/ world today news/ Interview with Prof. Nikolay Ovcharov about the excavations near Targovishte
– Prof. Ovcharov, you are starting excavations in Missionis, what do you expect?
– It is among the most promising objects, it is not new. In fact, it was started 52 years ago by my father – the late Prof. Dimitar Ovcharov. Even then, it caused extreme interest among scientific circles, but later the excavations were stopped. A few years ago, they were renewed by Angel Konakliev, a curator at the museum in Targovishte, but with very little funds that the municipality could afford. During this year, I finally get involved in the excavations, we managed to collect about BGN 170,000, 70,000 of which are for excavations and 100,000 for conservation and restoration. Our donors are the state, the municipality and private sponsors.
– Could you tell us a little more about the site?
– This city has a very long history and is the predecessor of modern Targovishte. Its history begins in the IV-V century, when on the hill about 5-6 km from Targovishte, in the so-called Preslavska Planina, the pass where the Sofia – Varna road passes from today, a very interesting city is being built. Even before the fortress was built on the hill, a Roman and earlier Thracian settlement was established at its foot, which were unfortified. But it was in the IV-V century, when the great barbarian invasions of the Balkan Peninsula began, that the cities had to be fortified with fortress walls or else to choose places that were naturally fortified. Misionis was exactly like that.
What we have been uncovering in recent years, even now on the second day of excavation, is something unique – an urban structure typical of advanced ancient cities, but mounted on top of a hill. That’s why we call it somewhat “Northern Perperikon”, because although 300 km from Perperikon, these are cities of the same time that have a similar fate – precisely of this type of the late Roman Empire. Cities that climb the hills so they can be more easily defended.
So far, three huge basilicas from the IV-V centuries and one church from the XIII-XIV centuries have been discovered. Unique neighborhoods of stone with streets between them are also revealed, one of the three water reservoirs that it has has been revealed with a huge flow that allows us to think that thousands of people lived on the water that was stored. The city was destroyed during the invasion in the 9th century, it existed for 200 years, in the 9th and 10th centuries, a new Old Bulgarian settlement was created in its ruins, but the second heyday of Misionis – this is the 13th-14th century, and it has another name – Kosovo. It was important because it guarded the approaches to Tarnovgrad, from the sea – the trade route that came from Varna to Tarnovo.
It is interesting that at the end of the 14th century it was reflected in the chronicles of the Ottoman historians who described the conquest of Bulgaria. And unlike most fortresses, it was defended. Of course, he is still captured by cunning and the city ceases to exist. However, its inhabitants created settlements in the plain, and in the 15th-16th centuries, the already famous city of Eskhi Jumaya, one of the largest trading centers of the Ottoman Empire, was established on the site of today’s Targovishte. In the 12th century, the Arab geographer Al-Ildrisi, describing the geography of the world, gave a special place to Misionis and said that it was one of the greatest commercial centers of his time. These are the things that make us reveal this unique center. Our idea is with the mayor of Targovishte, Krasimir Milev, to make enough interesting excavations in the coming years and to invest enough money so that this can become the pride of Targovishte and become the engine of cultural tourism in this city.
– You mentioned Perperikon, how far did your work there go?
– Things there have been terribly delayed this year, excavations will begin on August 4 and unfortunately with much less funds than we expected. I am hoping for some support from the municipality of Kardzhali, so that an amount of 100-110,000 BGN will be collected, and we needed 200,000 BGN. Unfortunately, since we’re late, we’ll have to mine both Misionis and Perperikon together.
– A few days ago, the state allocated a record 2.3 million BGN for archaeology, what will they be used for?
– Money is actually at most a lump sum. But what is BGN 2.3 million distributed over 100 sites? The way of distribution – something to each – means that the largest amounts for Perperikon, for example, are around BGN 80,000. I’ve been saying for a long time that it’s not good for me to distribute the money in a hat. There are advanced sites, such as Perperikon, in which BGN 17-18 million have been invested over 15 years – not all for archeology, but also for parking lots, roads, infrastructure. I needed BGN 200,000 to complete this stage and hand over a wonderful object to the Bulgarian state. I want to make one clarification, because malicious remarks have been made that Ovcharov is almost pulling everything for himself – nothing like that.
I said that Bulgaria should consult the funds in 5-6 sites, after which next year I would not ask for money at all or I would ask for 40-50 thousand BGN to continue the excavations. Then to direct the funds to other important objects. I gave Perperikon as an example, the excavations there began during the time of Ivan Kostov’s office. In the beginning, we took a modest 50,000 BGN, but the funds grew. And with three-four-year full mandates, they grew at the following rates – 300,000 BGN in total under the Tsar, 470,000 during the time of the Triple Coalition and as much as 720,000 BGN under the management of GERB. Unfortunately, last year we took BGN 165,000 from the caretaker government, and at that – BGN 72,000. After 15 years, instead of staying at the levels we have achieved, and maybe even increasing, we are almost back to the money from the time of Ivan Kostov. I think this is not a good trend.
#Targovishte #excavate #twin #Perperikon
