THRACIA

XVIII
IN MEMORIAM LEXANDRI FOL

18

EDITORIAL BOARD:
KIRIL JORDANOV
KALIN POROZHANOV
VALERIA FOL

,
.

The articles are published as

they have been given by the authors.

ISSN 0204-9872


, 2009

BULGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

THRACIA
18
IN MEMORY OF ALEXANDER FOL

Sofia 2009
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER FOL CENTRE OF THRACOLOGY
EYES ADVERTISING AGENCY

 ,
,
To Alexander Fol
who taught us that the intellectual energy is Immortal

Prof. Alexander Fol, D. Litt.

03.07.1933 - 01.03.2006
Secretary General of the International Council of Indo-European and Thracian Studies

THRACIA XVIII
IN MEMORIAM ALEXANDRI FOL
Serdicae, MMIX

THE ANTHROPODAIMONS WITH GOLDEN MASKS

FROM THE UPPER STREAM OF TONZOS
Valeria Fol
In 2004 in a mason tomb in the Svetitsata mound, around 2 km southeast of the
city of Shipka, Kazanlak region, in the Valley of the Thracian Kings, Georgi Kitovs
team excavated one of the most sensational burials in Thracian archaeology: only parts
of the person buried in a tomb were found completely intact, as well as a gold mask
laid on the spot of the missing head. The description of the burial and the materials
discovered in it are already published.1
Two years later, the same archaeological team discovered yet another rich burial
with a gold mask and a partially dismembered body along the Tundzha River near the
village of Topolchane, Sliven region, in a wooden tomb under a tumular embankment.2
The head of the deceased individual is deliberately separated from the body and is
placed in proximity to the stomach area, and a gold mask lying on a bronze object with
one handle was discovered next to the head. The bronze object, still in restoration, is
assumed to be a basin or a shield.3 In my opinion, one should admit the possibility that
this object might be a tympanum with one membrane. Next to the skull a finger phalanx with a golden ring was found. On the tablet of the ring there is an engraving of a
portrait image, as well as an inscription. The inscription has been
decoded as (belongs to) Seusa(s), son of Teres.4 The archaeologist who conducted
the excavations defines the burials as Orphic, because the bodies of the deceased are
dismembered just as Orpheus body was dismembered in the myth.
Even though there are many more analyses and specifications to be drawn after
the restoration of the materials described in both burials, and some materials are still
pending publication, some preliminary interpretations and hypotheses have appeared
in the specialised literature, especially concerning the two masks.5 The excitement is
understandable, because the masks from the Kazanlak and Sliven regions appear as
continuation of the gold masks from Mycenae,6 Trebenishte, Sindos and elsewhere in
1

itov 2005. 2005: 47-67; The burial and the materials in it are dated to the second half of the 5th century
BC. 2005: 67; Kitov 2005:36.
2
The results of the excavations are announced in advance 2007; 2008: 246, 248; 2008; 2008; Kitov
Dimitrov 2008.
3
2008: 143.
4
Dimitrov in Kitov Dimitrov 2008: 26, 28, 30-31.
5
. 2007; 2008.
6
For a detailed bibliography review see Graziadio Piezzi 2006.

35

Valeria Fol

Southeast Europe, widely commented in history.7

It is immediately noticeable that the mask from the tomb in the Valley of the Thracian Kings differs from the burial masks from Southeast Europe and Asia Minor
known so far by its weight (672 grams) and the assiduous crafting of the portrait
features. For the time being, the supposed dating is to the very end of the 5th century
BC. The primary publication suggests that before it was laid in the tomb on the spot
of the missing head, the mask had been used for a long time in a ritual as a drinking
vessel and then held in front of the face. No specialised research has been conducted
so far to confirm or refute the conjecture that the mask had been used for a long period
of time.
The second mask from the tomb near the village of Topolchane, Sliven region, is
dated between 390-380/370 BC on the basis of amphora seals in the tomb. It weighs
191 grams. According to the discoverer, G. Kitov, the mask was made by hammering out a phiale. This is confirmed by the golden leafs visible on the inside, identical
with the ones of the phialae discovered in the tomb.8 This mask is not a massive one
like the one discovered in the Svetitsata mound, it is formed by a thin foil, the face is
presented in a summary way and approaches the masks we already know, even though
it is much more carefully crafted.
Both masks confuse the fans of attribution of sacred objects by the principle of ethnicity, because there is absolutely no doubt that they are Thracian and are discovered
in the sacred territory of the Odrysae along the upper stream of the Tonzos river. Both
burials with gold masks contain extremely rich burial gifts, and numerous and luxurious weapons. This indicates that the persons buried there were warriors. The warrior
buried near the village of Topolchane was also a horseman, as indicated by the two
pairs of horse-trappings laid in the grave and the sacrificed horses.
When I addressed the issue of funerary masks in Southeast Europe more than 15
years ago, compared them to their Asia Minor parallels, and accented on the ones
from the necropolis near Trebenishte and Sindos, I suggested that they are not ethnically attributed, but analysed as a doctrinal accent of the anthopodaimon-type change
in essence of the deceased.9 The mask put on the face or in the tomb of the deceased
warrior is an expression of a relationship between the living and the dead, who had
adopted a new nature after his passing on to the World Beyond.
Rejecting ethnic attributing of sacred objects, even when the ethnicity of their
producers is known, is based on the conviction that one has to make a distinction between made by Thracians (or by some other ethnicity) and made for Thracians (or
another ethnicity).10 Despite the efforts made, no satisfactory answer has been found
to the question concerning the appearance of gold masks in Mycenae, which until
7

