Geoarchaeology and Archaeomineralogy (Eds. R. I. Kostov, B. Gaydarska, M. Gurova). 2008.

Proceedings of the International Conference, 29-30 October 2008 Sofia, Publishing House St. Ivan Rilski, Sofia, 153-162.

THE ROCK AS A TOPOS* OF FAITH

THE INTERACTIVE ZONE OF THE ROCK-CUT MONUMENTS FROM URARTU TO THRACE Valeria Fol
Centre of Thracology Prof. Alexander Fol, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1000 Sofia; valeriafol@gmail.com
ABSTRACT. The article discusses the rock topoi of faith as places for profession of a mysterial faith and ritualism, which should not be ethnically defined, because in its core lies the honoring of the stone/rock as a location for divine advent.

Initial observations of natural and rock-cut topoi of faith in a mountain environment have been done in the Eastern Mediterranean as early as the second half of the XIX c., however it is only recently that their cultural-historical role and their regional interactions began to be researched without the ritual faith and the cults professed in them to be charged with ethnic definitions. There are a series of examples from the Southeastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor where the stone/rock is identified as a sacred symbol, a place of divine advent and of getting in touch with the divine inception. In the Mediterranean world and in Southeastern Europe in particular, the aniconic period of the thought images uncultivated or fairly uncultivated stones is very well represented in the written and the material sources. The idea that a divine essence can be manifested in a rock is preserved in many places during the Roman Era too. The researches of rock-cut and megalithic monuments, as well as of the sacred locations where they are built or where they are formed most frequently in mountain massifs are done in Southeast Europe since the 60s. From the beginning of the 7th decade of the XX c. the rock-cut and megalithic monuments in the Bulgarian part of Ancient Thrace are being actively researched by interdisciplinary teams, organized mainly by the Institute of Thracology, affiliated with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Thracian, 1976; 1982). These teams have researched the dolmens and the dolmen_____
*In this research the term topos is used in the sens of a "place (even a location of a grave), a deposit, a geographical location", completely separated from oikos (and its derivatives). The direct and the metaphorical meaning of locus communis, put into the term before Aristotle's' definition (Arist. Rhet. 2. 23. 1-38 Ross) is most appropriate for the research, especially because it assumes the clarification regarding the space outside the profane. The terrain-rite-like expansion of the term, which I am introducing as a working methodical instrument of the research, is conditioned from the permanent interpretation and re-interpretation of the written sources and the sample selection of objects and finds see detailed analysis in Fol, V., 2007.

like constructions in greater detail, as well as archaeological sites (mainly fortresses) and finds related to them in Strandzha Mountain, Sakar Mountain, the Rhodopes and Eastern Stara Planina (Haemus). The interpretation of the megaliths is being inserted in the widely accepted thesis for their functions as tombs of the population of the coastal hinterland. Some of the dolmens had been used a lot from the middle of the II until the middle of the I mill. BC, but the problem of whether they are aristocratic tombs or they document a mass practice rests open (cf. Thracian, 1976; 1982; Triantaphyllos, 1983; 1985; 1992; Delev, 1984; Mo, , 1988; Moutsopoulos, 1989; Fol, V., 1993b, 13-14; 1998; 2000, 11-16; Beksac, 2003). The recent observations on the megalithism in Europe dont take account of the stone monuments in the South-East (cf. Guilaine, 1998; 1999), but the archaeological landscape in this part of the continent remains exciting. The burials in the dolmens dated at the end of the II beginning of the I mill. BC indicate only their last use, but the concept of the building up of the megaliths could be archaeologically removed back to the end of the Chalcolithic (Fol, V., 1993a; 1993b, 976, 147-168; 1997; 1998; 2000; 2001a; 2001b; 2002; 2003a; 2003b; 2004b; 2004c; Fol, V. in Fol et al., 2000, 171-192). The progress in the study of Thracian antiquity, and more specifically on Thracian rites and rituals, allows the reinterpretation of certain types and groups of monuments. This is particularly important for the studies on the oral orphism. The classificational term for this faith is does reveal the hope in the death and the new birth of the main male God and, respectively, in a life beyond of the ones, who believe in him. Because this faith after the Mycenaean epoch is continued to be exercised in Ancient Thrace, where it becomes a state ideology of the most powerful royal dynasties, and mainly of the Odrysae, the clarified classificational term Thracian Orphism had been introduced. During the Mycenaean epoch this faith is identified in rock-cut, mountains and caves sanctuaries (the studies on Thracian oral Orphism started with Fol, 1986; cf. Fol in: Fol et al., 2000, 171-220 and the references; Fol, 2002; Fol, V., 2003a) (Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1. The Stone is a rock-cut sanctuary in Strandja Mountain (Malko Turnovo region), with solar disks and sacrificial pits; archaeoastronomical research shows that from the mid II mill. BC on this sacred place the Sun was observed during the summer solstice

