

However, it is not only on great highways

of this sort that the purpose of mounds can be identified. In every major

highland valley of Anatolia or Kurdistan, there, probably at a river crossing

or road junction, is a substantial mound; the market town or administrative center

of an agricultural district, which may still be crowned by the ruined castle of

a feudal landlord—the “derebey” of Ottoman times. Scattered elsewhere over the

face of the valley are smaller mounds, which were mere villages or farmsteads.

There are mounds making obvious frontier

posts, and lines of mounds sketching in the communications, which served

military defense systems of the remote past: and there are skeins of more

recent defenses, like the fortresses of Diocletian’s Hines.1 and finally, there

are tiny, insignificant looking mounds standing no more than a few feet above

the level of the plain. In addition, sometimes these prove to be the most

important of all: for they have not been occupied for many thousands of years,

and the relics of their prehistoric occupants lie directly beneath the surface.

Future of Bulgaria

The majority of Americans who wrote on

Bulgaria or visited the country showed energy, curiosity, sense of wonder, and

faith in the future of Bulgaria and mankind even when they

were disappointed in some particular aspect of their travel experience. They considered

knowledge, and their travel experiences important, their individual responses

and reactions significant and worth preserving. Although they were usually

unfamiliar with the Bulgarian language, history and customs, their comments on

the Bulgarian character were generally positive.

It was difficult for the American traveler,

who knew little about the country, to come to terms with the complex cultural

milieu of Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, etc. and to resolve the difference

sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant between the Balkan mind cushioned on a

multi-layered rich past and a modern American mind formed in the New World free

from the burden of the past.  The

Bulgarians, busy with their struggle to free themselves and maintain their

independence, thought little about and did even less to attract tourists.

For the American tourists the Balkans were

on the periphery of their travel plans. Most of those who visited the country

went there as passers-by and caught only a glimpse of Bulgaria. Bulgaria in the

view of the American traveler was either a peasant society or a society in

transition with many Oriental traits still present. The Bulgarians were

described as simple, natural, methodological, disciplined, and diligent. There

were, of course, some descriptions which were tendentious and even misleading.

The Orthodox Church was criticized, in part, in the belief that this would make

Americans come to the support of the American missionaries working in Bulgaria.

However, the commentaries of these pioneer

American travelers are not without merit. Through sharing their travel

experiences with their countrymen, the American travelers contributed toward

making Bulgaria known to Americans. Although most of the descriptions were

brief, they nonetheless were good enough to create an image of a country with a

long history, a relatively heroic past and a people struggling to free itself,

and modernize its country.

Fourteenth century caravanserai

As a result, the actual level of occupation

remains precisely where it was six centuries ago. Seeking a full contrast in

regional conditions, my mind turns to mediaeval Baghdad. There, in 19411 was

concerned with the repair and restoration of a magnificent fourteenth century

caravanserai in the center of the town. Inside the building, occupational

debris had accumulated until only the tops of the main arches were any longer

visible; and this had to be removed before it could again be put into use.

When the task was finished the fine

proportions of the vaulted hall became apparent; but the pavement upon which

one stood was now found to be exactly nine feet beneath the level of the street

outside, and a stairway had to be built in order to reach it.

In a town built largely of mud brick and

subjected during the past centuries to a series of appalling political and

natural disasters, the level of habitation had risen at the rate of eighteen

inches per hundred years. So here at once is a first clue to the regional

character of mound formation; two central factors which have been conducive to

their creation in the countries of the Near East.

One is the almost universal employment in

those countries of sun-dried brick as a building material; the other,

historical insecurity, coupled with the extraordinary conservatism, which makes

eastern peoples, cling tenaciously to a site once occupied by their ancestors

and obstinately return to it however often they are ejected.

Visit to Egypt

It is interesting to recollect that even

Herodotus, during his visit to Egypt, was already able to observe a

phenomen22on caused by the accumulation of occupational debris in an Egyptian

city, though his conclusion regarding its explanation was understandably at

fault. In his description of Bubastis he says—“The temple stands in the middle

of the city, and is visible on all sides as one walks round it; for as the city

has been raised up by embankment, while the temple has been left untouched in

its original condition, you look down upon it whosesoever you are.

