Balkan–Danubian culture

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

The Balkan–Danubian culture [1] [2] was an early medieval archaeological culture which emerged in the region of the Lower Danube in the 8th century and flourished until the 11th century. In Bulgaria it is usually referred to as the Pliska–Preslav culture, [3] while in Romania it is called the Dridu culture. [1] [2] It is better represented in the territory of modern-day Central and Northern Bulgaria, although it probably spread north of the Danube as well due to the continuous extension of the First Bulgarian Empire over the territory of present-day Romania. [4] The Balkan–Danubian culture is described as an early Slavic-Bulgar culture, [5] [6] but besides Slavic and Bulgar elements it also possesses some Romance components. However, this only appears in the southern regions of what is now southern Bulgaria, all of which were heavily influenced by the Byzantine Empire. [7] Famous examples of this architecture are the early Bulgarian capitals of Pliska and Preslav, in addition to the Palace of Omurtag and the Murfatlar Cave Complex. Some scholars partition this culture in two subgroups. [8] [9] Because the Byzantine influence was stronger in the south, the northern finds are entirely Slavic with some Turkic impression. [10] [11]

Contents

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vlachs</span> Romance-speaking populations in the Balkans

Vlach, also Wallachian, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe — south of the Danube and north of the Danube.

Several theories, in great extent mutually exclusive, address the issue of the origin of the Romanians. The Romanian language descends from the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken in the Roman provinces north of the "Jireček Line" in Late Antiquity. The theory of Daco-Roman continuity argues that the Romanians are mainly descended from the Daco-Romans, a people developing through the cohabitation of the native Dacians and the Roman colonists in the province of Dacia Traiana north of the river Danube. The competing immigrationist theory states that the Romanians' ethnogenesis commenced in the provinces south of the river with Romanized local populations spreading through mountain refuges, both south to Greece and north through the Carpathian Mountains. Other theories state that the Romanized local populations were present over a wide area on both sides of the Danube and the river itself did not constitute an obstacle to permanent exchanges in both directions; according to the "admigration" theory, migrations from the Balkan Peninsula to the lands north of the Danube contributed to the survival of the Romance-speaking population in these territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preslav Literary School</span> Literary school of the First Bulgarian Empire

The Preslav Literary School, also known as the '''Pliska Literary School''' or '''Pliska-Preslav Literary school''' was the first literary school in the medieval First Bulgarian Empire. It was established by Boris I in 886 in Bulgaria's capital, Pliska. In 893, Simeon I moved the seat of the school from the First Bulgarian capital Pliska to the new capital, Veliki Preslav. Preslav was captured and burnt by the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces in 972 in the aftermath of Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria.

Menumorut or Menumorout was the ruler of the lands between the rivers Mureș, Someș and Tisza at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 900, according to the Gesta Hungarorum, a Hungarian chronicle written after 1150 by an unidentified author, referred to as Anonymus. Historians debate whether Menumorut was an actual ruler or a fictional character created by the author, since the Gesta tells of multiple figures, including Menumorut, who are not identified in any other primary sources, and does not name any of the enemies of the invading Hungarians written of in other contemporary accounts of the invasion. According to Anonymus, Menumorut's duchy was populated primarily with Khazars and Székelys, and he acknowledged the suzerainty of the (unnamed) ruling Byzantine Emperor at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gelou</span> Legendary Vlach ruler of Transylvania around 900 AD

Gelou was the Vlach ruler of Transylvania at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 900 AD, according to the Gesta Hungarorum. Although the Gesta Hungarorum, which was written after 1150, does not indicate the enemies of the conquering Hungarians (Magyars) known from earlier annals and chronicles, it refers to local rulers—including Gelou—who are not mentioned in other primary sources. Consequently, historians debate whether Gelou was a historical person or an imaginary figure created by the unidentified author of the Gesta Hungarorum. In Romanian historiography, based on the mention of him by Anonymus some 300 years later, Gelou is considered one of three early-10th-century Romanian dukes with lands in the intra-Carpathian region of present-day Romania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pliska</span> Town in Shumen, Bulgaria

Pliska was the first capital of the First Bulgarian Empire during the Middle Ages and is now a small town in Shumen Province, on the Ludogorie plateau of the Danubian Plain, 20 km northeast of the provincial capital, Shumen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glad (duke)</span> Legendary ruler of Banat around 900 AD

Glad was the ruler of Banat at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 900 AD, according to the Gesta Hungarorum. The Gesta, which was written by an author known in modern scholarship as Anonymus in the second half of the 12th century or in the early 13th century, is the earliest extant Hungarian chronicle. The Gesta did not refer to the enemies of the conquering Hungarians, who had been mentioned in earlier annals and chronicles, but wrote of a dozen persons, including Glad, who are unknown from other primary sources of the Hungarian Conquest. Therefore, modern historians debate whether Glad was an actual enemy of the conquerors or only a "fictitious person" made up by Anonymus. In Romanian historiography, based on the mention by Anonymus some 300 years later, Glad is described as one of the three Romanian dukes who ruled a historical region of present-day Romania in the early 10th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Bulgarian Empire</span> 681–1018 state in Southeast Europe

The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led by Asparuh, moved south to the northeastern Balkans. There they secured Byzantine recognition of their right to settle south of the Danube by defeating – possibly with the help of local South Slavic tribes – the Byzantine army led by Constantine IV. During the 9th and 10th century, Bulgaria at the height of its power spread from the Danube Bend to the Black Sea and from the Dnieper River to the Adriatic Sea and became an important power in the region competing with the Byzantine Empire. It became the foremost cultural and spiritual centre of south Slavic Europe throughout most of the Middle Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murfatlar Cave Complex</span>

The Basarabi-Murfatlar Cave Complex is a medieval Christian monastery located near the town of Murfatlar, Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania. The complex is a relict from a widespread monastic phenomenon in 10th century Bulgaria.