The analysis of the linguistic data concerning the name of the Thracian Hero Peiroos on the basis of Hittite-AnatolianThracian arguments has come to the conclusion that Pirva/Peiroos was a rock-deity or deity/rock-solar deity in Thrace at the time of the Trojan War (Gindin, 1978; Tsimburskii, 1984). The Slavonicization of the Balkan Peninsula resulted in the superposition of the characteristics of the Thracian deity onto Slavic thunder-god Per-/Pir- in Slav. Perun/Pirin, conserved in oronyms as Perelik, Persenk, Perperek and others. According to A. Fol, the Balkan Asia Minor ethnic and cultural unity for the time between the beginning of the II mill. BC until the Trojan War was manifested in cultural and historical realia in the Hittite-Anatolian-Thracian zone. A rock solar deity Pirva/Peiroos was worshipped in that zone (Fol, 1986, 15-16). V. Tzymburskiy localized the cult of that deity also in Troad, in the Zleia locality, in which the Median kings hunted traditionally, and it later became a cult centre of Apollo. According to Strabo, Lydian kings also hunted there (Fol, 1986, 128). The Per-/Pir- first component of the theonym could be discerned in the toponym Perke, the other name of Thrace Rocky Mountain. So, a very probable semantic sequence rock (mountain) rocky (mountainous) god god-Son of the Great Mother-Goddess for the region of Thrace/South-Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, Crete, Southern Italy and Sicily is already proposed (Fol, 1986, 17; Fol et al., 2000, 76). If the name Perke of Ancient Thrace represents a naming of rock-cut and megalithic religiousness, the classic toponym Thrake is related to the mysterial magic contacts with the gods (Fig. 2). The dolmens are the most abundant megalithic monuments in Thrace. Up to now, their registered number is c. 850 for the territory of Southeastern Bulgaria, the European part of Turkey and Northern Greece. However, this number is far from the real one. They are built up on the low ridges, alone or in a group, but always turned to face one of the solar directions (Fig. 3). The dolmens are covered with a mound embankment. Sometimes their faade is of slabs and very often they are supplied with a supporting frame along the circle. The dolmens may have one or two chambers, with or without an entrance corridor. The construction may vary. Even in the cases when the dolmens are double, i.e. adjoined, they do not have the same building technique or a similar layout. All these facts give 154

reason to suggest that they were built as memorials of the aristocratic lite, rather than for kings only. All the more, the traces of the funeral rite are very faint and, at least for the present, they evidence just the generally known practice of breaking vessels at the entrance.

Fig. 2. Rock-cut throne in the sanctuary kings residence Perperek, Eastern Rhodopes

Fig. 3. Dolmen with two chambers and crepis-facade near the village of Hlyabovo, Sakar Mountain

