Thrace is an ancient region of Bulgaria bordering the Black Sea. In Neolithic and Chalcolithic times the seaport Varna and salt center Solnitsata are hotspots of trade. In the Bronze Age, it's populated by independent tribes.
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Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea to the east, Thrace occupies the region of today's SE Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), NE Greece (Western Thrace), and part of Turkey (East Thrace).
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Lands also inhabited by ancient Thracians extend in the north to modern-day Northern Bulgaria and Romania, and west into Macedonia. The earliest Thracian culture emerges at the beginning of the Bronze Age c. 3500 BC.
Early Thracian records are almost non-existent, and the known world is defined by Greek and later Roman literature. Archaeological finds attest to about two thousand years of human habitation in Thrace before the first written records.
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The name comes from later Greek mythology. Thrax, a son of War God Ares or an aspect of Ares, is considered patron of Thrace. In the Bronze Age the golden shield of Ares resides in a temple at Bistonia near the Aegean, home of Thracian Bistones.
Greek and Romans describe Thracians as warlike barbarians. Like other tribal cultures such as the Kashka and Sherden, they're favored as mercenaries. Despite the initial impressions, Romans and Greeks remark on sophisticated Thracian poetry and music.
Thracians are among the early migrants from the east, and eventually spread from the Black Sea to the Aegean. From there, in 1200 BCE, they're a primary part of the Mycenaean demise.
A peltast is a javelin warrior. He carries a crescent-shaped wicker shield, one javelin in his hand and up to two more attached to his shield. The warrior above also carries the short sword or sica for hand-to-hand combat.
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His helmet is leather and so are any protective coverings he wears. Bronze armor such as breastplates and headgear are usually the privilege of the elite. The name peltast comes from the shape of the shield, called a pelta.
Weapons of the Thracians consist of javelins, knives, swords and shields. Organized warfare is scarce. The Thracians are strong horse warriors, continuing a tradition from people of the Pontic-Caspian steppe.
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The favored weapon of the Thracian warriors is the sica, a short curved sword about 30 - 36 cm (12 - 14 in) long. The shape is designed to get around the sides of an opponent's shield, and stab or slash him in the back.
Due to their savagery in battle and lust for loot, Thracians are popular but expensive mercenaries. The Greeks and later Romans use their skills in battle and gladiatorial games. Persians hire them. Thracians also make up to a third of Macedonian cavalry.
They're among the most important nationalities in the early Roman military, contributing continually up to 20,000 troops. Many Thracian swordsmen are in the Lydian army. The first known minted coins come from Lydia.
Thracian religion is polytheistic with monotheistic elements. Zis is the primary deity of Thrace, with Great Mother of the Gods Bendis. Zis personifies the male principle. He has both celestial and a chthonic connections, identified with the Sun and Fire.
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In Thracian mythology, Bendis personifies the world at rest. The goddess then self-fertilizes and gives birth to a first son, Zis, the male principle. Through the sacred marriage of Bendis and Zis, another son, Orpheus, is born.
In Greek lore, Orpheus is the son of a Muse thought to be Calliope, patron of epic poetry, and Oeagrus, a king of Thrace. Orpheus' father may also be Apollo; most origin stories depict Orpheus as Thracian.
Music is important to Thracian culture, rituals and celebrations. Thracian music typically includes a high-pitched repertoire created by the gaida or goatskin bagpipe. The gaida is accompanied by clarinet and constant steady drumming on the toumbeleki.
The kaba gaida ('large gaida') or rodopska gaida (Rhodope gaida), the bagpipe of the central Rhodope mountains, is a distinctive instrument of Bulgarian folk music. The gaida is played on weddings, celebrations and events.
"A wedding without a bagpipe is like a funeral" - Balkan saying. Interest in the kaba gaida is increasing in modern times. It's made from diverse materials including wood, horn, animal skin and cotton. The kaba gaida has a low pitch made with a larger bag than the gaida.
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Other instruments include the stringed lyra; klarino, a type of trumpet; and defi, a drum. Thracians enjoy quick and brisk rhythms, and dance including circle dances.
