Palace of Omurtag
Encyclopedia
The Palace of Omurtag or Aul (Aulē) of Omurtag is an archaeological site in northeastern Bulgaria
dating to Late Antiquity
and the Early Middle Ages
located near the village of Han Krum
in Shumen Province
. The site has been pinpointed as the location of a fort and palace of Omurtag
, ruler (kanasybigi
) of the First Bulgarian Empire
in 815–831, as mentioned in the Chatalar Inscription
of 822. Earlier structures in the vicinity of the fortress have been identified as the Arian
episcopal see
of a Gothic
bishop.
in the area, and specifically to the 4th-century Gothic bishop
Ulfilas
(Wulfila). He was known to have moved to modern northern Bulgaria with his followers, and he translated the Bible
into the Gothic language
in Nicopolis ad Istrum
. It is thought that the four Gothic churches were destroyed during successive Hunnic
raids.
A small church unearthed in 1976 has been identified by excavation consultant Todor Balabanov as being a personal church of a high-ranking Goth, possibly Ulfilas. The scarcely preserved layer of Christian fresco
es in the church is thought to be the oldest in Bulgaria. Next to this church was built a larger basilica
regarded as an Arian episcopal see. The basilica, a nearly square building measuring 29.7 by 26 m (97.4 by 85.3 ft), features three nave
s and a two-winged apse
. On top of the basilica's ruins lay an octagonal building, with an apse in the northern part. Balabanov claims this is a mausoleum
and likens it to the Mausoleum of Theodoric
in Ravenna
.
In the 2000s, researchers unearthed several Gothic graves. Artifacts included medical kits, a chain mail
, and characteristic Germanic jewellery, including belt buckles and fibulae (brooches) decorated with gold
, gemstone
s and zoomorphic motifs. In one of the graves, researchers found the remains of a woman with the artificial cranial deformation
typical for noble persons among the Goths, Sarmatians
and Bulgars
.
written on a column in medieval Greek
, was unearthed in 1905 in the village of Han Krum (then known as Chatalar). The inscription's text indicates that kanasybigi Omurtag built an aulē with four columns topped by two lion sculptures near the Ticha River
. Earlier scholars linked that passage with Preslav
, the city that would succeed Omurtag's capital Pliska
as the ruling centre of the Bulgarian Empire in the end of the 9th century. In modern times, however, Omurtag's aulē has been conclusively proven to be the site at Han Krum, which is much closer to where the epigraph was excavated. While it remains unclear whether the word aulē should be interpreted as the Greek
αύλή ("palace, court") or the steppe nomadic
aul
, a fortified ruling centre, the ruins at Han Krum suitably match the medieval description.
Archaeological research has established that the medieval site at Han Krum was inhabited for more than 150 years, from 822 until the late 10th century, when the fort was razed. This was not the permanent end of its habitation, as new buildings were constructed on top of the ruins. Excavations of the Palace of Omurtag began in 1957, though they were never fully completed. Since 2000, the site has been extensively excavated by Bulgarian and German
archaeologists.
, both words meaning "castle, fortress"), measures 405 by 515 m (1,328.7 by 1,689.6 ft) and has an area of 0.2084 square kilometre (0.0804636898506843 sq mi). Several structures of the same age lay inside the fort; these included an inner fortification 92.5 by 113.6 m (303.5 by 372.7 ft) in size and stone buildings of varying complexity, such as a three-roomed bath. The inner fort had its main entrance located in the eastern part. The buildings within the enclosure are thought to have served as a noble dwelling, i.e. a palace, though it is archaeologically uncertain whether they date to Omurtag's reign or to a later period. Balabanov theorizes that the fort accommodated a garrison commander and barracks.
Fragments of a lion sculpture that was originally 1 m (3.3 ft) in height have been discovered inside the fort, prompting researchers to identify it with one of the two lions mentioned in the Chatalar Inscription. There are indications that a pagan sanctuary, where animal sacrifice
was practiced, was also located at the site. Buried carcasses of rabbits and dogs, medieval vessels, and a plastered stone with rims and furrows allowing blood to flow to a pit all testify to that use.
