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Seuthopolis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Dimiter P. Dimitrov
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Extract

The site of the Thracian city of Seuthopolis lies about 8 km. to the west of Kazanluk, in the famous Valley of Roses, between the Balkan Range and the Sredna Gora Mountains. A spacious terraced area was formed by the erosion of the River Toundja (the ancient Thracian Tonsus); this is bounded to the north and east by a sloping plateau, on the site of the villages of Koprinka and Dounavtsi; and to the south, the steep slopes of the heights (site of the village of Morozovo (formerly Gorno Cherkovishté), the last of the Sredna Gora foothills, dropped down to the river banks. The last and lowest step of this terraced area projects deep into the bends of the Toundja to the south, forming a peninsula, or tongue of land, the banks of which are 4 to 5 m. in height; to the west and south it is bounded by the River Toundja, and to the east the Golyama Varovitsa or Chiflikchiiska River, a small, but always swiftly flowing tributary of the Toundja, guards its approaches. The Thracian city of Seuthopolis was situated precisely on this spot, called ‘Chiflika’ (The Farm), on the left bank of the River Toundja, defended from the west, south and east by natural barriers of water (PLATE IX).

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 35 , Issue 138 , June 1961 , pp. 91 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1961

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References

1 For certain finds and monuments from Seuthopolis, see Anna Aleksieva, ‘Marques d'enseignes d'amphores de Koprinka’, Annuaire du Musée National Archaéologiquqe Plovdiv II, 1950, 185–190; MČičicova, ‘Auftreten und Verwendung des Backsteins als Baumaterial bei den Thrakern von Ende des 4-ten bis Ende des 3-ten Jahrhunderts', Bull. de l'Institut archaéologique bulgare, XXI, 1957, 129 f.; ‘Timbre représentant des bijoux sur pithoi de Seuthopolis’, Studia in honorem academ. D. Decev, 475 f. ‘Les timbres sur Pithoi de Seuthopolis’, BCH, LXXXII, 1958, II, 466 f.; D. P. Dimitrov, ‘Neuentdeckte epigraphische Denkmäler über die Religion der Thraker in der frühhellenistischen Epoche’, Hommages à Wuldemar Deonna, Collection Latomus vol. XXVIII, 1957, 181–193, Pls. XXX–XXXI.

2 E. Oberhummer, Tonsos, RE, 2te Reihe VI, 1714.

3 F. v. Hochstetter, Über das Vorkommen alter Grabhügel in der europäischen Türkei, Mtt. der anthro- pologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, I, 1871, 97; F. Kanitz, Donau-Bulgarien und der Balkan, Leipzig, 1879, I, 235.

4 M. K. Čičikova, L. L. Ognenova and J. I. Cangova, research workers at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, took part in the excavations.

5 Cf. K. I. Jouglev. ‘Les fouilles et les recherches du tumulus No i—Koprinka’, Annuaire de l’Université de Sofia, Faculté de Philosophie et d’Histoire, XLVII, 1952, fase, II, 217-289; XLIX, 1955, fase. 11, 35-194.

6 M. Čičikova, ibid. 132 f.

7 For Seuthes III see Swoboda, Seuthes, RE, 2te Reihe II, 2022-3.

8 Cf. D. P. Dimitrov, ibid. 181 f.

9 For Kabyle see ibid. 185 f. and the literature quoted there.

10 Ed. E. A. Westermann, Berlin, 1902, 208.

11 Vseobstaja istoria archhekturi, II, Part I, Moscow, 1949, 193 ; A. B. Bunin, Istoria gradostroitelnogo iskusstva, I, Moscow, 1953, 56; Fabriciüs, Hippodamus, RE, VIII, 1731 f.; M. Rostovtzeff, Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, 1941, Vol. 11, 1051.

12 See P. Larderet, ‘L’oppidum préromain de La Roque, commune de Fabrègues (Hérault)’, Gallia XV, 1957, fase. 1, 25 f. Figs. 19, 21.

13 Athen. 531-532; compare Kahrstedt in RE, XI, 1552; G. I. Kazarov, ‘Die Ursprung und das erste Anbliihen des Odrysenreiches im antiken Thrakien’, Ucilisten Pregled, XXXII, 1933, 752.

14 D. P. Dimitrov, ibid. 190; ‘Zur Frage der thrakischen Religion in der hellenistischen Epoche’, Istoriceski Pregled, XIII, fase. 2, 1957, 73 f.

15 G. I. Kazarov in RE, 2te Reihe VI, 550; Polyaen. VII, 22; Cass. Dio, LIV, 34.

16 Compare Vseobstaja istoria architekturi, 205.

17 Cf. W. Dehn, ‘Die Heuneburg beim Talhof unweit Riedlingen’, FundberUhte aus Schwaben, N.F. 14, 93 f.

18 Compare the description of the tyrsis of Asidatus in Xenophon’s Anabasis, VIII, 8, 12-15.

19 For the baked bricks in Seuthopolis, see M. Čičikova, ibid. 129 f.