Thracians

Thracians lived on the territory of present-day Bulgaria, Romania, Eastern Serbia, Northern Greece and North Western Turkey. According to the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) the Thracians were the most numerous people in Europe and came second in the world after the Indians (obviously the world Herodotus knew).

Social differentiation in Thrace has gained momentum and has given rise to the first social formations quite early (as far back as the latter half of the II millennium BC). At the beginning of 13th century BC, some Thracian state formations comprising the territorial borders of individual tribes were mentioned by ancient authors in connection with the Trojan War.

At the beginning of the 5th century BC Theres, the ruler of one of the tribes, the Wends organized an unified Thracian state. Under his successors Sparadokus, Sitalkus and Sevtum (5th century BC), all Thracian tribes in present-day Bulgarian lands had been united within the borderlines of the Thraco-Wendish? kingdom.

New Thracian states - those of the Bessae, Astae, Getae and the Dacean tribes, emerged between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 1st centuries BC.

The Thracians left remarkable cultural heritage. Their tradition was founded on the Orphistic belief that man was immortal. The Kazanluk tomb, Starosel temple, Sveshtari vault and numerous Thracian golden treasures discovered in the Bulgarian lands reveal high level of architectural skill and cultural development.

The endless scuffles for political domination between the Thracian family dynasties facilitated the invasion of Rome, which, after a series of wars succeeded to impose its rule over them in the year 46 BC.

Within the Roman Empire most of the Thracian lands formed two large provinces - Moesia and Thrace.

During the first two centuries of their rule the Romans embarked on the construction of well-designed roads. Dozens of new towns emerged. About the middle of the 3rd century AD these flourishing parts of the Roman Empire were swept by waves of tribal invasions, marking the advance of the Great Migration.

Bulgarians

The ancient Bulgarians came from the Valleys of the Pamir mountain and the neighbouring Valley of Tarim situated between Tian Shan and the north side of Tibet from where their dispersion began to other parts of the world. Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833 - 1905) considers the Valley of Pamir and Tarim to be the center of the first civilization.In Pamir they organized their earliest states - the ancient Balgar and Balhara. In Europe the Bulgarians founded three more states - Bulgaria under khan Kubrat, Bulgaria on Volga river, Bulgaria of today, founded by the great khan Asparouh on the Danube river.

The religion of ancient Bulgarians centred on the sun and the light, and Tangra was their main deity - the sky god whose sacred animals included the horse and the eagle. White horses were particularly revered.

Although they had no writing system, the Proto Bulgarians had their own calendar based on a 12-year cycle like the Chinese calendar, each year bearing the name of an animal, bird or reptile. Shamanism was practised and each clan had a sacred animal totem – deer, dogs and wolves seem to have had special significance.

Slavs

The settlement of the Slavs in Central Europe and the Balkans was one of the results of the Great Migration. The Slavs belonged to the Indo-European? language family and their formation as a distinctive group within the Indo-European? community took place around 1000 BC.

During the 4th century AD three major Slavic groups were already formed: eastern (anti), western (venedi), and southern (slavini). At the end of the 6th century AD the Slavs migrated on a large scale south of the Danube and settled in the Balkans. The remnants of the native Balkan population were quickly assimilated. The Slavic tribes started uniting in tribal unions, thus turning into an important political and ethnic factor in the history of the Balkans.

Their pantheon was a typical representative of paganistic beliefs, mixed with politeism. The supreme deity's name was Perun, who was thought to have control over thunders and lightning, and who was believed to be the master of all things and creatures. The Slavs also worshipped the powers of nature and the celestial bodies. The Slavs built wooden and stone idols of their deities.