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THRACIAXVIII

IN MEMORIAM LEXANDRI FOL

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18

: EDITORIAL BOARD: KIRIL JORDANOV KALIN POROZHANOV VALERIA FOL

, The articles are published as . they have been given by the authors.

ISSN 0204-9872

, 2009

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THRACIA18

IN MEMORY OF ALEXANDER FOL

BULGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Sofia 2009PROFESSOR ALEXANDER FOL CENTRE OF THRACOLOGYEYES ADVERTISING AGENCY

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, ,

To Alexander Folwho taught us that the intellectual energy is Immortal

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Secretary General of the International Council of Indo-European and Thracian Studies

Prof. Alexander Fol, D. Litt.03.07.1933 - 01.03.2006

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THE ANTHROPODAIMONS WITH GOLDEN MASKSFROM THE UPPER STREAM OF TONZOS

Valeria Fol

In 2004 in a mason tomb in the Svetitsata mound, around 2 km southeast of thecity of Shipka, Kazanlak region, in the Valley of the Thracian Kings, Georgi Kitovsteam excavated one of the most sensational burials in Thracian archaeology: only partsof the person buried in a tomb were found completely intact, as well as a gold masklaid on the spot of the missing head. The description of the burial and the materialsdiscovered in it are already published. 1

Two years later, the same archaeological team discovered yet another rich burialwith a gold mask and a partially dismembered body along the Tundzha River near thevillage of Topolchane, Sliven region, in a wooden tomb under a tumular embankment. 2 The head of the deceased individual is deliberately separated from the body and is

placed in proximity to the stomach area, and a gold mask lying on a bronze object withone handle was discovered next to the head. The bronze object, still in restoration, is

assumed to be a basin or a shield.3

In my opinion, one should admit the possibility thatthis object might be a tympanum with one membrane. Next to the skull a finger pha-lanx with a golden ring was found. On the tablet of the ring there is an engraving of a

portrait image, as well as an inscription. The inscription has beendecoded as (belongs to) Seusa (s), son of Teres .4 The archaeologist who conductedthe excavations defines the burials as Orphic, because the bodies of the deceased aredismembered just as Orpheus body was dismembered in the myth.

Even though there are many more analyses and specifications to be drawn afterthe restoration of the materials described in both burials, and some materials are still

pending publication, some preliminary interpretations and hypotheses have appearedin the specialised literature, especially concerning the two masks. 5 The excitement isunderstandable, because the masks from the Kazanlak and Sliven regions appear ascontinuation of the gold masks from Mycenae, 6 Trebenishte, Sindos and elsewhere in

1 itov 2005. 2005: 47-67; The burial and the materials in it are dated to the second half of the 5th centuryBC. 2005: 67; Kitov 2005:36.

2 The results of the excavations are announced in advance 2007; 2008: 246, 248; 2008; 2008; Kitov Dimitrov 2008.

3

2008: 143.4 Dimitrov in Kitov Dimitrov 2008: 26, 28, 30-31.5 . 2007; 2008.6 For a detailed bibliography review see Graziadio Piezzi 2006.

THRACIA XVIIIIN MEMORIAM ALEXANDRI FOL

Serdicae, MMIX

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Southeast Europe, widely commented in history. 7

It is immediately noticeable that the mask from the tomb in the Valley of the Thra-cian Kings differs from the burial masks from Southeast Europe and Asia Minorknown so far by its weight (672 grams) and the assiduous crafting of the portrait

features. For the time being, the supposed dating is to the very end of the 5th

centuryBC. The primary publication suggests that before it was laid in the tomb on the spotof the missing head, the mask had been used for a long time in a ritual as a drinkingvessel and then held in front of the face. No specialised research has been conductedso far to confirm or refute the conjecture that the mask had been used for a long periodof time.

The second mask from the tomb near the village of Topolchane, Sliven region, isdated between 390-380/370 BC on the basis of amphora seals in the tomb. It weighs191 grams. According to the discoverer, G. Kitov, the mask was made by hammer-

ing out a phiale. This is confirmed by the golden leafs visible on the inside, identicalwith the ones of the phialae discovered in the tomb. 8 This mask is not a massive onelike the one discovered in the Svetitsata mound, it is formed by a thin foil, the face is

presented in a summary way and approaches the masks we already know, even thoughit is much more carefully crafted.

