History and Archaeology

Богати" отводки от един кошер са възможни, само ако разполагаме със силни семейства на пчелина си Петър Тонев Предполагам за повечето пчелари правенето на отводки е едно приятно преживяване. Всеки, който прави това се чувства като Създател на една особена семейна единица, която ще гради нова къща и живот. И затова трябва да подхождаме към това специфично пчеларско занимание с особено чувство на отговорност. Някои автори на книги препоръчват ранните отводки (с отнемане по една пита със запечатано пило от няколко кошера), имайки предвид периода още преди първите главни паши от рапица и акация. Лично аз не съм убеден, че с такива отводки ще получим главния резултат в нашата работа -добиване на повече мед. Защо? Тези отводки няма да бъдат готови за медосбор нито от рапицата, нито от акацията. И в същото време, след като отнемем по 5-6 хиляди от Рутов кошер или 7-8 хиляди пчели от Дадан-Блатов кошер ние се лишаваме от тези хиляди потенциални работнички за медосбора от тези ранни главни паши. Затова, както се налага масовото прагматично мнение, най-добрият период за правене отводки при нашите условия е периода между двете главни паши от акация и слънчоглед. А всеки пчелар сам и творчески да прецени точно кога да започне да прави отводките. Това е накратко за времето на отводките. А сега за самата практика. Но преди да предложа моите практики, задължително трябва да имаме предвид две положения, които основоположни и са взаимно свързани: 1. Колкото повече рамки с люпещо се пило и с млади пчелички сложим в кошера за отводка, толкова посигурен ще бъде резултата, че оплодената майка от клетката ще бъде приета. 2. Но за да имаме този комфорт да отбираме свободно и спокойно рамки с люпещо се пило и млади пчелички, трябва да сме сигурни, че сме открили майката на някоя пита и сме я сложили настрана. Всъщност процесът на търсенето на майката не рядко става големия проблем. Вероятно всеки пчелар има в своята практика примери, когато с часове е търсил и ровил кошера, докато я открие, за да бъде сигурен, че няма да я пренесе с някоя пита. И понеже съм имал няколко фала с пренясянето на майката (след като съм бил "сигурен 100%", че майката я няма на дадената пита), вече съм си наложил желязното правило -докато не открия и видя майката, не вземам нито една пита с люпещо пило и млади пчели. Но как да си улесним работата в тази процедура. Първи метод. В това отношение, преди две години споделих опита си в една кратка бележка как от отводка да правим... отводка. В една няколко дневна отводка с 5-6 или 8-10 пити и не гъсто населена с пчели много лесно и бързо можем да открием майката и направим спокойно избора на пити с люпещо се пило и млади пчелички. Като сравнение веднага вземете алтернативата -да търсим майката сред дълбините на морето от пчели в един Дадан-Блатов кошер или в дву или три корпусен Рутов кошер. Понякога това ми е коствало часове и постоянно нарастваща нервност от неуспяването да открия майката. А за да не ощетим и нарушим баланса в отводката, от която сме взели питите с люпещото се пило, веднага допълваме с толкова пити от други кошери с каквото и да е пило. Втори метод. Той се отнася отново за лесното и бързо отделяне на пити с люпещо се пило. Когато сме планирали да правим отводки, много улесняващо за нашата работа би било, ако си набележим и отделим в няколко кошера по няколко пити със запетано и люпещо пило и няколко дни преди това ограничим майката в плодника с ханеманова решетка. Това най-лесно се прави в Рутов кошер. Ако при бърз преглед открием майката (в повечето случаи в плодника) веднага вземаме колкото са ни нужни пити със запечатано и люпещо се пило и ги качваме във втория или третия корпус, като отделяме плодника с ханеманова решетка. (При Рутовата система приемаме плодника за първи корпус.) Ако не сме открили майката, то тогава преприемаме изтръскване на всички пчели от втория и евентуално от третия корпус в първия. И след няколко дни, когато решим да направим няколко отводки, бързо и без губене на време вземаме нужните ни пити с люпещо се пило и млади пчелички от кошерите, в които сме ограничили майката под ханемановата решетка. Така отпада затормозяващия ни проблем "търсене на майката". Трети метод. Вече в пчеларските среди се е приело като закономерно правило, че кошер, който се роява от него не можем да вадим мед. Но винаги ли е така? Ако преди или в началото на акациевата паша хванете на момента кошер, с узрели майчила за рояване, то без колебание го разпарчетосайте. Ще дам пример от практиката ми през това лято. Още в началото на месец май по време на акациевата паша хванах "на входа" рояването на кошер с 12 чудесни майчила и препълнени междурамия с пчели на два корпуса. И без колебание направих 12 отводки, без дори да си давам труда да търся майката. Естествено, всяка отводка беше подсилена с по няколко пити с пило, мед и прашец от други кошери. (Нещо, което правим и при отводките с майки в клетка.) Изненадващо и дори за мен самия, в края на юли след продължителната слънчогледова паша получих почти 12 корпуса с мед от тези отводки. Кой казва, че кошер, който се роява не дава мед? Напротив, той може да даде няколко пъти повече. Но ако трябва да сме напълно обективни, такива "богати" отводки само от един кошер са възможни, само ако разполагаме поне с 30-40 силни кошера на пчелина си./fermera.bg