Such one-sided explanations have been offered until quite recently for the other megalithic monuments as well. It is not possible to make hypotheses about the rituals accompanying the erecting of menhirs or which reflected their worshipping. However, the stone circles, and especially those forming a complex with stone constructions and having a (sacrificial?) stone in the middle, can be perceived as an early form of an open-air temple. The circle with designated centre is also a familiar plan in the main written evidence about the mountainous sanctuary of Dionysus (Fol, 1993, 135-154, N26). A reconstruction of the priestly rites would consequently include an open-air sacrifice on the central altar, aimed at reproducing the Sun-fire link that had already been fixed through the circle, or a nocturnal sacred act with ritual fire. In both cases, soothsaying and oracle-giving by the priest is to be assumed. As in other megalithic areas, it is possible to situate the isolated rocks, stones or meteorites in Thrace in the vision of the gods presence, marked at open air sacred places or in sanctuaries1 (Fig. 4). Bearing in mind these interpretative possibilities, in 1993 I proposed revised descriptions of some rock-cut sites and monuments which are traditionally referred to as tombs, and of others which are called sanctuaries, as well as a new interpretation of their ritual functioning. The conclusions which I reached in my study as briefly the following. Most widespread among the holes are those (predominantly round) hewn into flat rocks. They can be seen in a megalithic and rock-cut environment everywhere in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Caucasian-Black Sea Basin, including Anatolia. Their function has been extensively discussed. It is hard to believe that thousands of people dug holes in rocks just in order to practice the solar-chthonic cult. It seems that some of them were hewn into a rock to serve as foundations over which wooden structures were erected. It appears more probable that they were used for placing sacred objects and votive offerings in them, in a system of rites with many doctrinal elements. The exact type of these votive offerings will become gradually clearer as a result of mountain hill excavations. The sacred object could also be a visual notion about the deity, a divine attribute, a mediator between the worshipper and the deity, and it could be depicted through an anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, ornamental or formal code. In Old-Phrygian inscriptions the sacred object bore the name of iman (Francovich, 1990, I, 37; Fol, V., 1993b, 62-64, 152; Vasileva, 2005, 89), i.e. mediator. Some of the so-called Orphic toys probably played that role (Fol, 1994, 162-163) (Fig. 5). The so-called rock-cut niches, hewn into vertical rocks, represented a higher manifestation of ritualism. Their traditional explanation by some Bulgarian archaeologists is not acceptable because of the unprovable idea that they have been necropolises for the urns with ashes of the deceased. It is difficult to believe that urns were placed in these almost

inaccessible niches, which can be reached only if a person hangs suspended on a rope from the top of the rock, and that complicated burial rites and cults where practiced. Many of the niches are shallow, or as some of the researchers describe them unfinished. At the same time, it can be seen that niches were hewn one over the other, without following the line of the older one. This situation was typical of monuments both in Thrace and in Phrygia (cf. the summary of the functions of the niches in Berndt-Ersz, 1998, 89-92, 95 with the references; cf. for the function of niches-doors Roller, 1999, 54; in Urartu Vasileva, 2005, 88-89). Such a disregard of a grave would have been impossible at the time when these monuments were made. In my opinion, the digging of a niche in a cliff facing the Sun was a one-time ritual act connected with a cosmogonic and/or initiation rite. It is possible that a sacred object (a mediator or votive offering) was placed in them (Francovich, 1990, vol. I, 28-29, 37-40, 102-107 with observations on different regions in Asia Minor, Mainland Greece, Capitol Hill in Rome, Cyprus, Lemnos, Thasos; s. Fossey, 1988, 345 for rock-cut niches in the territory of Lebadea and Bucholz, 1981, 65, 91 and n. 23 for rock-cut niches at the Acropolis rock under the Erechteum) (Fig. 6-8).

Fig. 4. Stone stelae from the circular sanctuary on open air, Mycenaean period (region of the town of Razlog, South-West Bulgaria); one of them is decorated with solar ship and ithyphallic figure

1Cf.

Paus. 9. 38. 1 Rocha-Pereira for the celebrating of natural stones and stones from heaven by the inhabitants of Orchomenus; cf. Paus. 9. 24. 3 Rocha-Pereira for the cult to a natural stone as image of Heracles; cf. Paus. 9. 27. 1-2 Rocha-Pereira for a stone celebrated as an orphic Eros.