For detailed bibliographies see . 1991; Teodosiev 1998; Graciano Pezzi 2006; for literature on Trebenishte
without the Bulgarian literature see in Proeva 2007.
8
Kitov in Kitov Dimitrov 2008: 25; 2008: 143-144; et al. 2008: 248.
9
. 1991; . 1993: 118-130 with bibliography.
10
This view is developed in Fol V. in Fol Jordanov Porozhanov Fol 2000: 148-149.

36

THE ANTHROPODAIMONS WITH GOLDEN MASKS FROM THE UPPER STREAM OF TONZOS

now remain the only ones from that period.11 It is not clear whether they had been
fastened directly to the face with laces, to the chest, or to a wooden sarcophagus, a
burial shroud or elsewhere.12
The vicious circle of ethnic definitions and the lack of conceptual approach about
the faith-ritualism of the persons buried with golden masks, and the people who buried
them, lead to the repetition of expressions such as social sign,13 special status,14
the discoveries of Paeonian princesses15 belonging to Engelanes, who themselves
belong to the group of Macedonian tribes16 and even Trebenishte culture.17 The
burial ritualism in the Sindos necropolis,18 quite different from the Hellenic ritualism
in the colonies, makes J. Boardman define her as more likely belonging to the local
Thracians rather than to the Greeks.19 In his research of gold masks in the Ancient
Middle East, J. Curtis shares his difficulty in explaining the gold masks in Southeast
Europe and suggests that in some respect they could be perceived as an Ancient
Greek tradition from Mycenae to Kerch, but explains that this cannot be supported
by evidence.20
The difficulties occur because researchers do not take into account the socio-cultural diachronism between Mycenaean Hellas and Mycenaean Thrace21 and the ethnic Orphic faith-ritualism in the regions where people continued to place gold masks on the
faces of some deceased.22 The appearance and the preservation of the cultural memory
of the ritual which includes putting a gold mask in some burials in Southeast Europe
can be explained with the oral Orphic faith. This faith-ritualism was fully formed during the Mycenaean period in the Mediterranean region on the basis of autochthonous,
Anatolian and Egyptian beliefs, and it spread in Crete, Boeotia, Thessaly, Phocis with
Delphi, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. Because of the different historical destiny of
Hellas and Thrace, Orphism in Hellas became a philosophical doctrine with Pythago11

Lastly Graciadio Pezzi 2006: 126-128 with the preceding literature about the mask from Konya as a forgery made
on the basis of Agamemnons mask and fig. 4; Whittaker 2006: 285 and n. 14.
12
For an overview of the literature on this subject, see last in Graciadio Pezzi 2006: 114-115; on the assumption
that the Topolchane mask was used as a breastplate, see 2008.
13
Garaanin 1992-1997 ascribes the necropolis of Trebenishte to the Encheleans, and the one near Sindos to the
Poeonoi. He adds that the masks are not an ethnic sign.
14
1999, with an addition that gold burial masks occurred sporadically, which prompted A. Fol to write
that it is natural for the masks to appear sporadically and to indicate special status, because the Anthropodaimons
named with them, who are perceived as being in a status of a cosmic-energy immortality, are initiated few see
3: 109.
15
1997: 217-221, with literature about the masks from Sindos. According to the authour, the masks from
Trebenishte belong to the Encheleans.
16
Proeva 2007.
17
Pajakowski 2000: 125. For a review of the ethnic definition, see in Theodossiev 1998.
18
Sindos 1985.
19
Boardman 1994: 184.
20
Curtis 1995: 230.
21
On Mycenaean Thrace as a typological socio-economic term reflecting also the faith ritual, see last 3: 33-38,
79-83, 108-109 with bibliography.
22
Fol 1999; on the diachronism between Mycenaean Thrace and Mycenean Hellas, see 3: 33-34 with preceding
literature, p. 31 on the qualitative difference of the Thracian ethnicity-non-literariness from the other IndoEuropean oral cultures.