At all the seven Early Christian basilicas found so far in Sandanski (South-West Bulgaria) the application of river boulders as construction material is documented. The walls of Basilica N4 are made of granite boulders as well as porphyry granite stones whose feldspar admixtures are coloured in pink. Also made of granite are the Roman-Dorian style columns and capitals from atrium of the basilica. The study of the marble ornaments from Basilica N4 shows that they are from two mineral types: calcite and slightly dolomite marbles. Some of them have middlegrained massive texture, light yellow knotted shell surface. Other marble material is presented in white, middle-grained but homogenous texture. The light-grey marbles are presented by shining crystal reflecting the light again with middle-grained homogenous massive texture. The application of different rocks together with the presence of several stone-pits in the region proves that the quarrying and stone-cutting was one of the main crafts in the region during Antiquity.

The discovered urns originate mainly from the valey of Middle Stuma. They have rectangular or cilidrical form, with an inscription on three of them. All urns have plastic decoration and one unifying decorative scheme – the garland motive. They have been discovered in Pirin railway station (today’s town of Kresna), the village of Ilindetsi, Sandanski (ancient Parthicopolis), the villages of Polenitsa, Laskarevo and Katuntsi, the town of Melnik, the locality Rupite (the ancient Heraclea Sintika). The monuments are kept in the Archaeological museum in Sandanski, Petrich, the RIM of Blagoevgrad, the NAM in Sofia and the NIM in Sofia.