Both masks confuse the fans of attribution of sacred objects by the principle of eth-nicity, because there is absolutely no doubt that they are Thracian and are discoveredin the sacred territory of the Odrysae along the upper stream of the Tonzos river. Both

burials with gold masks contain extremely rich burial gifts, and numerous and luxuri-ous weapons. This indicates that the persons buried there were warriors. The warrior

buried near the village of Topolchane was also a horseman, as indicated by the two pairs of horse-trappings laid in the grave and the sacrificed horses.

When I addressed the issue of funerary masks in Southeast Europe more than 15years ago, compared them to their Asia Minor parallels, and accented on the onesfrom the necropolis near Trebenishte and Sindos, I suggested that they are not ethni-cally attributed, but analysed as a doctrinal accent of the anthopodaimon-type changein essence of the deceased. 9 The mask put on the face or in the tomb of the deceasedwarrior is an expression of a relationship between the living and the dead, who hadadopted a new nature after his passing on to the World Beyond.

Rejecting ethnic attributing of sacred objects, even when the ethnicity of their producers is known, is based on the conviction that one has to make a distinction be-tween made by Thracians (or by some other ethnicity) and made for Thracians (oranother ethnicity). 10 Despite the efforts made, no satisfactory answer has been foundto the question concerning the appearance of gold masks in Mycenae, which until

7 For detailed bibliographies see . 1991; Teodosiev 1998; Graciano Pezzi 2006; for literature on Trebenishte

without the Bulgarian literature see in Proeva 2007.8 Kitov in Kitov Dimitrov 2008: 25; 2008: 143-144; et al. 2008: 248. 9 . 1991; . 1993: 118-130 with bibliography. 10 This view is developed in Fol V. in Fol Jordanov Porozhanov Fol 2000: 148-149.

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THE ANTHROPODAIMONS WITH GOLDEN MASKS FROM THE UPPER STREAM OF TONZOS

now remain the only ones from that period. 11 It is not clear whether they had beenfastened directly to the face with laces, to the chest, or to a wooden sarcophagus, a

burial shroud or elsewhere. 12 The vicious circle of ethnic definitions and the lack of conceptual approach about

the faith-ritualism of the persons buried with golden masks, and the people who buriedthem, lead to the repetition of expressions such as social sign, 13 special status, 14 the discoveries of Paeonian princesses 15 belonging to Engelanes, who themselves

belong to the group of Macedonian tribes 16 and even Trebenishte culture. 17 The burial ritualism in the Sindos necropolis, 18 quite different from the Hellenic ritualismin the colonies, makes J. Boardman define her as more likely belonging to the localThracians rather than to the Greeks. 19 In his research of gold masks in the AncientMiddle East, J. Curtis shares his difficulty in explaining the gold masks in SoutheastEurope and suggests that in some respect they could be perceived as an Ancient

Greek tradition from Mycenae to Kerch, but explains that this cannot be supported by evidence. 20

The difficulties occur because researchers do not take into account the socio-cultur-al diachronism between Mycenaean Hellas and Mycenaean Thrace 21 and the ethnic Or-

phic faith-ritualism in the regions where people continued to place gold masks on thefaces of some deceased. 22 The appearance and the preservation of the cultural memoryof the ritual which includes putting a gold mask in some burials in Southeast Europecan be explained with the oral Orphic faith. This faith-ritualism was fully formed dur-ing the Mycenaean period in the Mediterranean region on the basis of autochthonous,Anatolian and Egyptian beliefs, and it spread in Crete, Boeotia, Thessaly, Phocis withDelphi, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. Because of the different historical destiny ofHellas and Thrace, Orphism in Hellas became a philosophical doctrine with Pythago-

11 Lastly Graciadio Pezzi 2006: 126-128 with the preceding literature about the mask from Konya as a forgery madeon the basis of Agamemnons mask and fig. 4; Whittaker 2006: 285 and n. 14.

12 For an overview of the literature on this subject, see last in Graciadio Pezzi 2006: 114-115; on the assumptionthat the Topolchane mask was used as a breastplate, see 2008.

13 Garaanin 1992-1997 ascribes the necropolis of Trebenishte to the Encheleans, and the one near Sindos to thePoeonoi. He adds that the masks are not an ethnic sign.

14 1999, with an addition that gold burial masks occurred sporadically, which prompted A. Fol to writethat it is natural for the masks to appear sporadically and to indicate special status, because the Anthropodaimonsnamed with them, who are perceived as being in a status of a cosmic-energy immortality, are initiated few see 3: 109.

