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- Title
On the Orientation of Thracian Dolmens.
- Authors
GONZÁLEZ-GARCÍA, A. CÉSAR; KOLEV, DIMITER Z.; BELMONTE, JUAN A.; KOLEVA, VESSELINA P.; TSONEV, LYUBOMIR V.
- Abstract
Thracians appeared in the southeast of the Balkan Peninsula by the second millennium B.C. and during the first millennium developed a sophisticated culture. A manifestation of such sophistication was the construction of funerary structures such as dolmens. According with Greek and Roman sources, the Thracian religion had a solar-chthonic character, with a main goddess in the form of a mountain and her son the Sun god. An important motif of Thracian art that has been linked to the Thracian religion is the figure of the horse rider. In this article we present results from the archaeoastronomicai investigation carried out in southeastern Bulgaria in two campaigns to measure a significant number of Thracian dolmens. We report that the dolmens show an orientation not exactly toward south and that they have no clear relation with the Sun and a marginal one with the Moon. We present the hypothesis that orientations must fulfill two conditions. They have to point toward a mountaintop that must be placed in the correct direction toward the southwest. In that direction, one could observe the setting of the stars ct and [3 Centauri and the Southern Cross. These stars formed part of the Centaurus constellation in antiquity. In this way, from the entrance to the dolmen, the setting of Centaurus (perhaps the horse rider) behind a mountain (perhaps an image of the goddess) could have been observed.
- Subjects
BULGARIA; DOLMENS; MEGALITHIC monuments; THRACIANS; CULTURE
- Publication
Archaeoastronomy, 2009, Vol 22, p21
- ISSN
0190-9940
- Publication type
Article