37

Valeria Fol

rean roots, whereas in Thrace it was professed as an oral Orphic faith and developed
regional specific features until the Christianisation of ancient Thrace. In the meantime,
an oral Orphic faith-ritualism was preserved also in some locations in the above-mentioned regions where the non-literary type of culture prevailed. The Thracian Orphic
faith-ritualism functioned on two levels: at the level of the people, as a mass mysterial
ritualism, and at an aristocratic level, the one of closed male societies.23
The masks from Trebenishte, Ohrid, Sindos, Chalkidiki and the newly-discovered
masks near Shipka and Topolchane, are located in the zone of the so-called Hyperborean diagonal of oral Orphism.24 The few anthropodaimons, buried with gold masks,
were perceived and believed as existing in a cosmos-energy immortality by the ones
who put them in the grave the grave being a door to the World Beyond. Alexander
Fol focused his attention to the bodies of the deceased with gold lamellae and suggested that they show the degree of his Orphic initiation. i.e., that these lamellae are
a way of naming the body of the deceased. The change in quality of the deceased
via the mask shows that he was believed as epiphany by the people who buried him,
namely that he was immortal in the World Beyond.25
When these assumptions were published, the burial in the Svetitsata and Dalakova
mounds were not yet discovered. The dismembered body in the grave under the Svetitsata mound, parts of which are missing, and the deliberately fragmented metal vessels,
imply with no metaphors that the deceased had attained a degree of Orphic initiation that rendered him equal to Orpheus. The decapitated ruler or paradynast buried in
the Dalakova mound had also been ritually placed on the same level as Orpheus.
Orpheus is the Hellenic naming of the observed Thracian faith-ritualism, its value
norms and mysterial alternative of the Beyond, its personification of the idea of the
Mycenaean king-priest-singer-teacher and clairvoyant. Orpheus was dismembered in
the way his god Dionysus-Zagreus was dismembered by the Titans.26 The people buried in the Svetitsata and Dalakova mounds were such kings (high aristocrats) priestssingers-teachers, but also warriors, i.e., the prototypes of the metaphor called Orpheus.
They lived towards the end of the 5th century BC and the first quarter of 4th century
BC.27 As I already mentioned, the mask from the Svetitsata mound differs from the
burial masks known so far, and, if there really are traces of long usage, then the question is how it was used. The testimony of Paus. 8. 15. 1-4 Rocha Pereira on the use of
23

As regards faith, its deities and the manifestation of this faith in the burial ritualism, in this case as regards the
oral Thracian Orphism, Thracian does not mean an ethnic attribution, but an anthropological ones. About notions
of oral Orphism called with the terminus technicus Thracian, see , 1, 2, 3, and 2004.
24
The Hyperborean diagonal is a conditional description of the border between the Indo-Iranian (mousic) and the
Indo-European (nousic) inception of the ethnic paideia in the European Southeast from the Northeast of the South
Russian steppes to the Southwest of Thessaly/Boeotia. The Chalcolitic necropoleis near Varna and Durankulak are
the most salient earliest documents concerning the cosmogonic-mythological and religious differentiation of the
two doctrinal zones. This subject has been developed in : 137-151; 2: 131, 267; 3: 86, 108; 2004:
112.
25
3: 109-110.
26
See 1 with all sources and bibliography.
27
The burial and the materials in it are dated to the second half of the 5th century BC. 2005: 67; Kitov
2005:36.