Fig. 5. The round holes hewn into flat rocks, village of Iliisko, Eastern Rhodopes

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sacred objects were left. It could be assumed that the hewing of the solar disc was in itself a ritual act to fix the worshipping of the Sun in a definite point, considered to be its benign presence. The appearance of the disc on a rock was undoubtedly the materialization of a solar-chthonic link (Fol, V., 1993b, 59-60) (Fig. 9). The stone sacrificial altars described so far in Southeastern Thrace are single not very large rocks, whose surface on top has been processed: one or more round basins with grooves for draining have been hewn into them. This type of stone altars are ubiquitous in the Mediterranean and in Anatolia, and apart from being used for sacrifices on certain concrete days, they apparently also marked the territory conquered and sacralized by a certain social unit or community (Fig. 10)

Fig. 6. Rock-cut niches Orlova Skala near the town of Ardino, Eastern Rhodopes

Fig. 8. Unfinished rock-cut niche in the rock sanctuary, village of Samodiva, Eastern Rhodopes

Fig. 9. Solar disks in the rock-cut sanctuary Vujevski Kamen, region Kumanovo, East Macedonia

Fig. 7. Rock-cut niches in the rock sanctuary Harman Kaya, Eastern Rhodopes (www.rock-cut.thracians.org)

The rocky places with solar discs hewn into them (concave and convex) are most often combined with holes (with or without grooves) and stone altars dug into the horizontal rocks. They are convincingly defined as sanctuaries. Most probably, they were not places for mysterial cults, but for (mass) practicing of a solar cult, and places where libations were performed before the stone image of the Sun, and where 156

Fig. 10. Rock-cut altar in the rock-cut sanctuary Vujevski Kamen, region Kumanovo, East Macedonia

The cave as the rock womb of the Great Mother-Goddess is a Mediterranean idea attested in the sources and already repeatedly interpreted from the standpoint of Thracian religious thinking. The mysterial rites performed on the island of Samothrace are connected with the Zerynthia cave (Fol, 1990, 121), the mysterial rites connected with Zalmoxis were also performed in a cave (Popov, 1989, sources and analysis; cf. Fol, 1993, 143-145 for the name of Zalmoxis associated with the Great Mother-Goddess; cf. Fol, V., 2004b). In the region of the Eastern Rhodopes until now around 40 rock-cut caves had been documented. Some of them are in sacred megacomplexes (Fig. 11). Seven from these rock-cut caves are also with well-shaped openings on the roof, which have been covered with a stone slab. In the rock of the caves and around them sacrificial altars with and without furrows have been hewn. I took the liberty of interpreting those with an opening on the roof as rock-cut cavewomb sanctuaries (Fol, V., 1993b, 18-28; 2003a) (Fig. 12). Five of them have a quadrangular chamber, two almost round, and one tongue-shaped. The remoteness of the constructions from one another is yet another eloquent proof that they were rock-cut sanctuaries and that they were hewn into solitary monolithic rocks towering over the surroundings. This observation is very important, because of the close parallel to a monument from the Hellenistic Age the so-called stone sarcophagus was found in the Ostrousha mound near the town of Kazanluk in 1993 (Fig. 13). The sarcophagus is made of a single stone block (Kitov, 1993, 18-25). The third chamber in the sub-mound heroon discovered in 2004 in Golyamata Kosmatka is also made of a single stone block as sarcophagus. Arranged gifts were discovered inside this sarcophagus, which was placed on a stone bench, usually interpreted as a burial bed (Kitov, 2005, 67-96, cf. also fig. 101 and 115) (Fig. 14). The interpretation of these sarcophagus with cult buildings around (or part of them) is that they ware a variant of an old rock-cut tradition. The mysterial-initiational ritualism in these rock-cut caves has been performed on specific days according to the solar

calendar. The mystes had observed the penetration of a solar ray in the rock womb as a cosmogonic metaphor of the hierogamic relation of the paredroi Great Mother-Goddess Son-Sun. The archaeo-astronomical measurements of a natural cave in the Eastern Rhodopes, additionally formed as a cave-womb, showed that between 2000 and 1000 BC at noon at the day of the winter solstice the solar ray which had been entering through the entrance had been reaching a stone altar (Stoev et al., 2001).