The Early Middle Ages in Romania started with the withdrawal of the Roman troops and administration from Dacia province in the 270s. In the next millennium a series of peoples, most of whom only controlled two or three of the nearly ten historical regions that now form Romania, arrived. During this period, society and culture underwent fundamental changes. Town life came to an end in Dacia with the Roman withdrawal, and in Scythia Minor – the other Roman province in the territory of present-day Romania – 400 years later. Fine vessels made on fast potter's wheels disappeared and hand-made pottery became dominant from the 450s. Burial rites changed more than once from cremation to inhumation and vice versa until inhumation became dominant by the end of the 10th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulgarian lands across the Danube</span>

In Bulgarian historiography, the Bulgarian lands across the Danube, also called Transdanubian Bulgaria, refer to territories under the control of the Bulgarian Empire north of the Danube. These territories today cover the territory of Romania and Moldova, eastern Hungary, Vojvodina in Serbia and Budjak in Ukraine.

This is a timeline of Romanian history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Romania and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Romania.

The founding of Wallachia, that is the establishment of the first independent Romanian principality, was achieved at the beginning of the 14th century, through the unification of smaller political units that had existed between the Carpathian Mountains, and the Rivers Danube, Siret and Milcov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulgaria (theme)</span> Province of the Byzantine Empire (1018-1185)

The Theme of Bulgaria was a province of the Byzantine Empire established by Emperor Basil II after the conquest of Bulgaria in 1018. Its capital was Scupi and it was governed by a strategos. The theme of Bulgaria did not encompass the old Bulgarian lands between the Haimos Mountains and the river Danube, that included the former capitals Pliska and Preslav. This territory was administred independently and was considered as autonomous military unit, designated as Dristra, Paristrion or Paradunavon, meaning the “lands beside the Danube”.

<i>Dava</i> (Dacian) Dacian fortified settlement

Dava was a Geto-Dacian name for a city, town or fortress. Generally, the name indicated a tribal center or an important settlement, usually fortified. Some of the Dacian settlements and the fortresses employed the Murus Dacicus traditional construction technique.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banat in the Middle Ages</span>

The Middle Ages in the Banat started around 900. Around that time, Duke Glad ruled Banat, according to the Gesta Hungarorum. Archaeological finds and 10th-century sources evidence that Magyars settled in the lowlands in the early 10th century, but the survival of Avar, Slav and Bulgar communities can also be documented. A local chieftain, Ajtony, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy around 1000, but his attempts to control the delivery of salt on the Mureș River brought him into conflict with Stephen I of Hungary. Ajtony died fighting against the royal army in the first decades of the 11th century. His realm was transformed into a county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Counties were the most prominent units of royal administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Kerlés</span> Engagement between Pechenegs and Ouzes in 1068

The Battle of Kerlés also known as the Battle of Cserhalom, was an engagement between an army of Pechenegs and Ouzes commanded by Osul and the troops of King Solomon of Hungary and his cousins, Dukes Géza and Ladislaus, in Transylvania in 1068. The Pechenegs had been the dominant power of the westernmost regions of the Eurasian steppes since around 895. However, large Pecheneg groups moved to the Balkan Peninsula at the same time as the westward migration of the Ouzes and Cumans in the 1040s. The first recorded Pecheneg invasion of Transylvania occurred during the reign of Stephen I of Hungary.

Ion Nestor was a Romanian historian and archaeologist. In 1955, he became a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montes Serrorum</span>

Montes Serrorum is a mountain somewhere in the Carpathians mentioned by Roman soldier Ammianus Marcellinus (325–391) regarding events in the Gothic War (367–369).

References

  1. 1 2 Opreanu 2005, p. 127.
  2. 1 2 Spinei 2009, p. 87.
  3. Плиска-Преслав: Прабългарската култура, Том 2, Българска академия на науките Археологически институт и музей, 1981.
  4. Istoria României, Compendiu, Bucharest, 1969, p. 106.
  5. Istoria României, Compendiu, Bucharest, 1969, p. 106.
  6. Elemér Illyés, Ethnic Continuity in the Carpatho-Danubian Area, 2nd ed. (Hamilton, ON: Struktura Press, 1992), 176.
  7. Alexandru Madgearu, "The Dridu Culture and the changing position of Romania among the Communist states", Archaeologia Bulgarica, 11-2 (2007): 55.
  8. Istoria României, Compendiu, Bucharest, 1969, p. 106.
  9. Elemér Illyés, Ethnic Continuity in the Carpatho-Danubian Area, 2nd ed. (Hamilton, ON: Struktura Press, 1992), 176.
  10. Istoria României, Compendiu, Bucharest, 1969, p. 106.
  11. Elemér Illyés, Ethnic Continuity in the Carpatho-Danubian Area, 2nd ed. (Hamilton, ON: Struktura Press, 1992), 176.

Sources