“I In fact, as one sees today at Luxor and

elsewhere, the temples, with their massive stone walls and pillars, have mostly

survived at the original level of their foundation. while the surrounding

dwelling houses and other buildings of the city, whose mud and reed walls have

continually been demolished and renewed, rose gradually above them, leaving

them in a deep hollow, like the Forum of Trajan at Rome.

Country west of Mosul

To confirm this, it may be interesting to

quote at random the reactions of a nineteenth century traveler to the

appearance of the country west of Mosul, during a journey in the spring 1840.

Sir Henry Layard had reached the market town called Tell Afar on his way to the

Sin jar Hills, and he describes his surroundings as follows “Towards evening I

ascended the mound and visited the castle….

From the walls, I had an uninterrupted view

of a vast plain, stretching westward towards the Euphrates, and losing itself

in the hazy distance. The ruins of ancient towns and villages arose on all

sides; and as the sun went down, I counted above one hundred mounds, throwing

their dark and lengthening shadows across the plain. These were the ruins of

Assyrian civilization and prosperity. Centuries have elapsed since a settled

population dwelt in this district of Mesopotamia.

Now, not even the tent of a Bedouin could

be seen. “I Layard was of course wrong in thinking only of the Assyrian nation;

for many of the mounds he was looking at were in fact occupied as early as the

sixth millennium B.C. However, he did not exaggerate their number. During a

survey in 1937, I myself recorded the surface pottery from seventy-five mounds

in that area, and these were only a few selected sites, which I could easily

reach by car during a short three weeks reconnaissance.2

However, apart from the close concentration

of mounds in certain areas of this sort, the pattern, which they make, is often

worth observing. AH over Iraq, and for that matter in neighboring countries, a

glance at the disposal of mounds in a landscape will often reveal to one in the

lividest possible manner some aspect of historical geography, whether political

or economic.

Royal Road

The city of Erbil, for instance, (PL. I)

stands within its fortress walls on a mound whose height almost justifies its

local reputation as the “oldest city in the world”: and from its rooftops, over

the undulating plain to the Zaab river crossings.

Which led to Nineveh and the north, one

sees a line of smaller mounds, pointing the exact direction of the age old

caravan route, which the Achaemenian Persians, coming from Susa, prolonged as

far as their new capital at Sardis. They called it the Royal Road, though it

had existed for several thousand years before their time. Wherever it crossed a

wade and there was a source of water, there also, today, there is a mound; and

villages, which make convenient stopping places on the modem motoring road,

crown many of them.

Certain characteristics

Interesting as this illustration is of how

strati graphical formations can be created, this early mention of Egypt must

serve as an occasion to introduce certain reservations regarding that country,

in relation to the subject under discussion. For it should be said at once that

Egypt has certain characteristics which make it less suitable than others do

for the study of mounds.

This is perhaps partly to be attributed to

the abundant supply and general use of building stone, which greatly prolonged

the survival of Egyptian buildings. But it is also partly due to the fact that,

in the narrow valley of Upper Egypt, land is too valuable to allow large ruin

fields of brick buildings to remain derelict; and the fellahin have long since

discovered that the occupational debris with which such ruins are Hide, when

spread over their fields, makes the finest fertilizer available.

Burin any case, those who have approached

the subject of Egyptology will know that archaeology in Egypt, when it took the

form of actual excavation, has always been concerned almost exclusively with

stone temples, tombs and cemeteries. Mounds in Egypt are confined for the most

part to the Delta of the Nile; and, with so much else to attend to, their

excavation has till now been very considerably neglected.

So let us glance once again at the pattern

of countries in which mounds are everywhere found and have been more generally

excavated. From Egypt they spread northward through the Levant and westward

through Anatolia to the Balkans. Eastward they follow the curve of Breasted’s

“crescent” through the rich farmlands in the foothills of the Armenian

mountains to Iraq and Persia and so, southward of the Elburz range, to

Afghanistan and the Indus valley.

