Tell us about the team you work with.
Perperikon is excavated by 120-130 people. The team of archaeologists numbers 15-20. There are people from the Madrid University, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, from Truman University, USA, with which we have an agreement. But I do not let foreign archaeologists intervene in my work. There were times when Bulgarian archaeologists sold phenomenal sites for a trip to London. We have fantastic monuments and must preserve them.

Excavations of Orpheus’ shrine outside the village of Tatul are still underway. What is unique about it?
Last year we unexpectedly came across this phenomenal shrine from the late Trienism. It is so far the first ground temple we have from the Thracian period. We have unearthed many tombs, but not temples. The temple is only part of the complex around the large monument, which is considered to be the legendary tomb of Orpheus. We will uncover the area within a radius of 50 m, which should be rich in monuments, finds, parts of sacrifices. From an exposition point of view, we intend to complete our work on Orpheus’ sanctuary this year and proceed with its exhibiting and making it a monument of cultural-historical tourism.

Speaking of Thracian culture and its earliest stages, we must mention the Temple of the Great Mother Goddess, found in the Womb cave at the village of Nenkovo. What is this temple?
The Womb cave is absolutely unique. It is a 22-meter Karst cave additionally worked by human hands into a model of a female womb. Exactly at noon, a sun ray penetrates inside and is projected on the floor in the shape of a light phallus, symbolizing the moment of symbolic sexual union of heaven and earth. When the sun is low, the length of the phallus is so great that it reaches the interior of the cave, where a special altar is cut in the rock, resembling a uterus.

Perperikon, Orpheus’ sanctuary and the Temple of the Great Mother Goddess are all monuments from a cultural civilization which we are only beginning to know, and which I call the “Civilization of the rock people”. Apart from them, there are hundreds more along the river valley of Arda and they are all unique. Over 40 rock tombs, over 1500 complexes, rock niches, etc.

The question is how to display a monument to bring it to life? They come to life through history, legends, otherwise we see only rocks, stones, inanimate objects. Another question is how to commercialize our cultural heritage. With the monuments we have in Bulgaria we could make a living for the whole country, as the Spaniards, Italians, Greeks and Turks do.

Tatyana Petrova