A fifth church at Han Krum, discovered by archaeologist Kremena Stoeva in 2009, is thought to date to the 10th century, the time after the Christianization of Bulgaria
. It has three naves and three apses. It has been conclusively dated to that period based on the surrounding pottery, as well as its architecture.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
dating to Late Antiquity
Late Antiquity
Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...
and the Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
located near the village of Han Krum
Han Krum (village)
Han Krum is a village in the municipality of Preslav, Shumen Province, north-eastern Bulgaria. As of 2007 it has 408 inhabitants.Up to 1899 the village was called Chatalar and was then renamed to Tsar Krum and in 1977 to Khan Krum, after Krum who ruled Bulgaria between 803 and 814...
in Shumen Province
Shumen Province
-Religion:Religious adherence in the province according to 2001 census:-Transportation:Shumen lies on the main route between Varna and Sofia and is served by numerous trains and buses serving the city. The city is also very well connected with Istanbul which serves the large Turkish community in...
. The site has been pinpointed as the location of a fort and palace of Omurtag
Omurtag of Bulgaria
Omurtag was a Great Khan of Bulgaria from 814 to 831. He is known as "the Builder".In the very beginning of his reign he signed a 30-year peace treaty with the neighboring Eastern Roman Empire which remained in force to the end of his life...
, ruler (kanasybigi
Kanasubigi
Kanasubigi or Kana subigi, as it is written in Bulgarian Greek inscriptions, was a title of the Bulgars.The title khan for early Bulgar rulers is an assumed one, as only the form kanasubigi is attested in stone inscriptions...
) of the First Bulgarian Empire
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...
in 815–831, as mentioned in the Chatalar Inscription
Chatalar Inscription
The Chatalar Inscription is a medieval Greek inscribed text upon a column in the village of Chatalar by the Bulgarian Khan Omurtag . It was unearthed in 1899 by the archaeologists Fyodor Uspensky, M...
of 822. Earlier structures in the vicinity of the fortress have been identified as the Arian
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
episcopal see
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
of a Gothic
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
bishop.
Gothic episcopal see
The earliest ruins at the Palace of Omurtag site include four churches, two of which built on top of each other; a bath; and fortified walls, all dating to Late Antiquity (roughly 250–650 CE). Three of the churches and the bath lie outside the medieval fortification, while one of the churches and the traces of ancient walls have been excavated within its limits. Archaeologists and scholars link the ancient ruins to the settlement of Arian Gothic foederatiFoederati
Foederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...
in the area, and specifically to the 4th-century Gothic bishop
Gothic Christianity
Gothic Christianity refers to the Christian religion of the Goths and sometimes the Gepids, Vandals, and Burgundians, who may have used Wulfila's translation of the Bible into Gothic and shared common doctrines and practices...
Ulfilas
Ulfilas
Ulfilas, or Gothic Wulfila , bishop, missionary, and Bible translator, was a Goth or half-Goth and half-Greek from Cappadocia who had spent time inside the Roman Empire at the peak of the Arian controversy. Ulfilas was ordained a bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia and returned to his people to work...
(Wulfila). He was known to have moved to modern northern Bulgaria with his followers, and he translated the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
into the Gothic language
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
in Nicopolis ad Istrum
Nicopolis ad Istrum
Nicopolis ad Istrum was a Roman and Early Byzantine town founded by Emperor Trajan around 101–106, at the junction of the Iatrus and the Rositsa rivers, in memory of his victory over the Dacians. Its ruins are located at the village of Nikyup, 20 km north of Veliko Tarnovo in northern Bulgaria...
. It is thought that the four Gothic churches were destroyed during successive Hunnic
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
raids.
A small church unearthed in 1976 has been identified by excavation consultant Todor Balabanov as being a personal church of a high-ranking Goth, possibly Ulfilas. The scarcely preserved layer of Christian fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es in the church is thought to be the oldest in Bulgaria. Next to this church was built a larger basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
regarded as an Arian episcopal see. The basilica, a nearly square building measuring 29.7 by 26 m (97.4 by 85.3 ft), features three nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
s and a two-winged apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
. On top of the basilica's ruins lay an octagonal building, with an apse in the northern part. Balabanov claims this is a mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
and likens it to the Mausoleum of Theodoric
Mausoleum of Theodoric
The Mausoleum of Theodoric is an ancient monument just outside Ravenna, Italy. It was built in 520 AD by Theodoric the Great as his future tomb.-Description:...
in Ravenna
Ravenna
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...
.
In the 2000s, researchers unearthed several Gothic graves. Artifacts included medical kits, a chain mail
Chain Mail
"Chain Mail" is a single by Mancunian band James, released in March 1986 by Sire Records, the first after the band defected from Factory Records. The record was released in two different versions, as 7" single and 12" EP, with different artworks by John Carroll and, confusingly, under different...