Fig. 11. Mega complex temenos with sacral springs, rock-cut cavewomb sanctuaries, sacrificial rock altars, niches in the region of the town of Zlatograd, Central Rhodopes

Fig. 12. Rock-cut cave-womb sanctuary with opening on the roof, which have been covered with a stone slab. In the rock of the cave and around it sacrificial altars with and without furrows have been hewn, region of the village of Benkovski, Eastern Rhodopes

Fig. 13. Ostrusha sub-mound heroon with a single stone block as sarcophagus; Ostrusha Mogila in the region of the town of Shipka, Central South Bulgaria

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Fig. 14. Plans of the sub-mound heroon and of the finds in the single stone block as sarcophagus in the Golyama Kosmatka, region of the town of Shipka, Central South Bulgaria

This cave, in which the time had been measured, had served also for initiation in the mystery of the cosmic act. This statement was confirmed after the discovery of the sub-mound Thracian temple Shushmanez nearby the town of Shipka, in the Valley of the Thracian Kings, Southern Bulgaria, existed for a shorter period of time but from an earlier date, before the IV c. BC (Kitov, 1997, 114-116). The building is a pure replica of a megalithic rock-cut cave-womb sanctuary with an open roof. There the sun ray is materialized in Dorian column grouted with sparklingly white plaster. The column connects the top of the vault with the altar, also white, in the center of the floor of the beehive chamber. It would be logical to assume that in view of such a strong presence of a rock uranian deity, the Son of the Great Mother-Goddess, the cave was to be a place for the mysterial practicing of the oral Orphic doctrine. In the description of Paus. 8. 15. 1-4 Rocha-Pereira of the Demeter Eleusinias celebration from the Pheneates in Arcadia, the sacred writings and the priests mask are being guarded in ptrwma. Ptroma is a stone construction of the rock-cut caves-wombs type with an opening on the roof (a detailed analysis in Fol, V., 2001b). Around some caves-wombs in the Eastern Rhodopes rockcut mega-complexes have developed with settlements around them. The most impressive are those nearby the villages of Tatul and Shterna, Momchilgrad district, Harman Kaya, nearby the village of Bivoljane, Kurdzhali District, Gluhite Kamuni (The Deaf Stones), Ivailovgrad District, Perperek, Kurdzhali District and Belintash, Assenovgrad District. The megacomplexes are formed on high rock plateaus, which are turned to one of the solar-shined on sides. Usually springs and a river are found nearby. Rock caves-wombs or natural caves formed like that are being cut in the rocks. Numerous sacrificial pits with furrows, altars and niches on the vertical rocks supplement the monumental archaeological landscape. Hewn out beam beds for wooden constructions have been preserved on the flat rocks, just as walls from different epochs on the hill slopes. The cult place should be connected with the belief in a god, an anthropo-daemon, or a heros and ritual activities (purifications, sacrifices, processions, initiations) should be

executed. In the sacred space of the cult place altars and sacrificial pits, basins for purifications, sanctuary and its idols, sacred objects, gifts, jewels, votives have been found. Unfortunately none of these sites archaeologically investigated (s. Thracian, 1976, and the reinterpretation of the sites by Fol, 1993; 2000). The consensus terminology, which is being used for defining the different out-of-settlements types cult places conforms with the investigations in insular and Mainland Greece and in the Middle East (Rutkowski, 1986, XV-XIX). Ancient Greek texts are the main source for the functioning of the rock-cut monuments as topoi of faith and ritualism in South-Eastern Europe. Pausanias testimonies for the cult places petroma of the Pheneates, mentioned above, for that of Trophonius nearby Lebadia in Boiotia and the one of Helios at the top of Acrocorinthos (Fol, V., 2001b; 2004b) and Greek and Latin texts for Pangaion mountain in Aegean Thrace (, 2004) possess great importance for the clarification of the spiritual continuum in the rock topoi of oral faith and ritualism. Pherekydes of Syros speaks of recesses and hollows and caves and doors and gates and he intimates that through these are the births and departures of the souls.2 The testimony of Pherekydes (VI c. BC) quoted by Porphyry (III c. AD) is the earliest possible religious rationalization written in ancient Greek of the rock-cut sites and monuments. The historical-religious approach creates a new interpretative strategy for the rock-cut mega-complexes, for parts of them and for isolated monuments, because it situates the sites in the cultural-historical context of one specific faith-ritualism. The traditional opinions, that a cult towards the sun, combined with chthonic elements, is being maintained on the rock, are not sufficient. The rock topoi of faith and their functioning from the second half of the II mill. BC until the beginning of the Christian era, reveal a mysterial, initiational, funeral and doctrinal rites. They compile each other and constitute the kernel of an oral faith, formed on a Cretan base with Egyptian borrowings during

