Thracology

Thracology is the scientific study of Ancient Thrace and Thracian antiquities and is a regional and thematic branch of the larger disciplines of ancient history and archaeology. A practitioner of the discipline is a Thracologist. Thracology investigates the range of ancient Thracian culture (language, literature, history, religion, art, economics, and ethics) from the 5th millennium BC up to the end of Roman rule in the 4th-7th centuries AD. Modern Thracology (as opposed to an antiquarian interest in the land of Thrace) begun to flourish in the second part of the 20th century when Bulgarian archaeologist Alexander Fol founded the Institute of Thracology in the Bulgarian Academy of Science. With subsequently ever-increasing Thracian tombs unearthing, the study of the Ancient Thracian civilization was able to proceed with greater academic rigor.

Thracologists

Researchers who have been noted in the field of Thracology include:
*Vladimir Georgiev - A famous Bulgarian linguist.
*Georgi Kitov - A Bulgarian archaeologist.
*Alexander Fol - A Bulgarian Thracologist.
*Ion Niculiţă - A Moldavian Thracologist and archaeologist.
*Nikolay Ovcharov - A Bulgarian archaeologist.

International Congress of Thracology

The "International Congress of Thracology" was organised by the Institute of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. It has been held regularly since 1972 when it was founded by Alexander Fol. Fol himself became the chairman of the congress, and emphasized an international approach to the study of Thracology.

Thracians and Myceneans

On September 21-26, 1984, the Fourth International Congress of Thracology was held in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The Congress was organized by the Henri Frankfort Foundation, which is a private institution whose main purpose is to augment the study of Mediterranean pre-history and proto-history. The opening of the symposium began on September 24 and was addressed by the Minister of Education and Science Dr. W. J. Deetman. "Thracians and Mycenaeans" was the theme name for the symposium, which held discussions pertaining to the potential ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic interrelations between proto-Thracians and proto-Greeks (i.e. Myceneans). It was believed that such interrelations had to exist since both groups have lived in the same geographic area in the past. According to Alexander Fol, the concept of "Mycenean Thrace" was first developed in 1973 in order to explain the relative cultural unity between the Thracians and the Myceneans. [Best and De Vries.]

ee also

*Bulgarian Academy of Science
*Thrace
*Thracians
*Thracian Language
*Thracian Mythology
*
*
*

References

ources

*Best, Jan and De Vries, Nanny. Thracians and Mycenaeans. E.J. Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, MA. 1989. ISBN 90-04-08864-4

External links

* [http://www.rock-cut.thracians.org/en/a_p_thracology.php Institute of Thracology - Bulgarian Academy of Science ] - Institute of Thracology Official Site
* [http://thracology.dir.bg/english/index_en.html Thracology.dir.bg] - Sonya Ilieva's Web Page About Ancient Thrace and Thracology
* [http://www.thracology.org/ Thracology.org] - A site dedicated to the enigmatic ancient Thracian civilization
* [http://www.usm.md/thracology Thracology Scientific Lab of State University of Moldova]