Tattooing is customary among elite men and woman. For Greeks and Romans a tattoo is the punitive mark of a social outcast. Thracians are also expert metallurgists. Gold dating to c. 7000 BCE at Varna necropolis is thought to come from Thracian sources.
Not far inland from Varna is Solnitsata, a Neolithic salt trade town in operation in the 5th millennium BCE. Buyers come through the Balkans or across the Black Sea. In the north, salt is exchanged for Baltic amber.
From tribal Thracians develop the Getae, Dacians and other pre-Roman groups. The legendary Amazons are thought to originate in or beyond the Thracian lands, north of the Caucasus. Greek scholar Xenophanes describes Thracians as blue-eyed with red hair.
Noble Thracian women have more rights than many Greeks. Athenian women are bound to the house unseen. Thracian women have more personal and sexual freedom before they marry. In Thrace, polyamory is practiced especially among the nobility.
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Elite women of Thrace can learn fighting skills. However most of the Thracian women in ancient Greece are not noble. Common women don't have tattoos, making them attractive to Greeks as house slaves.
In Athens, Thracian women are the most populous ethnic group of house slaves. They do housework and raise children. The term “Thratta” or “Thraissa” (Thracian woman) comes to describe any female house slave. Thratta becomes a common given name for slaves.
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Of the Greeks, Spartan women have the most freedom. The reason is sociological. Within Athenian society men outnumber women, who are owned as chattel. In Spartan society women outnumber men, and both promiscuity and lesbian relationships are common.
Thrace comes to glory in the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE. A disjointed group of tribes at first, Thracians form scattered communities with local leaders. By c. 1800 BCE, they coalesce. Population of ancient Thrace is estimated between 800,000 and a million.
In the Iliad, during the Trojan War (c. 13th century BCE) Thracians are allies of Troy against the Greeks. Other Trojan allies include Carians, Halizones, Kaukones, Kikones, Lycians, Maionians, Mysians, Paionians, Paphlagonians, Pelasgians and Phrygians.
According to historians, only the lack of strong unification of the Thracian tribes stops their ascent to superpower. However from c. 500 BCE settlements unite to form kingdoms, with the first major state, the Odrysian kingdom, arising c. 5th century BCE.
Tacitus in his Annals (c. 120 CE) writes of the Thracians as wild, savage and impatient, disobedient even to their own kings. They "tattooed their bodies, obtained their wives by purchase, and often sold their children". Even more shocking, they drink undiluted wine.
French historian Victor Duruy (1811 - 1894 CE) further notes they "considered husbandry unworthy of a warrior, and knew no source of gain but war and theft". He also asserts they practice human sacrifice, confirmed by archaeological evidence.
Houses are huts or half-dug-out shelters with one or two rooms. Some houses have stone foundations. Building usually involves log beams, twigs or wattle with clay. Inside is a clay hearth, millstones for grinding grain, and pottery.
Flat stones are used as tables, shelves or benches. By the 4th century BCE Thracian leaders build hilltop fortresses, some two stories high as grandiose architecture takes hold with the influence of palace-building cultures.
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For food, Thracian men hunt wild boar and bulls. Also in the Thracian diet, depending on territory, are hazelnuts, figs, mushrooms, apples, pears, cherries, plums, raspberries and blackberries. Near the Aegean they have a bounty of olives, dates, lemons and pistachio.
Thracian multi-home villages are commonly attacked by ancient Greeks on slave raids. Raids are the main method Greeks use for capturing slaves. In Thrace and the eastern Aegean, natives rather than prisoners of war account for the majority of slaves.
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After the slaves are captured, they're resold through slave-dealers to Athenians and other slaveowners in Greece. Purchasers are careful to vary ethnicities of their slaves to avoid revolt. Spartacus (c. 103 - 71 BCE) a leader of the Slave Rebellion, is Thracian.
Influential neighbors of the Thracians include Greeks, Persians, Scythians and Celts. The Thracians merge with other settlements, including those of the Black Sea Greeks. The Thracian language goes extinct c. 6th century CE.
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