Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

The director of the Regional Historical Museum in Razgrad Tanya Todorova opened the practical colloquium “Military Affairs and Armaments in Antiquity and the Middle Ages”.

She welcomed the participants in the forum and told about the cooperation of the Regional History Museum with the Institute of Balkan Studies and the Center for Thracology at BAS, thanks to which the project includes the project “LABedia: Encyclopedia of Late Antiquity in the Balkans”. , and the organization of the colloquium in the capital of Ludogorie.

Tanya Todorova expressed hope that such events will become a tradition and received assurances of support for the next host of Razgrad in scientific discussions on historical topics personally from Deputy Mayor Dobrin Dobrev. He welcomed the participants in the forum and reminded that in this direction Razgrad Municipality has implemented a project for socialization of the best discovered ancient Roman city of Abritus with the construction of the Interactive Museum with a suitable hall for scientific forums, from which today’s event began. Dobrin Dobrev expressed hope that the discussions will include topics that will be an occasion to include new events in the rich cultural calendar of the Municipality of Razgrad.

The guest of the opening was not only as Deputy Governor, but also as a historian, Dragomir Zlatev, and in the business part actively participated Yordan Arnaudov from the Research Center “Preslav School” at Shumen University, Dr. Nikolay Todorov – Director of RIM – Silistra, Dobri Dobrev – Director of RIM – Dobrich, Deputy Director of the Historical Museum in Isperih Maria Nikolaeva and the archaeologist at the museum Teodora Vasileva

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kalin Stoev from the Institute of Balkan Studies described the ancient Abritus as one of the most important places in the ancient and medieval history of Bulgaria. “It is always inspiring to make and present science in such places, for which I thank the Municipality of Razgrad and the Regional History Museum for the opportunity for me and my colleagues to be here,” said Assoc. Prof. Stoev.

Colloquium participants and museum visitors had the opportunity to see the exhibition of weapons and weapons from Antiquity and the Middle Ages, arranged in the lapidary of the Archaeological Reserve “Abritus”: swords, shields, spearheads, spearheads and arrows, fragments of shirts.

“We selected a small part of the exhibits from the Razgrad Museum’s collection, focusing on Roman weapons from the middle of the third century,” said Georgi Dzanev, the museum’s chief archaeologist and numismatist. The objects were found during archeological excavations in the Razgrad region. Most of them are related to the events of the summer of 251 – the defeat of the Roman army, not far from Abritus by the Goths and the subsequent looting of the area.

“One hypothesis about how this weapon got into the villages around Razgrad is that it was dropped by fleeing Roman soldiers. The second: to have been blown up by the victorious Goths and the third – the surviving local population to have looted after the battle, “said Georgi Dzanev. He added that the museum’s fund also contains pegs from military tents, small nails from the soles of the then military shoes. On three of the found reinforcing ribs for helmets with Roman numerals are written 4, 7 and 17, and these are most likely the numbers of the Roman legions, of which the soldiers are.

Immediately after the opening of the exhibition, the chairman of the Antibiotic Sports Shooting Club Krassimir Dyakov and athletes from the club, which turns 40 this year, showed their equipment and demonstrated precision target shooting with the latest generation of bows. Something that could be experienced by anyone present.

The moderator of the theoretical part of the colloquium was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zlatomira Gerdjikova from the Institute of Balkan Studies with a Center for Thracology.

Lecturers were:

  • Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kalin Stoev: “The Roman Navy in Moesia and Thrace: the genesis of military-administrative development”;
  • Eli Filipova, PhD student: “The contribution of interdisciplinary research from the Balkans to the study of military diets in antiquity”;
  • ch. Assistant Professor Mario Filipov: “The Sword in the European Fencing Tradition in the XII-XV century”;
  • Milen Petrov, PhD student: “The Nikopol Crusade / 1396 / and the Holy Roman Empire”;
  • Todor Todorov, PhD student: “The Knight’s Field in the Late Middle Ages”.

The participants in the forum will also visit the mainly renovated Sveshtari tomb in the “Sboryanovo” Historical and Archaeological Reserve.

The colloquium “Military Affairs and Weapons in Antiquity and the Middle Ages” was organized by the Regional History Museum, together with the Institute of Balkan Studies with the Center for Thracology at BAS and with the assistance of the Municipality of Razgrad. The forum is also part of the project “LABedia: Encyclopedia of Late Antiquity in the Balkans”, funded by the Research Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science.