Archaeologists Dig Into Bulgarian history

One doesn’t hear much about Bulgaria here in the U.S. When I was young we thought of Bulgaria as the place where weightlifters and gymnasts came from. Still, Bulgaria was once an important part of ancient European civilization and some recent archaeological news serves to remind us of that.

First, a team of archaeologists has uncovered an ancient Bulgarian burial mound. According to the article, the site is near the northern coast of the Black Sea in the region where the Bulgars first settled. It is generally believed that the ancient Bulgars reached the area in the 200s (3rd century) CE from central Asia. The Bulgarian kingdom was only established a few hundred years later under Khan Asparuh, who only succeeded in bullying the Byzantines (apparently) because the Byzantine emperor Constantine IV retreated from battle to have his wounds treated, thus sparking a false rumor that he had abandoned his soldiers — who then began to desert.

Asparuh and his Bulgars seized portions of Roman territory, which the Byzantines eventually ceded to the Bulgars to avoid a long, costly war. According to this article, Bulgarian lands were crossed by ancient Roman highways. This excavation has in fact unearthed one of the best roads of the Roman period. The team has been excavating the fortress of Sostra, which “is located near the village of Lomets, close to the town of Troyan in the Stara Planina mountains.”

The highway is 7 meters wide — almost 23 feet wide, to us non-metric Americans. This is exceptionally wide even for a paved Roman road.

Sostra was a “horse-changing station” used by the Roman army to speed messengers and light traffic along the road system. Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien might be interested to know that a similar system is described in The Lord of the Rings, where Gondor’s messengers pass along roads and change horses near the great beacons used to raise alarms.

The Sostra highway connected the Roman Balkans with lands beyond the Danube river, where the emperor Constantine I built a bridge spanning the river — the only bridge prior to the modern 20th century bridge to be so built. Tolkien wrote about a similar bridge in Gondor, which spanned the River Anduin. That bridge has been compared to London Bridge, which sported towers and houses, but the Thames is not as wide as the Danube. Anduin and the city of Osgiliath are a blending of historical traditions from across Europe.

The Romans built about 248,000 miles (approx. 400,000 kilometers) of roads throughout their empire. These roads carried armies and commercial traffic to and from the great cities, province to province, and from the various capitols to the frontiers. Roman fort and road building laid the foundations for many modern European cities. Some of the roads are still in use today (which is amazing, when you consider how often asphalt/concrete roads have to be repaved/rebuilt).

The Sostra fortress was built around 147 CE — decades before the Bulgars began entering what is now Europe.

Tourists are encouraged to visit Sostra.