In 2007-2008 parts of the cavea and the orchestra of the ancient theatre were found during the building of multistory buildings in two neighbouring  lots on the western part of the Macedonia street (№№ 39 and 41), with a total discovered surface about 400м2. The orchestra tangents the cardo maximus,which now coincides with the main street Macedonia of Sandanski. The theatron is built on a natural hill mounting to the west. The orchestra is 4.70м deep from the level of the modern street and is a rammed clay, piled with pebbles and covered in the last building period (end of the 1st –beginning of the 2nd century) with rectangular marble slabs. In it a catch-drain is carved alongside the bow of the orchestra. The foundations (substitution) of the cavea are step-like formed, cut in tiers in the tuff rock. The theatron is built by boulders on the foundations of the step-like cut rings (substitutio), 3m wide and 1,20м high. In height these rings are beveled under the angle of 120о protecting from a collapse. The rows with seats in a ring are
Formed by V-like foundations made from boulders, which are rising step-like.
The theoretic reconstruction of the discovered cavea consists of 6 cunei in the ima cavea and of 7
radial staircases (κλίμακες).In every cuneus should be 3 radial „V”-like foundations. It was established that in every ring there were 4 rows with seats, followed by the next ring, etc. Remnants of boulders, fragments of white marble and granite were visible on the surface of the slope. They show that the theatre has tangented the ancient cardines (today Gotze Delchev str) with a probable entrance-exit. Unfortunately these terrains cannot be examined because of the existing houses.
Two massive brick, unearthed over the theatron, and a granite postament with a base of a column, possibly are either the supports of a tribunalia or a small temple or a pulvinar. The digger during its work has destroyed additionally the remnants of the theatre and a part of the architectonic decoration, namely the slabs of the seats and the steps, was extracted and left on the sidewalk. In situ were found two slabs from the orchestra; granite postament with the base for a column; part of the decoration with plates in fragments; a big marble plate, rest on the first row of the cavea; part of a barrier between the cavea and the orchestra, made by orthostats. On each short side of the orthostat there are four holes with metal plugs for the installation of nets  functioning during the bloody performances and venatio/bestiaria. The gladiatorial battles and the ones with animals are confirmed by the marble plate-placard, found as spolia in the baptisterium of basilica 4 with the invitation for such performances. In that case the theatre played the role of an amphitheatre/ half-amphitheatre. The partly preserved inscription allows dating of the placard in the period of the Severs (193 -235).
Other spoliae, possibly taken from the theatre, have been found in the basilicas № 1 and 4. They are the supports of the special seatings in the form of a lion’s claw. Two of them are very plastically sculpted and probably come from the tribunalia or the bisalia. The third more rude    claw probably belongs to the decoration at the end of each row to the staircases.
The location of the theatre follows the canon of Vitruvius: to be inside the city as a separate ensemble; to tangent the main street (cardo maximus in Parthicopolis); to be protected from the northern winds and the west setting down sun, etc.
In our opinion the plan of the theatre has been created at the time of Vespasian and his heir Domitian and the building has begun also then. The decoration and the “marmorizing” of the theatre happened during the reign of the dynasty of Nerva and the Antonins (96-180). According to one of the methods of calculation and compared to the other known theatres, the cost in Parthicopolis should be about 2 500 000 sesters. The counted area of the theatron points to the number of spectators about 5 800 - 6 000.
The destruction of the theatre and probably of the other pagan buildings, still unknown, happened after the announcement of Christianity equal in rights in 313 and the foundation of the bishopric of Parthicopolis in the first quarter of the 4th century. Nevertheless in some places the bloody entertainments continued to the end of the century and even beyond. That’s the reason for the new edict of Arcadius in 392 who banned all the pagan performances. This should be the final possible end of the theatre in Parthicopolis. It stopped functioning and became a quarry. A lot of the architectonic decoration and the boulders have been extracted and reused, judging by the rests of mortar and the small marble swarfs, left on the terrain of the cavea. After that the ruins of the orchestra and the theatron have been buried with sterile soil, in which there were no artifacts except some finds from the beginning of the XXth century. 
A new city centre has been created in the Early Christian period on the next, higher level to the west of the theatre, with a new cardo maximus – Via Sacra and the new round piazza, connected with basilicas No4, No1 and No2. The concentration of the erected 6 basilicas was distributed between the two points (that at the memoria/basilica No7 and the one at basilica No4/the bishop basilica) and reflected the church processions and the liturgy from the second half of the 4th century to the end of the 6th century. In return for it the city has constricted in its territory, concentrating its main cult ensembles in the central part itself and also in the higher  western zones.