15 1997: 217-221, with literature about the masks from Sindos. According to the authour, the masks fromTrebenishte belong to the Encheleans.

16 Proeva 2007.17 Pajakowski 2000: 125. For a review of the ethnic definition, see in Theodossiev 1998.18 Sindos 1985.19 Boardman 1994: 184.20 Curtis 1995: 230.21 On Mycenaean Thrace as a typological socio-economic term reflecting also the faith ritual, see last 3: 33-38,

79-83, 108-109 with bibliography.22 Fol 1999; on the diachronism between Mycenaean Thrace and Mycenean Hellas, see 3: 33-34 with precedingliterature, p. 31 on the qualitative difference of the Thracian ethnicity-non-literariness from the other Indo-European oral cultures.

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rean roots, whereas in Thrace it was professed as an oral Orphic faith and developedregional specific features until the Christianisation of ancient Thrace. In the meantime,an oral Orphic faith-ritualism was preserved also in some locations in the above-men-tioned regions where the non-literary type of culture prevailed. The Thracian Orphic

faith-ritualism functioned on two levels: at the level of the people, as a mass mysterialritualism, and at an aristocratic level, the one of closed male societies. 23

The masks from Trebenishte, Ohrid, Sindos, Chalkidiki and the newly-discoveredmasks near Shipka and Topolchane, are located in the zone of the so-called Hyper-

borean diagonal of oral Orphism. 24 The few anthropodaimons, buried with gold masks,were perceived and believed as existing in a cosmos-energy immortality by the oneswho put them in the grave the grave being a door to the World Beyond. AlexanderFol focused his attention to the bodies of the deceased with gold lamellae and sug-gested that they show the degree of his Orphic initiation. i.e., that these lamellae are

a way of naming the body of the deceased. The change in quality of the deceasedvia the mask shows that he was believed as epiphany by the people who buried him,namely that he was immortal in the World Beyond. 25

When these assumptions were published, the burial in the Svetitsata and Dalakovamounds were not yet discovered. The dismembered body in the grave under the Svetit-sata mound, parts of which are missing, and the deliberately fragmented metal vessels,imply with no metaphors that the deceased had attained a degree of Orphic initia-tion that rendered him equal to Orpheus. The decapitated ruler or paradynast buried inthe Dalakova mound had also been ritually placed on the same level as Orpheus.

Orpheus is the Hellenic naming of the observed Thracian faith-ritualism, its valuenorms and mysterial alternative of the Beyond, its personification of the idea of theMycenaean king-priest-singer-teacher and clairvoyant. Orpheus was dismembered inthe way his god Dionysus-Zagreus was dismembered by the Titans. 26 The people bur-ied in the Svetitsata and Dalakova mounds were such kings (high aristocrats) priests-singers-teachers, but also warriors, i.e., the prototypes of the metaphor called Orpheus.They lived towards the end of the 5 th century BC and the first quarter of 4th centuryBC. 27 As I already mentioned, the mask from the Svetitsata mound differs from the

burial masks known so far, and, if there really are traces of long usage, then the ques-tion is how it was used. The testimony of Paus. 8. 15. 1-4 Rocha Pereira on the use of

23 As regards faith, its deities and the manifestation of this faith in the burial ritualism, in this case as regards theoral Thracian Orphism, Thracian does not mean an ethnic attribution, but an anthropological ones. About notionsof oral Orphism called with the terminus technicus Thracian, see , 1, 2, 3, and 2004.

24 The Hyperborean diagonal is a conditional description of the border between the Indo-Iranian (mousic) and theIndo-European (nousic) inception of the ethnic paideia in the European Southeast from the Northeast of the SouthRussian steppes to the Southwest of Thessaly/Boeotia. The Chalcolitic necropoleis near Varna and Durankulak arethe most salient earliest documents concerning the cosmogonic-mythological and religious differentiation of thetwo doctrinal zones. This subject has been developed in : 137-151; 2: 131, 267; 3: 86, 108; 2004:112.

25 3: 109-110.26 See 1 with all sources and bibliography.