38

THE ANTHROPODAIMONS WITH GOLDEN MASKS FROM THE UPPER STREAM OF TONZOS

a mask (prsopon)28 makes it clear that the priest put it on his face and officiated.29
This means that the masks had to have holes for the eyes, and the eyes of the mask
from the Svetitsata mound are clearly closed, i.e., it cannot be used by the priest as a
see-through mask meant for him to change his being in the Orphic ritual.30 I think it is
very unlikely that the mask had been used as a phiale. It is uncomfortable to hold and
to drink from, and the beautifully crafted image would not be facing the face of the
person drinking. The most serious argument against this assumption is that the edge
of the mask is sharp and not rounded like the edges of the other phiale. According to
the discoverer, the mask from Topolchane is made out of a golden phiale, i.e., it can be
assumed that the metal had been reused ritually or that it was used only functionally.
Both masks differ radically from one another, both iconographically and by their type
of manufacturing. An important difference between the two is how the eyes are presented. Both masks are almond-shaped. The mask from the Svetitsata mound is with
closed eyes, whereas the one from the Dalakova mound is with open eyes, even though
the pupils are not marked.
One could hypothetically consider that while he was alive, the king-priest had immortalised his followers-aristocrats with a mask from Shipka in some of the subtumular temples in the Valley of the Thracian Kings before the aristocrats passed into the
World Beyond through the tomb-door. We find supporting evidence to this hypothesis
in the Orphic hymn in honour of the two-bodied underworld ruler Melinoe, whose
name, it seems, arises from the ritual of initiation-atonement. The goddess is asked to
change what is before her eyes, i.e., the prsopon, so that it corresponds to the rite, i.e.,
to the mystery of the initiational faith.31 It is also possible that the esoteric ritualism
in closed male societies included initiation via ritual death rebirth, during which the
mask had been placed on the face of the musts. Even though they are described only
en passant in the primary publication, the initiational scenes from both red-figured
vases are an indirect proof in favour of this hypothesis.
Somewhere between the mounds in the region of the town of Shipka, which is also
sacred, a magic rite for the dismembering of the king-priest was performed. During
his lifetime this king-priest had reached the highest degree of initiation, which allowed
him to step into the World Beyond as his God, who was torn to pieces by the Titans. In
this way, the King-priest became a Teacher whom the Hellenic people called Orpheus.
The ritual vessels which the King-priest probably used to officiate were also broken
and cut to pieces.
The tomb-door to the Beyond is built in such a way that the lower limbs, without
the feet and parts of the skull, are placed at benchmark zero. Benchmark zero is marked
also in colour with red, black and blue (or white). Instead of the head, the gold
mask was buried. A stone was placed above it. In Southeast Europe and in Asia Minor
28

1990 with references to the written sources and analysis of the term mask and prosopon; 3: 107.
For a detailed analysis see Fol V. 2001 with sources and bibliography.
30
. 1999; About the mask in the Dionysian rite, see Fol V. 1997 and 1998.
31
: 71; 3: 105-105.
29

39

Valeria Fol

the stone/rock embodies the idea of inception. The person buried had experienced his
transformation into the immortal intellectual energy assuring the connection between
the living and the divine powers.
The mask from Topolchane, however, is a seeing mask. The assumption that it
was worn as a sign of initiation is plausible. Dr. G. Kitovs observation that it was
manufactured from a golden phiale allows for two lines of reasoning. The first one is
that after a ritual where one of the actions is drinking, the vessel was transformed into
a sign for attained degree of initiation. The other possibility is that after the death of the
person initiated, a sacred vessel used in the rite was made into a mask-sign for seeing
(knowledge) of the Beyond and from the Beyond. This is what the open eyes suggest.
The persons who performed the burial rite near the village of Topolchane expressed
their attitude to the deceased via the ritual. The placing of a gold mask to the head lying next to the body shows that the deceased had a significantly different status in the
Beyond. From there, in his new position of Anthropodaimon, and of hero-protector, he
could see the earthly deeds of the people he ruled32 and he could be summoned.33 Both
masks, discovered between the springs of Tonzos and Kabyle, confirm the repeatedly
stated conclusions that this region was a sacred territory of the Odrysian kingdom.
There the Orphic ritualism, which was practiced during the passing on to the Beyond
of the initiated, is exemplified in its most clear form.

Gold mask from the Svetitsata mound,

town of Shipka, Kazanlak region.
Photo: Nikolay Genov

32
33

Gold mask from the Dalakova mound,

village of Topolchane, Sliven region.
Photo: Diana Dimitrova

Kitov Dimitrov 2008.

If the bronze vessel is proven to be a timpano with one membrane, the summoning of the hero-protector was done
with the utterance of magic formulae and a rhythmic drum sound.

40

THE ANTHROPODAIMONS WITH GOLDEN MASKS FROM THE UPPER STREAM OF TONZOS

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