Seuthopolis (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

: Σευθόπολις) was an ancient

hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

-type city founded by the

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

king Seuthes III between 325–315 BC which was the capital of the Odrysian kingdom. Its ruins are now located at the bottom of the Koprinka Reservoir near

Kazanlak Kazanlak ( , known as Seuthopolis () in ancient times, is a List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, town in Stara Zagora Province, Bulgaria. It is located in the middle of the plain of the same name, at the foot of the Balkan Mountains, Balkan mo ...

Stara Zagora Province Stara Zagora (), formerly known as the Stara Zagora okrug, is a province of south-central Bulgaria. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre—the city of Stara Zagora—the sixth-biggest town in the country. The provin ...

, in central

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. Several kilometres north of the city is the Valley of the Thracian Rulers where many magnificent royal tombs are located.

Description

Seuthopolis was not a true

polis Polis (: poleis) means 'city' in Ancient Greek. The ancient word ''polis'' had socio-political connotations not possessed by modern usage. For example, Modern Greek πόλη (polē) is located within a (''khôra''), "country", which is a πατ ...

, but rather the seat of Seuthes and his court. His palace had a dual role, functioning also as a sanctuary of the

Cabeiri In Greek mythology, the Cabeiri or Cabiri (, ''Kábeiroi''), also transliterated Kabeiri or Kabiri, were a group of enigmatic chthonic deities. They were worshipped in a mystery cult closely associated with that of Hephaestus, centered in the no ...

, the gods of

Samothrace Samothrace (also known as Samothraki; , ) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a municipality within the Evros regional unit of Thrace. The island is long, in size and has a population of 2,596 (2021 census). Its main industries ...

. Most of the space within the city was occupied not by homes but by official structures, the majority of the people living outside the city. It had Thracian and Greek populace. In 281 BC it was sacked by

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

. The dual role of Seuthes' palace (royal court and sanctuary) indicates that Seuthes was a priest–king: the high priest of the Cabeiri among the Odrysian Thracians. According to Seuthopolis’ sign, the sanctuary of

Dionysius The name Dionysius (; ''Dionysios'', "of Dionysus"; ) was common in classical and post-classical times. Etymologically it is a nominalized adjective formed with a -ios suffix from the stem Dionys- of the name of the Greek god, Dionysus, parallel ...

/ Sabazios was situated on the square. The cemetery of Seuthopolis included a number of brick tholos tombs, some covered by

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

, in which the upper-class were interred, sometimes along with their horses. The less affluent were cremated, with modest grave goods laid alongside.

Dam flooding

The ruins of the city were discovered and excavated in 1948 by Bulgarian archeologists during the construction of the

Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; ) also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian communist politician who served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1933 t ...

(later renamed Koprinka) Reservoir. However, it was decided to continue with the construction and flood the dam, leaving Seuthopolis at its bottom. Despite the importance of the discovery, the government gave the archaeologists 6 years to research and preserve as much of the city as they could. One of the most important archaeological finds is the so-called "Great inscription" found in 1953 in the palace-citadel. It is written in Greek, which indicates that Thracians were already hellenised in the 3rd century BC.

Dam wall proposal

In 2005, Bulgarian architect Zheko Tilev proposed a project to uncover, preserve and reconstruct the city of Seuthopolis (the best-preserved Thracian city in Bulgaria) by means of a dam wall surrounding the ruins in the middle of the dam, enabling the site's inscription as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

and making it a tourist destination of world importance. Tourists would be transported to the site by boats. The round wall, 420 metres in

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the centre of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest Chord (geometry), chord of the circle. Both definitions a ...

, would enable visitors to see the city from 20 metres above and would also feature "hanging gardens", glass lifts, a quay, restaurants, cafés, shops, ateliers, etc. It would be illuminated at night. The project was donated by the architect to Kazanlak municipality and funds are being raised to begin construction. According to Tilev, it would cost minimum

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

50 million.IMOTI
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Legacy

Sevtopolis Peak on Greenwich Island in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

is named for Seuthopolis.

References

External links

Zheko Tilev's project to uncover Seuthopolis

Site about the international initiative of National Unity "Treasure the Bulgarian Heritage" about Zheko Tilev's project to uncover Seuthopolis

{{authority control Thracian sites Thracian towns Archaeological sites in Bulgaria Thracian archaeological sites in Bulgaria History of Stara Zagora Province Geography of Stara Zagora Province Buildings and structures completed in the 4th century BC Former populated places in Bulgaria Buildings and structures in Stara Zagora Province Submerged places Populated places in ancient Thrace Odrysian kingdom