Until now are known the ancient quarries in the region of Ilindentzi, but they have never been neither described, nor precisely located. Visiting the place, we have discovered them, situated over the village. We have no data about their status – to which city they belonged, to Parthicopolis or to Neine/Tristolos; or to the empery; or to the emperor himself. Analogically to the quarries Isterna around Nicopolis ad Istrum we can suppose, that in our case they belonged to the emperor Trajan too. Later probably the quarries were given to the city. We suppose that a small military unit has guarded these quarries and the route, connecting the city with Serdica and with its derivation to the valley of Nestos. The stone in these quarries belongs to the week dolomite marbles and has white, greyish-white and grey colour. Namely from here is coming the basic production for architectonic details, round sculpture and tomb steles.
The second region, rich with ten quarries, is the valley of the river Sandanska Bistritza, in the proximity of the northern part of Parthicopolis. Two types of granite is coming from here, used for columns, capitals, street pavement, bordures, steps and postaments/arae for round sculpture. Here on the place, judging by the remnants, have been disposed some workshops, making semi-products, additionally finished at the place of building itself.
The third region with several quarries is situated around the village of Petrovo, which according to our preliminary research is the basic one for the Early Byzantine period, rich of calcite, white and patterned marble. The majority of architectonic decoration of the Early Byzantine basilicas of Parthicopolis and its territory is made of the local marble.
Except stone ateliers, in the region in Roman and Early Byzantine period are working decades of sculptural ones. A bigger part of them can be traced by their iconographic-stylistic signs. The only written witness, up to our days originate from the village of Kovachevo. The name of the stonemason Gelaseynos is of a probable Asia Minor origin. But except that in the tomb steles can be traces close similarities with the production of Thessalonica, as well of local sculpturing of Macedonian masters.
The craft of stone and sculpture were the basic activities, practiced in the city and its territory and the essential ones for its prosperity.

Six tombstones are known from the region of Nicopolis till now. One stela is preserved in Athens; four are in NAM, Sofia, and one is private property. Four of the plates have Greek inscriptions. The stelae have mainly rectangular form. No medallion has been found so far, but its usage is not excluded. The field for representations is decorated with portrait images: busts, full-length figures, Thracian horseman. All of the plates are made of local marble and illustrate the burial sculpture relief in Nicopolis and its region during the Roman period. The research has established a standard in their dimensions and form, style and iconography. That points to the existence of at least of two centres with two workshops. The first one was in Nicopolis and the other one was located between the villages of Kribul, Furgovo and Vulkosel. The monuments show that the activity of the first one appeared in the first decades of the 2nd century, while only one workshop was functioning actively in the 2nd- the 3rd century. The iconographic analysis determines the steles in the chronological boundaries from the first decades of the 2nd till the first half-middle of the 3rd century; as for now there is no data for earlier monuments from the first century AD.

Bulgaria is located at the crossroads of different civilizations and cultures -Thracian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Bulgarian. Today we can see the ruins of hundreds of settlements from various ages, which existed through times of grandeur and decay. In three volumes we focus on the most important among them in order to familiarize readers with the ancient past of these Balkan lands.

To the present moment two one-aisled churches have been unearthed in Nicopolis ad Nestum and its vicinity: the first one in building 1 of the fortified part of the city and the second one immediately to the north of it. Three more basilicas have been excavated: two of them, basilica No 1 and No 2, are situated in the field south of Nicopolis and the third one at the village of Oreshe to the southeast.  The fourth basilica at Debren is only partly studied. All of them are three-aisled, with one apse and the typical basilica plan for the stream of Mesta during the Early Christian period. Except them, single finds prove the existence of Early Christian churches and basilicas in the region of Nicopolis ad Nestum.
The architectural details from the mentioned basilicas (columns, bases, capitals, cancel screen slabs) are different in their quality and style and demonstrate similarity with the monuments from the interior of Thrace and the Eastern part of Macedonia, namely the Middle Strymon valley. Some types of capitals are inherited from the Roman period, but have passed through a new development in the Early Byzantine architecture. The details of other architectural types show decorative influence from foreign for the region workshops, mainly from Thessalia and the North Aegean. Unlike the closer Parthicopolis, Macedonia province, here cannot be established over usage of Roman architectural details in the decoration of the early Christian basilicas, except for one Roman-Doric capital reused as base in basilica № 2. The use of specially made Doric and Ionic impost capitals for each of the basilicas was established.
The discovered slabs belong to two types of cancel screens: a low one and a high one.  For their construction was necessary to create a new architectural order. The pillars were used for mounting the slabs in both types of cancel. Specially made fine columns, ending with stylish capital in the Corinthian order, were monolithically connected with the pillars.  The columns were carrying the architrave, on which probably movable curtains were hung. The open-work slabs of the cancel screen and the type of the altar of basilica No 2 chronologically are the earliest example so far, from the second half of the 4th century. Basilica № 1 and the basilicas at Oreshe and the one at Debren were built in the first half of the 5th century.
Three were the quarries, which provided the marble for the architectural decoration. In them were crafted different architectural details including part from the furnishings of the early Christian basilicas, for instance mensa sacra. An import of such tables is also established, with sparkling white marble, obtaining in time ivory-like colour.
  All the discovered and preserved details till now show us a high level of knowledge of the architectural sculptural decoration by architects and stonecutters, their initiative and desire for uniqueness in the architectural decoration of the temple.