, and characteristic Germanic jewellery, including belt buckles and fibulae (brooches) decorated with gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, gemstone
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
s and zoomorphic motifs. In one of the graves, researchers found the remains of a woman with the artificial cranial deformation
Artificial cranial deformation
Artificial cranial deformation, head flattening, or head binding is a form of permanent body alteration in which the skull of a human being is intentionally deformed. It is done by distorting the normal growth of a child's skull by applying force...
typical for noble persons among the Goths, Sarmatians
Sarmatians
The Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....
and Bulgars
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
.
History and excavation
The Chatalar Inscription, a Bulgarian epigraphEpigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
written on a column in medieval Greek
Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...
, was unearthed in 1905 in the village of Han Krum (then known as Chatalar). The inscription's text indicates that kanasybigi Omurtag built an aulē with four columns topped by two lion sculptures near the Ticha River
Kamchiya
The Kamchiya is a 244.5 km long river in eastern Bulgaria, the longest river on the Balkan Peninsula to flow directly into the Black Sea...
. Earlier scholars linked that passage with Preslav
Preslav
Preslav was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire from 893 to 972 and one of the most important cities of medieval Southeastern Europe. The ruins of the city are situated in modern northeastern Bulgaria, some 20 kilometres southwest of the regional capital of Shumen, and are currently a...
, the city that would succeed Omurtag's capital Pliska
Pliska
Pliska is the name of both the first capital of Danubian Bulgaria and a small town which was renamed after the historical Pliska after its site was determined and excavations began....
as the ruling centre of the Bulgarian Empire in the end of the 9th century. In modern times, however, Omurtag's aulē has been conclusively proven to be the site at Han Krum, which is much closer to where the epigraph was excavated. While it remains unclear whether the word aulē should be interpreted as the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
αύλή ("palace, court") or the steppe nomadic
Eurasian nomads
Eurasian nomads are a large group of peoples of the Eurasian Steppe. This generic title encompasses the ethnic groups inhabiting the steppes of Central Asia, Mongolia, and Eastern Europe. They domesticated the horse, and their economy and culture emphasizes horse breeding, horse riding, and a...
aul
Aul
An aul is a type of fortified village found throughout the Caucasus mountains, especially in Dagestan.The word itself is of Turkic origine and means simply village in many Turkic languages....
, a fortified ruling centre, the ruins at Han Krum suitably match the medieval description.
Archaeological research has established that the medieval site at Han Krum was inhabited for more than 150 years, from 822 until the late 10th century, when the fort was razed. This was not the permanent end of its habitation, as new buildings were constructed on top of the ruins. Excavations of the Palace of Omurtag began in 1957, though they were never fully completed. Since 2000, the site has been extensively excavated by Bulgarian and German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
archaeologists.
Architecture
The main feature of the archaeological site is the early-9th-century Bulgarian fortified rampart with Omurtag's palace within its limits. While much smaller than the fortifications of nearby Pliska, the fort at Han Krum resembles closely the defensive walls of the capital. The fortress, known to the locals as Hisar Kale (from TurkishTurkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, both words meaning "castle, fortress"), measures 405 by 515 m (1,328.7 by 1,689.6 ft) and has an area of 0.2084 square kilometre (0.0804636898506843 sq mi). Several structures of the same age lay inside the fort; these included an inner fortification 92.5 by 113.6 m (303.5 by 372.7 ft) in size and stone buildings of varying complexity, such as a three-roomed bath. The inner fort had its main entrance located in the eastern part. The buildings within the enclosure are thought to have served as a noble dwelling, i.e. a palace, though it is archaeologically uncertain whether they date to Omurtag's reign or to a later period. Balabanov theorizes that the fort accommodated a garrison commander and barracks.
Fragments of a lion sculpture that was originally 1 m (3.3 ft) in height have been discovered inside the fort, prompting researchers to identify it with one of the two lions mentioned in the Chatalar Inscription. There are indications that a pagan sanctuary, where animal sacrifice
Animal sacrifice
Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religion. It is practised by many religions as a means of appeasing a god or gods or changing the course of nature...
was practiced, was also located at the site. Buried carcasses of rabbits and dogs, medieval vessels, and a plastered stone with rims and furrows allowing blood to flow to a pit all testify to that use.
A fifth church at Han Krum, discovered by archaeologist Kremena Stoeva in 2009, is thought to date to the 10th century, the time after the Christianization of Bulgaria
Christianization of Bulgaria
The Christianization of Bulgaria was the process by which 9th-century medieval Bulgaria converted to Christianity. It was influenced by the khan's shifting political alliances with the kingdom of the East Franks and the Byzantine Empire, as well as his reception by the Pope of the Roman Catholic...
. It has three naves and three apses. It has been conclusively dated to that period based on the surrounding pottery, as well as its architecture.