Mesopotamia

But the focal point of the whole area,

where mounds are so plentiful that they become the most characteristic feature

of the landscape, is the twin river valley of Mesopotamia which is in fact not

a valley at all but a vast province of partially irrigated alluvial desert. It

is a habit of thought to apply the name Mesopotamia to this basin of alluvium,

which represents half of modem Iraq. But it has come to be known to our own

generation that the first human settlers in this province, the ancestors of the

later Sumerians, were themselves comparative latecomers, and that the

undulating hill country of northern Iraq had a much earlier record of Neolithic

farming communities.

This may help to explain the impression,

which has grown upon one, after long periods of travel in those parts, that the

Assyrian uplands around Mosul and their westward extension through the valleys

of the Khabur and Balik rivers into North Syria must have been the most thickly

populated area of the completely ancient world. Certainly today, they are more

thickly studded with ancient mounds than any other part of the Near East.

Bulgarian Language

The majority of Americans who wrote on

Bulgaria or visited the country showed energy, curiosity, sense of wonder, and

faith in the future of Bulgaria and mankind even when they were disappointed in

some particular aspect of their travel experience. They considered knowledge,

and their travel experiences important, their individual responses and

reactions significant and worth preserving. Although they were usually

unfamiliar with the Bulgarian language, history and customs, their

comments on the Bulgarian character were generally positive.

It was difficult for the American traveler,

who knew little about the country, to come to terms with the complex cultural

milieu of Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, etc. and to resolve the difference

sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant between the Balkan mind cushioned on a

multi-layered rich past and a modern American mind formed in the New World free

from the burden of the past.  The

Bulgarians, busy with their struggle to free themselves and maintain their

independence, thought little about and did even less to attract tourists.

American tourists in Balkans

For the American tourists the Balkans were

on the periphery of their travel plans. Most of those who visited the country

went there as passers-by and caught only a glimpse of Bulgaria. Bulgaria in the

view of the American traveler was either a peasant society or a society in

transition with many Oriental traits still present.

The Bulgarians were described as simple,

natural, methodological, disciplined, and diligent. There were, of course, some

descriptions which were tendentious and even misleading. The Orthodox Church

was criticized, in part, in the belief that this would make Americans come to

the support of the American missionaries working in Bulgaria.

However, the commentaries of these pioneer

American travelers are not without merit. Through sharing their travel

experiences with their countrymen, the American travelers contributed toward

making Bulgaria known to Americans. Although most of the descriptions were brief,

they nonetheless were good enough to create an image of a country with a long

history, a relatively heroic past and a people struggling to free itself, and

modernize its country.

Archaeological monument

An alternative situation arises, when an

important building or civic lay out is encountered, of the sort which may

afterwards need to be preserved as an archaeological monument. In this case,

the excavation will merely be extended to cover as much as is required of the

stratum concerned, and if a strati graphical sounding to a greater depth is

required, it will be made elsewhere.

However, to return to the creation and

development of mounds themselves, it would be a mistake to think that the

process is always as simple and straightforward as that already described. A

wide variety of circumstances may serve to disrupt their symmetry and

complicate their stratification.

For instance, the diminishing living space

at the summit or a sudden increase in the settlement’s population may cause the

focus of occupation to move away from its original center. In order to make

this clear, we may at this point enumerate some of the principal variations of

the theme of anatomical development, which are to be found, particularly in

Mesopotamian mounds.

Orthodox sequence

As a point of departure then, let us take

the orthodox sequence of developments illustrated in the upper part of Fig. 1.

This diagram represents the habitation of a village community with a static

population. The superimposed remains of five principal occupations have

gradually created a small artificial hill: but as the site of the village rose

in level, the building space on the summit became more and more restricted by

the sloping sides of the mound.

