The Thracian Fortress „Gradishte” in Gela, Smolyan Region Cover Image
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Тракийската крепост „Градище” при село Гела, Смолянска област
The Thracian Fortress „Gradishte” in Gela, Smolyan Region

Author(s): Damyan Damyanov
Subject(s): History, Archaeology, Local History / Microhistory, Ancient World
Published by: Институт за балканистика с Център по тракология - Българска академия на науките

Summary/Abstract: The fortress is located about 3.5 km southwest of the present village of Gela. Two major periods in its construction were registered during the investigations in 2010. The first period covers the so-called “Dark Ages” in Southeast Europe (12th-9th C BC), the time of large migration movements in the region of the seaside and the hinterland of the Black Sea, the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean Basin, which led to the change of ages. The settling down of newcomers from a new “Iron Culture” in the area of the Middle Rhodopes started during the 11th-9th C BC. Evidence of military conflicts is provided by the existence of Thracian fortresses in this part of the mountain range. The first fortress construction occupied the upper, relatively flat part of the ridge in the area of Gradishte. A rock precipice is supposed to have been the eastern wall. The building technique yielded a one-sided dry-stone masonry of partially processed stones. The wall is 2.60-3 m wide. The outer face is smooth and vertical. Considering the amount of pottery found during the excavation works the construction and the culmination in the functioning of this first fortress could be dated to the 11th-9th C BC. Evidence of the existence of a sanctuary and a residential area within the fortification is provided by the pottery fragments found on the site of the fortress. The beginning of the sanctuary’s existence is marked by a relatively numerous pottery with a decoration characteristic of the Early Iron Age. It is represented by fragments of bowls decorated with grooves and buckles, as well as relief straps and embossed buckles, typical of large vessels for food and liquids. The fragments of bowls decorated with grooves have their analogues in the Rhodopes, in the Sakar Mountain, in the Thracian Plain, and in the Lower Danubian Plain. In the west analogues occur as far as the Vardar Valley. The pottery decorated with buckles, part of it combined with grooves, is widely spread within the same bounds, extending east-northeast to the Black-Sea coast at the mouth of the Dniester, west-southwest up to the Valley of Vardar, south and southeast – up to the Aegean coast of the Balkan Peninsula and the northeastern coast of Asia Minor. The second stage of the fortress’s life is related to the construction of an outside wall – lower, on the western and northern slopes of the Gradishte area. The route of the base here is dug up horizontally too, yet 10 m lower in the terrain. The total length of the outer fortification wall during the second period must have been about 120 m. The building technique is the same as that of the earlier wall. The masonry was made in sectors with joint. The wall is based without indentation into the rocky terrain and features a substructure of poorly shaped plinth, on spots pushed out as a result of the gravity of the superstructure. The stone wall must have been 2.5 to 3 m high, and a palisade was probably built over it. The width of the base is 3.20-3.50 m. It has a well designed vertical and smooth outer face, an inner filling of irregularly shaped stones, the inner masonry having not a vertical, but rather an oblique face. This type of wall – stone base and palisade – was registered during the research works on the Thracian fortress in the area of Gradishte in the village of Strashimir (Middle Rhodopes). This type of structure of a defense facility appears quite logical, as the one-sided dry masonry of partially processed stones built on a sloping terrain cannot stand the height; besides, much more construction material would be necessary. The lack of sufficient stone was compensated by abundant amounts of timber, of which the palisades and buildings in the fortress were made. The stratigraphic drilling No. 1 into the inner face of the outer wall of the fortress revealed the structure of stone masonry and provided pottery fragments for the dating of the wall. The period, in which the Thracian fortress was extended, covers the second phase of the Early Iron Age (8th-6th C BC). It worked during the Late Iron Age and ceased its functioning in the 2nd-3rd century. Analogues of the pottery complex from drilling No. 1 of the Thracian fortress in the village of Gela, dated back to the second phase of the Early Iron Age, are already known in the country. Similar is the situation with the pottery with incised and imprinted decoration from certain archaeological sites in the Valley of Nestos, in the basins of the rivers Maritsa and Tundzha, in the Sakar Mountain, and in Dobrudzha. The latest pottery from drilling No.1 in the fortress is represented by three identical vessels of the amphora-type dated back to the 2nd-3rd century. The inclusion of the Rhodopes into the boundaries of the Roman Empire in the 1st century could obviously not break the resistance of the local Thracians, who fought for a long time defending their lands.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 20
  • Page Range: 27-48
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: English, Bulgarian