2Porph. De antro nympharum 31, Seminar Classics 609; State University of New York, translation by Schibli, 1990.

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the III mill. BC, which penetrates north, in South-Eastern Europe, mainly in Hellas and Thrace (cf. Fol, 1986; consideration on the base of the data in Verbruggen, 1981; Rutkowski, 1986; 1994; Watrous, 1995; 1996; BlombergHenriksson, 1996; Rutkowski-Nowicki, 1996; Fol, 1999a; 1999b). Its solar and chtonic components are being identified in the Gods Paredroi Great Mother-Goddess and her Son (Fol, 1997). In the meantime the research of Hittitian, Phrygian and Urartian sacred places advanced a lot. This research is done in the inner-Anatolian cultural-historical space, in a region spreading to the West coast of Asia Minor, including the monuments on the territory of Ancient Greek Ionian cities like Ephesus (Iik, 1995, 69-70). The problem related with the name of the Phrygian king Midas is always current. The reason is that the name of this legendary king designates an interactive zone between the Balkan peninsula and the central Phrygian plateau. This problematic area is connected with Herodotus point of view about the Phrygians migration from the Balkan Peninsula to Asia Minor a circumstance which creates the premise to think that the practice of forming of rock-cut sacred places on Phrygian soil was brought from Southeastern Europe (s. Vasileva, 2005, with literature) (Fig. 15). Among the many functionally sites, which can serve to illustrate the closeness of faith structure from Urartu to Thrace, one can hear point out the cult niches from the Tushpa region and appropriate Thracian parallels. My supposition that these sacred places indicate the appearance of the honored deity is confirmed thanks to the inscriptions of the Urartian doorsniches. The ritual expression of this appearance is the votive gifts and the sacrifices. The doors-niches, according to my view, represent a believed entrance to Beyond, i.e. a passage leading to a contact with the divine force (Fol, V., 2005) (Fig. 16). The ancient Greek folklore tradition3 has retained the vision of a non-personification, of a demonological character of the movement towards Beyond in the form of a soul, the notion of which occurs as a general term during the literary era of the Hellenic culture. In contrast to this term, the Urartian inscriptions name gods. They are at least 78 in the Urartian pantheon, and according to this indication this pantheon comes close to the Hittitian one. The Hittites are called the people of the thousand gods (Iik, 1995, 66). The personifications, which are definitely related to images, may be posing the questions about the so called Holes of Pools in flat rocks in a different way. This holes or pools in Thrace are considered nests for wooden constructions. According to my hypothesis in these nests in flat rocks people put sacred objects during lunch, a fire was lit in them, or they were full with a sacred fluid. According to the example of the Urartian monuments from this type, one can assume that some of these flat-rocks-holes are locations for putting votive stelae with or without inscriptions one assumption which I expressed in relation with the context of each separate site
3Cf. Porph. De antro nympharum 31, Seminar Classics 609; State University of New York, translation by Schibli 1990.

(lastly Fol, V., 2000). It is not impossible that images, like the man from Paleokastro, a rock sculpture from Thrace, were put in them (Fol, V., 1993a, 69, 157-158). The classification of the cult places in Urartu (Iik, 1995, 550) corresponds to the classification in Thrace (Fol, V., 1993a; 1993b, 9-76): Kultpltze mit Felsnischen (Cult places with rocky niches); Kultpltze mit Felscella (Cult places with rocky cella); Kultpltze mit Offenem Felstor (Cult places with an open rock door); Kultpltze mit Felskammer (Cult places with a rocky chamber); Kultpltze mit Stufenaltar (Cult places with stair-like altar); Kultpltze mit Felsschalen (Cult places with rocky plates/circles); Kultpltze mit Felsgruben (Cult places with rocky pits);