It may well have been for this reason that

the place was eventually abandoned. In any case, after the inhabitants of the

fifth settlement had departed, the ruins of their houses were molded by the

weather to form the peak of a symmetrical tumulus. Vegetation started to grow

upon it, and soon all traces of occupation had disappeared beneath a shallow

mantle of humus soil.

The second and third diagrams in Fig. I

both illustrate cases where the focus of occupation has shifted. The former

represents a phenomenon, which we shall later have an opportunity of studying

in detail at a particular site tell Hassuna in northern Iraq, which will

provide a perfect example.

I in the diagram, after five principal

periods of occupation, a small mound has been formed in a maimed exactly

similar to that in the previous instance. However, from this point onwards,

occupation has continued, not on the summit of the mound, since that had become

inadequate, but terraced into its sloping flank and spreading over an extended

area of new ground beneath.

Anti Russian and pro German

He was surprised to see in the Eiffel

Restaurant the waiters “puffed tobacco smoke as they took the guests’ orders,

and reclined at full length on a bench in the lull of business.” He tried to

explain this by making a sarcastic comment that democracy seemed to have made

some headway since the liberation of the country. However, the author liked the

friendliness and great hospitality of the Bulgarian people he met along the

Danube.

Bigelow was anti-Russian and pro-German.

He was very critical of Russia’s policy in Bulgaria and thought that Germany

ought to have the final say in Southeastern Europe. He attempted to explain

Bulgarian politics by quoting an unnamed Bulgarian diplomat critical of Russian

policy toward his country, and hoping that not the Russian Tsar but the German

Emperor would become the “Protector of the Danube.”

James M. Buckley travelled through Bulgaria

in 1888. He believed that each traveler saw “what he took with him,” and for

this reason he thought that his experiences were worth recording because

“several views are more illuminating than one.” In his books Travels in Three

Continents: Europe, Africa, Asia he described his trip through Eastern Rumelia

and Bulgaria.

 “The

view as we rode along was wonderfully beautiful. Villages and towns are far

apart, and one might easily have fancied himself travelling through a

succession of parks connected with some ancestral estate, his only perplexity

that he saw no house or castle, and few persons.” He was impressed by the

“immense masses of granite” that surround and underlie Plovdiv. He praised the

political “independent existence” of Eastern Rumelia which gave “it much more

interest to Western travelers than would have if still a province of Turkey.”

Bulgarian Orthodox Church

He took part in a convention in Sofia of

the Bulgarian Protestants and was impressed with their work. However, like

Mutchmore, he was very critical of the Bulgarian Orthodox

Church. In his view the Bulgarian Church “was a very low form of

Christianity,” for which the principles of the Gospel were “concealed under the

mask of superstitions; no intelligible instruction is given; pomp, ceremony,

priest craft, support the religion, which exerts little influence over the

daily lives of the people, and can afford little or no comfort in their

experience of privation and toil.”

Sofia, the capital city, did not impress

him much. Were it not for the palace, one or two elaborate hotels of an Eastern

style, and the Bulgarian letters on the signs, he wrote, it would be easy to

“mistake the place for an American prairie town already endeavoring to put on

the airs of a city.” He was more impressed by the fertility of the land, the

number of rivers which flew into the Danube and with the herds of cattle and

flocks of sheep. Many Bulgarians, he wrote, were very “striking-looking men.”

However, the general aspect of the country was “not one of prosperity, and a

primitive scene was that of buffaloes drawing carts.”

State of the Matharas

The most important of them is the state of

the Matharas, who are also called Pitribhaktas. At the peak of their power they

dominated the area between the Mahanadi and the Krishna. Their contemporaries

and neighbors were the Vasisthas, the Nalas and the Manas.

The Vasisthas ruled on the borders of

Andhra m south Kalmga, the Nalas in the forest area of Mahakantara, and the

Manas in the coastal area m the north beyond the Mahanadi. Each state developed

its system of taxation, administration and military organization.

