Popov, Hristo – Kaloyan Pramatarov (eds.) : Gods and Sanctuaries in Roman Thrace (1st – 4th c. AD)

Hristo Popov – Kaloyan Pramatarov (eds.),
Gods and Sanctuaries in Roman Thrace (1st – 4th c. AD)
(National Archaeological Museum. Catalogues, volume 45)

Sofia 2026

ISBN 978-619-254-058-6
ISSN 2367-8860

96 S./pp., zahlr. Farbabb./num. colour figs., 25 x 22 cm; broschiert/softcover

The exhibition represents a joint project of the specialists working at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Regional Museum of History – Pernik. It combines original artifacts with posters that reveal the complexity of the ancient religion from the 1st to the 4th centuries. It showcases the most valuable finds from the depositories of the two museums, representing the material expression of the communication between the deities and the people who had inhabited the western fringes of the Thracian lands in the period under consideration. The exhibition displays the recent achievements of archaeological research on pagan cults and sanctuaries along the upper Struma River, situating them within the context of the Roman Province of Thrace. Most of the archaeological sites with exhibits are located in the present-day Sofia, Pernik, and Kyustendil plains. During the Roman period, they belonged to the city territories of Serdica and Pautalia. 

The selected objects are finds from the so-called extra-urban sanctuaries. Unlike the urban cults and religious ceremonies, which were organized on Greek and Roman models, the “rural” sanctuaries preserved the traces of multiple individual acts of worship towards the divine forces that governed human life. Every one of the exhibits is emotionally charged with someone’s personal story, pain, joy, or gratefulness. In most cases, the prayer stays anonymous, but there are also supplicants’ names on some of the votive reliefs. The sanctuaries were places for sacrifices, curing rituals, and votive offerings, but also served as places for strengthening and affirming identity within the context of the Roman Empire. 

The pagan beliefs in the Province of Thrace reflect a complex interplay between local traditions and external influences. The Thracian deities (the Thracian Horseman, Dionysus, Hermes) continued to be worshipped, but in a combination with the gods of the Graeco-Roman Pantheon (Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Asclepius, Heracles, the Three Nymphs, etc.). The process of combining and co-veneration of local, Graeco-Roman, and Eastern deities is called “syncretism” and is characteristic of the entire Roman Empire. In Thrace, it led to the acceptance of Greek iconography of the gods, which were still referred to by local epithets. The finds along the upper stream of the Struma River demonstrate the popularity of two cults, respectively, towards Zeus and Hera, as well as the healing god Asclepius, sometimes depicted as the Thracian Horseman. The regional specifics are observable in the materials from the sanctuaries of Zeus and Hera Caristorenoi, located near the village of Kopilovtsi in the Kyustendil Region and the Arbanas district, near the town of Radomir, as well as from the sanctuary of Asclepius Keilaiden in Tsarkva district (formerly known as Daskalovo) of the town of Pernik.