27 The burial and the materials in it are dated to the second half of the 5th century BC. 2005: 67; Kitov2005:36.

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a mask ( prsopon )28 makes it clear that the priest put it on his face and officiated. 29

This means that the masks had to have holes for the eyes, and the eyes of the maskfrom the Svetitsata mound are clearly closed, i.e., it cannot be used by the priest as asee-through mask meant for him to change his being in the Orphic ritual. 30 I think it is

very unlikely that the mask had been used as a phiale. It is uncomfortable to hold andto drink from, and the beautifully crafted image would not be facing the face of the person drinking. The most serious argument against this assumption is that the edgeof the mask is sharp and not rounded like the edges of the other phiale. According tothe discoverer, the mask from Topolchane is made out of a golden phiale, i.e., it can beassumed that the metal had been reused ritually or that it was used only functionally.Both masks differ radically from one another, both iconographically and by their typeof manufacturing. An important difference between the two is how the eyes are pre-sented. Both masks are almond-shaped. The mask from the Svetitsata mound is with

closed eyes, whereas the one from the Dalakova mound is with open eyes, even thoughthe pupils are not marked.

One could hypothetically consider that while he was alive, the king-priest had im-mortalised his followers-aristocrats with a mask from Shipka in some of the subtumu-lar temples in the Valley of the Thracian Kings before the aristocrats passed into theWorld Beyond through the tomb-door. We find supporting evidence to this hypothesisin the Orphic hymn in honour of the two-bodied underworld ruler Melinoe, whosename, it seems, arises from the ritual of initiation-atonement. The goddess is asked tochange what is before her eyes, i.e., the prsopon , so that it corresponds to the rite, i.e.,to the mystery of the initiational faith. 31 It is also possible that the esoteric ritualismin closed male societies included initiation via ritual death rebirth, during which themask had been placed on the face of the musts . Even though they are described onlyen passant in the primary publication, the initiational scenes from both red-figuredvases are an indirect proof in favour of this hypothesis.

Somewhere between the mounds in the region of the town of Shipka, which is alsosacred, a magic rite for the dismembering of the king-priest was performed. Duringhis lifetime this king-priest had reached the highest degree of initiation, which allowedhim to step into the World Beyond as his God, who was torn to pieces by the Titans. Inthis way, the King-priest became a Teacher whom the Hellenic people called Orpheus.The ritual vessels which the King-priest probably used to officiate were also brokenand cut to pieces.

The tomb-door to the Beyond is built in such a way that the lower limbs, withoutthe feet and parts of the skull, are placed at benchmark zero. Benchmark zero is marked

also in colour with red, black and blue (or white). Instead of the head, the goldmask was buried. A stone was placed above it. In Southeast Europe and in Asia Minor

28

1990 with references to the written sources and analysis of the term mask and prosopon; 3: 107.29 For a detailed analysis see Fol V. 2001 with sources and bibliography.30 . 1999; About the mask in the Dionysian rite, see Fol V. 1997 and 1998.31 : 71; 3: 105-105.

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the stone/rock embodies the idea of inception. The person buried had experienced histransformation into the immortal intellectual energy assuring the connection betweenthe living and the divine powers.

The mask from Topolchane, however, is a seeing mask. The assumption that it

was worn as a sign of initiation is plausible. Dr. G. Kitovs observation that it wasmanufactured from a golden phiale allows for two lines of reasoning. The first one isthat after a ritual where one of the actions is drinking, the vessel was transformed intoa sign for attained degree of initiation. The other possibility is that after the death of the

person initiated, a sacred vessel used in the rite was made into a mask-sign for seeing(knowledge) of the Beyond and from the Beyond. This is what the open eyes suggest.The persons who performed the burial rite near the village of Topolchane expressedtheir attitude to the deceased via the ritual. The placing of a gold mask to the head ly-ing next to the body shows that the deceased had a significantly different status in the

Beyond. From there, in his new position of Anthropodaimon, and of hero-protector, hecould see the earthly deeds of the people he ruled 32 and he could be summoned. 33 Bothmasks, discovered between the springs of Tonzos and Kabyle, confirm the repeatedlystated conclusions that this region was a sacred territory of the Odrysian kingdom.There the Orphic ritualism, which was practiced during the passing on to the Beyondof the initiated, is exemplified in its most clear form.

32 Kitov Dimitrov 2008.33 If the bronze vessel is proven to be a timpano with one membrane, the summoning of the hero-protector was done

with the utterance of magic formulae and a rhythmic drum sound.

Gold mask from the Svetitsata mound,town of Shipka, Kazanlak region.

Photo: Nikolay Genov

Gold mask from the Dalakova mound,village of Topolchane, Sliven region.

Photo: Diana Dimitrova

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Princeton (= Bollingen Series XXXV-42).Curtis J. 1995. Gold face-masks in the Ancient Near East. In: Campbell S. Green A.

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