The early Christian basilicas and the only discovered so far dwelling-residence in Parthicopolis reveal the reusage of architectural elements from the Roman period. Being used with the same function, they formed the colonnades; they separated the naos of the Early Christian basilicas from the aisles; they were included in the atrium’s colonnade there (basilicas №№ 1 and 4), and in the colonnade of the main street, the so-called “Via sacra/Mese” (cardo maximus) of the Late Antique city. Many architectural details have been drawn out and reused with the same function from the ruins in the city: Roman Attic-Ionian bases with differently formed plinthus and profile of the base element; columns; capitals in the three orders (in Roman-Dorian, Roman-Ionian and Roman-Corinthian one); fragments of architraves; part of a ceiling with cassettes, etc. They show the chronology of building in the ancient city and the fashionable tendencies, transmitted from the metropolitan buildings. Although Parthicopolis belongs from administrative point of view to the Roman province of Macedonia, the studied architectural decoration finds parallels not only in the buildings of other city centres of the same province, but as well in Thracia. The studied architectural details are differentiated in kinds and types and their chronological limits are specified; also the time of their making is revealed; finely the quarries and the workshops for making the details. Together with this an attempt is made for defying the character and the possible function of the Roman buildings, to which these architectural details have belonged.

This paper studies the architectonic decoration in the Ionian order of
Augusta Traiana-Beroe (mainly bases, columns, capitals, frieze-architraves, cornice).
They were applied in diff erent types of architecture – public, cult, residential. Four building
periods can be followed in their application. The earliest one is the period of Trajan-Hadrian;
the second period belongs to Marcus Aurelius-Commodus; the third one is from the end of
the Antonines to the end of the Severans. The fourth period relates to the beginning of the 4th
century. From the fi rst period some bases from houses and porticoes were re-used in the Late
Antique colonnades. In the second period the fortress walls were built. The Ionian order from
that period demonstrates very rich pieces and supports the announcement of Marcus Aurelius
as the ‘κτίστης’ of the city. The peak of the development of the city architecture and in the
use of the Ionian order is the third period of the Severi, in which the samples from the time of
Hadrian are repeated and further enriched, leading to the so-called ‘Hadrianic Renaissance’.
Emblematic for this period is the Auditorium in front of the thermae at the Southwestern gate.
The heritage of the second architectural and decorative period can be observed as well: the
astragal, the Ionian kyma etc. In the fourth period earlier can be found elements used in the
houses and colonnade till the 4th century.
The author is looking for evidence for the local production (stone, manner of carving
and treatment, motifs, technological markers). For the fi rst time the Proconessian import is
publically inaugurated in Augusta Traiana based on the type of marble, motifs, decorative
scheme and technology. The materials from the city enlarge the panorama of this center of
production with the interior of Thrace and especially with Augusta Traiana.

In 2017, the terrain to the north and west from the medieval church was excavated. The results suggest that the
3rd c. AD settlement which preceded the early Christan basilica was destroyed by fire, probably around AD 270. The
early Christian basilica was erected in the 30s of the 4th c. AD and was destroyed in the end of the 4th c. AD. Another
destruction of the site took place in the 80s of the 5th c., during the reign of Zeno.

The excavations demonstrated that a fire and destruction of the site took place in the last quarter of the 4th c. AD,
as attested by burnt pottery and coins.
In front of the postern, to the north of the fortified space, we found medieval structures dated with coins – Venetian
grossi/ matapans and their contemporary Rhodopean immitations.