Professor Konstantin Boshnakov from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" announced Friday about two unique inscriptions that he recently discovered in the Thracian tomb in the Bulgarian town of Kazanluk.
In the last year, Boshnakov conducted the first in Bulgaria testing in the Kazanluk tomb to search for inscriptions.
The two inscriptions that he found on the walls of the tomb about three meters above the floor state: "Kodzimases painted" and "Roygos, Son of Sevt".
The inscriptions provide new invaluable information about the history of Ancient Thrace casting light on the names of two previously only vaguely known figures.
The name of the Thracian ruler Roygos had been known only from the coins minted at his time. The Bulgarian archeologists and historians thought he was an insignificant regional ruler in what is today southeast Bulgaria.
After Boshnakov's findings, it is now certain that Roygos was not only an important Thracian king in 4th-3rd century B.C. but also the son of the founder of the Thracian capital Sevtopolis King Sevt III.
In Boshnakov's words, the name of the ancient painter Kodzimases, who was totally unknown to the world, now deserved to become world famous.
"The unique is that we have the name of the artist", Boshnakov said, adding his finding was a human masterpiece and the Kazanluk tomb frescos most likely were the work of Kodzimases's life.
The Professor also said that the inscription "Kodzimases painted" was the first autograph in the history of the European monumental painting.
Boshnakov also explained he had noticed the inscriptions in the tomb years ago but they looked just as stains until he suspicion moved him to test them with a new method.
In his words, the two inscriptions were more valuable than any treasures that might be found in the Kazanluk tomb because there were many unknown things about the Thracian civilization and its history.
Boshnakov made it clear that the findings had global significance because many scientists had been interested by the Kazanluk Tomb but it had remained largely unfamiliar for two reasons - first, because it was unknown who was buried there, and second, because the painter of the frescos also was not known.
Posted by david meadows on May-19-08 at 6:39 AM
Drop me a line to comment on this post!
Comments (which might be edited) will be appended to the original post as soon as possible with appropriate attribution.