Fig. 15. Single sacred rock with niches and opening for sunobservations, village of Strezotze, region of Kumanovo, East Macedonia

Fig. 16. The sacred megalithic door to Beyond with panoramic view to the Valley of the Thracian Kings; the door is essential part of the mega megalithic and rock-cut complex, region of the town of Buzovgrad, Central South Bulgaria

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 Kultpltze mit Felsrinnen (Cult places with rocky furrows); Kultpltze mit Stelen (Cult places with stelae); Felsheiligtmer und Felsgrber als Totentempel (rocky sanctuaries and rocky tombs like a temple of the dead) (Iik, 1995, 65-68) (Fig. 17).

frequently multi-religious topoi of the sacrosanct. The worship and ritualism in them follows the ancient tradition regardless of the change of ethnicities and religions (cf. for example the articles in Fol, V., 2001a; for ritual functioning in South-Eastern European folklore relics s. Vol, V., 1996, 42-50, 79-83, 112114, 130-131). In the Bulgarian historiography on Ancient Thrace the term interactive zone was introduced to refer to the relationships in the religious and the spiritual sphere. This term comes from the definition of the Thraco-Phrygian ethno-cultural contact zone (Fol, 1994, 105, 179, 208; cf. Vasileva, 2005), but it seems that it can adopt a far wider reach in the Southeast-European Asia Minor part of Eurasia. A culturally-historical unity of a type of religiousness begins to be delineated. This religiousness is not typical for the polis organization of Ancient Greece, but is characteristic for the monarchic organized societies from the III mill. BC. The complete parity of the rock-cut sacred places in Thrace and in Southeast Europe with the Anatolian ones refutes the idea of influence or borrowings from one side to the other. If such type of interaction were indeed to occur, separate, most important monuments of religious reality would have been borrowed and adapted to a new environment. Therefore, it concerns typologically and culturally-historical close evolutional process.

Fig. 17. Rock-cut sanctuary with furrows hewn in the flat rock near the village of Fotinovo, Eastern Rhodopes

The interpretation of some rocky tombs or tomb niches (Iik, 1995, Abb. 167 and others) as a temple of the dead (Iik, 1995, 65-67) is an assumption which can lead to the interpretation of rocky open sanctuaries with temples or temple complexes (Altntepe) as heroons, i.e. places where people honor legendary or historical patrons (cf. Fol, V., 2005). The established and described Urartian rocky sanctuaries (s. Belli, 2001a; 2001b) put this mountain culture in a direct relationship with the Hittitian and especially with the current sanctuary near Yazlkaya by Hattusha, where the big chamber A is designed for celebrating a spring holiday, while the small chamber B served as a temple of dead according to Hittitian written sources (Iik, 1995, 69-71, thinks that these traditions of the rocky lay ascend to the agrarian Neolithic of the Asia Minor cultures). During the Early Iron Age a nation appears together with the Phrygians, who retains its religious notions, but was influenced by the Urartian. Thus occurs the zone where Paphlagonia with its rocky monuments, Lycia known with them as well as with its rocky graves, as well as Pisidia and Pamphylia pertain to. Such monuments are observed also west in Anatolia nearby the cities of Phocaea and Ephesus, as well as in the mountains West from Pergamum. In Pergamum was confirmed a rocky sanctuary from an East Anatolian type. According to the author, the worship of these sacred places is preserved even today. For example, the memory of the rocky sanctuary in Avnik on the Silk road is preserved. The little rocky niche is honored until today by the women who kiss it with reverence every Friday a sacred day for Islam. From these kisses the bowl/plate fills itself by a miracle with spring water. According to the author the example shows a synthesis of the Anatolian cultures during the eras. In this way he interprets the worship towards the rocky grave of Kseolu and towards the altar in the niche in the ancient city of Antalya (Iik, 1995, Abb. 30, 167-168). In my studies I also pay attention to the continuity of the rockcut sanctuaries in Thrace. These sanctuaries are most 160

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