 The

Nalas, and probably the Manas, also evolved their system of coinage. Each

kingdom favored the brahmanas with land grants and even invited them from

outside, and most kings performed Vedic sacrifices not only for spiritual merit

but also for power, prestige and legitimacy.

Elements of advanced culture

In this period elements of advanced culture

were not confined to the coastal belt known as Kalmga, but appeared in the

other parts of Orissa. The find of the Nala gold coins in the tribal Bastar

area in Madhya Pradesh is significant. It presupposes an economic system in

which gold money was used in large transactions and served as medium of payment

to high functionaries. Similarly the Manas seemed to have issued copper coins,

which implies the use of metallic money even by artisans and peasants.

The various states added to their income by

forming new fiscal units in rural areas. The Matharas created a district called

Mahendrabhoga in the area of the Mahendra Mountains. They also ruled over a

district called Dantayavagubhoga, which apparently supplied ivory and no gruel

to its administrators and had thus been created in a backward area.

The Matharas made endowments called

agroharas, which consisted of land and income from villages and were meant for

supporting religious and educational activities of the brahmanas. Some

agraharas had to pay taxes although elsewhere in the, country they were tax-free.

The induction of the brahmanas through land grants in tribal, forest and red

soil areas brought new lands under cultivation and introduced better methods of

agriculture, based on improved knowledge of weather conditions.

Formerly the year was divided into three

units, each consisting of four months, and time was reckoned on the basis of

three seasons. Under the Matharas, in the middle of the fifth century began the

practice of dividing the year into twelve lunar months. This implied a detailed

idea of weather conditions, which was useful for agricultural operations.

Spread of Civilization in Eastern India

Signs of Civilization

A region is considered to be civilized if

its people know the .art of writing, have a system for collecting taxes and

maintaining order, and possess social classes and specialists for performing

priestly, administrative and producing functions. Above all a civilized society

should be able to produce enough to support not only the actual producers

consisting of artisans and peasants but also consumers who are not engaged in

production. All these elements make for civilization. But they appear in a

large part of eastern India on a recognizable scale very late. Practically no

written records are found in the greater portions of eastern Madhya.

Pradesh and the adjoining areas of Orissa,

of West Bengal, of Bangladesh and of Assam till the middle of the fourth century

A.D The period from the fourth to the seventh century is remarkable for the

diffusion of an advanced rural economy, formation of state systems and

delineation of social classes in eastern Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, eastern Bengal

and southeast Bengal, and Assam, This is indicated by the distribution of a

good number of inscriptions in these areas in Gupta times Many inscriptions

dated in the Gupta era are found in these areas.

They are generally in the form of land

grants made by feudatory princes and others for religious purposes to Buddhists

and brahmanas and also to Vaishnavite temples and Buddhist monasteries. These

beneficiaries played an important role in spreading and strengthening elements

of danced culture the process can be understood by attempting a region wise

survey.

Orissa and Eastern and Southern Madhya Pradesh

Kalinga or the coastal Orissa, south of the

Mahanadi, leapt into importance under Asoka, but a strong state was founded in

that area only m the first century B. C. Its ruler Kharavela advanced as far as

Magadha. In the first and second centuries AD the ports of Orissa carried on

brisk trade m pearls, ivory and muslin.

Excavations at Sisupalgarh, the site of

Kalinganagari which was the capital of Kharavela at a distance of 60 km from Bhubaneswar,

have yielded several Roman objects indicating trade contacts with the Roman Empire.

But the greater part of Orissa, particularly northern, Orissa, neither

experienced state formation nor witnessed much commercial activity. In the

fourth century Kosala and Mahakantara figure in the list of conquests made by

Samudragupta. They covered parts of northern and western Orissa. From .the

second half of the fourth century to the sixth century several states were

formed in Orissa, and at least five of them can be clearly identified.

Religious purposes

For a century from A D 432-33 we notice a

series of land sale documents recorded on copperplates Pundravardhanabhukti,

which covered almost the whole of north Bengal, now mostly in Bangladesh, Most

land grants indicate that land was purchased with gold coins called dinara. But

once land was given for religious purposes, the dunes did

not have to pay any tax. The land transactions show the involvement of leading

scribes, merchants, artisans landed classes, etc.’., in local administration,

which was manned by the governors appointed by the Gupta emperors.

The land sale documents not only .indicate

the existence of different’ social groups and local functionaries but also shed

valuable light on the expansion of agriculture Mostly land purchased for

religious endowments is described as fallow, uncultivated, and therefore imitated

Without doubt the effect of the grants was to bring plots of land within the

purview of cultivation and settlement.

The deltaic portion of Bengal formed by the

Brahmaputra and called Samatata was made to acknowledge the authority of

Samudragupta It covered southeast Bengal. A portion of this territory may have

been populated and important enough to attract the attention of the Gupta

conqueror.

But possibly it was not ruled by brahmamsed

princes, and consequently it neither used Sanskrit nor adopted the varna

system, as was the case in north Bengal. From about A D. 525 the area came to

have a fairly organized state covering Samatata and a portion of Vanga which

lay on the western boundary of Samatata. It issued a good number of gold coins

in the second half of the sixth century.

Dacca area

In addition to this state, m the seventh

century we come across the state of the Khadgas, literally swordsmen, in the Dacca

area. We also notice the kingdom of a brahmana feudatory

called Lokanatha and that of the Rates, both in the Comilla area all these

princes of southeast and central Bengal issued land grants in the sixth and

seventh centuries.

Like the Orissa n kings they also created

agraharas. The land charters show cultivation of Sanskrit, leading to the use

of some sophisticated meters in the second half of the seventh century. At the

same time they attest the expansion of cultivation and rural settlements. A

fiscal and administrative unit called Daudabhukti was formed in the border

areas lying between Bengal and Orissa. Danda means punishment, and bhakti enjoyment.

Apparently the unit was created for taming and punishing the tribal inhabitants

of that region. It may have promoted Sanskrit and other elements of culture in

tribal areas.

Finally compiled in Gupta

The Puranas follow the lines of the epics,

and the earlier ones were finally compiled in Gupta times. They are full of

myths, legends, sermons, etc., which were meant for the education and

edification of the common people. The period also saw the compilation of

various Smritis or the law books written in verse. The phase of writing

commentaries on the Smritis begins after the Gupta period.

The Gupta period also saw the development

of Sanskrit grammar based on Panini and Patanjali. This period is particularly

memorable for the compilation of the Amarakosa by Amara Sinha, who was a

luminary in the court of Chandragupta II. This lexicon is learnt by heart by

students taught Sanskrit in the traditional fashion.

On the whole the Gupta period was a bright

phase in the history of classical literature. It developed an ornate style,

which was different from the old simple Sanskrit. From this period onwards we

find greater emphasis on verse than on prose. We also come across a few corner tarries.

There is no doubt that Sanskrit was the court language of the Guptas. Although

we get a good deal of brahmanical religious literature, the period’ also

produced some of the earliest pieces of secular literature.

Science and Technology

In the field of mathematics we come across

during this period a work; called Aryabhatiya written by Aryabhata, who

belonged to Patali porta It seems that this mathematician was | well versed in

various kinds of calculations. A Gupta inscription of 448 from Allahabad

district suggests that the decimal system was known in India at the beginning

of the fifth century AD In the fields of astronomy a book called Romaka

Sidhanta was compiled It was influenced by Greek ideas, as can be inferred from

its name.

The Gupta craftsmen distinguished

themselves by their work in iron and bronze. We know of several bronze images

of the Buddha, which began to be produced on a considerable scale because of

the knowledge of advanced iron technology In the case of iron objects the best

example is the iron pillar found at Delhi near Mehraub.

Manufactured m the fourth century A.D., the

pillar1 has not gathered any ’ rust m the subsequent 15 centuries, which is a

great tribute to the technological skill of the craftsmen It was impossible to

produce such a pillar in any iron foundry m the West Until about a century ago.

It is a pity that the later craftsmen could not develop this knowledge further